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74
OFFENSIVE OR INJURIOUS TRADES.
and rendering domestic cleanliness expensive, I
should have nothing officially to say on the subject;
but inasmuch as it renders cleanliness more difficult,
and creates a despair of cultivating it with
success, people resign themselves to dirt, domestic
or personal, which they could remove but so temporarily:
or windows are kept shut, in spite of immeasurable
fustiness, because the ventilation requisite
to health would bring with it showers of soot,
occasioning inconvenience and expense. Such is the
tendency of many complaints which have reached
me, and of their foundation in truth and reason I
have thorough conviction and knowledge.
I would submit to your Honourable Court that
these evils are not inconsiderable; and that beside
the injury to property (with which I have nothing
to do) the detriment to health, if only indirect,
claims to be removed. Yet, while I am cautious to
speak of this latter injury, as though it were only
indirect—only by its obstruction of healthy habits,
I ought likewise to tell you, that there are valid reasons
for supposing that we do not with impunity
inhale day by day so much air which leaves a palpable
sediment; that many persons of irritable
lungs find unquestionable inconvenience from these
mechanical impurities of the atmosphere; and (gathering
a hint from the pathology of vegetation)
that few plants will flourish in the denser districts
of London, unless the air which conduces to their
nourishment be previously filtered from its dirt.