1867.] The Artizans and Labourers' Dwellings Bill. 213 



sooner the aspirants for political power acknowledge the responsi- 

 bilities and duties of their position, and follow up the admission by 

 energetic action, the better will it be for the nation. 



Mr. Torrens and his colleagues, who have introduced the 

 Artizans' Dwellings Bill (an enactment which it is only right to 

 say, is based upon the Liverpool Sanitary Amendment Act of 1864, 

 framed by Mr. W. T. McGrowen, formerly Liverpool Law Clerk, 

 now Town Clerk of Bradford ; Mr. Shuttleworth, Ex-Town Clerk ; 

 and Mr. James Newlands, the present Borough Engineer of 

 Liverpool*), deserve well of the community ; and there is no doubt 

 that whatever may be the present decision of the House of Com- 

 mons on the question of Parliamentary Eeform, there will be no 

 difference of opinion as to the desirability of carrying, as speedily 

 as possible, this beneficent enactment. 



The process by which the Bill proposes to improve the dwellings 

 of the humbler classes is simple and efficacious, and the only 

 influences which can militate against its usefulness are those which 

 may arise where the members of Corporations are corrupt, and the 

 officials afflicted with the same weakness, or with the desire to 

 please and serve their patrons at any hazard. Every borough 

 must have an officer of health ; every officer of health must report 

 to juries what houses, streets, or courts are unfit for human habita- 

 tion, and how they should be dealt with ; whether only structural 

 alterations are necessary, or whether total demolition is the sole 

 alternative. Upon such reports the jury must instruct the muni- 

 cipal authority to act. This they will do either by allowing the 

 owner of the " presented " property to deal with it himself according 

 to their instruction?, or, should he be unwilling to do so, and should 

 total demolition be necessary, they must then agree with him as to 

 terms, and purchase the property out and out. 



In addition to these powers, the Bill also authorizes loans of 

 money at a low rate of interest by the Public Works Loan Com- 

 missioners to Corporations wishful to build dwellings for such 

 families as are likely to be turned out by the operation of the Bill ; 

 so there will in future be no justification whatever for any local 

 governing body, whether it be of the smallest village or of the 

 largest overcrowded commercial or manufacturing centre, if such 

 abominable nests and rookeries as now exist, should in future be 

 found within its jurisdiction. 



But although we have expressed the conviction that all political 

 parties will unite in passing the Bill, we are not quite so cer- 

 tain that it will meet with no opposition on the part of those 

 whom it is intended to benefit the most ; and such of our 



* Mr. Hugh Sliimmin, of Liverpool, who had written some valuable articles on 

 the state of the courts there, was a material witness in securing the passage of the 

 Bill. 



