[29] The beginning of factory legislation is to be found in the “Morals and Health Act,” 42 Geo. III, c. 73 (1802). Others followed in 1819, 1825, and 1831; but their provisions were almost entirely evaded owing to the absence of inspectors. After the Reform Bill more stringent enactments in 1833, 1844, and 1847 secured some improvement. The Act of 1878 consolidated the law on the subject. The Radical and Socialist proposals for further development in this direction will be found at page 55. Nearly 400 Local Improvement Acts had been passed up to 1845. In the succeeding years various general Acts were passed, which were henceforth incorporated by reference in all local Acts. The first “Public Health Act” was passed in 1848; and successive extensions were given to this restrictive legislation with sanitary ends in 1855, 1858, 1861, and 1866. Consolidating Acts in 1871, and finally in 1875, complete the present sanitary code, which now forms a thick volume of restrictions upon the free use of land and capital. [30] The _minimum_ income chargeable to Income Tax (£150) closely corresponds with the _average_ family income. See Fabian Tract, No. 5, “Facts for Socialists.” [31] See “The Progress of Socialism.” (London: The Modern Press, 13 Paternoster Row, E. C. Price One Penny.) [32] See “Capital and Land” (Fabian Tract, No. 7), page 7. [33] Government Return for 1887-8, see “Board of Trade Journal,” January, 1889, pp. 76-8. [34] It is not generally known that the Corporation of London actually carried on the business of fire insurance from 1681 to 1683, but was compelled to abandon it through the opposition of those interested in private undertakings, who finally obtained a mandamus in the Court of King’s Bench to restrain the civic competitor (Walford’s Insurance Cyclopædia, vol. iii, pp. 445-446). [35] C--5550, p. 436. This, by the way, is just about one year’s rental. We pay every year to the landlords for permission to live in England as much as the whole outstanding cost of the magnificent property of the local governing authorities. [36] See “The Government Organization of Labor,” Report by a Committee of the Fabian Society, 1886. [37] See Report of the Annual Meeting at Birmingham, September, 1888. [38] See resolutions adopted by the Council, at the instance of the Executive and General Committee, February 8th, 1889. (_Daily News_, 9th February.) Professor Stuart, M.P., has now introduced a Bill embodying these astonishing proposals. [39] It is interesting to compare this programme, with its primary insistence on economic and social reform, with the bare political character of the “Five Points” of the Chartists, viz., Manhood Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, Annual Parliaments, Payment of Members relieved from the property qualification, and Equal Electoral Districts.