The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-10 00:00:00

SIR. R. CROSS ON THE HOMES OF
THE POOR.

On Saturday the freedom of the city of Aberdeen
was conferred on the Earl of Aberdeen and Sir
Richard Cross—on the former in recognition of his
rsnnal character and of his many services to the city
aid county, and on the latter as an acknowledgment
of his administrative abilities and his promotion of
important measures for improving the social condition
of the community. The Lcrd Provost of Aberdeen
presided on the occasion, and on the conclusion of the
ceremony,

_
The Earl of Aberdeen, having expressed his appre•
ciation of the honuur done him, said they often heard
complaints as to the drawbacks attaching to our
system of party politic a but he was not aware that
any other system could exist cousistently with the
representative principle in a free country, and with
the unfettered expression of political opinion. He
would say, Let the existence of defective elements in
the praent system be regarded as a stimulus and an
incentive for such as take a lofty view of the privilege
and responsibility of political action to join the
ranks and thus to Infuse more of the tone and
temper which will elevate the hearty espousal of a
political cause into something higher than mere
partisanship, which will prevent the unnecessary dis-
paragement of •a political opponent from being re-
garded as a valuable adjunct to argument, and which
will prove that political zeal and service may harmo-
niously co-exist with a hearty participation in religious
and philanthropic work. There was at the present
time urgent need and abundant scope for every ele-
ment of healthy vitality in the forces which influenced
national welfare, whether in the province of legislation
or of Christian philanthropy, in ofder that we may
with vigour and determination endeavour to solve the
problem, and cope with the difficulties which, not-
withstanding our past progress, are looming around
and before us.

Sir Richard Cross, who on rising was received with
loud cheers; after acknowledging the honour conferred
upon him, said : There is nothing I want so much to
secure for the future as that all the inhabitants of
these islands should be able to govern themselves
wisely and well, and that for the future as in the past
municipal institutions should continue to flourish
and always and for all time. There is no such thing
as party in this room. I understand that this
honour has been conferred upon me because, how-
ever mistaken some of my views may be in the
minds of others, yet they will recognize at all
events a hearty desire to do good so far as lies in
one's power. The Lord Provost in his concluding
remarks touched upon a subject which is deeply
Interesting to me and very near to my heart. He
stated that it is now the wish of the people of
Aberdeen that they should put into force those Acts
of Parliament for reforming as far as can be the homes
of the working classes. When I had the honour
several years ago of introducing this measure into Par-
liament I was asked and pressed very strongly to make
it imperative upon municipalities to at once put that
Act into force. My answer was clear and deeided. I
said that I had got faith in the municipal institutions
of this country, and that I was sure no compulsion
ought to be put upon them, for whenever the time was
ripe they would themselves take action in the matter.
I think experience has justified what I then stated.
There is no doubt whatever that, although the statute
was as strong a one as could have been passed at the
time, yet those persons who had to act under it
did undoubtedly give more compensation to the
owners of those miserable houses, than they
ought to have received. I think that that
is a mistake in the reading of the law, and
the amended Acts which have since been passed I hope
will for ever put an end to anything like compensation
to those people, because I look upon the holders of
much of the property of London—l am speaking of that
property particularly—as people who are really
worth N ery little consideration. I think they have
been taking from those poor people the very last
farthing they could, and if not given by them turned
them out. I believe there is not a street cr alley filled
with those houses from one end of London to the
other that I have not gone into. No one can have the
slightest idea of the poverty, the misery, the degrade-
t. on in which these people have been found to live,
and to a very great extent owing to the action of those
holding property in these di•tricts. Therefore, al-
though I have said it is quite right and quite fair
that the rigbt3 of property should be respected, yet the
duties of property must also be included in it, and I
believe that when the Acts as at present amended are
studied and put into practice you will find a very great
improvement has been affected, and I hope that from
one end of the kingdom to the other action may be
taken upon them. I have a very strong opinion also
that we must take care not to pauperise our people.
You don't want to give them food or out-door relief
or clothing, hut when you find a mass of people
utterly unable to help themselves, as they are,
it is quite right and quite just that the State should
step in in order to avoid all the nuisances that come
from the unsanitary state of these places, and that
these plague spots should be swept away from the
face of the earth in order to make room for entirely
wholesome dwellings—pure air, pure light, pure water,
God's greatest gifts to man—and to put those people in
such a position that they can help themselves,
although they do not want to make a prcsent of 4
farthing of rroei yto them. lam glad to show that
in this matter I learned my first lesson in Scotland.
It is many years ago since I had the privilege of
being made a citizen of one of your greatest cities—
I mean the city of Glasgow. It was in Glasgow
and in Edinburgh that I was induced first to study
how these problems could be met. Glasgow and
Edinburgh have done much to meet the problem.
these acts which are now Acts of Parliament were
framed mainly upon the lines of the acts already exist-
ing in Glasgow and in Edinburgh, and therefore Scot-
land, at all events, is entitled to the praise. If any
good is to be worked out in matters of this kind they
were the pioneers who set us all thinking about the sub-
ject, and I hope, as they were pioneers, so the city of
Aberdeen will now take a leading part, and show how
it can be worked out in practice, and that for the
future, at all events, we may not have the reproach
cast upon us that in all our great cities—l am afraid
the reproach ought to have been laid upon us bet ore—
many of our working population were compelled to live
in such misery and poverty and degradation as you
could hardly find even in the worst parts of Ireland,
and I believe in the worst places of any other portion
of the empire. Having again thanked the company
for the reception accorded him, and the civic honour
he had received, Sir Richard Cross resumed his seat
amidst loud applause.