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34
destitution and pauperism. In this conclusion I was
encouraged by the Vestry, and the work of depopulation
has only been carried on in cases where immediate
necessity demanded it.
Since I made the above remarks, an Act has
passed the Legislature, under the direction of
Mr. McCullagh Torrens, Member for Finsbury.
This Act provides that when dwellings are considered
by a Local Board unfitted for the residences of
human beings, that they can direct the landlord to
pull down the said buildings without compensation
to the owner, or any provision for the accommodation
of the present tenants. It is scarcely necessary to
say that such an Act could not be acted upon without
the grossest injustice to the owners of property, and
the infliction of the greatest hardship on the poor.
The fact is, the original Bill of Mr. Torrens contained
clauses for compensation and rebuilding.
Mr. Torrens, speaking at a meeting of the Charity
Organization Society, said:
"He would like to see the excluded provisions brought again
before the Upper House, putting it before the Lords that the
Bill had contained four provisions—viz, compulsory repair,
demolition, compensation, and rebuilding. The Lords had
considered the last two unnecessary, and the experiment had
therefore been tried with only the first two. There was nothing
more unreal, more provokingly preposterous, or more repulsive
to the working-classes than the idea that the best thing was to
clear them out of the town and drive them into the country.
It could not be done. They might be forced to overcrowdhouses
to any extent near their work, but they would not go
away, and to drive them out would be to sever wealth and
poverty, and disorganise the social system. He was not pledged