house or beer-shop. But give him the means of making himself comfortable by his own industry, and I am convinced by experience that, iụ many cases, he will avail himself of it.'

Although, in the variegated picture of human life, one can scarcely point out a more striking contrast than between a pale drunken labourer zigzaggedly staggering by night from the alehouse to his family, and a ruddy sober one rationally enjoying his evening at home, yet it is not so very easy to analyse or enumerate the invisible filaments which, acting all together like the strands in a cable, have in the two cases produced such opposite results!

It is not the fresh air the ploughman has been inhaling all day which, at the conclusion of his work, has irresistibly brought him to his home; nor is it the appetite which healthy labour has created-nor is it the joyous welcome of those rosyfaced children who, following each other almost according to their ages along the garden-path, have run to meet him at his wicket-gate-nor is it the smiling countenance of his neatly-dressed' wife-nor the homely meal she has prepared for him-nor the general cleanliness of his cottage, nor the ticking of his gaudyfaced clock, nor the merry antics of his children's kitten, nor his warm chimney-corner, nor the cheerful embers on his hearthno one of these tiny threads is strong enough to draw an ablebodied labourer to his cottage; and yet, their united influence, though still invisible to him, produces the happy result: in short, fresh air creates health, and health happiness.

On the other hand, it is not the fountain of putrid air which all day long has been steaming up from a small gulley-drain in front of his shop that causes the workman to spend his evening at the alehouse; nor is it the lassitude of his body or depression of spirits produced by the want of ventilation in the building-nor is it the dust he has been breathing there-nor is it the offensive open drain that runs close under his own window-nor is it the sickly, uncaptivating aspect of his care-worn wife-nor the neglected, untidy appearance of his room-- nor the emaciated countenances of his poor children, who, as if they had lost the bloom of modesty, are lying all huddled together in one bed-nor is it the feverish thirst which assails him-nor is it that black, unwholesome board nailed by Parliament over the alehouse-door which insists that the beer he desires is to be drunk on the premises,' or, in other words, that he himself must be the pitcher that is to carry it away-nor is it the abandoned immoral associates of both sexes which this board has convened for him- -no one of these circumstances would be sufficient to estrange an honest workman from his home; and yet, when they give a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together,' the victim obeys their influence,

he

he knows not why, and, accordingly, however crooked may be his path homewards, he, at all events, goes straight to the alehouse.

We have no desire to lecture on the old law which, in order to save trouble and reflection, summarily prescribed punishment as the natural cure for drunkenness. We trust, however, that the day is fast approaching when the attention of our law-makers will be directed to the prevention of the evil instead of its cure: for if it be true that the sobriety of the labouring classes mainly depends upon sanitary arrangements on an extensive scale, which the fiat of Parliament could instantaneously ordain, it certainly does appear that, so long as this branch of legislation shall continue to be neglected, there is reason to doubt whether Parliament or the peasant be the most guilty of those cases of drunkenness which mainly proceed from a series of minute causes not removable by the latter.

Surely, Mr. Chadwick's main remedies-namely, efficient drainage, sewerage, and ablution of towns-come within the legitimate province of the legislature. Surely, the interior arrangements he proposes, such as the ventilation of all buildings in which a body of workpeople are assembled, as well as due attention to a series of other details conducive to their health, are, to say the least, as much within the proper jurisdiction of parliament as the most humane mode of sweeping chimneys, or the proper thickness of partywalls. The health of the nation being nearly synonymous with its wealth, it is evident that the labouring power of the British people is a machine which it is the duty as well as the interest of the State to protect.

In France there has long existed a Board of Health; and whoever has read the Essays of Parent du Chatelet must know of what vast benefits this institution has been productive. Many times has a similar one been recommended and proposed here-but there has always occurred some fatal hitch. We need not at present enter on the discussion of the difficulties hitherto deemed insurmountable. Meantime Mr. Chadwick thinks the machinery of the Poor Law Commission might be rendered highly serviceable; and his practical proposal is, that in order to establish throughout the country an efficient system of sanitary attention, there should be appointed to cach district two new superior officers, a superintending Physician and a skilful Engineer.

Mr. Chadwick truly observes that the claim to relief on the ground of destitution created by sickness already propels the medical officer of every union to the precise point where the evil is most rife, and where the public intervention is most called for-namely, to the interior of the abode of the sufferer: indeed, it appears that in the metropolis during one year these officers were required to

visit 14,000 residences of applicants for relief on account of fever alone. When it is considered that the number of medical officers attached to the new unions throughout the country amounts to 2300, it is evident what a searching professional inquiry these intelligent agents have power to make, and what opportunities they would have of recommending immediate attention to whatever physical causes of disease they might discover in their daily visits to the residences of the afflicted. It is equally obvious that the relieving officer of the union would, in the mere performance of his duty, be able to assist the medical officer in searching out removable causes of sickness, by reporting whatever he might deem worthy of attention.

In order, therefore, to carry out this reciprocal assistance, Mr. Chadwick proposes that the medical officers of the unions, whenever they visit the residences of the labouring classes, should be required, as an extra duty for which they should be properly remunerated, to examine, or order to be examined any physical and removable causes which may, in their opinion, have produced disease; and having done this, to make out a report, specifying any nuisances that may require immediate removal-which statement should then be given to the relieving officer, who should thereupon take measures for the removal of the nuisance at the expense of the owner of the tenement, unless he, upon notice being given to him, forthwith proceeds to direct its removal.

These preliminary arrangements being effected, the duty of the district physician would be to receive reports from the medical officers of the unions, and to give general supervision to their labours, so as to correct any error or neglect in their treatment of the destitute; to inspect from time to time the schools of the poor; and to visit in person also places of work and workmen's lodging-houses-in this last department advantageously superseding the sub-inspectors of factories.

It would be found,' says Mr. Chadwick, 'that the appointment of a superior medical officer independent of private practice, to superintend these various duties, would be a measure of sound pecuniary economy. The experience of the navy and the army and the prisons may be referred to for exemplifications of the economy in money, as well as in health and life, of such an arrangement. A portion only of the saving from an expensive and oppressive collection of the local rates would abundantly suffice to ensure for the public protection against common evils the science of a district physician, as well as the science of a district engineer. Indeed, the money now spent in comparatively fragmentitious and unsystematized local medical service for the public, would, if combined as it might be without disturbance on the occurrence of vacancies, afford advantages at each step of the combination. We have in the same towus public medical officers as inspectors of prisons,

medical

medical officers for the inspection of lunatic asylums, medical officers of the new unions, medical inspectors of recruits, medical service for the granting certificates for children under the provisions of the Factory Act, medical service for the post-mortem examinations of bodies, the subject of coroners' inquests, which it appears from the mortuary regis tries of violent deaths in England amount to between 11,000 and 12,000 annually, for which a fee of a guinea each is given. These and other services are divided in such portions as only to afford remuneration in such sums as 40l., 50l., 601., or 801. each; and many smaller and few larger amounts."

But after all that may justly be said in favour of medical assistance, Mr. Chadwick evidently considers that the chief physician of his sanitary system is the district engineer. We have many engineers at work-but no real good can be effected on a large scale unless there be system in the operations, and authority extending over more than this or that small object or locality.

In the districts,' says Mr. Chadwick, where the greatest defects prevail, we find such an array of officers for the superintendence of public structures, as would lead to the à priori conclusion of a high degree of perfection in the work, from the apparent subdivision of labour in which it is distributed. In the same petty districts we have surveyors of sewers appointed by the commissioners of sewers, surveyors of turnpike-roads appointed by the trustees of the turnpike-trusts, surveyors of highways appointed by the inhabitants in vestry, or by district boards under the Highway Act; paid district surveyors appointed by the justices, surveyors of paving under local Acts, surveyors of building under the Building Act, surveyors of county-bridges, &c.

'The qualifications of a civil engineer involve the knowledge of the prices of the materials and labour used in construction, and also the preparation of surveys and the general qualifications for valuations, which are usually enhanced by the extent of the range of different descriptions of property with which the valuator is conversant. The public demands for the services of such officers as valuators are often as mischievously separated and distributed as the services for the construction and maintenance of public works. Thus we have often, within the same districts, one set of persons appointed for the execution of valuations and surveys for the levy of the poor-rates; another set for the surveys and valuations for the assessed-taxes; another for the land-tax; another for the highway-rates; another for the sewer-rates; another for the borough-rates; another for the church-rates; another for the county-rates, where parishes neglect to pay, or are unequally assessed, and for extra-parochial places; another for tithe commutation; and these services are generally badly rendered separately at an undue expense.'

On comparing the actual expense of the repairs of roads under a scientific management of the highways with the present cost, Mr. Chadwick estimates, that upwards of 500,000l. per annum

might be saved on that branch of administration alone. In the collection of the county-rates, he considers that, by simple arrangements, 1000l. a-year might be saved in one county (Kent), sufficient for defraying the expense of constructing permanent drains for upwards of 500 tenements; and from a vast accumulation of similar data Mr. Chadwick states, as his deliberate opinion, that, by a consolidation of the collection of rates, enough might be saved from the collection of one local tax-the sewersrate to pay the expense of scientific officers throughout the country.

'Supposing,' he says, 'population and new buildings for their accommodation to proceed at the rate at which they have hitherto done in the boroughs, and supposing all the new houses to be only fourth-rate, the expense, at the ordinary rate of payment of surveyors' fees, would be about 30,000l. per annum for the new houses alone. Fees of half the amount required for every new building are allowed for every alteration of an old one, and the total expense of such structures would probably be near 50,000l. in the towns alone-an expense equal to the pay of the whole corps of Royal Engineers, or 240 men of science, for Great Britain and Ireland.

'But at the rate of increase of the population of Great Britain, to accommodate them, 59,000 new tenements are required, affording, if all that have equal need receive equal care, fees to the amount of no less than from 80,000l. to 100,000l. per annum. This would afford payment equal to that of the whole corps of sappers and miners, or nearly 1000 trained men, in addition to the corps of engineers.

'From a consideration of the science and skill now obtained for the public from these two corps for general service, some conception may be formed of the science and skill that might be obtained in appointments for local service, by pre-appointed securities for the possession of the like qualifications, but which are now thrown away in separate appointments at an enormous expense, where qualifications are entirely neglected.'

If, when our carriage is broken, we send for the coachmaker -if, when our chronometer stops, we send for the watchmaker, and so on,-it surely follows that when patches of fever are found vegetating in all directions around us-when pestilence of our own concocting, like an unwholesome mist, is rising out of the burial-grounds, courts, alleys, and cul-de-sacs of our towns, and out of the undrained portions of the country-and when every parish-purse throughout the kingdom is suffering from the unnatural number of widows and orphans, which, in consequence of these removable causes, it is obliged by law to maintain,-in short, when sanitary measures are at last proved to be necessary, -there can surely exist among reasonable men no doubt that the physician and the engineer are the head and the hand profes

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