392 Smoke from Steam-Engines and Furnaces. 



then he had seen several places where smoke was actually con- 

 sumed ; and if the House would take the pains to inquire, they 

 would find it no difficult matter to put a stop to those nuisances 

 which now made London, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Man- 

 chester almost uninhabitable. Gentlemen might think this state- 

 ment exaggerated — but he meant to say, that literally those 

 places were uninhabitable, for many people residing near great 

 furnaces were obliged to send their families away from their ha- 

 bitations to places hired for their reception, in order that they 

 might be free from those unhealthy nuisances. This was done 

 by numbers of people in Manchester. The plan he should pro- 

 pose had been successfully carried into effect at Warwick, in the 

 manufactory of a Mr. Barnes ; and he could assert that it had 

 been done with scarcely any additional expense, and with one- 

 third less consumption of fuel than was now generally used in 

 furnaces. If gentlemen who heard him would take the trouble 

 of going to the manufactory of Mr. Barnes, they would find this 

 to be the fact; they would scarcely be able to find where the 

 furnace was ; and they would perceive no more smoke there than 

 in any common chimney. He had himself gone to Warwick, to be 

 satisfied of the fact vvhich he now stated ; and as a proof that no 

 nuisance existed in the manufactory he spoke of, there was a 

 bleaching-ground within ten yards of the furnace ; there was also 

 a garden, and a conservatory ; and none of these sustained the 

 slightest injury or annoyance from smoke. A similar plan had been 

 adopted with equal success at a distillery at a little distance beyond 

 the Penitentiary on Mill-bank. If gentlemen would go there, they 

 would see a black intense smoke coming out of one furnace and 

 passing into another, where it was entirely consumed before it 

 got into the open air. In order to be fully satisfied of the effect 

 of the opposite and generally prevailing system, they need only 

 go over to the other side of the water, where there were several 

 furnaces sending forth their masses of smoke every day. In 

 Bridge-street, Blackfriars, there was a furnace which annoyed 

 the whole neighbourhood. He had witnessed ebullitions of smoke 

 near St. James's palace; and those who resided near or fre- 

 quented Hyde-park must have been frequently annoyed by that 

 which issued from the Cannon brewery. If he should be able 

 to satisfy the House that the nuisance could be abated by the ap- 

 plication of certain remedies, he hoped he might be permitted 

 to bring in a declaratory law by which such nuisance might be 

 abated by the verdict of a jury. If he succeeded in effecting an 

 object so conducive to the health and comfort of the public, he 

 should consider himself as having deserved well of his country. 

 He concluded with moving that a Select Committee be appoint- 

 ed to take the subject into their consideration. 



Mr. 



