A letter to William Squire, Esquire ... on the present aspect of the Yarmouth sanitary movement; together with suggestions for its farther development / by C. Lockhart Robertson.

Date:: [1849]

Credit: A letter to William Squire, Esquire ... on the present aspect of the Yarmouth sanitary movement; together with suggestions for its farther development / by C. Lockhart Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$Borough. (See § 10.) 1 perceive that a certain petition is reported to have been presented at the Inspector’s court against the proceedings, and it will doubtless be forwarded by him to the General Board of Health. The following statement by the Board however, will, I think, be sufficient to prove, that no impedi- ment will thereby be thrown in the way of the carrying out in this place of the provisions of the Public Plealth Act, with its attendant benefits.:— “ Considering the provisions made for the satisfaction of the rate- payers with the application of the act, we should hesitate to recommend the enforcement of its provisions against the general and deliberate wishes of the inhabitants of anv town, when the intended measures were placed fully and fairly before them. But in the face of proved facts of preventible evils under which the great bulk of the population of a town may be suffering, we should be cautious in accepting as the real expression of opinion, declarations against remedies, unless under scrutinies and precautions such as experience has suggested in relation to the guises assumed by such interests as those above indicated. We should not accept as expositions of the aversion of ‘ the people,' or of the unwillingness of the town, declarations which we know to be got up on ignorant or false representations by the owners of the worst- conditioned tenements, in respect to which it may be requisite to adopt compulsory measures, or by local functionaries whose powers it may be necessary to supersede ; or by one local party, in the mere spirit of opposition against the measures which may happen to hare been initiated by persons belonging to another, or to no local party what sorer.” I most unhesitatingly declare my conviction, that the immediate enforcement of the act will tend to the improvement of the general health of the inhabitants and of the social condition of the labouring classes: and I farther feel satisfied, that the attendant expense, which has been ridiculously o\ er- rated, will not exceed, if it equal, the amount the local$