View report page

40
Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark

The above Table is one of considerable interest, inasmuch as the names of the roads,
streets, places, and courts are given, where deaths from zymotic diseases have happened,
as well as from scrofulous diseases pertaining to children. It marks out the dark spots of
the District, placing as it were the finger upon them, and demanding attention; and they
will long demand attention, and not get it. Great changes will have taken place, and the
present race of Vestrics will have been swept away and forgotten, before that most of all
important duties is practised, namely, housing aright the poor, and in a measure commensurate
with the necessity. There are probably in the Metropolis 500,000 working men who
are improperly lodged. I am glad to see that this unhappy state of things is beginning to
excite more general attention, and that the Clergy think it worthy of their notice and exposure.
The Rev. C. II. Spurgeon in a book just published, entitled "John Ploughman's
Talk," thus writes upon the subject:— "I would not choose to own half the cottages poor
labourers are made to live in: no farmer would be so mean as to keep his horses in them;
and they are not good enough for dog kennels. Think of Father, and Mother, and a grownup
Son, and two Daughters sleeping in the same room It is a burning shame, and a
crying sin on the part of those who drive people to such shifts. It won't bear to be thought
of, and yet it is not at all uncommon. Squires and Landlords, how would you like it ? If
any man defends such a system, half-an-hour's hanging would be a good thing for him."
The writer need not have gone to the cottages of England for illustration; the case is
verified in hundreds and hundreds of instances around him, and all over London. Before
a Coroner's Inquest held some time ago over a child, whoso death was attributed to " blood
poisoning," the Father thus described his dwelling, "The room is not fit for a dog to live
in, but I am obliged to live in it., because I cannot afford to pay more than eighteen pence
a week for rent, which is what I pay for it.". What is the answer given by Dr. Gairdner,