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50 HOUSES PERMANENTLY UNFIT FOR HABITATION.
of counter-openings in various blind courts; and,
not least, in regard of many houses thus situated,
the admission of light and air by additional windows.
I cannot pass this portion of the subject
without recording my opinion, that the operation of
the window-tax is in direct opposition to the sanitary
interests of the people; and I must venture to
express my hope that some different method of
assessment may presently be adopted, in place of
one which presses on the occupier in proportion to
the healthiness of his tenement. I think it very
desirable, indeed almost indispensable, that your
Honourable Court should have the power, under
certain circumstances, to order and enforce the
opening of additional windows in houses occupied
by large numbers of persons, when your Officer of
Health may report their ventilation defective; and
if it should seem expedient to you to seek this
authority from the Legislature, it might with the
greatest advantage be accompanied by some concession
from Her Majesty's Government, to the
effect that the formation of additional windows, occurring
thus under your orders for the immediate
necessities of health and life, should not occasion
any further assessment on the occupiers of the
house.
But, Gentlemen, within the City of London there
exist, to a very large extent, architectural evils
for which no such palliative treatment is possible;