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17
exercise of trade, and it would be rashness to use
the functions of my office in such a way as to put
an unnecessary check upon its progress. Those
who imagine that the sanitary condition of the
country would be improved by a meddlesome interference
with the industrial operations of it, have
taken a very narrow view of the great cause of the
evil they would remedy. The high mortality of
large towns, and the frequent spread of epidemic
diseases, are caused not so much by the unrestricted
exercise of trade as by the habits of the people.
The mischief lies not so much in the workshop, as
in the workman's home; and I would rather raise
the vitality of the people to a standard of health that
will enable them to resist the offensive influences of
trade, than I would lower the energies of commerce
to meet the requirements of a low vitality. Where
would have been the now flourishing trades of Birmingham
and Manchester and Sheffield, and the
hundred other busy centres of industry, whose commerce
is the glory of England, if those trades had
been harassed by a mischievous sentimentalism, and
fettered by the fantastic rules of a visionary system
of hygiene. In fact, the history of manufactures in
this country is not merely a history of the successful
application of science to art, and of the profitable
employment of waste products; nor is it a history
of the development of industry through the fostering
care of a paternal government, for happily for
us they have had no such assistance. It is rather