He attributed the failure of the Vestries to the inferior calibre of the persons composing them--"they agree to resolutions, but do not carry them out. The ratepayers take no interest in the elections in our parish. There is a large number of the owners of small house property in the Vestries who regard with great disfavour any increase of the rates, however beneficial the increase might be to the general health of the district." But some witnesses went further. Dr. William Rendell, who had been Medical Officer of Health for St. George-the-Martyr, said:-- "I believe, the law being new to the Vestry, they did not quite understand the mode of carrying it out; but it was partly from corrupt motives, for on one occasion one of the principal members of the Vestry, an owner of considerable property in the parish, called me aside and requested me to pass over certain property of his that I found in an extremely bad condition. I did not pass it over, of course. The chairman of the local committee was, as I thought, appointed as a positive obstructer of sanitary measures; at all events he acted as such. The obstructions arose from an unwillingness to incur expense for fear of increasing the rates, and from an interest that the members of the Vestry had in keeping up the present state of things." Jobbery, and the exercise of influence to obstruct and defeat the law, are hard to prove, especially after the lapse of years, but one fact which stands out conspicuous, and which is incontestable, shows how reprehensibly the great majority of the Vestries and District Boards failed to administer laws which in the interests of the public health, and therefore of the public welfare, it was their duty to administer. Deliberately, and in the light of knowledge, they would not make adequate arrangements even for the sanitary inspection of their respective districts. Thus, in Bethnal Green, in 1861, there was a population of 105,000 persons, and 14,731 houses. The Vestry appointed one single Inspector of Nuisances to cope with the insanitary conditions of this city of houses, and of this mass of people. Shoreditch, with a population of 129,364 persons, and 17,072 houses, also one Inspector. St. George's, Hanover Square, with 88,100 persons and 10,437 houses, one Inspector; Paddington, Bermondsey, and several others, all with large populations and thousands of houses, one Inspector each.[103] A few had appointed two Inspectors: St. Marylebone with 161,680 persons and 16,357 houses, and Islington with 155,341 persons and 20,704 houses. Kensington, Lambeth, and Limehouse, had appointed three Inspectors each. St. Pancras headed the list with four, but its population was close upon 200,000 living in close upon 22,000 houses.