The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-26 00:00:00

SMOKE PREVENTION.

After the Court of Common Council determined on
Wednesday to petition both Houses of Parliament to
prohibit the interment of the dead within the City, a
discussion, of which the following is an abstract, took
place upon Mr. Anderton's motion; the successful result
of which we mentioned yesterday, to petition Parliament
to prevent nuisances arising from steam-engines and
furnaces in manufactories and buildings.
Mr. ANDERTON, in bringing forward the motion, said
it was one upon a subject of as much importance as that
with which the Court had been just occupied. There
was not an individual present who would not agree with
him that the nuisance of smoke was one of the most
intolerable annoyances to which the population of
London were subjected. It was impossible to pass over
London-bridge without witnessing its disgusting effects,
but the injury it inflicted upon the public health was
much more serious than the shock it gave to the public
taste, and the discoloration it gave to the public
buildings. Liverpool had determined to protect itself,
and had procured a Bill to be brought in to compel the
manufactories to consume their own smoke. In other
large towns similar efforts were being made, and it only
remained for London to adopt the humane project of
serving the public health by an appeal which, he had no
doubt, would be efficacious.—(Hear, hear.) He had no
intention at so late an hour to go into the particular
merits of the question, especially as the subject had
undergone a great deal of discussion and examination
elsewhere.
Mr. KING said he would support the motion if it were
referred to a committee to draw up the petition.
Mr. R. TAYLOR said he spoke from experience when
he said nothing objectionable could arise from the pro-
cess of prevention.—(Hear, hear.) There was, in fact,
no occasion at all for smoke, and the removal of the
nuisance could be effected in the most extensive cases at
a very small cost. Those who saw his (Mr. Taylor's)
steam-engines at work would not imagine, from looking
at the vents, that they were at work at all ; for they
were so constructed as to be capable of consuming their
own smoke, and not the slightest annoyance was pro-
duced when they were in full operation.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. AITCHESON said that Mr. Mackinnon, who had,
he believed, the charge of the Parliamentary proceed-
ings upon the subject, had met with considerable diffi-
culties, and as it was a subject which involved very large
interests, it ought, in his opinion, to be referred to a
committee.—(Hear, hear.)
Dr. LYNCH said, the atmosphere of large towns was
exposed to many causes of vitiation, from which the
country was free. The famous old Evelyn, in the time
of Charles 11., recommended the removal of all manufac-
turing establishments from towns. If it were known
how soon and how fatally the impurities, arising on
every side, from factories, laboratories, breweries, and
gas-works, vomiting forth tons of carbon, and other
deleterious agents, and polluting the vital air, in which " we
live, and move, and have our being," were mixed with the
blood, and incorporated w,ith the system, they would not
be tolerated a single hour.—(Hear, hear.) To the open
spaces, which were few and far between, the poor, after
their day's toil, in vain resorted for pure air. In cities,
where wealth accumulated, poverty was banished from
its abode, regardless of the misery it had been proved to
create. hen splendour usurped the surface, degrada-
tion was compelled to burrow in the earth—space was
too extensive a luxury--square feet were sold for guineas.
In the alleys, or nests, or horrid holes where miser-
able wretches lived and clung together, like bats in
unfrequented vaults, there the leaven of sickness and
contagion never ceased to work—there the mortality
was 1 in 15. From such places they turned out for
better air. They found their health was sacrificed to the
cupidity of the few. The atmosphere whiili God had so
lavishly provided, which was the first and last food of
man, which it was the duty of a good Government to
preserve uncontaminated, was poisoned to make a few
master men rich.—(Cries of " Hear, hear" and murmurs.)
In a London atmosphere all plants perished. Next in
susceptibility and tenderness was the child. The mor-
tality in close neighbourhoods was more than one-half.
In adult life more than 100,000 passed annually through
fever. The deaths in England in one year from pre-
ventable disease, typhus, the scourge of the poor, were
frightfully numerous. Fever, like the plague, might be
averted by proper sanatory enactments. It was singular
that the primary requirements of life which Heaven had so
bounteously distributed to his creatures, were placed be-
yond the reach of the masses. The nobleman retired to his
lordly mansion—the aristocracy of the city to their
Tusculan villas at Brixton, Clapham, and Norwood—.
the productive classes, like the galley-slave chained to
his oar, were confined to the vicinity by their occupa-
tions, and seldom or never inhaled a breath of fresh air.—
(Loud cries of "Hear.") The next best blessing was a
plentiful supply of pure water, tuns of which were about
fourteen feet below the surface, but they dared not dig
for it. The water was a monopoly in the hands of a
company, whose shares had risen from 1001. to 14,000/.
each. These things must not be. The cruel monopoly
must be broken in pieces. The welfare of society de-
manded it. The Corporation was, by law and ancient
usage, the guardian of the public health. It must assert
its high and holy prerogative. London could be made
as wholesome as the Surrey hiils by perfect sewerage,
by plenty of pure water, and by carrying out the ad-
mirable scheme of Mr. Anderton.—(Hear, hear.)
Science had invented adequate means to consume the
smoke. The object must be enforced by the highest
penalties. Cholera threatened to revisit us. It was
following its former route—where typhus was found
cholera existed, the map of one indicated the other ;
the best preventives were good air, good
and good water.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.') Lord John
Russell had pledged himself to carry out a great and
comprehensive sanatory law. He was perfect master of
the subject. He was deeply penetrated with the evils of
the poor. He sympathised with their sufferings, and
has resolved to remedy them.—(Hear, hear.) The
wealthy order:perceived, by the report of the health of
towns, that the effects of the wretchedness of the masses
might reach them.—(A laugh.) That disease was of an
infectious character, as likely to rise in the upper regions
as to spread in the lower ranks, and that the interests of
all classes were identical. He hoped the Corporation
would second the holy and noble disposition, and that the
neglect of justice would be overtaken by the energies
of generosity, the claims of humanity met by the re-
cognition of its rights, and the horrors of disease
and death obviated by a wise, kind, and liberal legisla-
tion.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BENNOCR said, that it might be imagined from the
manner of Dr. Lynch that the Court were opposed, in-
stead of being unanimous on the subject. He (Mr. Ben-
noch) warmly approved of the proposition of Mr. An-
derton, and he did not know there was a single dissen-
tient, notwithstanding the vehemence just displayed.—
(" Hear, hear," from Dr. Lynch.)
Mr. HARRISON said it was easy enough to petition
Parliament to relieve the public from smoke. Ho had
no idea at all to what extent the interference would be
efficacious. He had not heard whether the preventative
process was applicable to marine or locomotive engines.
Mr. ANDERTON—Not the least doubt of it. You can
see its operation easily.

Mr. HARRISON--I do not myself know the fact, and
I shall, upon your authority for the fact, vote for your
motion.

Mr. PR/OR said that he felt great interest in the ques-
tion. He knew that experiments had been ineffectually
made in many extensive manufactories. He had himself
set up all night upon many occasions superintending the
application, but he had not observed its availability to
any extent. He confessed too that he thought there was
a good deal of morbid feeling mixed up with the ques-
tion, and that it would be most dangerous to the poor
population to hazard the loss of the extensive manufac-
tories which were carried on with, and could not be car-
ried on without smoke.
After a few words from Mr. NORRIS in favour of Mr.
Anderton's motion, it was carried by acclamation.