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11
MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
medicine for curing what cannot be prevented are
likewise readiest and most effective.
On all these general grounds I should be prepared
to maintain, that a lowness of mortality which
has been attained in any considerable rustic population,
might be attained by an urban population,
if only the removable evils be removed, if only the
practicable good be made practical.
Surely too, above all, I would maintain this possibility
in respect of our capital, the treasury as she
is of all means for progress in civilization, the stronghold
of all applicable knowledge. Let but the
wealth, the science, the energy, and the benevolence
of the metropolis, deal with removable causes of
death as they have dealt with subjects infinitely
more difficult, infinitely less promising, and certainly
of not greater importance ; and few competent persons
will doubt that the mortality of London might
speedily be reduced to the level of any districtmortality
yet recorded by the Registrar-General.
There may be those in your Honourable Court
who will hesitate to accept for themselves the firm
conviction which I entertain on this subject; or
who, at least, will withhold their assent from the
line of argument which I have advanced. To them,
what I have now to state may be more conclusive
than any other consideration: viz., during the year
on which I am reporting, there was one sub-district
of the City of London Union—one comprising from
twelve to thirteen thousand inhabitants, in which