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to bring in a Bill in the present Session, which presumably will
be drawn oil the lines of measures introduced by Mr. SclaterBooth
in 1877, and by Lord Salisbury in 1885, under the title
Public Health (Metropolis) Bill. The first measure was opposed
by the Sanitary Authorities, and was withdrawn ; the second
was brought in too late in the Session to be passed. Your
Vestry, upon my recommendation, requested Lord Salisbury to
re-introduce the Bill, in the Session of 1887. In acknowledging
the communication his lordship expressed his fear that the
chances of any such measure becoming law were then very
remote. The chances have improved, and it is probable that if
the Bill should be introduced this Session it will become law.
Your Vestry's Law and Parliamentary Committee reported on
the measure (in 1886) as "mainly a Consolidation Bill, but
with a few amendments recommended by the Royal Commission
on the Housing of the Working Classes." They observed that
"it does not in any way touch the Metropolis Local Management
Acts; but as it will finally clear the Statute Book of 14
Statutes, all of which are already repealed as regards the rest of
England, it cannot fail, if passed, to prove very useful to
sanitary authorities and sanitary officials alike." * Mr. Ritchie
quoted with approval an observation by Lord Shaftesbury that
the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts (1851 to 1885) known
as "Lord Shaftesbury's Acts," would, "if properly carried out,
meet almost every requirement in regard to the Housing of the
Working Classes, and remedy a great part of the existing
evils ": he added, however, that although the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1885, had made the administration of the
Acts metropolitan instead of parochial, nothing had been done.
Your Vestry's Law Committee, in the report cited above, commenting
on my Special Report of March 13, 1885, expressed an
opinion that these Acts "could be dealt with satisfactorily only
by an authority having power to consider the requirements of
the labouring classes in London as a whole.'' Such an authority
* Special Report on Sanitary, Nuisances Removal, and other Cognate
Acts: January 8th, 188G, page 16.
K