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110
whose behalf they are let; and the actual landlord,
namely, the owner or leaseholder, who receives the
rent of the house, is ignored. I don't know how
this matter may stand in the central districts of
London. But in our own parish nearly all the
lodging houses, that could be placed under regulations,
are occupied by weekly or yearly tenants who
themselves let the lodgings. Now these tenants,
who according to the suggested regulations are the
landlords, have no power or legal obligation to
make structural alterations in houses, to amend
closets or drains, or to do anything of that kind
which is here required of them. The respective
duties, in fact, of the landlord (using the term in
its proper acceptation), and of the tenant, are here
muddled up in a way which if maintained would, it
seems to me, make the regulations practically
inoperative.
4-th. The method by which it is proposed to
determine what houses let in lodgings shall be placed
under regulations, and what houses let in lodgings shall
not be thus dealt with, is one that can only lead to
injustice. The author of Section 2 recognises,
what is obvious, that it would be practically impossible,
and it possible undesirable, to bring all
houses let in lodgings under regulation; and