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Before the work was concluded I took Counsel's opinion on the matter, with
the result that a writ was issued by the Vestry against the Company for an
injunction to prevent the bridge being constructed otherwise than in accordance
with the deposited plans and for damages. Unfortunately for the Vestry, the
Whitechapel Board of Works in whose district half of Worship Street and the
bridge in question lies, passed their portion of the work as satisfactory on the report
of their Surveyor, despite tho representations of the Vestry's officials. Ample
justification, however, was afforded for the Vestry's action by the fact that soon
after the roadway was finished it began to sink and require repairs at the very place
where the Vestry's Surveyor reported it would do, owing to the insufficient depth of
concrete. On a careful investigation into the legal position of the Vestry it was
found however that the clauses in the Company's Special Act were so loosely and
widely drawn that the same difficulty that arose in the Sun Street case would be
raised and that it would be impossible to insist on the observance of mere statements
made on the plans as to road levels, &c., which were not properly incorporated in
the Act. In view also of the attitude of the Whitechapel Board of Works it was
deemed advisable to meet the Company, and the action was settled on the terms of
the Company undertaking to maintain and keep the roadway over the bridge in
good repair (which was the substantial part of the Vestry's case) and of the
Company paying all the costs of the Vestry in the matter.
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891
This Act, in common with the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, is one of
the most important measures which the legislature has framed in the interests of public
health. Coming into operation so lately as New Year's Day, 1892, its effects have not
yet been fully realized, but it has already had a considerable influence upon the Vestry's
sanitary administration, the Vestry being one of the sanitary authorities responsible for
its due execution. The ultimate benefits it will confer cannot yet be definitely gauged,
hut judging from the results in the provinces of the corresponding Act of 1875, it is
certain to be of the greatest utility in furthering the work of sanitary bodies, and the
mere fact that it codifies and simplifies the numerous and complex enactments relating
to the public health in London which preceded it, will be a great public advantage both
in enabling the public to understand easily the laws protecting health, and in removing
many of the technical difficulties which have hitherto hampered and delayed local
authorities in their sanitary work. In Shoreditch, especially, it is to be welcomed as a
measure tending to the improvement of the sanitary condition of the poorer classes, for
whose benefit in the main it has been placed upon the Statute Book.
It may be described as a Sanitary Code for the Administrative County of London.
It repeals and re-enacts various sanitary laws, brings into existence new duties and
powers, and consolidates the whole laws relating to the public health in one Act. The
more important of the old Acts which it has supplanted are those which relate to
nuisance removal and the prevention of diseases, but portions of other Acts such as