but effect all that it can effect for the promotion
of the public health and safety. But
it is no easy thing to affirm surely of any
given surveyor or civil engineer that he has
not performed his duty. It very commonly
appears upon inquiry that he has done all for
which he held himself responsible. We are
reminded, for example, of a case in which we
undertook to be particular, that of the Croydon
Drainage. There were some awkward
errors made in the first execution of the work;
a Blue Book whispered grave hints implying
stupidity in the surveyor under the Local
Board at Croydon; and from a grave authority
came more than a hint that he owed his
appointment to some undue influences. These
charges were embodied in a particular statement
on the subject in a former article,*  but,
inasmuch as we have since found that portion
of them to be untrue, which contains the
more than hint (which should have been no
hint at all) of jobbery in the appointment,
and find as to other matters a great shifting
to and fro of the responsibilities in question,
what can we do better than unsay all that we
have said, so far as it weighs upon the
individual referred to in our statement?
Let us take up again our tale of bricks.
Given a capitalist, who is disposed to be a
benefactor to the London race with profit to
himself, let him set to work about the building
of a perpendicular street or two with
some such notions as the following. The
doors on each side of the street (which is, of
course, a spacious staircase) are to be understood
as opening not from so many floors
of a house, but from so many distinct houses:
the ceiling of one being the foundation of the
other. Every such house is to be parted
from the one below it and the one above it,
not by mere timber, lath, and plaster, but by
brickwork— hollow bricks being the best for
use in such positions— or some solid combination
of iron with concrete or plaster, that
shall be at least as fireproof as an ordinary
parting wall. This also will stop a little
more effectually than many of our parting
walls now do, the passage of sound from one
tenement into another. Which is essential,
be it observed, to the comfort, honesty, and
success of such an enterprise.

The same capitalist must, in the next place,
take counsel for the ventilation of each set
of premises. Although immeasurably superior
to the London plan of parcelling a house
that has only conveniences for one family
into residences for two, three, or four separate
establishments, the Edinburgh system of
flats is yet by no means entirely perfect.
The staircase in an ordinary London house
goes far to make it airy. In the flat there is
no shaft of this kind communicating by a
hall-door with the street; and it needs much
opening of windows to secure fresh air to
the tenants, if no special means are employed
to secure its circulation through the building.
But it is not difficult to connect the kitchen
fires all the way up with a ventilating shaft,
that shall be set in action by them, and
maintain a constant upward current of
spoiled air, for which compensation can be
provided by a shaft for the introduction of
pure air, that can be also warmed, if necessary.
Provision of this kind for a pile of
flats would not by any means be costly;
and it should not be left out of any
attempt to introduce the flat system into
London. Also, to save much bodily labour,
there should be a moveable stage for the
lifting up of coals or heavy supplies to the
level of any of the landings.

There has been sent to us a pamphlet by
two architects and civil engineers — Messrs.
Ashpitel and Whichcord — on the erection of
fire-proof houses in flats, which pays all
proper attention to these points, contains profit
and loss calculations, and plans for the construction
of flats in a way suitable to the
requirements of those to whom it is of importance
whether they pay twenty, thirty, or forty
pounds of rent. We may say that the lowest
price at which these gentlemen consider it
possible to supply in London, in the form of
flat, a living-room and three bedrooms, with
scullery, and all the necessary accommodation
suitable for the family of a person in receipt
of good wages or small salary, is sixteen
pounds ten shillings a-year. This payment
covers — not rent only, but also rates and
taxes, with the cost of a free supply of gas
and water. Its yield to the capitalist would
be eight per cent, upon his outlay.

The pamphlet suggests that Londoners would
not freely adopt the Paris system of a gradation
of rank in the character of the flats, as one
ascends the common stair. Therefore they
would give equal accommodation to all the
eight or ten houses opening on each little street
of staircase. Then the degree of climbing
necessary to get home would indeed be
considered in the rent; but not to an extent great
enough to make any serious difference in the
rank of persons living over the same plot
of ground. This mounting to one's house-door,
be it remembered, is an exchange for
all the climbing daily done indoors under the
present system; not the imposition of an
extra task.

The architects to whom we have referred
illustrate their ideas freely by a set of plans
appended to their pamphlet, which are certainly
worth the attention of any person practically
interested in this subject. And who is not?
They suggest very agreeable methods of turning
to account, plots of ground yet vacant in or
near town, by grouping sets of flats into handsome
little squares, with private dwellings  approached
from and looking out upon a garden
plot, and with shops fronting the street. At
the entrance to the garden within such a
square they would establish a porter. The
centre of such a plot, surrounded by the houses

* See Omission and Commission, Vol. x. No. 323.