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probably much more so than schemes for migration ; which,
by lessening the present excessive demand for lodgings,
might lead to reduction in rents, and thus enable the poorer
classes, who need to live near their work, to obtain better
and cheaper accommodation. A rent equal to that paid for
two or three rooms in a model lodging-house in London,
would certainly provide a remunerative return for the outlay
on a cottage and garden within a moderate train-distance
of the centre of the Metropolis. By a large scheme for
migration, overcrowding would be diminished, and with it
preventible disease resulting from this, the most perilous of
insanitary conditions. The model dwellings erectcd on the
sites cleared under Cross's Acts are not tenanted to any large
extent by the poorest grades of the labouring classes, those
who have been displaced by the clearings. Clerks, and
superior artizans able to command constant employment,
commonly occupy these healthy homes. Plenty of others of
the like classes would donbtless be forthcoming, were the
accommodation greatly extended. These, however, are the
classes for whom it might be practicable to provide out of
London.
The Council having apparently, come to the conclusion
that migration affords the most promising solution to a difficult
question, some time since prepared a report, resulting from an
exhaustive enquiry into the number of working men's trains
running from and into London termini, showing what had
been done in this direction by the railway companies, and
what remained to be done, to give full effect to this great
experiment, the success of which is in no inconsiderable
measure the result of the Council's action. The Metropolitan
Railway Company since June, 1892, have increased the
facilities previously afforded, and they now run workmen's trains
atthe following rates: For a distance of five miles, 2d.; from five
to ten miles, 4d. ; from ten to fifteen miles, 6d. per journey: