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36
First, I would allude to influences of an exterior
and public kind; and here, all that I have to
advocate might be included in a single stipulation,
that cleanliness—in the widest sense of the word,
should be enforced to the full extent of your
authority.
Over the pollutions of the river, and over the
tidal exposure of its malarious banks, you have no
power.
Whether for the relief of your low-lying districts
—subject to imminent risk from causes I have
described, there can be found any temporary protection
to save their atmosphere from contamination,
is a question which you will resolve upon other
judgment than mine.
Along the river-bank there is one especial source
of nuisance which has repeatedly been under your
notice, and which is likely to become of serious
local import under the presence of epidemic disease.
I refer to the docks, and chiefly to that of Whitefriars.
I mention it particularly, not only because
the accumulations of putrid matter there have often
been alarmingly great, but likewise because, at the
head of this dock, during the former invasion of
Cholera, there was remarkable prevalence of the
disease; and I can well remember how often the
offensive condition of the dock was accused, not
unjustly, of contributing to the mortality of the
neighbourhood. The foetid materials, floated into
these several recesses of the river, and left stranded