The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.

• The second reading of the Public Health Act
Amendment Bill was moved on Monday by Lord
PALKERszos, who explained the nature and purposes
of the power which the measure would consign or
continued to the Board of Health. He entreated the
house to grant a renewed lease of existence to that
board under the modified conditions and for the
limited term proposed by the bill. To the labouring
class, he remarked, health was existence itself, and,
as the requirements of society in modern times led
men to live together in large masses, it became all
the more necessary to adopt precautions for the pre-
servation of public health. The Home Secretary
shortly described the formation in 1848 of the Board
of Health, whose functions would expire at the close
of the present session of Parliament, and, though not
wishing to create alarm, enforced on the house the
necessity of taking immediate steps as well for gene-
ral health as to meet and avert the approaches of
that, formidable epidemic the Asiatic cholera.
It did at present prevail in various parts of
the country, and had in the course of last year
committed great ravages in Newcastle, Glasgow,
and other places, and there was too much reason to
believe that it had recently made its appearance in
the metropolis. Terrible, however, as this disease
was, it was more so in idea than in reality, for there
was no disease more easily arresied by medical treat-
ment, if resorted to in its earliest stages ; but there
must be direction to govern that treatment, and
under such direction the most efficacious step to be

THE PRESS.

taken would be a house-to-house visitation. As a

department, Lord Palmerston proceeded to state the
board would be hencefo►th placed under the control
and responsibility of the Home Secretary; and as
individuals all the present members had left their
functions at his disposal, awaiting any expression of
opinion, on the part of the house and the Govern-
ment, that their retirement from office was expedient.
Believing that much prejudice had been excited
against certain members of the board, he trusted
that the Legislature would not, on such unworthy
grounds, sacrifice the interests of individuals or the
advantage of the public at large.
Lord SEYMOUR. opposed the bill, and moved the
usual amendment that it be read a second time that
day three months. His opposition, he declared, was
not °eta:Lined by any antagonism to the Government,
but from a decided conviction that the Board of
Health had not discharged their functions in such a
manner as to justify their maintenance in office,
while the changes indicated by the present bill pro-
mised no sufficient security for the better performance
of their duties in future. The powers given to the board
were great, and should only be entrusted to men who
would act with great caution, great prudence, and
great forbearance. He wa. prepared to say that the
present board had not acted in accordance with these
requirements. They had two powers entrusted to
them—to advise as to the best sanitary measures to
be adopted ; and to administer the existing law with
justice and discretion. In neither of these had the
present members given satisfaction. He then pro-
eeeded to enumerate cases in witich the advice of the
Board of Health was most preposterous—such as ob-
taining the supply of water for two millions of people
from the sands of the Surrey hills, and recommend-
ing a system of tubilar drainage. The noble lord
condemned the constitution of the board, which
would never be under proper control so long as one
of its three members was to be an unpaid amateur,
and that one a noble lord (the Earl of Shaftesbury)
whose whole principle of proceeding was that
of centralisation. The board, with a great anxiety to
do everything and to interfere with everything and
everybody, had actually done nothing, and its con-
tinuance would be most mischievous to the interests
of the public. Lord Seymour afterwards entered
upon some persona explanations, vindicating him own
conduct from the censure pronounced by Lord
Shaftesbury in the Upper House.
The amendment was seconded by Sir B. Hall.
Mr. M. MILNES supported the bill, and defended
the Board of Health, the high character and talent of
whose members he complained had not secured them
from defamatory attacks.
Mr. HENLEY was convinced that the board stood
condemned both in the eyes of the country and of the
Government. The bill, he contended, would effect
no further change than that of transferring the con-
trol of the board from the Chief Commissioner of
Works to the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, the practical result of which would be
merely nominal. He recommended that a bill con-
tinuing the board for a short period, say six months,
should be brought in, to afford an opportunity for
reconsidering the subject, and reconstructing the

Board of Health.
Lord J. RUSSELL remarked that the bill only pro-
posed the continuance of the board for a year, and
suggested that the whole subject should be inquired
into by a committee in the next session of Parliament.
This he thought the more eligible course, for by a
continuance bill for six months no such opportunity
would be given. The noble lord proceeded to defend
the board, though he admitted, and he had twelve
months since told Mr. Chadwick, that they had paid
too little attention to the feelings of the people of
this country in favour of self-government. The
board, however, had accomplished a great deal ; and
it was, therefore, expedient to pass the bill, and leave
to next session the constitution of the board.
Mr. HErwoon announced that Mr. Chadwick had
been recommended by his medical advisers to dis-
continue the very arduous duties incumbent upon his
office in the Board of Health.
Mr. HUME confessed that his vote upon the pre
sent hill would turn upon the question whether Mr.
Chadwick remained or retired.
The statement that this gentleman had been pro
fessionally advised to retire was corroborated by Lord
PALMERSTON.
After some observations from Sir T. D. ACLAND,
the house divided—For the second reading, 65 ; for
the amendment, 74 : majority against the Govern-
ment, 9. The bill was consequently rejected.
THE NEW BOARD OF HEALTH.
The existing Boarl of Health having received its
sentence of condemnation by the vote of Monday, a
new bill providing for a reconstruction of this de-
partment was on the following evening introduced
by Sir W. Motisworrn, under the title of " a bill to
make better provision for the administration of the
law relating to the public health." In giving an out-
line of this measure the Right Hon. Commissioner of
Works said that
" the bill was framed in strict conformity with the views

725

and wishes 'which were expressed by the house, it being
the desire of the Government to act in conformity with
those views and wishes. He understood those views were
to the effect that there ought to be a public department to
whom should be entrusted the administration of the Public
Health Act, the Nuisances Removal Act, and the general
charge of the health of the country. He understood it
also to be the opinion of the house that the Board of
Health, as at present constituted, consisting of four mem-
bers, two of whom were paid and two unpaid, was not
good arrangement for the administration of the public
hisilth. The house was likewise of opinion that there
ought to be some person in the house who should be
directly responsible to Parliament for the administration
of the Public Health Act. It hail seemed to the Govern-
ment that the health of the country came fairly within the
business of the Home Department : but he understood the
opinion of the house was that there was not a closer
analogy between the two departments of the Board of
Health and the Home•ollice than there was between the
Poor-law Board and the Home Department, and that the
new department of health should be constituted in the
same manner as the Poor-law Board By the bill which
he asked leave to introduce, he proposed that the Board
of Health should consist of a president, who should have
a seat in that house, and two secretaries—that was, a secre-
tary and an under-secretary. The only other alteration
which the bill would make with respect to the officers was
that the superintending inspectors should be salaried
officers of the Board of Health, and should not be em-
ployed, as at present, on jobs, the cousequenoes of which
had been that they hail been able to take work on their own
private aceount, a practice to winch great objection had been
taken by the public. (Hear, hear.) These were the general
provisions of the Public Health Act which he now asked leave
to introduce. The measure would also include a clause to
make compensation by a sum to be detehnined by the
Treasury, but not exceeding I,ouo/, a year, to one of the
members of the present board—namely, Mr. Chadwick.
Although some obloquy had been cast upon that gentleman,
he (Sir W. Molesworth ) believed that he was a man who
for many years had been a valuable public servant, though
he confessed that in his administration of the public, health
Mr. Chadwick had not been so fortunate as in the other
public services which he had rendered."
Leave was given to bring in the bill.
THE DRAINAGE OF LANDS BILL.
The committal of this bill was opposed on Monday
by Lord PORTMAN, who objected to the extraordinary
powers over property which it would assign to the
commissioners appointed to carry it out, and the not
less extraordinary exemption from its operation in
favour of persons who had the means of defending
themselves. His lordship moved the customary
negative to the motion for going into committee.
Earl GRANV/LLE denied that the bill gave either
extraordinary powers or extraordinary exemptions,
and urged that it would prove a most useful
measure.
The bill was opposed by Lord REDESDALE, and,
on division, thrown out by a majority of 23 to 13.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
A series of qnestions were asked on Tuesday by
Mr. DANBY SEYMOUR touching the proposed arrange-
ments for the disposal of the national collection of
pictures and the continuance of the house room now
awarded to the Royal Academy in Trafalgar-square.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied :
" 1. It was the intention of Government to ask Parlia-
ment to give them the means of building a new national
gallery for the national collection of pictures. 2. With
respect to the question whether the plans and designs
would be left open to public competition, he had merely
to observe that the Government had not as yet advanced
so far in the consideration of the subject as to enable them
to determine that point. 3. With reference to the inten-
tion of her Majesty's Government to take measures
collect the whole of the ancient pictures belonging to the
nation into the National Gallery in Trafalgar-square, it was
not in his power to give a definite answer. 4. With re-
gard to the Royal Academy, he could only fay that they
had not been called upon to vacate the premises now in
their possession."
CHARGES ON REAL ESTATE.
The Real Estate Charges Bill standing for com-
mittal in the Lords on Monday,
Lord Sr. LEONARD'S objected to the measure, as a
hasty and ill-advised interference with the existing
law of real property and the law of primogeniture.
He moved that it be committed this day three
months.
Earl FORTESCUE replied to the objections, urging
that the sole effect of the bill was to alleviate the
hardships suffered by younger children from personal
property being made available in certain cases for
discharging encumbrances upon real estate.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that though the bill
was not a Government measure he approved of its
introduction. The first clause would be productive
of unmixed good, inasmuch as it would make the dis-
positions of property, in cases where testators had
not actually described how it should go, conformable
to their real intentions. It had nothing whatever to
do with the law of primogeniture.
Their lordships divided, when the motion for
going into committee was carried by 26 against 23.
The bill then passed through committee with amend-
ments.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
Mr. LUCAS, on Monday, took the opportunity
furnished by the motion for going into committal. of

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supply to invite attention to the subject of manufac-
Luting industry in Ireland, which was, he declared,
threatened with rapid extinction, owing to the un-
checked current of emigration out of the country.
He suggested the expediency of instituting an
inquiry into the means whereby this process of
depopulation might be arrested, and especially
whether the industrial condition of Ireland would be
ameliorated by the establishment of training and
apprenticeship schools or other similar institutions.
The hon. member developed his views respecting
the improvement of Irish industry in a speech of
considerable length, in the course of which he
offered many criticisms upon the course of recent
legislation respecting questions wherein the interests
of Ireland were involved. The best remedy now to
be provided was, he said, to be found in the estab-
lishment of additional manufactures by some direct
agency, as had been done in Belgium. }Pi did not
require that any contribution for this purpose should
come from the Consolidated Fund, but rather that
the towns and districts of Ireland might be allowed,
at their own risk, to follow the course so successfully
pursued in Belgium.
Lord J. RUSSELL vindicated the Government and
the Legislature from the censures of the hon.
member, both on account of what they had done and
of what they abstained from doing. With regard
to the suggested establishment of industrial schools,
he submitted that no case had been made out for
deviating, on behalf of Ireland, from the course
pursued in this country for the promotion of indus-
trial education.
After some remarks from Mr. J. Macgregor, Mr.
Maguire, Mr. A. Pellatt, and Mr. Kennedy, the sub-
ject dropped.

MAYNOOTH.
The Public Revenue and Consolidated Fund
Charges Bill was brought forward for committal on
Thursday. The measure had already passed through
the Commons, but, having undergone revision by the
Peers, parliamentary etiquette required that the bill,
being a money bill, should be again introduced de
novo in the Lower House. On Thursday, therefore,
it was considered in committee, and all the clauses
passed. When the schedules were moved, Mr.
Spoomiii renewed the motion which he had proposed
when the bill had before been passing through a
similar stage, for the purpose of removing the May-
nooth grant from the Consolidated Fund and includ-
ing it among the items subjected to annual vote by
Parliament.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed the
motion, partly on the ground that it was inexpedient
to alter unnecessarily a money bill which had under-
gone revision in the House of Peers, and partly on
account of consideration for the people of Ireland.
Mr. DISRAELI made some remarks upon the bill
generally, and pointed out various faults and imper-
fections in its details. He proceeded to support the
motion respecting the Maynooth grant. Questions of
analogous character had presented themselves repeat-
edly during the present and previous sessions, and he
considered that their recurrence indicated much po-
pular dissatisfaction with the political status of the
Itoman Catholics in the United Kingdom. The con-
troversy had become most important and perplexing,
and demanded serious consideration and a speedy
settlement on the part of the Government. The time
was now come when they must reconcile the recog-
nition of the Protestant constitution with the princi-
ple of civil and religious liberty. It was impossible
to leave the rights and privileges appertaining to the
members of various sects throughout the country to
be the subjects for perpetual discussions, and tossed
to and fro in incessant parliamentary debates. He
called on the Government to attempt a solution of
this vast question early next session.
Lord J. RUSSELL rejoiced to find that some inter-
val was to be allowed the Government before embark
ing upon so gigantic a task, and briefly urged that
the motion actually before them pointed exactly in
the reverse direction to that indicated by Mr.
Diraeli, inasmuch ask would invite instead of closing
controversial discussions.
Mr. NEWDEOATE contended that as Oxford Uni•
versity was subject to parliamentary control the same
measure ought in justice to be dealt to the Maynooth
establishment.
The committee then divided—
For the motion
Against
The bill then passed through committee.
IRISH SPIRITS AND THE CONSTABULARY.
The Spirits (Ireland) Bill was read a third time
in the Peers on Tuesday, and the question put that
the bill should pass.
Lord MONTEAGLE complained that the measure
converted the constabulary force of Ireland into
officers for the collection of revenue, contrary to the
whole current of authority upon the subject, and in
opposition to the principle upon which the force was
constituted. The bill turned the constables into
excisemen, who knew nothing of such dutie lean
thus produced a divided duty, which would o