Halifax presented visitors with a scene of architectural confusion. Urban development had been allowed to proceed without regulation; as a result, a chaotic pattern of land use had emerged. Repeated subdivision of lots distorted street lines and fostered acute overcrowding. Cheap wooden buildings surrounded more substantial stone and brick structures to create major fire hazards. Manufactories, including slaughterhouses, spread their noise and stench to adjacent residences. Rapacious landlords packed tenants, particularly newly arrived immigrants, into single rooms unserviced by running water. Open sewers, overflowing cesspools and yards filled with animal manure jointly polluted water supplies and created a substantial health risk. It took two mass epidemics of typhus in 1827 and of cholera in 1834 to convince local authorities of the need for remedial action. It quickly became apparent, however, that Halifax's disorganized and corrupt municipal administration could not cope with the growing public demand for efficiency, economy and cleanliness. By the mid 1830s that failure had laid the basis for a major political confrontation in urban society. Frustrated advocates of reform were driven from an attack on incompetent local magistrates to a larger assault on the fundamental institutions of authority in provincial society.
