But with the few exceptions already described practically no use had been made of the powers.
“Vested rights in filth and dirt” had still too large a representation upon, and too powerful a grip of the local sanitary authorities for any action to be adopted which would entail trouble upon the possessors of those rights.
Some Vestries, for form’s sake, had made regulations but never put them in force. A few had tentatively put them in force, and promptly dropped them. A large proportion of them did not take even that much trouble, but simply ignored them altogether; and so, some seventeen years after the Act was passed, the whole scheme had ceased to be operative, and was in complete abeyance.
In December, 1883, the Local Government Board, having realised the gravity of the situation, endeavoured to get the Vestries and District Boards to take action, but the Local Government Board could not compel them to make such regulations, as there was no power of compulsion, and there was no penalty for refusal to enforce or even to make them.[155]
The Vestries and District Boards were, in fact, masters of the situation, and could act or not act, just as they pleased—and most of them did not act.
Various were the excuses made by the Vestries for doing nothing.
The feeling which prevailed in the Vestry of Clerkenwell was that—
“The regulations generally were of such an inquisitorial and troublesome character that they were unsuited to an Englishman’s home. For instance, it was shown that in some cases even clergymen occupied lodgings which would be reached by these regulations.”
And yet there were 4,700 houses in the parish to which such regulations would have been applicable, and where their application would have been of the utmost benefit to thousands of families. And from 1866 up to 1884 this power might have been, but was not used.