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of the leading defects in our social condition which are at the
root of overcrowding and its attendant evils.
The determining causes may be divided into two classes :
those which derive an origin from outside the town or district
affccted, and those which derive an origin from within.
It has been shown above, that during late years there has
been a continuous migration in progress from the country to
the town districts, resulting in the displacement of large sections
of the population. For what reason this movement,
directed from the cottages of a thousand hamlets to converge
upon the towns, is occasioned in England, whilst in France
and other continental countries no such exodus has been
observed, is one of the problems which sooner or later
must be solved. Some light, however, may penetrate
the haziness that surrounds this question when it is considered
that, almost without exception, in other civilized
countries the means of obtaining shelter and a modest
competcnce is within the reach of every peasant, whilst in
England, owing to the various disabilities which affect the
land, no such influence is at work.
That migration is exerting a severe pressure upon the
urban districts cannot be doubted, when it is remembered
that a contingent untrained in the pursuits of town life,
many thousands in number, is annually thrown upon the
labour market of London.
Shifting the scene of causation to a position nearer to the
region of discontent, it is interesting to observe the effect
that an increasing population has upon the land in the
vicinity of its growth; how an addition to numbers
determines a rise in values; and how that extension in
surface which should always be an accompaniment of
augmented numbers is curtailed by the demand, the growth
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