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any efficient system of sanitation, and various Governments
at different times had promised to bring remedial measures
before the House, but ministry after ministry passed away
without any attempt at legislation in that direction. In
1848, the year of the appalling visitation of cholera, to
which upwards of 53,000 persons in England succumbed,
Lord Morpeth, who was then Chief Commissioner of Woods
and Forests, intimated his intention to introduce a preparatory
measure for the government of London within a
very short period; but seven years elapsed without effect
being given to the intention. Meanwhile, in 1854, a second
visitation of cholera, with upwards of 20,000 deaths therefrom,
had occurred, and the late Sir Benjamin Hall, who
then held office in the Government as President of the
Board of Health, grasped the question in the masterly
manner which its magnitude and importance demanded.
Persistently combating the opposition with which his
"motion for leave" was assailed, he succeeded in obtaining,
on the 17th March, 1855, authority to introduce his "Bill
for the Better Local Management of the Metropolis," by
which the local government of London was to be placed in
the hands of the ratepayers. Having two months previously
laid before the House the "Bill for the Removal of
Nuisances and for the Prevention of Diseases," he may
justly be regarded as the pioneer of the improved health
of London, and when it is remembered that the Metropolitan
Building Act was passed in the same year, it will
be conceded that the Parliamentary Session of 1855 set in
active operation a threefold machinery which has produced
advantages to the Metropolis which are simply
incalculable.
Within the metropolitan limits the local administration
was carried on by no less than three hundred different
bodies, deriving their powers from about two hundred and
fifty local acts, independent of general acts. Of the
parishes, no fewer than thirty, containing 80,000 inhabi-
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