The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-15 00:00:00

SANITARY CONDITION of MARY-
LEBONE.

On Saturday an unusually full meeting of the
vestry of St. Marylebone took place at the Court-
house, for the purpose of receiving the report from
the committee appointed to inspect and report on the
sanitary condition of this vast district of the metro-
polis.
Mr. J. F. Stanford having been called to the chair,
Mr. SCAICE, the parish surveyor, read the report,
of which the following are the most important ex-
tracts :

" Your committee find that in the highway dis-
tricts there are several roads which, from various
causes, as the want of proper sewage, &c., have not as
yet been taken to by the vestry, and are consequently
not reptlred or lighted. Your committee recommend
that application be made to his Grace the Duke of
Portland and Colonel Eyre, the freeholders of this
(listrict, to put all the roads on their respective estates
into proper condition forthwith to be taken to as
parish roads, under the provision of 3 George-IV.,
chapter 84, section 26."
After at very great length entering into details as to
the crowded and filthy conditiOn of the houses in the
vicinity of Marylebone Police-court, and other dis-
tricts of the parish, the report proceeds :
" The demoralising influence of so many persons of
both. sexes being under the necessity of so congregat-
ing cannot be too severely animadverted upon. -
your committee recommend, in order to produce
uniformity of cleansing, lighting, paving, and rating,
and (or the purpose of placing every court, alley, and
place in-the parish under the direct control of the
vestry, that committees of survey be forthwith ap-
pointed to view all the places enumerated in Appendix
1, in order that. all may partake of the benefits of
general superintendence, and to compel the landlords,
where necessary, to the performance of their duty in
this important particular, which, they regret to say,
has been, in many instances greatly neglected, and
which requires, therefore, to be legally enforced.
" The report on the subject of nuisances recom-
mends immediate steps to be taken for the-removal of
furniture, and. other goads -.exposed for sale on, the
pavement of the thoroughfares, - and the removal of
slaughter-houses and melting-houses, which frequently
render the air of an entire neighbourhood unwhole-
some.

:" Your committee report that in several cases dur-
ing their inspection, they ascertained that swine were
kept, to the manifest nuisance and injury of the
neighbouring inhabitants. Your committee directed
the surveyor to take the necessary proceedings for
the removal of the same, and your committee recom-
mend that printed notices be served upon all persons
sio offending ; and if the swine are not removed within
seven days from such notice that legal proceedings be
instituted against the offending parties, and that it he
the duty of the beadles, from time to time, to endea-
vour to ascertain if swine are kept, and to report the

same in their weekly report boOks ; and the vestry
are recommender' to rigidly carry into effect the
powers vested in them by Pcirliament to put down
this evil.

"Your committee find in many places through
the parish accumulations of dust in the yards and
cellars of the houses, and there is very general com-
plaint of the dustmen refusing to remove the same
unless they are paid for so doing. Your committee
find that this nuisance of the accumulation of dust,
exilted to a much greater extent until within
these last few months, when, from the circumstance
of the vestry having taken the slopping of the
parish into their own hands, the contractors have be-
come alarmed lest the vestry should also take upon
them the removal of the dust, and have become more
attentive, but the exactions still continue. Your
committee are of opinion that this practice should be
suppressed by the vestry.
" Yonr committee regret to be under the necessity
of remarking that there appears to be generally great
indifference on the parts of landlords of houses to the
wants or co-infests of the poor, most of the premises
in the occuoation of the poor being badly drained
and ventilated, very dirty, and no attention paid to
cleansing or repair. In many cases the basements
are so dark as to require candles to descend to the
ground floor, there being as few windows as possible,
no openings .aver area doors, as such openings, even
unglazed, would subject the owners of the house to
the window- tax, the law, to avoid the tax, requiring
that the passage should be absolutely dark ; the con-
veniences, in, many cases only one for several houses,
, and where there is one to each house it is generally
much neglected. In many parts of the districts, as
maybe seen b.y reference to the notes of the inspec-
tors, as in Gee's-court, Barratt's-court, Gray's-build-
ings, and Calinel-buildings, the privies of the houses
are in a most i'oul and offensive state, in many cases
the tops of these places being removed, or where they
remain, the seats, floors, and passages are covered
wiGh filth, :Your committee, in reference to the pri-
vies in foul condition, and other nuisances contained
in the notes of the daily inspection of the whole of
the district committees, recommend that the -provi-
sions of the Act of Parliament 9th and 10th Victoria,
chapter 96, he forthwith had recourse to for the
abatement of the nuisances.

(.! continuing taeir researches into the sanitary con-
dition of the districts, and turning to those subjects
the management (if which the Legislature has placed
in other hands, your committee approach a subject of
theaitmost impsr tance in a sanitary point of view,
but over Which the. parishioners have no control what-
everl viz.;- firstly'-
the sewage of the parish. They
regret that while they _have through the pariih sur-
veyor obtained now for the first time a complete know-
ledge of the state of the sewage of this great parish,
they, are compelled: to declare that it is manifestly in-
sufficient for the wets of the locality, no fewer than
280 streets and waiyi in the parish being wholly with-
outproper sewage,.and a great portion of the remainder
defective or incomplete. Every person who has at all
considered the subject must be aware that the forma-
tion of cesspools underneath and contiguous to
inhabited houses, ;es a fearful source of sickness and
disease; and vet the formation of these noxious
depositories of filth has been for a long series of years
absolutely forced upon the public by the absurd prac -
ticeon the part of the Sewer Commissioners of pre-
venting any, drain from a privy being laid into a
sewer; of late, h oviever, and since the evil has caused
a frightful amnion) ation, the Commissioners themselves
are loud in their ,condemnation of cesspools, and eves
solicit that the drains may 'be laid into the sewer.
Against the condnct of these irresponsible parties the
vestry have repeatedly and ineffectually protested.
" They recommend that application be immediately
made to reduce their numbers, and to trap the
remainder ; and that, if more ventilation to the sewers
be required, this he obtained from the crown of the
arch in the roiedway, and not in the immediate
proximity of the houses.
" Another evil of the most fearful character in
sanitary point of view is the water monopoly; and
yourcommittee -regards the monopoly as essentially
different from all other on account of its vast import-
ance as an absolute necessary of life. Opposed alike
to alrnioilopolies, and anxious to procure for the rate-
payers s supplies, whether of gas or water, at the
cheapest yate, aa,d of the most excellent quality, still
*hey feel that in. the matter of lighting, the rate-
payers having the choice of candles, naphtha, oil,
camphine, Sec., are not necessarily at the mercy of
the gas companies. But, as regards the supply of
water, there is no choice ; the rate-payers are com-
pelled to submit to all the exactions of the water
companies, and are entirely debarred from obtaining
any other supply. The West Middlesex Company,
in particular, wlao brought their water into the parish
under the express pretence of defeating monopoly, of
giving a cheaper and a purer supply, after a few years
entered into an agreement with the other companies,
parcelled out the metropolis into districts, and placed
the whole community at the mercy of this great
monopoly, both as regards supply and price.
"Your committee are convinced that a matter of so
much public is nportance should not be left at the
mercy of any coaninercial company, but that a control
for public purposes should he exercised by the go-
verning bodies duly elected in every locality in the
metropolis.
`" The attenyon
been street of the aggregate committee has
recent insi:Ui" rail"
to this circumstance during their
water e en., from observing that the supply of
as re arils public health and comfort, forms
ineCkernnpts7l9.alveinlyden? public
of the companies' arrange-
V-priesecantnnot while the law remains
constituted as
profit being of course the
ruling object of the seveiar
they have found in most lolrnaTa'nies. For instance,
buildings for example) the, su ilttes r :
frgt.
oyfotrheNvater is laid on
\say in Gray's-
.house, the ape
in the depth of the area in
roach to which (owing to the window-tax) is
through a dark passage, while the prix 1t
is in the back
yard, as far as possible frooa the supply of water,
no drains ru ening through the houses, and the r'
no water to cl mime them; the filth accumulate:e
is
the cesspools trad drains, while the ordinary waste,
water, which r night otherwise be turned to good ac.
count in cleans ang the drains, runs direct into the
ae wer, and no l or tion of it through the drains.
"In addition tc, the defective supply doled out to
the parishioners,
at an enormous charge, there are
forty-nine public street pumps in the parish, erected
by the vestry, ra lintained at an annual expense of
2601. Your tarn rnittee bg. to suggest that it would
be highly di tsitwai ble that parochial or district boards,
elected by thee rar tepayers,
should be empowered by
the Legislate re e ither to contract for the supply of
water, or, if necessary, to supply
it themselves to
the several di stride,
e, the expense to be levied by a
general rate. • •
Under le head of lighting, and in condexion
with the exti ems importance of the subject, as re•
in
Bards alt atte pts at sanitary improvement, your COM-
InitUe eanno t but call on the vestry most strenuously
to urge once more upon the consideration of the Go-
vernment an el th e Legislature the absolute necessity,
if there bet ns zytlx ing like sincerity on the part of the
proposer/. of sanii :try measures, of repealing that most