The Bishop of London, after presenting a petition from the mayor and burgesses of Leeds in favour of Drainage, said, the object of this petition was, in a great measure, answered by the leading provisions of the noble Marquess's (the Marquess of Normanby's) bill. This measure was a good beginning and it was most necessary to apply its provisions to the great towns throughout the country. It would make a great advance towards improving the moral condition of the people, and securing the appliances of religion. To give the working people habits of cleanliness, and to imbue them with a taste for ordinary domestic comfort, was an improvement which no provisions of this bill could effect, though it would go a greater length towards that desirable end than any efforts could do with which he was acquainted. He recollected that about two years ago, a number of benevolent individuals in London endeavoured by a p0rivate society to ensure cleanliness in the dwellings of the poor. But they found such difficulty in the opposition offered often by the owners of extensive sites, that they were obliged to abandon their undertaking and return the greater proportion of the subscription money. He hailed the bill of the noble Marquess as the first step towards the eradication of what, in its present state, must be a continual germ of social and moral disease.
Lord Ellenboroughso entirely agreed with the most rev. Prelate, that he preferred saying the very few words which he intended to address to their Lordships at that time, rather than on the second reading of the noble Marquess's bill. He believed the moral and religious improvement of the poor to be totally inconsistent with their physical degradation. To build churches, to build school-houses, and to employ clergymen and schoolmasters, was in his opinion utterly idle, while the physical wants and destitution of the poor, con- 537 tinued as debasing as they now were. We began too far from the real source of the evil, unless we placed the poor man in such a position that he might have some self respect—that he might have something like a home: The object of their legislation should be—what perhaps this bill would do ultimately—to secure a home to the poor man, who was now driven (and he now spoke only of the manufacturer) from his wretched place of abode, and almost compelled to spend his evenings in the gin-shop; his wife followed his example. What should be done, if they wished to improve the general condition of this man, was to enable his wife to prepare for him a home where his children might welcome him on his return from the day's labour, and where he might hope for some degree of comfort, and enjoy some share of domestic happiness. Without this all attempts to improve the moral and religious condition of the poor were absurd. They must not shut their eyes to the fact that a great practical revolution had taken place in the state of society during the last half century. The proportion between the manufacturing and agricultural population had been altogether reversed, and with this change was altogether changed the structure of society. The landed proprietor was acquainted with the poor man who lived in his immediate neighbourhood; he visited his cottage, attended to his comforts, and took an interest in all his concerns. Farmers took an interest in the well-being of their labourers and servants, and the poor cottagers were full of kindly feelings towards those who were in a similar condition to themselves. There was one bond of connection between the agricultural population, which made them regard each other as members of one family. But it was otherwise in the manufacturing districts. There they saw beside great wealth the greatest possible misery, with no sort of connection between the classes so distinguished. Nothing was done, except in a few rare instances, by those who derived benefits from the exertions of the labouring manufacturer, for his moral improvement. This was a fearful state of society, and what they had to guard against was its continuance, and he was quite sure it behoved Parliament to employ every remedy in their power to improve the condition of that class of the community to which he had just referred. 538 He was sure it behoved Parliament to apply every remedy in its power. His objection to the bill was not to its prospective regulations, but that it had not a retrospective operation. The evil existed. There were localities containing vast numbers of people, where fever was domiciled, and where benevolent individuals could not enter without almost the certainty of contagion and death. The truth of this was established by the report which had been received on the subject. He doubted whether the several courts of commissioners under the existing law were constituted with sufficiently extensive powers, and he thought this bill should proceed in the first instance to remodel all their powers and means of proceeding, to a certain degree. It extended the existing powers as to cleansing, but it took no step for securing a more free ventilation; and he did think that the noble Marquess should have had the courage to endeavour to apply a remedy to what was an existing evil. It was by good fortune, and through the blessing of Providence, that we had hitherto avoided a pestilence and the plague. The noble Marquess might have been deterred in the framing of his measure by an apprehension of interfering with what were called vested rights. He (Lord Ellenborough) did not think that reason sufficient. No man should be at liberty so to abuse his property as to affect the health and endanger the lives of the community; and though he admitted, that avarice had its rights, humanity had its rights also, and those ought at least to be equally respected. He wished that there were more of wider scope and more stringent enactments. His only objection to it was, that it was too limited. They had of late increased in population and wealth, but these alone were not the most certain signs of national prosperity and strength. That which was more important was, that wealth should be so distributed as to elevate the moral condition of the people, and secure the union of all classes of the community. We might look with pride to the result of the last census —to the extension of our commerce, and the increase in imports and exports; but if we had a demoralised population, increasing every day, and increasing in wretchedness, there was a rottenness at the heart of the structure of society, which must soon extend to the constitution itself. The change effected in the structure of 539 society by the proportion between the manufacturing and agricultural population being reversed, was in itself a great revolution. In the course, he might say, of a few years, this greatest of innovations had been effected, and it practically changed the whole working of the constitution and government of this country. He called the serious attention of her Majesty's Government to this subject, for he was sure that some measure should be at once adopted to raise the physical condition and situation of the manufacturing poor. If that were not done, he agreed entirely with the right rev. Prelate, that, however excellent their laws, however virtuous their designs, however good their principles might be, they would never produce that moral and religious improvement in the character of the people which they desired.
§ Petition laid on the Table.
The Marquess of Normanby, in moving the Order of the Day for the scond reading of Drainage of Towns' Bill, said, that though he was at all times unwilling to trespass on their Lordships' attention, the paramount importance of this bill induced him somewhat to depart from the rule; and the observations which had fallen from the right rev. Prelate and from the noble Baron opposite confirmed him in the opinion that he did not exaggerate the importance of this measure when he solicited for it their Lordships' careful consideration. It was stated by the noble Baron that this bill was of too limited a nature; but in the course of his observations he thought he should be able to satisfy the noble Baron that the course which he had selected was the most expedient, and likely to be the most successful. But his first business was to call the attention of the House and of the public to the existence of the evil; for he felt sure, that when he did so, the Legislature and the public would feel that their neglect had produced a state of things which at this moment affected not only the health and comfort, but, by violating in many places the decencies of life, brutalized the condition of a large portion of our industrious countrymen. If, thirty years ago, the bill which he was now moving had passed, many of the present evils would not only not have attained their present alarming state, but would never have existed at all. As to the bill which he was proposing to their Lordships, 540 he considered it but one step in the right direction. It proposed to deal with what was, after all, the source of the evil complained of by the noble Baron, and to apply a remedy to it with the least possible introduction of new machinery. He had chosen to place the proposed powers in the hands of a body already in existence, although its operation might not be in all respects perfect, for similar purposes, in preference to investing any new functionaries with such a responsibility. He was aware that in addressing their Lordships, if he touched in any respect on medical and physical topics, whatever strong grounds they might furnish for legislation, he could not, of course, be supposed to impress them on their Lordships' attention as the result of professional experience. At the same time there were a few general results to which he was sure he should be pardoned if he appealed in support of his measure. He believed it might be considered an established fact, that almost all diseases to which human nature was subject, where there was no predisposition existing in the constitution itself, arose from malaria, the consequence of the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter. It was ascertained that this was a subtle poison thus produced, which affected the vital energies as certainly, though not as speedily, as arsenic. An experiment had been tried, by which it was ascertained, that by condensing a certain quantity of air saturated with malaria, a fluid was produced so charged with animal or vegetable matter in a state of putrescence, that when the smallest particle was inserted in the vein of a dog, the animal instantly died. It must produce the same effect, though in a slower ratio, when respirated by the lungs and admitted to the system. If he could once establish the extent and character of this poison, the next point was to direct their attention to the means by which the evil was to be removed. There was an instance in illustration of the facility with which the evil was abated when the cause was removed, given before the committee of the Commons last year, and no doubt familiar to their Lordships from the fact that it had been repeatedly given in the newspapers. There was a ditch near the terminus of the Birmingham Railway at Euston-square, into which a number of drains discharged themselves. The consequence was, typhus fever continually prevailed there. The simple remedy was applied of 541 covering in the ditch, and ever since the place had been quite free from such infectious diseases. Another instance he should cite was High-street, Aldgate. The butchers at one side of that street were induced with great difficulty, to open drains into a common sewer, and the immediate result was the total disappearance of fever at that side, while at the opposite side, where the inhabitants refused to take this precaution, fever still prevailed. There was one passage which he should cite from Dr. Lynch's evidence, which would save the House the necessity of listening to him further on this point. It was this: —
On the south side of my immediate district there is one court, called Back Bear-alley, in which, within the last twelvemonths, I may say within the last six months upwards of forty cases of typhus fever have occurred; there are not more than nine houses in that court, two people cannot walk abreast in it; they have one common privy, and sometimes there are packed in one room six or seven of the poorest and most destitute of our fellow-creatures; this is under the surveillance of the inquest. The drainage was deficient in that Back Bear-alley; I directed the attention of the inquest to it, and they sent notice to the parties concerned, that they were coming: the consequence was, they had their houses put in order; they were washed and cleansed, and in some instances, where the fever cases had occurred, they took the precaution of whitewashing; six cases having occurred, some of which were sent to the fever Hospital, and others treated at home; notwithstanding these precautions, thirty-four cases afterwards occurred, and five or six deaths. Is that from want of cleansing and draining?—Those are co-operating causes. Is the drainage bad there?—The drainage was quite defective. I directed the attention of the authorities, and sent a report to the commissioners: Mr. Kelsey is the paid surveyor; I received this reply, in which they state that twenty-two miles of sewers had been explored and cleansed in the city of London, and the ventilation improved: then they go to state, that they will attend further to this, and they have since laid out in that place, I believe, 800l. or 900l.; and since they have laid out that money, I have not been called to a single case of typhus fever. You think that what they effected there has done good?—Certainly.He did not think that much local amelioration could be obtained without the assistance and control of a central board; but he thought also that any such board which should be established should be altogether distinct from the Poor-law commissioners. In support of this opinion he would refer their Lordships to the report of an inquest which appeared in that 542 day's paper, and which though he had no authentic information on the subject, he dared say was correctly reported. The noble Marquess quoted the following case—