THIS MANUAL is intended for the use of persons interested in promoting the proper housing of our London population, and anxious to secure for the inmates of houses all those benefits with regard to drainage, water supply, good air, and other sanitary conditions which the Law aims at providing.
The work is emphatically not intended to be a law book. Our English statute law is proverbial for its confusion and intricacy. The Acts which form the groundwork of the following pages are examples of the law in its present phases. The references, cross references, amendments and qualifications with which the various statutes regulating the welfare of Londoners abound are enough to drive the unprofessional inquirer to despair. It is idle to pretend that there is any short cut to the centre of this labyrinth, and to indulge in amateur interpretations of the law is a useless and costly amusement.
But between commencing an action at law and setting the law itself in motion through the agency of persons and organisations who exist simply for the purpose of carrying it out, there is a very wide difference. The object of the author will have been attained if he has succeeded in pointing out to readers of this Manual the opportunities which are already open to them for undertaking useful action within the limits referred to. There is no intention of discouraging a close study of the details of the Law; only if such a study be attempted, it must