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The Speech of Mr. "Robson was ordered to be printed,
and a copy sent to every Member of both Houses of Parliament,
the Metropolitan Board of Works, and each of the
Vestries and District Boards of the Metropolis.
The Speech having thus become a public document as
embodying the expression of the Vestry, a copy of it is
appended to this Eeport).
[ See Appendix No. 1].
Sir Charles Dilke, on the 9th July, replied to the letter
of the Yestry Clerk of the 7th inst. that his remarks therein
criticised were chiefly founded on his own personal knowledge
of the parish acquired during the past nine months,
and on evidence given before the Royal Commission on the
Housing of the Working Classes by the Chairman and an
Ex-Chairman of the former Sanitary Committees, by Lord
William Compton, and Mr. Boodle, (Agent to the Northampton
Estate,) and by five of the local clergy, that the
adoption of the regulations with respect to houses let in
lodgings has been repeatedly suggested by the late Sanitary
Committee, and that the Yestry are entirely mistaken in
supposing the other Sanitary Laws are "sufficient for the
purpose," that they are, in his opinion, utterly insufficient.
That with regard to his statement that the Sanitary Committee
has now been repressed, he points out that the active
and energetic Chairman of the late Sanitary Committee has
been not only dismissed from the Chairmanship, but excluded
from the Committee itself, apparently for his activity
and energy, and that the composition of the Sanitary Committee
has now become similar to that of the whole of the
other Committees of the Vestry, the composition of which
will shortly be explained to the public at large, also
referring to the death-rate of Clerkenwell.
On the 7th August the following proceedings took place
at the Yestry :—
Pursuant to notice given in the summons, Mr. Ross
called attention to the statement in Sir Charles Dilke's