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Minister, with tlie approval of the Chairman of the Commission who
was so lately at the head of the Local Government Board. Under
such auspices even so remarkable a provision may be expected to
pass in some form despite the opposition with which it will
inevitaby be met.
Observing that no provision was made hi the Bill for giving
effect to the unanimous recommendation of the Commissioijers,
that the Justices should have power to mete out punishment by
penalty on the person by whose default nuisance was caused, I
ventured to call the attention of Sir Charles Dilke to the omission,
when I was favoured with a communication from the Secretary to
the Royal Commission, intimating that a "Consolidation Bill" had
been prepared at the same time with the Housing Bill, and that
Clause 9 of that measure provided for penalty in the circumstances
named. The companion Bill will, I presume, be introduced next
Session, whichever "party" may be in power.]
UNHEALTHY HOUSES.
Prior to the introduction of the "Housing Bill" referred to
above, I had made notes of two recent sanitary actions involving
important issues for landlords and tenants, and which may be
mentioned here in proof of the necessity for Clause 13 of the
new Bill, to define the responsibility of landlords, and the rights
of tenants.
The first case (Chichester v. Lance) was tried before Mr.
Justice Wills and a Special Jury. The action was to recover
damages from the defendant, who was said to have permitted the
drains of the house he let to the plaintiff to remain in a dangerously
defective condition. The case does not seem to have
been a bad one as against the landlord, who had not been in
possession of the house a long time, and he did not decline to
recognize his responsibility. But the repairs, when undertaken,
were alleged to have been imperfectly executed, and an illness
("typhoid") resulted, which the medical evidence went to shew,,
and the Jury found, was directly attributable to the insanitary
condition of the drains. Damages were assessed at £45. The