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13
two Acts of Parliament) to precede the rest of the
metropolis in acquiring and exercising authority for
the mitigation of preventable disease.
Nearly five years have now passed over your
tenure of this very grave responsibility; and although
in many respects the period must be regarded as
one of apprenticeship to a new and difficult career—
although you have hardly yet arrived at what may
permanently represent your method of action—
although important changes which you have determined
to adopt are not yet in actual working—
although the far greatest evils still remain for correction—yet
I rejoice to inform you that sensible improvement
has already shown itself in the sanitary
state of your population. My comparison of the past
five years with any considerable previous period
cannot be as precise as I would wish, owing to
the absence of circumstantial records for the time
anterior to my appointment; but, judging from
such information as I can consult on the subject,
I am induced to believe that the deaths, for equal
numbers of population, are about 4 per cent fewer
than before your Acts of Parliament came into
operation, and that the disproportionate mortality
of children is decidedly lessened.
On this first improvement—the beginning, I
would fain hope, of a long series of similar steps for
regaining the allotted duration of human life, I beg
to offer my respectful congratulations to your
Honourable Court, under whose auspices it has