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67
The dirty state of the tenants and their goods, is a very
difficult matter to obviate. We have lady-visitors who administer
most kindly to the sick poor, giving them delicacies, flowers, &c.
But I have never found them interfere with the dirty and
offensive state of their homes. In fact, I feel sure, that if they
were to attempt this, their presence would not be welcome or
even tolerated. We have had lately also, notices of defects
found by some lady-visitors from a Mansion House Committee,
some of these are curious: that certain houses are built partly of
brick and partly of wood. I do not recollect ever seeing one not
so. Several complaints also of no water to closets, and absence
of traps to sinks in yards (perhaps stolen the week before.)
Although we have not power to remedy these, they will add up
as nuisances in our condemned Parish. But again, no complaints
of internal personal dirt. To attempt to remedy these defects by
law, seems to me ridiculous. They should be altered by some
female visitation and exhortation.
Does not the building of a beautiful Mortuary, one of, if not
the best in London, at a cost of nearly £3,000, and which is of
sole use for the poor, show that the Vestry are not governed by
such so-called "house-farmers and publicans," as are stated to
have no feeling for the poor?
Does not the providing a new and expensive Wharf, with
first-rate horses and carts, to cause a better removal of the dust
and refuse from the Parish, and which has been and is an immense
improvement, show that the Vestry are striving their
utmost to benefit the Parish in every way?
In a former Annual Report, I abstracted a Table from the
Registrar-General's Returns, on the comparative Mortality of
the several London Parishes, perhaps the most perfect ever
made, in which the deaths in Hospitals were distributed over
the several districts, and corrected for the deaths in Workhouses
situated out of the districts to which they belong. In this