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miserable hovels, be the birthplace of disease and
vice, and centres for infections diseases, which are
liable to spread through the whole community.
Pauperism will no doubt decrease to a great extent
when the poor have wholesome dwellings to live in.
The terrible evils arising from unhealthy houses,
only those who have had experience, and watched
the development of the young, can fully perceive
the importance of pulling down the miserable dens
inhabited by the poor. Steps ought most unquestionably
to be taken to remedy the evils and miseries
incidental to unhealthy habitations. Most revolting
it is to find parents with children, of all ages, herding
together in one small room, which is badly constructed
and insufficiently ventilated. Here legions
of crime and legions of vices unite, fostering diseases
of body, weakened intellect, and utter destruction of
the soul, leading inevitably to a career of wickedness
and sin.
I will now commence with Bedfordbury and the
adjacent courts. This neighbourhood I am sure you
are well acquainted with; it is the black spot of this
the Royal parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Bedfordbury
and the courts contiguous stand on a little
over three acres, and according to the last census of
1871 the population numbered 2,163.
Bedfordbury is a long narrow street of forty-seven
houses, with courts leading out of it on either side.
Some of these courts are blind and very narrow, thus