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room considered injurious to health may be interfered
with, but nothing is said with regard to any particular
space. Cases have been brought before the
Magistrates of London where their action has been
sought, and in several cases it has been determined
that families ought to have in sleeping rooms at
least 800 cubic feet for each person, and in lodging
rooms, or in rooms used as lodging and sleeping
rooms, 500 cubic feet of space for each person. It
is in cases where there is very much less space than
this that I have directed notice of removal to be
served. Under these notices upwards of 200
kitchens and lodging rooms have been emptied.
It is, however, much to be feared that whilst the
emptying goes on in one direction, overcrowding
goes on in another, as I find from the Census that
the diminution of the population altogether between
1851 and 1861 amounted, in the Golden Square
District, to 176, and in the Berwick Street to 190,
a very small diminution compared with the necessities
of the population. It is most desirable that every
opportunity should be taken of improving the
dwellings of the working classes in this parish.
The great majority of houses in which they live
were built for single families, and the accommodation,
where now four or five families are living, was
originally intended for only one. The consequence
of this system of living is that cleanliness, decency,
and morality are in too many cases lost sight of,
and a population, not of rate-payers, but rate-