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96 HABITATIONS AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR.
what he would enjoy if he were living in the district
of the East and West London Unions. With
such density of population, it would, of course, be advantageous,
if any space now occupied by buildings
should hereafter become vacant, so as to increase
the breathing-room of the neighbourhood; and your
Honourable Court will see the imperative necessity
of discountenancing, so far as may be, the erection
of additional houses on the few unoccupied spaces
which remain. In order to do this effectually, it
would be desirable to procure the enactment of a
clause, giving you absolute prohibiting power in
this respect, whenever, for sanitary reasons, you
might think it right to interfere.
With respect to those evils which I have set before
you, as arising from the unrestricted accumulation
of persons of both sexes, and of all ages,
within a single sleeping-room—dreadful as they are,
I do not consider them irremediable. In the first
place, I would beg you to observe, that the very
restricted definition of a "lodging-house" given in
your Act of Parliament, has hitherto rendered it
impossible, in any degree, to regulate dwellings of
the description referred to. An amendment of that
definition might bring them within your control, and
might enable you, not only in these instances but
in many others, to restrict the numbers of inmates,
to compel the removal of persons with infectious
disease, and to enforce provisions of decency, cleanliness,
and ventilation.