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94 HABITATIONS AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR.
in which the requisite remedies could be applied,
would be through the wealth and benevolence of the
Corporation. If there were vested in your Honourable
Court (or in any other authority of the Corporation)
the power to make compulsory purchases
of house property, on the ground of its unfitness for
human habitation, it would be easy to correct the
extreme errors which exist; and, under a single
large landlordship of this nature, it might not improbably
be found that measures such as I have
described would give to the localities in which they
might be effected as much improvement in value
as in health. After the necessary alterations, such
houses would no longer need to continue under tenure
of the Corporation, and the proceeds of their
sale might again be applied to the reclamation of
similar property in other parts of the City.
In throwing out this suggestion to your Honourable
Court, I, of course, do not pretend to offer you
any details for its realisation. These can more fitly
be supplied by others; nor should I have introduced
even this general mention of a plan, but for the
vividness with which its practicability and usefulness
have struck me. During my period of office
I have seen distinctly, that what seems incurable in
the dark intricacies of our worst courts and alleys
often depends for its difficulty on the number of landlords,
and on their mutual independence. The conviction
had thus been forced on me, which I have
endeavoured briefly to express to you; that the only