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batch of houses, there may be only one or two privies, one water butt,
a common drainage for the uses of all. The consequence is, that no one
household being responsible, and no one feeling any individual interest
in the preservation of cleanliness, the plainest duties are neglected; and
landlords require the repeated interposition of the Inspector to restore
what has gone wrong. It is to be hoped that tenements of this kind,
will rapidly disappear. They are far less numerous than they were
seven years ago; and the railways now in progress, will still further
diminish their number. The Committee have steadily kept in view, the
principles of providing each house with a separate water supply, whereever
practicable. Especial care has been taken to procure adequate
ventilation, by piercing back windows, a necessity so urgently felt by the
poor, that they are not unfrequently found to knock holes in their back
walls, in order to supply the want of air.
Looking back to the working of the Special Sanitary Committee, I
beg leave to express my deep sense of the advantages that have already
accrued, and that must accrue, from its appointment. In the early part
of the administration of the Vestry, two things somewhat retarded
sanitary improvement. One was the novelty of applying compulsory
powers to landlords; the other was the difficulty of obtaining the
complete assent of a large body, having many other most important
functions to discharge, to the necessity of recommendations, based upon
observations which had not come under its personal cognisance. Time
has spread through all classes, a keener appreciation of the justice and
benefits of an active sanitary administration. The officers are no longer
met to the same extent as formerly, by the passive resistance of landlords.
Recommendations involving important and expensive interferences with
property, and invasion of homes, if based upon the observations of one
person, could hardly be expected to be received in all cases without
reluctance. But now when similar recommendations are recognised as
necessary by a Commmittee, they will meet with more ready submission.
I look forward with satisfaction to the near approach of the time when
through the exertions of this Committee, the sanitary condition of
Shoreditch, already occupying a very high place, will be second to that
of no district in the metropolis.