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58 SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR.
at length to be recognised as an obligation of
society; and as such an interference may be
fraught with the utmost advantage to sanitary progress,
I shall now proceed to point out the manner
in which, with this view only, it may most usefully
and most humanely be made.
First of all I would point out to you, that
within your Act of Parliament there are contained
some enactments on this subject, which might be
of great value, were it not for their very limited
application:—'Whereas the owners and keepers of
lodging-houses of an inferior description, for the
accommodation of mendicants, strangers, and other
persons for the night, or other short periods, allow
the same to be crowded, by receiving more lodgers
than such lodging-houses are adapted to contain
with a due regard to health,' therefore, and for
some other reasons enumerated in the 91st clause,
it is enacted that you may require the registration,
and may order the periodical inspection of such
houses; that you may from time to time fix and
determine the number of lodgers who may be
accommodated in each lodging-house; that you
may issue 'rules or instructions regarding health,
cleanliness, and ventilationthat you may 'order
that a ticket, containing the number of lodgers for
which the house is registered; together with your
rules and regulations, 'shall be hung up, or placed
in a conspicuous part of each room into which
lodgers are received;' and finally, 'that if any