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Table, Clerkenwell was not only not at the bottom, but only
11 from the top. And curiously enough, Chelsea was 27 from
the top, and only 11 from the bottom. Perhaps this is the
reason why the Chelsea Members of Parliament are so earnestly
forcing on the new Municipal Bill, with a view to its improving
the sanitary condition of their Parish. It would be interesting,
and perhaps instructive, to inquire whether Chelsea has yet
overtaken or come up to Clerkenwell in its sanitary condition.
In conclusion, I cannot but express my opinion, that the
sanitary or general condition of Clerkenwell, instead of being
retrograde, has been for years improving and is greatly improved.
Anyone may, now and then, go around and find something
wrong, from tenants' damage or mischief, such as overflow of
water from the ball-cocks being stolen, and washing away of
the cementing of the paving, the stoppage of a closet, the overcrowding
of a room, and the specially dirty state of some old
woman, or the occupation of an underground kitchen, where
there is no real reason why it should be interfered with. But
because this is the case, to condemn a Parish as retrograde, I
consider wrong, cruel, absolutely untrue, and injurious to the
working men; for who will employ a man when it is known
that he comes from the retrograde Parish of Clerkenwell? No
wonder that 40 per cent. of the men are out of employment. I
have, therefore, no hesitation in saying, that the "bitter cry"
does not apply to the Parish of Clerkenwell.
If the Chairman of the Local Government Board, had really
for his motive, the testing of the action of the Vestry, as
regulated by the control of the House-farmers and Publicans,
why did he not have 10 or 20 so-called nuisances entered in our
complaint book, and see what the result would have been? I
am perfectly certain that all real nuisances, i.e. legal nuisances,
would have been remedied, as they always are, under the simple
serving of our preliminary notices, and without their ever coming
before the House-farmers, &c., at all.