And the following year he again forcibly adverted to the subject.
“When it is borne in mind that in some of the small courts in this District there are packed together as many persons as almost equal in number the soldiers congregated in a commodious barracks, is the high death-rate a matter of surprise? But what can be done? The authorities, general or local, cannot surely be expected to provide suitable dwellings for the people! Undoubtedly they cannot; but it is incumbent upon these authorities, in the interest of the well-being of all classes of the community, to place a prohibitive limit in regard of overcrowding upon the class of houses the rooms of which are let out as separate tenements, which would, without hardship upon their occupants, speedily produce the desired effect. Such a condition, practically speaking, already exists in regard of most of the Public Institutions of this country in which large numbers of persons reside; such a condition is enacted by law in regard of our emigrant ships: such a condition is enforced by Act of Parliament in regard of Common Lodging Houses: and in all these instances the principle works well. Is it reasonable, then, that in relation to the influence of over-crowding upon health and life, less care should be taken of the people who occupy the densely populated districts of our great towns and cities than is already provided by law for the inmates of our Common Lodging Houses, or for the paupers admitted into our Workhouses, or for the emigrants who leave our shores? Surely the injustice cannot but be apparent.”
Other suggestions were also made.
The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel wrote (1859):—
“If the public is to enjoy health, and a freedom from the ravages of epidemic disease, a stop must be put to the present scheme of erecting houses in crowded situations; for although the rights of property are to be respected, yet, in my opinion, such rights are of secondary consideration when compared with the public health and the increased burdens which must be borne by the ratepayers to support those whose sickness is occasioned by the unhealthiness of the localities where they reside.”
Several urged the vigorous enforcement of the existing law. To the Vestry of Lambeth the Medical Officer of Health wrote in his report in 1856:—
“You must proceed actively against those who have raised the value of their possessions by ignoring the value of human life, who wilfully multiply disease by neglect of their pestiferous property.”
The Medical Officer of Health for Hackney wrote (1858):—
“I feel assured that it cannot be too widely known that individuals will not be allowed to deal with their property in such a manner as to cause injury to the public health. For although individual liberty has long been the boast of England, yet there is a point beyond which it cannot be tolerated with safety; and private good should always be made to give way to the public welfare.”
The greater the light thrown upon the sanitary condition of the people of London, the clearer became the fact that the principal blame therefor rested upon the house-owner, lessee, or middleman, or as Parliament defined him, “the owner.”