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77
OFFENSIVE OR INJURIOUS TRADES.
naces is very trifling, and (as some of the witnesses
observed), the outlay may be repaid within the year,
by the diminished consumption of fuel; that the
means of preventing smoke might also be applied to
the furnaces of steam-boats, but such application
would be attended with rather more expense than
on land, from the occasional want of space, and the
setting of boilers in a steam-vessel. No doubt, however,
existed, in the opinions of those examined,
that the prevention of smoke could be accomplished
in steam-vessels*."
In two local improvement Acts (those of Leeds
and Manchester) clauses have been introduced in
accordance with the sense of these conclusions; and
in order to render them as little oppressive as possible
to those whose interests might be affected by
their operation, the enactments (which apply to
every variety of furnace) have been so framed as
to enforce penalties for the issuing of smoke only
when it should appear (as no doubt it commonly
would appear) that the proprietor had refrained from
"using the best practicable means for preventing
or counteracting such annoyance."
Surely if such applicable means exist, it is a just
and reasonable thing that the public should be defended
against offence and injury, arising in the mere
indifference or obstinacy of those who inflict them;
and I venture to hope that your Honourable Court,
in renewing your application to Parliament, may
*Report, Committee, 1849.