ts, with a view to legislation, but the Free-Trade struggle
interfered, and little was done for several years. Meanwhile our
sanitary reformer was occupied as a Commissioner in inquiring into the
condition of the metropolis. The Commission published three reports, in
which the defective drainage, sewage, and water-supply of London were
discussed in detail; and these have recently been followed by important
acts of legislation.

The sanitary idea at length had its triumph in the enactment of the
Public Health Act of 1848, and the appointment of a General Board of
Health (of which Mr. Chadwick was a member) to superintend its
administration. Numerous supplemental measures have since been enacted,
with the view of carrying into practical effect the sanitary principles
adopted by the Board. Reports continued to be published, from time to
time, full of valuable information: for instance, in reference to the
application of Sewage water to agricultural purposes; on Epidemic
Cholera; on Quarantine; on Drainage; on Public Lodging-houses; and the
like. The sanitary movement, in short, became a "great fact;" and that
it is so, we have mainly to thank Edwin Chadwick--the missionary of the
Sanitary idea. It is true he was eventually dismissed from his position
of influence at the Board of Health,--partly through spleen, but chiefly
because of his own unaccommodating nature,--unaccommodating especially
to petty local authorities and individual interests opposed to the
public good. But with all thinking and impartial men, his character
stands as high as it ever did. At all events, his _works_ remain.

We do not know a more striking instance than that presented by this
gentleman's career, of the large amount of good which a man strongly
possessed by a beneficent idea can accomplish, provided he have only the
force of purpose and perseverance to follow it up. Though Mr. Chadwick
has not been an actual legislator, he has nevertheless been the mover of
more wise measures than any legislator of our time. He created a public
opinion in favour of sanitary reform. He has also impressed the minds of
benevolent individuals with the necessity for providing improved
dwellings for the people; and has thus been the indirect means of
establishing the Peabody Dwellings, the Baroness Coutts' Dwellings, and
the various Societies for erecting improved dwellings for the industrial
classes.

Edwin Chadwick has thus proved himself to be one of the most u