and declared to be so." Plenty of power to get rid of each dilapidated tenement in every parish, since 1855; yet there exists amongst us such wretched slums, in which life, by so many, is lived day by day, year after year, as has been so graphically brought before us by the author of "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London."

I have said the vestries have failed in their duty, but we are all of us to blame, as by the Act of 1860, 23 and 24 Viet., c. 77, s. 13, ', on complaint to a justice by any inhabitant of the parish, or place in the district, of the existence of any nuisance on any private or public premises, the person by whose act, default, permission, or sufferance the nuisance arises, or, if such person cannot be found, the owner or occupier, may be summoned, and the inquiry will then proceed." And, to prevent any possibility of failure, the same Act, 23 and 24 Viet., c. 77, s. 16, provides another way in case the local authority neglects its duty, or the Act is not enforced by individual pressure: " The chief officer of police within a district may, under the direction of the Local Government Board, remove a nuisance when there has been a failure of the local authority; " and by 37 and 38 Vict., c. 89, s. 19, "in such cases the expenses may be recovered from the defaulting authorities." " Nor is the power of the local authorities limited to cases where the nuisance has arisen through the act or default of the owner or occupier of the premises. Where it is plainly shown that he is not responsible, they may abate the nuisance themselves, at the cost of the rates " (Public Health Act, 1866, 29 and 30 Viet., c. 90, s. 21). Disease, the terrible accompaniment of overcrowding, is made the object of a