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11
to inspect the unhealthy localities in each District, and to determine what
houses are unfit for habitation; and, upon their report, the Home Secretary
or the Privy Council, as the case may be, who shall appoint the inspectors,
shall take the necessary steps, either to cause the owners to put such houses
in a state fit for habitation, or to cause them to be demolished. But in
every case in which the demolition of property is concerned a power of
appeal to a court of law should be given. In order to render this plan
effectual, it would be necessary to afford compulsory power of purchase to
the local authority, who might either throw open to the public the plots of
ground rendered vacant by the demolition of the houses thereon, or they
might have the power of selling the ground.
In order to prevent hardship or inconvenience to the poor inhabitants of
such places, by dispossessing them of their homes, this plan must be carried
out gradually, so that the poor residents might, without difficulty, find other
houses, either in London or in its suburbs, as they now readily do when a
multitude of houses are at one time demolished, for the carrying out of im
provements, or for railway extensions.
The hardship in dispossessing a large number of the persons who
occupy these densely-crowded and unhealthy dwellings in the Metropolis, is
not so great as it may appear to be, for the more hidden from public view, and
the more unfit for habitation the places are, the more they are sought after
by vagrants and thieves, who seek refuge in them, in order to carry on,
without observation, their depredations upon the public.
The numerous charitable institutions in London attract a large number
of the idle and profligate class from the country, where the police are,
perhaps, vigilant, and they take refuge in the infamous dens which exist in
this vast Metropolis.
The better class of artizans and labourers may be induced to reside a
few miles from London, if they can obtain cheap railway conveyances ; but
that is not the class who inhabit these wretched localities; and nothingshort
of pulling such places down will benefit the public health, and so
diminish pauperism.
The condemning of houses which, upon competent authority, are considered
as unfit for human habitation, cannot be an injury to any person,
inasmuch as, a house unfit for habitation, ceases to be property, and, of
course, the owner when called upon to close such house, is not entitled to
compensation. The ground and the materials of the house will, of course^
be the property of the owner, which he may dispose of to his own
advantage. As the law now stands, no compensation is given to a landlord
when a magistrate, upon sufficient proof being given as to the unfitness of
a house for habitation, orders the same to be closed, and the owners of all
such houses may deem themselves as fortunate in not having to pay a