Russell addressed a letter to the Poor-Law Board, authorizing them by royal command to extend to the whole of Great Britain the inquiry into preventible disease, which had already been begun with regard to the metropolis.  The onerous task of setting on foot and superintending the inquiry throughout,—­of sifting the evidence, and classifying and condensing it for the purposes of publication,—­devolved upon Mr. Chadwick.

The first Report on the Health of Towns was ready for publication in 1842.  It ought to have appeared as the Official Report of the Poor-Law Board; but as the commissioners (some of whom were at variance with Mr. Chadwick with respect to the New Poor-Law) refused to assume the responsibility of a document that contained much that must necessarily offend many influential public bodies, Mr. Chadwick took the responsibility upon himself, and it was published as his report,—­which indeed it was,—­and accepted from him as such by the commissioners.

The amount of dry, hard work encountered by Mr. Chadwick in the preparation of this and his other reports can scarcely be estimated, except by those who know anything of the labour involved in extracting from masses of evidence, written and printed, sent in from all parts of the empire, only the most striking results bearing upon the question in hand, and such as are deemed worthy of publication.  The mountains of paper which Mr. Chadwick has thus bored through in his lifetime must have been immense; and could they now be presented before him in one pile, they would appal even his stout heart!

The sensation excited throughout the country by the publication of Mr. Chadwick’s Sanitary Report was immense.  Such a revelation of the horrors lying concealed beneath the fair surface of our modern civilization, had never before been published.  But Mr. Chadwick had no idea of merely creating a sensation.  He had an object in view, which he persistently pursued.  The report was nothing, unless its recommendations were speedily carried into effect.  A sanitary party was formed; and the ministers for the time being, aided by members of both sides in politics, became its influential leaders.

A Sanitary Commission was appointed in 1844, to consider the whole question in its practical bearings.  The Commission published two reports, 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.