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50
lings' Act, 1868," commonly called Torrens' Act,
for the Improvement of the Houses in Three Herring
Court, Cree Church Lane—this being the third
place in the City which has been amended under
that Act of Parliament.
The Inspector of Shipping has made 1,796 inspections
of ships during the year, and has found 30 requiring
sanitary improvement in respect of cleanliness
or ventilation. At present, the small area of
the Port of London within your jurisdiction—extending
from the Tower to the Temple—is the only
part of the Port which is systematically inspected in
accordance with the 32nd section of the Sanitary
Act, 1866. This is manifestly an inconsistency; for,
as I gather from a report by Mr. Harry Leach,
the resident surgeon of the Seaman's Hospital, there
are about 25,000 vessels entering the Port of
London yearly, besides about 2,300 sailing barges,
and nearly 4,000 dumb barges, which belong to the
Thames. These represent a floating population of
about 15,000 persons, which are at present almost
entirely without sanitary supervision; and that they
require it is shewn by the results of your own inspections
of vessels within the limited area of the
City—an area which comprises only half of the river
for about a thousand yards on each side of London
Bridge. In the course of the last five years there