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assigning as a reason for so doing nothing that they were not a Board of Health, and
that they could undertake no improvements that would not pay.
That your Petitioner believes that this difficulty in improving the condition of
the most noisome localities in which the poor are obliged to take up their abode, is
by no means confined to the Eastern district of this Metropolis ; but that this case is
only one example among the innumerable others which shows the absolute necessity
of legislative sanitary regulations.
That your Petitioner trusts that in any legislative sanitary regulations which the
wisdom of Parliament may adopt, your Honorable House will make provision for the
appointment of a District Medical Officer of Health, whose special duty it may be to
take cognizance of the condition, and to report thereon to some competent authority,
of places and habitations so dangerous and destructive to the public health as those
which your petitioner has now sought to bring under the notice of your Honorable
House.
And your Petitioner will ever pray.
JOHN LIDDLE.
March, 1845.
After the publication of this Petition in some of the daily newspapers,
the Trustees of Whitechapel Parish made a proposal to the Ratcliff Commission
to pay to them the sum of £250 to take under their jurisdiction this
locality, which was adjacent to their District. This offer was accepted, and
the Ratcliff Commission paved the street and those courts therein which
their respective landlords were willing to place under the control of the
Commission. Before, however, the street was paved, I presented a Petition
to the Tower Hamlets Commission of Sewers praying them to construct a
sewer therein. The Prayer to this Petition was granted, and no charge was
made to the owners of the property on either side of the street.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
15, Gkeat Alie Street.
JOHN LIDDLE.