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property to get into such a condition as to be a danger to the
health of the locality. In the course of the debate, Mr. Bartley
made the just remark that a certain amount of the insanitary
condition of the dwellings of the poor was due to the tenants themselves,
and that the sanitary condition of the people could not
be improved except by improving the education and ideas of the
people themselves.
The Bills, received with favour on all sides of the House, were
referred to the Standing Committee on Law, with an instruction
to consolidate the two into one. Some valuable amendments were
made, and it is noteworthy that the expression "injurious to
health" was throughout the Bill extended, so as to include conditions
"dangerous as well as those injurious to health—an
important modification, which will bring within the powers of Local
Authorities many unwholesome, dangerous, dilapidated, or obstructive
buildings with which it would otherwise have been difficult to
deal. Some of the provisions of the Amendment Bill (to which
copious reference was made in my sixth and seventh monthly
reports) did not entirely commend themselves to your Vestry : a
communication, therefore, was addressed to the Local Government
Board to the effect that the Bill, "generally, seeks to give too
wide powers to the London County Council, and does not provide
sufficient protection to the various local bodies, but subjects them
to be over-ridden by the Council without any provision for appeal."
Your Yestry farther observed, that "whilst no objection is seen
to provision being made in the Bill that, where it is duly proved
that a Local Authority has neglected to perform its duty, the
County Council shall have power to intervene; it is only right
that this provision should be safeguarded, and that before the
Council shall be authorised to perform any of the duties thrown
upon the Local Authorities under this Act, a proper enquiry shall
be conducted in the district by the Local Government Board.
The Board, having been requested to introduce modifications in
the Bill, in the sense suggested by the above objections, replied, to
the following effect:—