se foul-mouthed chimneys blackening a
neighbourhood generally free from such things, and it does not seem to
occur to the owner of the chimney that he is doing any thing wrong,
provided he is legally secure. Probably he gives away in the course of
the year such a sum as would put up an apparatus which would modify, if
not altogether remove, the smoke. Let him not think that charity
consists only in giving away something: I doubt whether he can find any
work of benevolence more useful to his neighbourhood and to society in
general, than putting a stop to this nuisance of his own creation. I am
not inclined to rest my case against it on the ground of health alone;
though I believe, with the Sanitary Commissioners, that it would be found
much more injurious than is generally imagined. When you find that
flowers and shrubs will not endure a certain atmosphere, it is a very
significant hint to the human creature to remove out of that
neighbourhood. But independently of the question of health, this
nuisance of smoke may be condemned simply on the ground of the waste and
injury which it occasions. And what is to be said on the other side?
What can any man allege in its favour? Our ancestors, who had
glimmerings occasionally, held that

"Si homme fait candells deins un vill, per qui il cause un noysom
sent al inhabitants, uncore ceo nest ascun nusans car le needfulness
de eux dispensera ove le noisomness del smell." (2 Rolls Abr. 139.)

This is quoted in a grave public document (the Sanitary Report): had we
met with it elsewhere, we might have concluded that it came from that
chronicle in which Mr. Sidney Smith found the account which he gives of
the meeting of the clergy at Dordrecht. I quote it, however, to show how
wisely our ancestors directed their attention in this instance. If they
had been begrimed with smoke as we are, and, upon inquiry, had found that
there was no "needfulness" to back the "noisomeness," it is probable they
would have dealt with it in their most summary manner. Whereas I fear
that Mr. Mackinnon's "Smoke Prohibition" Bill, amidst the hubbub of
legislation, has great difficulty in finding the attention which it
really deserves. The truth is, this smoke nuisance is one of the most
curious instances how little pains men will take to rid themselves from
evils which attack them only indirectly. If the pecuniary injury done to
the inhabitants of great towns by smoke could only be put