re willing to do it for. Now is
it likely that any poor man, having one of these nuisances before his
door, will go to such an expense to have it prevented. It is probable
that it would be very good economy for him to do so, even if his whole
savings amounted only to 3 pounds. But we all know that few men are
far-thinking enough to invest much of their capital in a thing which
makes so little show as pure air. What do you find amongst the rich? Go
through the great squares, where, in one night, a man will lavish on some
entertainment what would almost purify his neighbourhood, and you will
often find the same evils there, though in a different degree, that you
have met with in the most crowded parts of the town. If the rich and
great have so little care about what comes

"Betwixt the wind and their nobility"

you can hardly expect persons, whose perception in such matters is much
less nice, to have any care at all. It is evident that the health of
towns requires to be watched by scientific men, and improvements
constantly urged on by persons who take an especial interest in the
subject. If I were a despot, I would soon have a band of Arnotts,
Chadwicks, Southwood Smiths, Smiths of Deanston, Joneses, and the like;
and one should have gratified a wiser ambition than Augustus if one could
say of any great town, Sordidam inveni, purgatam reliqui.

The supply of water is of course one of the chief means for the
purification of a town. It is at present, I fear, grievously neglected
throughout the country. The Sanitary Report draws attention to the mode
of supplying water to Bath, and gas to Manchester: and adduces the latter
as an instance "of the practicability of obtaining supplies for the
common benefit of a town without the agency of private companies." And
Mr. Chadwick, after a lengthened investigation into the subject which
will well repay perusal, thus concludes:

"I venture to add, as the expression of an opinion founded on
communications from all parts of the kingdom, that as a highly
important sanitary measure connected with any general building
regulations, whether for villages or for any class of towns,
arrangements should be made for all houses to be supplied with good
water, and should be prescribed as being as essential to cleanliness
and health as the possession of a roof or of due space; that for this
purpose, and in places where the supplies are not at presen