The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-08 00:00:00

Dwellings of the Working Classes.

On Saturday, at 1 o'clock, Lord Stanley held a
conference at the Mansion-house with a number of

gentlemen in the City of London—merchants,
bankers, members of the corporation, and others,

who interest themselves in the domestic accommo-

dation of the industrial classes. The object of the

meeting was to form an association of 20 or 30 gentle-
men, protected by the Limited Liability Act, and
having a capital of frutn £25,000 to £50,000 to be
invested in a number of improved dwellings. There

were present, among others, the Hon. Bvng,

Alderman Finnis, Alderman Waterlow, Mr. Henry

Kingscote, Mr. Henry Vieweg, Mr. Henry Ed-
wards, Mr. T. C. Clarke, Mr. C. Gatliff, Mr. Wm.

Ellis, Mr. Travers Buxton, Mr. J. Bonomi, and Mr.
W. H. Collingridge. As a beginning, about £13,000
had been subscribed previous to the conference.
Lord STANLEY, on taking the chair, said they all
knew there was in London, and especially in the
centre and eastern part of it, a great want of decent
aad respectable house accommodation, not only for
the labouring classes fitly so called, but also for the

whole body of mechanics. There was, in truth, no
town in England where that want was so much
felt as in the metropolis, and it was not at all a new

matter of complaint. He well remembered a meet-
ing in the city about nine years ago, at which Mr.
Baring was chairman, and at which the subject was
discussed and various remedies were suggested.
Since that time different societies had been set on
foot with the intention of supplying the deficiency.
He would not say they had been failures, because

they had kept public attention alive to the subject,
and in that respect had done much good, besides pro-
viding a considerable a moun t of suitable house accom-
modation for the working classes. But, looking on
them as well-supporting, and as what ought to be re-

munerative associations, if they had not failed en-
tirely, they had been attended by at best a very im-
partial and imperfect success. They were met there

o make one more trial to overcome the difficulty,

They knew that estimates were often deceptive and

prophecies dangerous, but they started from a
sounder foundation, they thought, than any pre-
vious association of the kind. They profited by the
experience which others had at their own cost ob-
tained, and they would be able to avoid errors of
detail, and, in the main, he thought they would
differ from their predecessors chiefly in this—
that they v. ould look rather to the accommo-
dation of families than of single men, and
not to the highest amount of rent which the
better class of persons among the labouring
classes could afford to pay, but to what was neces-
sary to make the undertaking remunerative to
themselves as an association. In the first place, it
was simply impracticable to attempt to lodge the
labouring population of London in a manner other-
wise than remunerative to those who did it. Now,

what they had to go upon was the experience
which Mr. AVaterlow had obtained in erecting a

block of buildings in .a crowded part of Finsbury

Mr. Waterlow said that for a sum of £25,000, in

eluding all preliminary expenses, and also the divi
dends for one year on the capital during the period
of construction, they would be able to put up blocks
of buildings for the accommodation of 200 families.
The gross estimate was £25,000, and assuming that
each house on a moderate estimate would be let for
about £l5, that would give a gross return of £3,000
a year, or 12 per cent. on the gross outlay. From
that, if they deducted, in respect of ground rents,
cost of supervision, the occasional loss on rooms un-
occupied, and other incidental expenses, 50 per cent.
on the returns, a net return of 6 per cent. would
still be left after the payment of all expenses, both
present and prospective, and that he thought ought
to be sufficient to induce capitalists to embark their
money. (Hear.) A question had been raised as to
whether even a better net return might not be made
for those who put in their money if part of the capi-
tal was raised on the security of the buildings, and
having of course a preferential payment. Half the
money might be obtained for 41 per cent., and if the
net return was 6 per cent. on the whole investment,
there would be 71 or 8 per cent. for those who put
in their money not upon preferential security. But
it was a question for consideration whether they
ought to have recourse to such a step. He was in-
clined to think that they might raise all the neces-
sary capital in shares, without obtaining any pre-
ferential capital whatever. (Hear, hear.) He had
spoken of this undertaking in the sense of its being
remunerative. At the same time he need hardly
say for himself, or for those whcm he was address-
ing, that they should not have troubled themselves
about it as a mere matter of profit ; but the reason
why they wanted it to be remunerative was that the
only way of working on a scale at all commensurate
with the general object they had in view was to
ehew the capitalists of the country at large that it
was an investment affording a reasonable prospect
of fair return. (Hear, hear.)
Alderman WATERLOW said he was much gratified
at finding so many influential gentlemen present,
and he hoped they would not separate without
completing the arrangements necessary for accom-
plishing the object for which they had met. He
would assume that every one present agreed that
if they were permanently to elevate the industrial
classes—if the large sums of money spent to im-
prove their secular and spiritual education were to
accomplish any lasting good, they must improve
their homes. A careful consideration of the subject
for some years past had satisfied him of the many
difficulties which surrounded the question. The
history of the labours of the Metropolitan Associa-
tion and the Eocioty presided over by the Earl of
Shaftesbury—to both of whom all honour was due,
as the pioneers of this movement—both lessened and
increased these difficulties ; lessened them by show-
ing the mistakes of their costly organization and
errors of their early experiment,and increased them
by the fact that both the societies failed to pay the
dividend they had calculated to realize. But,
should it be said that the capitalists of this great
city, while acknowledging the serious importance of
the evil, were afraid to attempt again to remedy it be-
o f t the
cease their past efforts had not succeeded ? Know-
ing all the attendant difficulties, he felt he had no
right to call public attention to this question, or to
ask capitalists to join him in aninvestment
kind proposed epon any mere
He felt that he must himself, by a practical experi-
ment, test the commercial success of the plan he pro-
posed before asking the public to take it up on a
large scale. This he had done, and the figures he
had circulated in the meeting in a printed statement
were facts, not sanguine calcula`Lions, and he was
prepared to substantiate revery one of them. He
might be excused say'.-eg ono word in reply to the
critics who had asked—Did this movement mean
business or ';;nilanthropy ? He answered essentially
the lattele for he held that he who helped the poor
man to earn his own living by profitable employment
or he who could provide the labourer with a better
home at the same price he paid for his present
wretched accommodation, and at the same time ob-
tained a fair return on the money invested, was a
greater philanthropist than he who maintained him
in idleness, or lodged him from charity, for the one
destroyed his independence, while the other helped
to increase it. (Hear, hear.) He added that he had
signed a contract for three morn blocks of buildings
similar to that he had erected, and for less than the
sum he had psid for the first. The outgoings were
based on a calculation of five years, and upon the
absolute assessment of the parish of Houndsditch on
the block he had rut up.
Alderman FINNIS said, as masters and employers
they were doing great injustice to the poor by pull-
ing. down their dwellings without providing others.
After what Alderman Waterlow had done in Fins-
bury, and that single-handed, no question could
arise as to what might be dune in other districts.
Large sums of money were spent in home missionary
enterprises to improve the moral condition of the poor,
but that, he was sure, was beginning at the wrong