rettro to Of thitor.
THE BOARD OF HEALTH AND THE ADELPHI POISON-WORKS.
SIR—The Adelphi Terrace was once a row of tolerably handsome dwelling- houses, overlooking the river, with a Southern aspect. The quiet locality and sunny promenade made it a coveted abode for men about town—Garrick and others, notorieties in their day; and by some supposed arrangement of ground landlords, buildings were prohibited from rising above the terrace level riverwards, and no nuisance worse than coals was permitted. In pro- cess of time, the cavernous vaults whose yawning mouth is seen from the Strand became the abode of a class of pariahs who therein lived, moved, and multiplied their being, in etiolated half vitality, like rats. Sir Robert Peel's Act precluded the 'farther increase of this race of London troglodytes; and they gave way to herds of cows, professedly to supply Eastern Westminster with, milk, if that could lie called milk which was elaborated by in- troducing faded cabbage-leaves at one end of a cow and drawing them off in a chalk-coloured liquid at the other. The manure of these cows, well kept, and fermented in damp and darkness, generated gases by no means pleasant to the olfactory nerves. The ventilation of these vaults had been ingeniously provided for by the original architect with a aeries of melon- frames of glass, opening into the hollow ,square court around which the principal block of buildings is erected. The custody of the melon-frames being vested in the inhabitants of these houses, they tried to keep down the gaseous cow nuisance by keeping the melon-frames closed. They were suc- easeful in preventing its passage there, but the result was, that it leaked into the dwellings themselves through innumerable channels ; and the whole neighbourhood became of a savour like a very stale farm-yard or midden. Legal measures were taken, and the nuisance was abated, after the en- durance of considerable suffering. Mr. Chaplin of the South- Western Railway was at that time and long after a proprietor and inhabitant of the Adelphi Terrace; but he retired, and after his departure .a tenant of his, renting oneof his wharfs in front of the Terrace, vacated the Adelphi and took the'Boulogne Hundreds, carrying with him the key of the premises, without dissolving his agreement, and leaving the question of quarterly payments of rent in a very unsatisfactory state. An enterprising Anglo-Saxon, with nerves like cart-ropes and with solid ol- factory membranes, was desirous of making the wharf useful ; and so, in con- sideration of a "couple of suvrins" to be.sent over weekly to Boulogne per -steamer, he became proprietor, without any advantage whatever to the lawful proprietor, Mr. Chaplin. The Anglo-Saxon, once in possession, re- membered the axioms, that "Every Englishman's house is his castle," and that "Amen has a right to doss he will with his own " ; so he considered the river as his castle-ditch, and a 'fitting receptacle for garbage. He had re- sided some time in the City previous to emigrating to the Adelphi ; but his business of manure making and collecting was considered unsavory by the City authorities, and they set their Solicitor-General on him, and drove him Out " vi et legis." Settled in the Adelphi, he gathered round him a little fleet of dung-barges, and advertised his wares on the breath of every wind that blew. His pro- ceases displayed considerable ingenuity, and very soon all the windows in the neighbourhood were closed in the direction of the wind. It was quite prac- ticable to know which way the wind blew without consulting the vane. Com- plaints were made, which he thought inviehous—" the smell vos werry olesum, leastways the money vos." The Policeman was consulted, who spoke like an ortiele—" Ohl it's no use my talken to him, he's precious rich, and don't mind a hundred suvrins more than I do a lopenny bit." Lawyers were con- sulted ; but they said only the City could interfere, as it was the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction within swan-hopping range; and some said the nuisance was sent purposely to Westminster as a sort of City dust-hole. The Board of Health at last interfered ; but, with great delicacy, allowed the man of suv- rins and odours to go through a course of chemical experiments to try to suit du the noses of the neighbourhood : bulbs, having no nose himself, was as unsuccessful as Dr. Reid in warming and ventilating the various Members of the House of Commons.
At last a prosecution was commenced by the City ; and the man of odours at once pleaded guilty, and was left to be dealt with by the Board of Health ; who appointed their supervisor, Mr. Dickens, to oversee a new course of ol- factory experiments. .Mr. Dickens's reports were very curious, as to hydrau- lic experiments, and mixing compost in a barge, and especially in a kind of dunghill noyade, which resulted in a peculiar bouquet, considered too good for the long-shore people ; wherefore it was gravely proposed to anchor the receiving-ship in mid-stream in the track of the steamers : but on trial this was found inconvenient. At length it was determined to call up for judg- ment in the Recorder's Court at the Old Bailey this compounder of attar of eirbage. The City Solicitor's chief clerk sat in council at the Caledonian Hotel, and gathered up the evidence,of some twenty-five witnesses, including the members of Coutts's establishment, the Metropolitan Building Govern- ment Office, and Messrs. Bright and Cobden's Life Insurance Office ; and after some days incubation, they were marched down to the Old Bailey and duly sworn. The long-suffering men shook each other's hands, while tears of joy almost streamed down their cheeks at the thought of their final deliverance from the nuisance.
But—the Board of Health was not in attendance. The City Solicitor said he had no communication from them whatever. The Recorder said he could not pass judgment in the absence of the Board of Health ; and so the man of aweet.odours, "mho did not us:las leundred sterrins," was left to carry on his attar manufacture for another :six months.
When remonstrated with, the -Board of Health stated that a letter had been actually written by the Secretary to the City Solicitor, stating that the nuisance was irremediable save by removal altogether. The City Solicitor denied this in tote ; and the Board replies that the correspondence lies open be inspection at Whitehall to all the simians.
Very satisfactory this to all those who are daily and nightly inhaling a poison against their wil which generates a disorder that the medical man of the neighbourhood designates as 4' the Adelphi sore throat." The President of the Board:of Health is a man of strong will. The Secre- tary is a man of acute intellect.. Messrs. Coutts and Co. are great Million- aires. The Government Metropolitan Building Referees are decidedly op- posed to stenches. Messrs. Bright and Cobden seek life insurance, and no life deterioration. The inhabitants individually, and the neighbourhood generally, would if they could delight as heretofore in their terraced walk. Mr. Chaplin, .the railway magnate, is desirous of regaining his propert-y. The Lord. Mayor and City Solicitor proved their perception and dislike of the nuisance by driving it from their own immediate territory to their suburbs and the hot weather is coming on. Yet with the utmost nonchalance this manufacturer of strong odours smokes his pipe, " takes a sight," sets the loopboled law at defiance, keeps a litterateur to draw up affidavits and snub the Board of Health, while he laughs at their beards all round, and the vic- tims gasp for air, and devoutly hope that from East and West alternately the gaseous poison may be blown into the throats of the Board of Health and the Lord Mayor and the City Solicitor, and every Government officio from Somerset House to Milbank. Syduey Smith said that the direct remedy for a railway nuisance was to roast a Bishop for a martyr. People sneered at Mr. Chadwick, C.B. ; but at any rate he had a good nose for a nuisance, and would have set hie ferrets at it : but the Board of Health now seems as supine as a parish board, folding its arms in utter ignorance what to do next.
Yet there is a thing to be done to put a peremptory end to this nuisance, if only the Board of Health will lay their heads together with those ,of the Paving Board of St. Martin's. The carts and vans of the strong-odoured man sent forth to gather the outlying filth return like laden bees by only one passage to his hive of sweetness. It would be possible to intercept the odoriferous train by imitating some of the processes of the Lord Mayor. Take up the paving for the purpose of repair, and build it into a wall Ave feet high and wide across the passage, with an inscription thereon, "Carts and vans cannot pass this way—by order of the Paving Board."
The man of odours has but one sympathizer, who follows a similar trade. The victimized neighbours can find a way out, through the premises of Mr. Pugh, denied to him of -the-attar-dung, who might be left to sit amidst his ruins of " Cartage" till Mr. Chaplin regains his own amidst the Imola- mations of the surrounding neighbourhood.
It is a case of duel ae a remedy for a grievance the law has not effectually provided for. The selfish lover of "suvrins," with obtuse cartilagenous nostrils, throws poison at his neighbours for his own profit ; and they in re- turn build him up, to out off his supply of poison, by "wresting the law aside." If this be Lynch law instead of _Recorder law, the logic of the case stands thus—
Is it better to be killed direct by the poisons of Odourman, or to he hanged indirectly by the law for the slaughter of Odourman in striving to put down by the strong hand his strong odours ? In the United States, the promise would be for the united neighbourhood to burn the carts, sink the barges, tar and feather and fumigate Odourman, and set him adrift down-stream on a raft. But we are not a United ;Neigh- bourhood, and our only hope is in the death of Sir Benjamin Hall by peewit poison. Will some one of your legal correspondents solve this difficulty for a long- suffering neighbourhood ? and earn the thanks of the Board of Health by
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