View report page

92 HABITATIONS AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR.
compose it. In the Out-Wards of Cripplegate, Farringdon,
and Bishopsgate, examples of this arrangement
are both most numerous, and, I believe, most
removable : but they may likewise be found in considerable
numbers in the In-Wards of the City; e.g.
in the neighbourhood of Printing-house square, of
Great Bell alley, of Leadenhall street, of Aldgate,
of Skinner street, and of St. Martin's-le-Grand.
In many of these cases, if the management of the
property were under a single control, it is possible
that effectual relief might be given, by converting
any two rows of houses which are back to back,
each having windows only on one side, into a single
row of houses, with door and windows both before
and behind; and if changes of this nature were
accompanied by the removal of an occasional house,
or other impediment to the circulation of air, I
would guarantee to your Honourable Court that the
next year's register would show a very large diminution
in the local amount of preventable sickness
and mortality.
3. In other cases, the immediate impediment to
ventilation apparently consists in the operation of
the window-tax. Your Honourable Court, at various
times, has heard how unfortunate for the health of
cities is this ill-chosen method of taxation, assessing
the amount of rate for houses in proportion to their
means of ventilation. You can easily conceive how
much it would impede your endeavours to promote
health and cleanliness within the City, if an