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house, is let in lodgings, or for occupation by members of more
than one family, or who, for the time being, receives, or is entitled
to receive, the profits arising from such letting. The landlord is,
therefore, not the owner, and often pleads, what would appear to
be true, viz., that he, or she, has no money to expend for such a
purpose. When houses become so dirty as to be a nuisance under
Section 2 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, there is no
difficulty in at once getting the cleansing done by the Owner, but
often in connection with the annual cleansing under the Byelaws
there is no nuisance, but simply an offence against, or an
infringement of, the Bye-laws, and in this case action must be
taken against the landlord, and not against the owner. This
annual cleansing has reference to the cleansing, by lime-washing,
or otherwise, of every part of a house, viz., every area, interior
surface of every ceiling and wall, of every water-closet, and the
interior surface of every room, staircase and passage. For all
practical purposes, therefore, it is better to proceed under the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and to carry out a systematic
house-to-house inspection under Section 1, than to register, wholesale,
houses under the Bye-laws for Houses Let in Lodgings, made
under Section 94 of the same Act. In either case, a large increase
in the staff would be necessary, as the present division of the Inspectors'
districts shows that in Lambeth Borough each Inspector
has charge of (roughly) 25,000 to 35,000 persons and three to
four thousand houses. With all the various duties which devolve
upon a sanitary inspector there is but little time for anything
approaching systematic house-to-house inspection, or for systematic
registering of houses under the Bye-laws. It must be remembered
that, in the Inner Wards more especially, to be consistent, the
greater number of the houses should be registered. Existing
congestion, and consequent high rent, compel occupiers to sub-let
parts of their houses. Should such a systematic and wholesale
registering of houses in Lambeth be adopted, there would be a
distinct setting back, in respect to the sanitary state of such
premises, as regards cleanliness, in that the liability under the Act
would be transferred from a responsible owner under the Act to
an irresponsible landlord under the Bye-laws. I have always felt
that it would be vexatious to summon such landlords under the
Bye-laws, as from my own personal experience such landlords are
often persons whose financial status is such that I do not feel
justified in proceeding against them for penalties as laid down
under the Bye-laws ; more especially as I should have to proceed
against them for premises whose state is such as not to be a
nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health, but simply premises
that are an offence against Bye-law 15, in the sense that the
necessary annual cleansing has not been carried out. The landlord