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16 HOUSE-DRAINAGE.
property (with few exceptions) no excuse for their
non-performance of these necessary works. I believe
the extent of public sewerage within the City to be
quite unparalleled, and to furnish facilities of the
rarest kind for the abolition of cesspools, and for
the establishment of an improved system of house
drainage. But, Gentlemen, while you have exerted
yourselves to the utmost in the application of your
increased authority, and have directed your staff of
officers, from first to last, to proceed with all possible
despatch in enforcing sanitary improvement
in the matter now under consideration, the intentions
of your Court and the industry of its officers
have been in a great measure frustrated by the
passive resistance of landlords. Delays and subterfuges
have been had recourse to by the owners of
house-property, in order to avoid compliance with
the injunctions of the Commission; and the temporary
interruption of works, which occurred in
August and September, prevented these evasions
from being dealt with as otherwise they would
have been.
Now, however, the course is again open. For
some weeks your Honourable Court has directed
that all works of drainage and sewerage shall proceed
; many are already in progress; and I can see
no reason why, within a year from the present
time, the number of cesspools and of undrained
houses within the City of London should not be
reduced to a very small proportion.