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taking place, and from which offensive emanations are constantly being given
off, so that all such sewers might be reconstructed.
There are other causes in operation which tend to spread fever among
the inhabitants of London. The first I shall mention is that of overcrowding.
This evil is annually increasing; and if means be not adopted to check it, the
overcrowding will soon become of an alarming extent. In order to lessen this
source of danger, it has been proposed to build houses for the working classes in
the suburbs of London, who, by means of cheap railway tickets, might be carried
daily to and from their places of work. This plan would only benefit the people
to a very limited extent; for very many of the labouring population depend for
subsistance on their being, during all hours of the day, at their present places of
abode; and if they were not found there, when wanted, they would lose their
usual work, and be compelled to seek other occupations. Besides, the liting
together in large numbers of persons of the same class would not tend to raise them
in the social scale of society; for in order to improve a lower class, it is absolutely
necessary that it should be mingled and associated with the class above, so that
the example and superior intelligence of the upper class may influence and
elevate the lower one. Not only therefore would the herding together of the
working classes in a suburb be a social wrong, but it might in a time of excitement
prove to be a political mistake. It is true that the labouring population
now live very much by themselves, but this is no reason why they should continue
to do so. The evil of the present state of overcrowding might be
ameliorated to a very great extent, and the labouring class still be able to
reside near to their present places of work, if most of the houses now tenanted
by them were pulled down, and more commodious dwellings built upon the sites,
after the best model of those which have been erected for the working classes
by some of the Philanthropic Societies. There is plenty of space in this district,
and in other parts of London, where there are houses of only one stoiy in height,
and which have back yards of some extent, thereby affording a tolerably extensive
area for the erection of new buildings. These yards are, for the most
part, instead of being a benefit to the occupants, a source of nuisance, discomfort,
and ill-health to them, arising from their defective drainage and the accumulation
of filth which is deposited upon them. Many of these small houses of
two rooms each are let at a weekly rent of 4s. 6c?. or 5s.
The ground now occupied by such tenements might be purchased (under
compulsory powers similar to those possessed by Railway Companies) by
Public Companies incorporated by Act of Parliament, who might raise money
by shares to be called up as occasion may require to clear the land of the
existing hovels, and erect on the site suitable habitations for the working
classes. In order to carry out this plan effectually, it will be necessary for
the Company to have a prospective capital of at least £2,000,000. I feel
satisfied, from what I know of the high rents that are now paid in this district
for very wretched lodgings, that the Company, if judiciously managed, would
give a good return in the shape of interest to the shareholders. In carrying
into effect such a plan, it is quite possible, without adding to the area
of the Metropolis, to provide healthy house accommodation for another 1,000,000
inhabitants.* Some persons are of opinion, that whenever a Railway Company
should demolish houses in London occupied by the working classes for making
a new line of Railway, that it should be compelled to purchase adjoining sites
of land, and build thereon houses for all those persons whom they have dispossessed
of their homes. There may be practical difficulties in the way of
* The Registrar General, in his weekly returns, informs us that in the Metropolis there
are 39'3 persons to an acre, in Edinburgh 39'6, in Birmingham 42'9, in Manchester 80*0,
in Glasgow 85'4, and in Liverpool 94'8. In the Whitechapel District there are 194-5
persons to an acre.