On the jurisprudence of chargeability for sanitary works and for poor rates, police rates, and other branches of local administration.

  • Chadwick, Edwin, 1800-1890.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the jurisprudence of chargeability for sanitary works and for poor rates, police rates, and other branches of local administration. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    a measure of agricultural production. When properly dealt with for production, the cost of drainage was repaid in eight, and even in four, years. When closely examined for improve- ment, the conditions of obstruction were such as these :— A part or the whole of an old landed estate was in a State of swamp, and heavily surcharged with wet. Rheumatic fever and ague were rife amongst the population. The water table ” was so near the sui'face as to prevent the roots of the cereals and many orders of plants penetrating to their requisite depth for food. Agricultural science prescribed that that water-table should be lowered to a given depth, to enable the roots to explore the subsoil; and liquefied manure, or food, to be sent down and made to penetrate the substratum. The cost of the work is say 8Z. the acre. The work is pro- posed to the occupier of the soil, but he rejects it, as he is only a tenant-at-will or an occupier on a short lease. It is proposed to the owner, the landlord,”—and he rejects it because he has only a life interest in the land, and at his age his life is short. It is assumed that the work will last for thirty years; but the insurable period of his life may be only half that or one-third of that period. Take it at a third,—is he for only one-third of the benefit to subject himself to an excess of two-thirds of the outlay, at the expense perhaps of his younger children, and for the benefit of the heir to the estate, who is deemed to benefit too much already! The project is rejected as unjust; and, there being no available equitable remedy, the land remains in swamp to the detriment of its production and also of the public health. The conditions of the estate are matched by the conditions of the cottages, and it is acknowledged that they are deplor- able. But their renewal would be very expensive, and the tenant, with his short life, cannot undertake the undistributed charge, so that they pass unamended with the estate; and the leversioner comes too frequently so burthened as to be unable to bei.r the heavy charge himself. Next, take the conditions of town improvement works. The town is encumbered with filth within and without the houses,