The attention of the medical officers was immediately drawn to the section of the Act, and the instructions of the Poor Law Commissioners relating thereto; and the result has been that proceedings have been had in several cases, in all of which the necessary cleansing has been performed by the owners, without the guardians being driven to the necessity of causing the requisite lime-whiting and cleansing to be done. The medical officer had frequently complained of the condition of the places into which the cleansing had been carried. Those places had for years been in the filthiest and most unwholesome condition: in some courts and alleys the pavements were covered with an accumulation of the most offensive matter, including the carcases of dead animals, such as dogs and cats, which the scavengers said formed no part of their contract to remove: their contract was only to cleanse the carriage ways. Some of these courts and alleys abound in the principal thoroughfares in the metropolis. The public, in passing through a thoroughfare like the Strand, would scarcely imagine that an evil of so much magnitude was close at hand.
The powers conferred by the clause in question appears to be restricted to the cleansing of the houses and the passages within the cartilage. What proceedings did the guardians take with relation to these external passages?
They directed the condition of the places to be represented to the Commissioners for paving and cleansing the district, who caused the filth complained of to be removed. The cleansing of the footways, however, forms no part of the duty of the Commissioners of Pavement, nor of their surveyor, nor of the scavenger appointed by them; and what was done was done extra-officially.
It cannot, therefore, be relied upon for the future?
No; and it is to be observed that the Metropolitan Paving Act evidently contemplates that the cleansing of the footways shall be done by the inmates of the houses. In the poorer districts, however, this is entirely omitted to be done; in addition to which these courts and alleys are frequently made, on account of their obscurity, a depository for most offensive matter. In the better neighbourhoods, the service of cleansing is performed by the servants; but the poor people, who rise before daylight, go to their work, and return at a late hour, have no time to cleanse their courts, and their earnings are too scanty to allow payment to others for the performance of the duty. In the better neighbourhoods, the cleansing does not always take place. The medical officers report, that there is a better average health in the streets that are well cleansed than in others where the people are otherwise in the same condition of life.
What are the main defects you have experienced in respect to the provision of the Metropolitan Police Act, empowering the guardians to take measures for cleansing houses?
First, the delay which must take place before the provisions of the Act can be put in operation. The medical officer has first to make his report to the Board of Guardians; several days elapse before the Board meets: then guardians have to inspect the premises in conjunction with the medical officer previously to certifying as to the state thereof: then application is made to the magistrate, who issues his summons, returnable in seven days; at the expiration of which, if the cleansing be not performed, the guardians are empowered to cause it to be done; but they must first obtain a magistrate’s warrant for the purpose. All this engenders delay; in addition to which our guardians have, in the first instance, caused the landlord to be written to with a view to prevent further proceedings, which in some instances have been successful; but when it is not successful, it creates a further delay, during which disease may rapidly increase and spread. The second defect of the provision is, that the owners are not liable for the expenses incurred; and the occupiers are mostly of the poorest class, who have no effects on which a distraint could be made. With all these difficulties, however, this provision has been very beneficial in its operation; and it is very much to be desired that larger facilities should be afforded for carrying its intention more fully into effect. It may be added, that the medical officer should have remuneration for the trouble he entails upon himself, by a report, in attending before magistrates, until the object is effected.
Mr. John Smith, the clerk to the Whitechapel union:—
Have you taken any proceedings under the 41st clause of the Metropolitan Police Act?
We have issued notifications to every house in the union of the necessity of cleansing the houses by whitewashing them inside and out, and that the owners and occupiers were amenable for any neglect. The relieving officers report to me, that these notifications have already been productive of very good effects, and that whitewashing has been actively practised. The relieving officers were instructed, wherever they found a case of neglect, to threaten the landlord that he would be proceeded against unless the tenement was duly cleansed. But as yet we have taken no legal proceedings, because we have advised with the magistrates, who do not consider that the owners can be proceeded against in the first instance, and the occupiers of the tenements, which are liable to be proceeded against, are most of them paupers and persons in extreme poverty.