The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-08 00:00:00

REBTFO.RD LITERARY AND SCIE!

TIFIC INSTITUTIOIV.

MONTHLY CONVERSAZIONE.

At the monthly conversazione of the Hertford
Literary and Scientific Institution, held on Thurs-
day se'nnight, R. Dimsdale, Esq., read an interest-
ing and valuable paper on " Labourers' Cottages."
Mr. DIMSDALE commenced by saying that no
thoughtful man would underrate the importance of
the subject of cottage improvement. The clergy-
man eould tell how often his efforts to guide
aright the poor of his flock were frustrated by
the malignant influence exercised over them
by the wretched dwellings they were com-
pelled to inhabit; and the schoolmaster could
testify how frequently the lessons of purity and
cleanliness learnt at school, were counteracted by
the too often unavoidable arrangements of the poor
child's home. Judges from the bench dwelt upon
the evil as one poisoning the springs of social and
domestic life; and medical men traced to the same
origin much of that physical deterioration of our
race, which was, they said, a marked feature of the
present age. At nearly every agricultural meeting
held in the autumn of last year, the subject was
broached, and owners and occupiers of land vied
with each other in urging the necessity of an im-
mediate and sufficient remedy for the evil. In
discussing the subject it would be necessary,
in the first place, to state the moral and physical
evils traceable to the negligence of cottage proprie-
tors. It was an undoubted fact that close and ill-
ventilated dwellings were the cause of disease. As
ague fastened itself upon badly-drained districts,
being comparatively unknown elsewhere, so did
typhus—the special scourge of the poor—concen-
trate its attacks upon the _courts and alleys of our
great towns, and upon the disgracefully-built cot-
tages—hastily thrown up by brick and mortar spe-
culators, or by ignorant agents of indolent land-
lords—in our rural districts. Meanwhile the disease,
though it originated, did not end there. The
miasma generated in the wretched hovels of the
poor found its way through the well-fitting windows
of the rich man's mansion, and gathered its victims
from the rich man's fireside. Thus neglected duties
brought their own reward. Dr. Farr, the eminent
statist, calculated the natural rate of mortality at
17 in 1,010 of the population ; while the actual
mortality in the less healthy parts of the metropolis
was 33 in 1,000 and in one district, the potteries at
Kensington, no less than 46 in 1,000- According
to this calculation, nearly one-half of those who
died in the metropolis were the victims of the neg-
ligence or the cupidity of man. In London gene-
rally, the deaths from typhus fever were 12 per
cent., while —to show that this disease was per-
fectly preventible—he might state that in none
of the model lodging-houses, established by
different philanthropic societies, had a single'
case as yet occurred. Dr. Southwood Smith
had said—" Typhus springs, not from want,
but from filth ; not from insufficiency of food,
but from impurity of air, and particularly
from such impurity as is produced by over crowd-
ing, and from the emanations from that poison-pit
—the cesspool." But as, where the marshes of
Lincolnshire and Kent had been thoroughly drained,
ague had disappeared, so they might hope that
with well built, well drained, and well ventilated
cottages for the poor, typhus would disappear.
Then, with regard to scrofulous diseases. M.
Ban-
delocque, a famous French physician, had given it
as his opinion, however ill chosen and unsubstan-
tial the food of an individual, however much per-
sonal cleanliness may be neglected, if the house in
which he dwelt were but airx, light, and large
enough for the number of its inmates, scrofulous
disease would never make its appearaace. Mr.
Dimsdale then proceeded to give details showing
the actual condition of the dwellings of the poor.
In four houses in an alley leading out of Oxford-
street, 461 persons were lodged; and in one room
in St. Giles', inspected by commissioners of public
health, from 40 to 60 human beings, besides
numerous dogs and cats, were found herded toge-
ther. In a provincial town in the west of Eng-
land, which he feared might serve as a sample of
many nearer home, in a ground floor room, 10 feet
by 8 feet, and 5 feet high, were lodged a man with
his wife and five children. Mr. Rawlinson, the
Government Inspector, asserted that there was
hardly a town in England in which scenes as bad,
or even worse, might not every day he found
by those who sought for them. The natural conse-
quence of such a state of things was the physical de-
terioration of the labouring classes. The moral
evils resulting from bad dwelling-places were more
startling. The crowded apartment, where wife and
husband, and children, were huddled together,
afforded no quiet resting-place, for the working man
when the labours of the day were over. The room,
dark as a cellar, with blackened ceiling and damp
uneven floor, contrasted unfavourably with the
cheerful tap-room of the village alehouse or the
gaudy chambers of the London gin-palace. By de-
grees the husband isolated himself from his family,
and too often—more from seeking elsewhere the com-
forts he failed to find at, home; than from any innate
vicious propensity, the poor man became, through
evil associations, a reckless drunkard. The lessons
of the clergyman and the advice of the moralist,
given under such circumstances, fell dead upon the
ear ; and life was a vain struggle against influences
for which apathetic landlords and greedy specula-
tors were mainly accountable. Drunkenness in the
husband, thriftlessness in the wife, profligacy
among the sons and daughters, were consequent
upen habitations unfit for human beings to live in.
" Talk of morality," said the Bishop of Ripon,
" amongst people who herd men,women, and children
together, with no regard of age or sex, in one narrow
confined apartment ! You might as well talk of
cleanliness in a sty, or of limited purity in the
contents of a cesspool." Doubtless we did well to
build gaols and reformatories far the guilty victims
of our neglect ; but it would be better to nip the
evil in the bud by purifying the springs of English
domestic life. Ahnadd thheeeynmpiglahetedbenpnudr inspectionreifiecl..Since
lodging-houses
the health of the inmates of the London lodging
houses and their moral character had improved. At
lacesthen therereviewed
e samewed
rßeisruml tisn weregha mo, b
sCearrvlei sdl.e ,
marnd .
Dionithsdearlpe.
the
umr
ee
ra s toot tba
ge e
s, adoptedea
lcalling
for a
ttthe
ne t
nmnp rtonv etmh een of
La-
bourers' Dwelling Act, passed in 1855, and under
which most of the "cottage improvement societies,
including that established in Hertford, bad been
formed. A bill was also passed for Scotland, con-
taining the following provision, which he regretted
was not in the English Bill ;—" Owners of build-
i.ngs, faulty in their original construction, or fallen
in to a state of dilapidation, or being in a condition
likely to cause disease in the inhabitants or the
neighbourhood, may on neglecting to remedy their
defects, be compelled to surrender them at a fair
valuation
er. to any duly constituted improvement
as-
sociation, applying for them to the proper quart''
After referringtothelarge expenditure ofthe Dukes
of Bedford and Northumberland in the repair and erection of cottages on their estates, and to the steps
taken by Mr. Salt to accommodate his workmen
at Bradford ; Mr. Dimsdale referred to the ope-
rations of the London Labourers' Friend So-
ciety, the Metropolitan Association for the Im-