Section 100), Which Enacted, on It Being Proved to the Satisfaction of

the Council, that any Sanitary Authority (except the Commissioners of Sewers of the City) had made default in doing their duty under this Act with respect to the removal of any nuisance, the institution of any proceedings, or the enforcement of any bye-laws, the Council might institute any proceedings and do any act which the Authority might have instituted and done, such Authority being made liable to pay the Council's expenses in so doing.

And, furthermore, Section 101 provided that "when complaint is made by the Council to the Local Government Board that a Sanitary Authority have made default in executing and enforcing any provision which it is their duty to execute or enforce under the Act, or of any bye-law made in pursuance thereof, the Local Government Board, if satisfied after due inquiry that the Sanitary Authority have been guilty of the alleged default, and that the complaint cannot be remedied under the other provisions of this Act, shall make an order limiting the time for the performance of the duty of such authority in the matter of such complaint. If such duty is not performed by the time limited in the order, the order may be enforced by writ of mandamus, or the Local Government Board may appoint the Council to perform such duty," and the expenses were to be paid by the Sanitary Authority in default.

"It seems to me right and proper," said Mr. Ritchie in introducing the Bill, "that in regard to the great question of public health in London the County Council ought to be charged with the performance of duty, which in the opinion of the Local Government Board after inquiry, has not been adequately and properly performed by the local authority."

These sections were strongly opposed by some of the prominent Vestries, being held to be "degrading and destructive of local self-government by completely subordinating the local to the central authority."

The self-government which many people like is the being able to do exactly as they themselves like, regardless of everybody else's likes and rights. And it is the same with many local government authorities. Their idea of self-government too often is to govern for their own objects, and their own interests, regardless of the infinitely greater interests and rights of the great community around them; and when it is brought home to them that they are only a small integral part of a great community, that their sphere of self-government can only be a very limited one, and that they cannot be allowed either by action or neglect to injure the community, they resent it with no little outcry.

The principle of self-government, however, was not one to which appeal could be made, for it had been dragged through the mire by too many of the local authorities. Once the unity of London assumed definite shapes, as it did in the new Central Authority representing the whole of London, Vestry self-government, except upon certain lines and within certain limitations, was doomed; for it would have to make way for a far larger system of self-government--the self-government of London by Londoners.

Moreover, prolonged experience had proved that the Vestries could not be relied on to enforce the laws, and it was manifest that some effective provision must be devised for preventing them perpetually thwarting the intentions and defeating the imperative enactments of Parliament designed for the welfare of the community at large.

It was unfortunate, however, for the sanitary welfare of great masses of the people of London that the principle thus recognised and adopted by Parliament was not given fuller effect to than it was, for it is the only principle upon which any really sound system of public health administration for London can be based.

A few years later the principle was reaffirmed by Parliament.

During the summer of 1892 the appearance of cholera on the west coast of Europe--particularly Hamburg--exposed London to the importation of cases of this disease. The unsatisfactory position of the Council with regard to London administration for the prevention of epidemic disease was at once made evident.

In order to remove doubts as to the Council's responsibilities as to the administration of the law relating to epidemic diseases, a provision defining the Council's position was included in the Council's General Powers Bill, which was passed by Parliament in 1893. This provision was to the following effect:--

"The Local Government Board may assign to the Council any powers and duties under the epidemic regulations made in pursuance of Section 134 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which they may deem it desirable should be exercised and performed by the Council.

"If the Local Government Board are of opinion that any sanitary authority in whose default the Council has power to proceed and act under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, is making or is likely to make default in the execution of the said regulations, they may by order assign to the Council, for such time as may be specified in the order, such powers and duties of the sanitary authority under the regulations as they may think fit."

Parliament thus once more emphasised the policy of the local sanitary authorities being subordinated to the Central Authority.

The new Central Authority--representative of the people of London--gave early evidence of vitality and energy. The heir had come into his property, with high ideals as to its government, and as to the welfare of the people. A new power had suddenly been brought into London life--an unknown but vigorous force. A capable staff was at once organised, and a Medical Officer and Assistant Medical Officer of Health appointed. Inquiries and investigations into the various matters most concerning the welfare of the citizens of London were at once undertaken, and conclusions arrived at, and action taken, with a thoroughness and a rapidity hitherto unknown in the administration of London affairs.

Bye-laws were made to regulate and unify the administration of sanitary laws by local authorities.

Several of the water companies were induced to give a constant supply of water to an increased extent.

And great efforts were made to utilise the powers conferred upon the Council by the recently passed Acts--the Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890, and the Public Health (London) Act of 1891.

It was at once felt that the problem which first faced the Council was the housing of the people, and the Council determined to attack it on every side.

In the belief that facilities of communication between the working centres of London and residences in healthier localities would help considerably to alleviate some of the worst effects of overcrowding, and towards the successful treatment of the great housing problem, action was taken to turn the Cheap Trains Act of 1883 to greater account, and to secure greater numbers of workmen's trains and more moderate fares; so as to enable workmen to travel cheaply between more distant homes and their places of employment.

That Act, which gave a large remission in the amount of passenger duty paid by railway companies, if the companies would provide a service of workmen's trains, and would convey workmen at less than the usual fares, had so far not been made much use of.

On investigation it was found that the facilities afforded to workmen, particularly on certain railways, were very inadequate. There were no workmen's trains at all on one important line--on another only one such train was run, whilst on several others the number of trains run was very small.

Representations were made to the Board of Trade and negotiations carried on with the Railway Companies, and by degrees a considerable extension of the facilities for the conveyance of workmen was secured.

The Council gave its immediate and more anxious attention to those breeding-places and forcing-pits of disease and misery, the insanitary areas in London.

The Housing Act of 1890 (by Part I.) constituted the Council the authority for preparing and carrying into effect schemes for the clearance and improvement of insanitary areas which were of such size, and situation, and character, as to render their clearance and reconstruction of general importance to the County.

The tremendous task of dealing with them was rendered more difficult and costly by the obligation imposed by Parliament of providing housing accommodation for the persons displaced; for in the lack of easy means of communication with the outer parts of London it was held to be necessary to re-house the greater number of them in the same locality.

The Metropolitan Board of Works had simply acquired and cleared the properties, and disposed of the sites to companies or individuals, placing on them the obligation to erect houses for the working classes. Now, however, the Council determined itself to erect, let, and maintain, the necessary dwellings. The chief reason for the change was the difficulty experienced in finding companies or persons who were willing to undertake the erection of dwellings on some of the sites.

The Council had to complete several schemes which it inherited in an unfinished condition from the Metropolitan Board of Works, but it at once initiated many itself, and carried them through to a successful conclusion.

And as one after another of the insanitary areas was investigated, so again and again was revealed to public view the appalling condition in which thousands of people--in the very heart of London--dragged out an existence more bestial than human; horrors piled on horrors--a state of things all the more awful because it had been existing for an indefinite number of years--levying annually the heaviest of tolls on those who came within its deadly sphere, and scattering its poison abroad among the community at large.

There was the Clare Market (Strand) Scheme, some 3-1/2 acres--3-1/2 acres of human wretchedness and disease and misery and filth. In one sub-area there were upwards of 800 persons to the acre. Here the death-rate was 41·32 per 1,000 in 1894; in another sub-area, the death-rate had been 50·52 per 1,000 in 1893; the death-rate for the whole area having been 39·03 in 1894. And in addition to this was the unknown sick-rate. There was the Webber Row Scheme in St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark--close upon 5 acres in extent, with a death-rate of 30·5 per 1,000. There were the Roby Street and Baltic Street areas in St. Luke, areas which "have about the worst reputation of any in London."

The largest scheme which the Council undertook was that known as "the Boundary Street Area" in Bethnal Green. Here some fifteen acres of old, dilapidated, crowded dwellings--dwellings so insanitary that the death-rate in them was over 40 per 1,000--were swept away, entailing the displacement of 5,719 persons; and the ground so cleared was laid out with wider streets, and a large open space and excellent buildings were erected thereon to contain 5,524 persons without crowding. The Prince of Wales once more testified his deep interest in the welfare of the poorer classes of London by opening the new buildings--a ceremony which took place on the 3rd of March, 1900--and delivering an impressive speech.

A summary of the work accomplished by the Council up to this time showed that the Council had provided, or was engaged in providing, accommodation for 35,950 persons at a total outlay of close upon £2,000,000, an amount of building operations which, if conducted at one spot, would have resulted in the formation of a town of nearly 36,000 inhabitants.

The cost of this work was enormously heavy, owing to the fact that the arbitrator could and did award commercial value for the land; but, as was pointed out by the Medical Officer of Health for the London County Council:--

"The primary object of Part I. of the Act is not to provide artizans' dwellings, but to secure the removal from the midst of the community of houses which are unfit for habitation, and the faults of which are in large degree due to bad arrangement. Where houses are thus situated, and are in a number of ownerships, rearrangement can only be carried out by vesting the property in one ownership, that of a public authority, who can then, by the making of new streets and by complete rearrangement of the area, ensure that the conditions which in future will exist are such as are needed for the health of the inhabitants. The chief value of the Act is, therefore, not so much the provision of house accommodation which is fit for habitation, as the abolition of houses which are dangerous to health. Part I. is not, therefore, in itself so much a Housing Act as an Act for the removal of nuisances on a large scale."

But another reflection also suggests itself, namely, why should the ratepayers of London have been obliged to pay these high sums for property which, by the culpable neglect of the owners and their predecessors, had been allowed to sink into a condition not alone exceptionally dangerous to the lives of its inhabitants, but a constant danger to neighbouring districts--even to London itself. Surely in common fairness, those who had let it fall into such a state should have paid the penalty therefor, and not the public of London, who had had no part in bringing the property into such an evil condition.