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who could, have found other employment; those who have kept to it eke
out an existence as best they may, and, when all other resources fail, they
become inmates of our poor-house When the generation of weavers have
passed away, I see looming in the distance a brighter day for Bethnal
Green.
We are essentially a working population : we find clerks and labourers
for City warehouses, the docks and markets, also railway employees;
many of the female portion pass daily into the City as machinists, &c.,
and a vast number go West as servants; these, when overtaken by
accident or disease, are sent back to be cared for and maintained at the
cost of the parish.
We have but few wealthy persons living in our midst, as most of our
large manufacturers, who draw their incomes from here, live in snug
country houses about Walthamstow, Leytonstone, Woodford, &c., &c.
Our present manufactures are large numbers of boots and shoes, of all
kinds, both for home use and export. Here are made slippers of all kinds;
some are stamped "Paris," and supposed to be French by those who
wear them. Next in order comes cabinet and chair work, which is carried
on extensively ; some of the best and some of the worst descriptions find
their way over both town and country.
This is the emporium for japanned furniture, and we supply many of
the West-end houses which profess to make all their goods on their premises.
Ladies' trimmings of all kinds form a staple production ; and
here are made, fancy buttons, which, when put on French card boards,
form the Bouton de Paris of commerce. Large quantities of lupifers are
here made, as well as lucifer boxes, and this gives employment to the
young of both sexes.
I estimate the population of Bethnal Green to the middle of the past
year at 122,000, aud although many small houses about the Hackney
Road have been pulled down to make way for approaches to the Columbia
Market, yet has there been no diminution in house room, owing to Miss
B. Coutts having extended the building in Columbia Square, which forms
dwellings for artisans and labourers, with good accommodation and
superior style, at moderate rents, thus more than compensating for the
houses demolished.
It may not be out of place to say, that the evils of the rate-paying
clauses have been obviated by the lady before named, as well as by many
of our largest householders, who pay all tho taxes in the names of the
tenants, thus securing to them the franchise without the voter having to
pay for it.