1881 j Offensive Manufactures . 133 
precarious climate, manufactures and mining are a necessity 
for the support of the present population. We must there- 
fore be very cautious how we impose upon manufacturers 
burdens and restrictions which may render them unable to 
compete with their foreign rivals. Indeed, what with limit- 
ations on the hours of work and with sanitary and philan- 
thropic regulations of various kinds, we have, in the opinion 
of many persons well able to judge, gone quite far enough, 
unless our neighbours would follow our example. Hence 
we can scarcely impose additional restrictions upon the 
nuisances and eyesores apparently inseparable from the 
industrial arts. Inseparable, I say, so long at least as coal 
is the great source of heat and of mechanical power. Could 
we do away with coal-dust, coal-ashes, coal-smoke, and 
coal-mines with their hideous “ spoil-banks,” and obtain 
motive energy from the rise and fall of the tides, we might 
take heart, 
But, on the other hand, the farmer and gardener have 
good reason to complain of the destruction of their crops, 
no small part of the soil of Britain being for food-producing 
purposes rendered non-existent. All sorts and conditions of 
men are warranted in protesting against the acidification of 
the air, the over-clouding of the sky, the soiling of their 
houses, their clothing, and their persons, and the general 
making everything — natural or artificial — loathsome and 
hideous to their senses. How are we to reconcile these two 
contending necessities ? 
The way out of this dilemma may be found by a reference 
to domestic life. In every household there are processes 
and products, the refuse of cooking, of washing, and of 
human life itself, which are more or less noisome and un- 
sightly. We cannot dispense with these processes ; we 
cannot prevent the continued formation of such refuse. 
But we can and do aCt upon the old principle of a place for 
everything, and everything in its place. We do not allow 
the slop-pail or the suds from the washing-tub to stand in a 
corner of the drawing-room, no matter under what cleverly 
devised rules and regulations. We do not suffer fish-bones 
and oyster-shells and the parings of vegetables to be depo- 
sited in our libraries or in our consulting-rooms. Nay, what 
is the circumstance which we most regret in the condition of 
the poorest classes of our great cities ? Is it not that want 
of space compels them to cook, and wash, and eat, and sleep 
in one room ? Surely the moral of these considerations is 
plain to be seen. We do, as a nation, what no person in 
comfortable circumstances does in his house, and what we 
