or instance, that people should read this Health of Towns
Report, than that they should subscribe liberally to carrying out even
those suggestions which are recommended by men who have thought upon
these subjects. There is no end to the quickening power of knowledge;
but mere individual, rootless acts of benevolence are soon added up.

There is not the less necessity for this knowledge, because public
attention is in some measure awakened to the duties of the employers of
labour. I do not know a more alarming sight than a number of people
rushing to be benevolent without thought. In any general impulse, there
are at least as many thoughtless as wise persons excited by it: the
latter may be saved from doing very foolish things by an instinct of
sagacity; but for the great mass of mankind, the facts require to be
clearly stated and the inferences carefully drawn for them, if they are
to be prevented from wasting their benevolent impulses upon foolish or
mischievous undertakings.

CHAP. III.
BY WHAT MEANS THE REMEDIES MAY BE EFFECTED.

Certainly, whether built upon sufficient information or not, there is at
the present time a strong feeling that something must be done to improve
the condition of the labouring classes. The question is, how to direct
this feeling--where to urge, where to restrain it; and to what to limit
its exertions. An inane desire for originality in such matters is wholly
to be discouraged. People must not dislike taking up what others have
begun. Of the various modes of improving the sanitary condition of the
labouring classes, each has some peculiar claim. Ventilation is so easy,
and at the same time so effective, that it seems a pity not to begin at
once upon that. Again, structural arrangements connected with the
sewerage of great towns are pressing matters, because, like the purchase
of the Sybil's books, you have less for your money, the longer you delay.
These two things and the supply of water seem to me the first points to
be attacked; but a prudent man will endeavour to fall in with what others
are doing, if it coincides with his direction, and he can thereby hasten
on, not exactly his own methods, but the main result which he has in
hand.

There is one conclusion which most persons who have thought on these
subjects seem inclined to come to--namely, that a Department of Public
Health is imperatively wanted, as the duties to be performed in this
respect are greater than can b