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comment by my predecessor and myself. Lately,
however, it has been forced upon public attention
by a memorial addressed by the Royal College
of Physicians of London to the First Lord of the
Treasury, in which it is declared that the overcrowding
of the poor in unwholesome and ill-constructed
houses originates disease, and leads to
drunkenness and immorality; and as private enterprise
appears to be incapable of dealing effectually with this
evil, by providing better dwellings for the poor, they
urge the necessity of its being inquired into by the
Government as a question of national importance.
Memorials of a like description have been submitted
to the Prime Minister by other societies, and there is
hope from the manner in which they have been
entertained that the subject will receive immediate
attention from the Government, who appear to be
desirous of dealing with it in an earnest and practical
manner. That which is really wanted to meet the
difficulty is some easy and effective process by
which, under proper restrictions, local sanitary authorities
can purchase and obtain possession of waste
spaces, vacant sites, and dilapidated buildings of
large towns, with power to dispose of them to others
who would be willing to re-purchase such property,
and build thereon, in conformity with certain prescribed
plans, a class of houses suited to the requirements
and limited means of the labouring classes. There
need be no show of eleemosynary relief in all this ;
for the success of the Peabody Fund and of the