The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-31 00:00:00

The Dwellings of the Poor.

No subject calls more urgently for the consideration of
philanthropists and social reformers than the improvement
of the dwellings of the labouring classes. All who have
spent much time in the agricultural districts are familiar
with the appearance of the hovels in which the labourers
and their families are generally condemned to herd together.
Insufficient shelter, and utterly inadequate accommodation
for any number of persons of both sexes are the usual cha-
racteristics of these wretched abodes. The evils, physical
and moral, to which this state of things gives rise are
alarming to contemplate. The promiscuous gathering to-
gether of persons of both sexes is subversive of all moral
sensibility; while the physical dangers which arise from
the overcrowding of the apartments are frequently produc-
tive of fatal results. It has been recently shown that the
very prosperity of an agricultural neighbourhood may
sometimes tend to increase and aggravate the greatest evils,
by causing the cottages in the district, previously over-
crowded, to become more crowded still. The more work
in the neighbourhood, the more crowding in the dwellings
of the labourers, and consequently the greater the
increase in the evils of which we have spoken. In a
recent case it was found that an increase of population in a
rural district led to an increase of the death-rate fourfold—
one out of every 16 persons dying in a period of 9 months.
The remedy for this state of things is chiefly in the hands
of individual landlords and employers. The poor are power-
less to help themselves. They cannot remove from district
to district in search of decent habitations, and if they could,
the change from one neighbourhood to another would pro-
bably place them in no more favourable position. It is
much to be desired that the example set by the late Duke
of Bedford, in the improvement of the dwellings of the
labourers on his estate, should be followed by many other
of our great landowners. Nor is the evil of over-crowding
much less in towns than in country places. Occasionally,
indeed, it prevails to a still greater extent. Many portions
of the metropolis have recently become more densely
crowded than before, owing to the numerous habitations
destroyed to make way for railway and other works. The
construction of model lodging houses here and there has
done something to remedy the evil; but much—very much
remains to be effected. It has been decided that the muni-
ficent gift of Mr Peabody shall be employed in this direc-
tion ; and blocks of buildings aro now in process of erection
from the gift in Spitalfields and other districts. Miss Courts,
also, with her customary benevolence, has taken a share in
this great work by the erection of model lodging-house in
Bethnal-green. These, with the buildings erected by Mr
Alderman Waterlow, comprise the chief of the efforts lately
made in London for the improvement of the dwellings of
the labouring classes. An immense field is still open for the
carrying on of this most important work.—. From Cassell's
Illustrated Family Taper.

THE ELCIIO CHALLENGE SIIIELD,—The model o
this shield (the principal not being yet finished) is
to be put up in the vestibule of the Parliament House cn
Tuesday next, when a guard Of honour from the several
volunteer corps will be formed to mark their appreciation of
the success of the Scotch eight over their English opponents•
We have no doubt that a sufficient number will attend to
show the victorious competitors that their Scottish brethren
have taken a deep interest in the annual straggle which
they have maintained against the heavy antagonism of the
English riflemen, and feel that the success which they have
this year accomplished has added a laurel to the prestige of
the riflemen of Sootland.-3cotsman.