There is not in England, as in most countries of the continent, a separate code or system of laws for the preservation of the public health; actual nuisances, of which we shall treat under a separate head, are provided against by liability to indictment or action at the information or suit of the parties immediately interested; but except in the enforcement of the Quarantine laws for the prevention of foreign infection, the executive government takes little or no part in securing the bodily health of its subjects. The habits of order and cleanliness, for which the inhabitants of our island are celebrated, and the general salubrity of our climate, may have rendered such care less necessary; while our spirit of liberty and independence might have resisted the encroachments on domestic privacy, and the perpetual intrusion of local authorities, to which our neighbours are subjected. Except in extreme cases we are far from wishing any change; but as there are situations and circumstances, in populous towns, among the lowest order of the people, and in times of contagious or epidemic sickness, in which absolute apathy may be attended with danger, we may be allowed to hint that some prospective enactment would be more politic, than to be obliged to legislate for the evil when its mischiefs had been accomplished. This has been already done as respects Ireland by the statute 59th _Geo._ 3. _c._ 41. (_see Appendix_,) by which it is enacted that Officers of Health should be appointed annually, at vestries of the inhabitants in every city and large town, where the Lord Lieutenant or chief Governor shall think fit to direct.[143] Something of this kind might be advantageously extended to the whole of the United Kingdom.