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11
politan poor rate has been closely discussed. Concerning
the absolute justice of this principle, no doubt can
exist. The difficulty is in its application to practice.
The increasing pressure of the evil upon those districts
which are least able to bear the burden, must certainly
sooner or later enforce the solution of this difficulty.
But there is one remedy which would operate largely
in mitigation of the evil, and which admits of being
immediately applied. Evidence enough has been laid
before you in my reports, to shew that the main cause
of pauperism is disease. The chief pauperising-diseases
are those which result from the concentration of the
poorer classes in localities, the sanitary condition of
which is faulty. The amelioration of these localities
would therefore be the first and most profitable of the
preventive remedies against pauperism. For this end
chiefly, the Metropolis Local Management Act has been
adopted. It supplies exactly that kind of central power
which can act with the least opposition, and with the
greatest effect, since the Metropolitan Board consists of
representatives from all the Districts of London. This
Board might be empowered to levy a General Sanitary
Rate; the funds proceeding from which should be
applied to the payment of the sanitary staffs of the
several districts, and the carrying out of the works
strictly falling within the sanitary department.
Years ago, Dr. Farr, in the Fifth Annual Report
of the Registrar-General, had stated this case with his
accustomed force and precision: "Call the Poor-rate a
tax, and its inequality in the metropolis is evident; call