The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-09 00:00:00

happy people inhabiting these localities, and that while
perambulating those places they felt the same desire to
sustain exhausted nature by intoxicating drinks, which
the inhabitants felt every day. One fearful consequence
of this state of things was fever, and what was the
effect of fever?—(Hear.) It not only fell on the adult
male, depriving him of the means of earning his subsist-
ence, but such was the character of malignant fever that
it passed the very young and very old to select those in
the prime of life and vigour, and with the largest fami-
lies. These facts were established by the records of
the fever hospitals. By those records proof was af-
forded that the greatest mortality from fever was found
among the vigorous adult population. He would give a
proof of what was going on in parts of the metropolis by
referring to a district in Gray's Inn-lane, where, since
February last, 84 cases had been sent to the fever hospi al.
Did their Lordships suppose that these physical
evils were productive of no consequences? They were
productive of the most pernicious consequences—nothing
in short could be more stek'ng than their effect on
the temperance of the inhabitants. A vast proportion
of the prevalent drunkenness was produced by that
sanitary condition which it was the object of the
present Act to assist in removing. He was certain
if the mischief was removed they would see the
people in a very different condition. But all that could
be devised woulc prove useless unless this end was
steadily kept in view, that nothing whatever could com-
pensate the young of both sexes for privation of domestic
training. Withou; this it would be vain to look for any
moral effects from thy system of education they might
introduce. Educaion, to be beneficial, must be based
on home training; nothing, in fact, could compensate for
that domestic training which a child received at home
under the example of its mother. What was the conse-
quence of that derivation? Ho saw it daily. He was
connected with th 3 ragged schools—institutions which
were beneficial in their effects, but less so from the cause
he had pointed ett than they otherwise would be.
Children were sect to these ragged schools; they re-
ceived instruction; but when dismissed they went
back to one of those horrible dens he had de-
scribed, to a room tenanted by two or three families,
where there was to regard to decency or comfort—
there, he maintained, those children unlearned in one
hour, by the examples which they saw about them, all
that had been communicated to them, in twelve months'
education.—(Hear, hear.) So long as this state of things
existed education would be useless and vain. They must
remove the evil before educational efforts would be of
use, and before good principles and good habits could be
instilled into this hitherto neglected part of the popula-
tion. He had not a doubt that much of the pressure of
the poor-rates was saused by the state of health, intoxi-
cation, inability to obtain a livelihood, deaths by fever,
and by families sere to the workhouses to become per-
manent burdens on the country. He would give an in-
stance out of several hundreds which had been contri-
buted. In Bishopqate, in a small court, during the pre-
valence of cholera, the attention of the pariah authori-
ties was called to tie condition of the place. In three
de's the cholera brake out in the court. Like the fever,
it seized on the strongest, and in one day several heads
of families were caned off, and their children were
obliged to be conveyed into the workhouse,
to become permanently chargeable on the rate-
payers. Now, lad 101. been spent in time,
not only would the burden on the ratepayers very
probably not have (ccurred, but the unhappy children
would not have had to mourn the deprivation of the care
of their parents. From calculations that had been made,
he had no doubt, if the sanitary condition of the people
was properly improved, in ten years the poor-rates would
be reduced to the 3xtent of one-third of the present
amount. It was to provide a partial remedy for this state
of things that he had ventured to introduce the present
Bill, which was founded on the same principle recog-
nised in the Baths and Washhouses Bill, which had
already produced such beneficial effects. The Bill be-
fore their Lordships was permissive, not compulsory.
The principle on which the Bill was founded was that
these lodging-houses would be remunerative—that they
would sufficiently repay principal and interest. The Bill
had no eleemosynary character; parties were to pay full
rent, sufficient to replace the outlay, whether made by
the parish or ty others. He would give an illustration
of its assumed working. The Society for Improving the
Dwellings of tie Labouring Classes, whose object was
to improve the domiciliary condition of the people, pro-
ceeded on this principle—that it would do no good to
improve those dwellings unle.ss it could be shown that
the scheme was remunerative, and at the same time
to exclude every condition of charity. The society had
expended in Luildings about 23,0001., the return upon
which, deducting all expenses, was an average of 6 per
cent.; on new buildings about 5i per cent., and on old
buildings improved twelve per cent. The labouring man
paid no morenor no less rent than he would have paid;
but, in place of a dirty disgusting room, tenanted
perhaps by several families, ho had every comfort and
accommodation provided for him. It was stated at the
time when the Bill was under consideration that the
rent would be so high that the working classes could
not pay it; out the rent for all the comforts provided
in the new and old buildings was actually less than
would have been paid for bad accommodation. In addi-
tion to the saving and the comforts, the health of the
inmates was greatly improved, and he was particularly
struck with the remark of one of the female occupants,
who said to him it was a blessed thing to live in the
place, for now she could live on the wages she earned.
When the common lodging-house was created in Church-
lane not a single case of cholera occurred in it, although,
within a few yards of Church-lane the cholera was
raging and carrying off ten or twelve persons a day.
That result was not only exhibited in this common
lodging-house, but in all the other lodging-houses in
which sanitary precautions prescribed by the Bill were
attended to. He had shown that in the case of the
Common Lodging-house Bill the results had been of a
remunerative character. The same result was expected
from this Bill. The Bill would not be subject to abuses
—as its operation was confined to parishes not having
less than 10,000 persons. The Noble Lord here went
into a description of the machinery of the Bill, and con-
ducted his details by stating that the Bill was guarded in
all respects against the probability of jobbing or elee-
mosynary acts. Such things would utterly destroy the
object and the uti ity of the Bill. Provisions were also
introduced agains; carrying the Bill into effect too
rapidly. The Bill, i❑ short, was merely to supply the
working man with all that he could not provide himself.
There were two reasons why this business ought not to
be left to private speculators, first, because they would
require a great dell of superintendence; there must be
some authority ei her parochial or municipal to superin-
tend their operations, and on this ground he shrank
from leaving the matter to private speculators. Then
the second reason was, that private speculators had a
tendency to run up small, narrow, and ill-built houses,
because they yielded larger profits than houses con-
structed on the plan the Bill proposed, and which was
considered to be absolutely necessary for comfort, health,
and decency. He would show the large rents which
small houses yielded to speculators. One ef these houses
the society which he had referred to kept on their
hands as a curiosity, in order to prove the amount of
profit gained by the small speculator. This house
provides the lodgers with every comfort they re-
quired, and the net profit was thirty per cent.
if the society could make thirty per cent. by affording
every comfort, how much would a person make who let
his house without providing comforts or even necessa-
ries for the lodgers? There was a vast number of
schemes afloat for the benefit of the working classes, all
of which he expected would do good, on the principle
that if you improved the domiciliary condition of the
people you would also improve their moral and their
sanitary condition. They had the concurrent testimony
of City missionaries, of visitors, and others conversant
with the habits of the working classes, that if you im-
proved the condition of the dwellings they would present
precisely the reverse of the picture which they now ex-
hibited. The subject had excited much interest among
foreign nations. The society was in correspondence with
Germany, France, Italy, Prussia, and the United States,
who were desirous of being informed of the society's plan
and system, and he could assure their Lordships many
foreigners who came over to visit this country came to
him to be taken round to the establishments for the
benefit of the labouring classes, and they expressed them-
selves perfectly satisfied with the results, and appeared
to think the system full of promise for the future.
The present Bill would give the working man a
full and fair opportunity of making the best use of

his time and powers. Many a working man who came to
the metropolis was obliged to live in a tainted locality to
be near his work. They would not unfrequently see a
young man in the prime and vigour of life earning his
255. or 30a. a week, in eight or ten months, from being
forced to live in some unhealthy, comfortless locality,
pine away in health, or else carried to a premature grave.
This was no imaginary picture; ho had witnessed it
himself, and the Noble Lord opposite could, from his
own personal knowledge, corroborate the truth of his
statement. All these, however, were preventible cases,
and there was no reason whatever why the physical con-
dition of the workpeople of this country might not sur-
pass even that of the population of the United States.
Mr. Porter, a gentleman well known to the public, had
lately given to the world a small pamphlet, entitled
" Self-imposed Taxation," in which he showed that the
working people of this country expended yearly in beer,
gin, and tobacco, the sum of 57,000,0001. sterling. Only
conceive that sum, which was now voluntarily wasted,
expended on the promotion of education—upon the so-
cial and moral well-being—upon objects which dignified
the human heart! But a great portion of this sum was
capable of being diverted into these channels if the poor
had places to dwell in which they could feel wore a
home. The Bill before the House had been well ro-

ceived in the other branch Of the Legislature; he hoped
their Lordships would extend to it an equal degree of
favour. At all events he was quite sure they would show
the poor of this country that as they were parts of the
same common humanity, so were they actuated by the
principles of the same common Christianity.
The Marquis of NORUANBY expressed his great
satisfaction that this subject, to which he had formerly
devoted much attention, was now in the hands of the
Noble Esrl. Thero was a point, however, to which he
wished to call the attention of the Noble Earl and the
Howie—namely, the limitation of the Bill to certain
places in the country. The evils it was sought to remedy
existed in localities not included in the Bill, and he
wished therefore that the limitation to towns of 10,000
souls were not laid down in it. He hoped, however,
the measure would be considered as an instalment, and
that next year the Noble Earl would apply for a further
extension of the principle to less populous places.
Lord KINNAIRD hoped if the Bill was found to be
successful it would be extended to Scotland also, with a
suitable machinery, lie bore witness to the good effects
of the efforts that had been made by the society; among
others in forcing the proprietors of the poorer classes of
lodging-houses to shut several of them up.
The Earl of HARROWBY. said the measure would
do much good; but there was another measure which
should be adopted along with it. Parliament was con-
stantly asked to sanction the construction of now streets,