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Da. R. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCtENT AND 



cannot be avoided without much inconvenience. It was to be 

 supposed that when railways sprung up, large towns would 

 diminish, as there might be a scattered population along the 

 lines, thus avoiding concentration, the great need of large 

 towns being done away with. This is certainly becoming 

 more and more probable, and it is not impossible that the time 

 may come when the work alone shall be concentrated, and the 

 population greatly scattered. This would be a much better 

 result than concentrating the population and scattering the 

 work. Whatever mode be taken will be gradually evolved 

 out of the instinctive feeling of the people, the convenience 

 of living and of working. But the law gives us a right to 

 remove nuisances, so that we may live in comfort. And 

 now the question comes — Shall we remove them ? If so, 

 to what place shall they be removed ? and which shall be 

 removed ? 



Works here are not like works in Kingston or Richmond ; 

 we cannot afford to treat them badly. The work which we 

 remove may take a whole street after it. It goes to a district 

 near us ; it settles down under few or no restrictions ; it is a 

 greater nuisance than ever to all its workpeople, who settle 

 down in muddy land around it. The good done is often 

 questionable, the evil is frequently unquestionable. There 

 are, in fact, no works which are not more or less nuisances 

 in the town, and as the town gathers round them, and will 

 probably continue to gather round them, wherever they go, 

 they must be considered as its nucleus, which it is really 

 absurd to grumble at. 



It seems to me, therefore, that all we can do in such cases is, 

 first to see that every work is carried on in the most sanitary 

 method which can be devised ; secondly, to make regular 

 investigations into the capacity of improvement of which some 

 are capable. If any one is incapable of improvement, let it 

 be removed ; but if it can be improved, let it be so, remem- 

 bering that if removal be a necessity in any case, it is by no 



