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thing very unsatisfactory in a neighbourhood where one half of
those who died were thus prematurely cut off. The wealthy will
always be able to secure comforts and care which must be unattainable
to the poor; but, still, where labor is adequately remunerated,
and wages prudently spent, the difference in the death rate of the
young will be small. This Board can do but little to prevent overcrowding,
or in promoting habits of personal cleanliness. To the
laboring classes of this locality the one is almost a necessity, and
the other a neglect, which circumstances have partially favored.
The evil is admitted, and can scarcely be exaggerated, whether it
be regarded in a physical, mental, or moral aspect. Families and
acquaintances of both sexes and various ages cannot herd together
in large numbers, without blunting the moral sense, as well as
injuring the bodily health; and almost every recorded death
represents a large amount of mental as well as physical suffering.
As your Medical Officcr of Health, it is not within my power to
prevent these evils; nor am I able to suggest a remedy. Amelioration
must come from various sources before any permanent and
satisfactory effect will be produced. I venture, however, to indicate
what appear to have been some of the causes in increasing and
perpetuating the over-crowding of this District. Undoubtedly the
principal of these are the arbitrary power exercised by Railway
Companies in ejecting the laboring classes from their homes without
any obligation to provide for their domestic convenience, and
the law for the relief and removal of the poor, which furnishes a
strong motive for their continuance in the same locality, however
limited its house accommodation may be. A considerably larger
proportion of deaths from fever on the south side of the Thames
during the past year, occurred in the Waterloo Road District of
Lambeth and in the Parish of Christchurch, which it joins, than in
any other District These are the Districts through which the
Charing Cross Railway is bring constructed. The poorer classes
have been unceremoniously turned out of their houses with a few
shillings compensation, and have, in consequence, been compelled
to undergo inconvenience and privation. The laborers of the
wharves and warehouses of the waterside and the City are compelled
to find domestic accommodation in these Southern Districts,
and when deprived of their homes are obliged either to accept
inferior lodgings at an increased rent, or risk the loss of their work
by seeking a more distant abode.
Over-crowding is also promoted by the existing law of removal.
Many Members of this Board are aware that more than a half of
the poor receiving relief from the St. Saviour's Union are not
Parishioners, but persons who are entitled to what they receive in
consequence of their having resided continuously in the Union for
three years; and that any break in that residence would render
them liable to be removed away, in many cases, to distant parts of
the country. This, in most instances, would be tantamount to a
cessation of relief. I am informed by those who come into daily
contact with the poor, that numerous and anxious enquiries have