View report page

73
OFFENSIVE OR INJURIOUS TRADES.
At the head of this class of evils stands the flagrant
nuisance of smoke. Those members of the
Court who have visited foreign capitals where other
fuel than coal is employed, will remember the contrast
between their climate and ours—will remember
(for instance even in Paris) the transparence of air,
the comparative brightness of all colour, the visibility
of distant objects, the cleanliness of faces and
buildings, instead of our opaque atmosphere, deadened
colours, obscured distance, smutted faces, and
black architecture. Those, even, who have never
left our metropolis, but who, by early rising or late
going to rest, have had opportunities of seeing a
London sun-rise, can judge, as well as by any foreign
comparison, the difference between London as it
might be, and London as it is. Viewed at dawn and
at noon-day, the appearances contrast as though they
were of different cities and in different latitudes.
Soon after day-break, the great factory shafts beside
the river begin to discharge immense volumes
of smoke; their clouds soon become confluent; the
sky is overcast with a dingy veil; the house-chimneys
presently add their contributions; and by ten
o'clock, as one approaches London from any hill
in the suburbs, one may observe the total result of
this gigantic nuisance hanging over the City like
a pall.
If its consequences were confined to rendering
London (in spite of its advantages) the unsightliest
metropolis in Europe, to defacing all works of art,