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24
REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE HOUSING
OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
Vestry Hall, Clerkenwell,
May 13 th, 18S5.
To the Editor of the Standard and other Papers.
Sir,
The public press of Friday last quoted passages from the
Report of the Royal Commission, ill one of which is the following: —
"This Vestry ( Clerkenwell j consists of seventy-two members, of whom
"the average attendance is stated by Mr. Paget, the Vestry clerk, to
"be from twenty-five to thirty. There are on the Vestry thirteen or
"fourteen persons who are interested in bad or doubtful property, and
"they include several of the middlemen already referred to. There
"are, moreover, ten publicans on the Vestry, who, with the exception
"of one or two, have, in this parish, the reputation of working with
"the party who trade in insanitary property, and accordingly this
"party commands a working majority on the Vestry. Taking the
"house farmers alone, it is found, from Mr. Paget's evidence, that they
"preponderate in very undue proportion on the most important Com"mittees
of the Vestry. On the Works Committee there are ten out
"of fourteen house farmers referred to, on the Assessment Committee
"seven out of the fourteen appear."
From the wording of this paragraph, and especially in the absence
of the marginal references to the witnesses, as in the Report, it is generally
read as my evidence—as if I was the author of this statement. Permit
me, therefore, to say very emphatically it is not so. The original
authority for such statements must be looked for elsewhere, and to that
authority I leave the " reputation " of them. In the course of a long and
severe examination and cross-examination upon this subject I stated, in
effect, in reply to questions, that I believed a good many members of the
Vestry were fortunate enough to be owners of house and other property—at
least, I hoped so. That I was of opinion that owners of property
were proper persons to be a majority of a Board having- the
administration of local affairs. That I was convinced that this was the
belief of the parishioners generally, from the fact of such gentlemen
being repeatedly elected to the Vestry. That I thought the more
property a man had in the parish the more fitted he was, as a rule, to
take part in local affairs. Asked about publicans being in the Vestry
and on Committees, I stated that there were some, but not the number
which had been quoted elsewhere. That I gave it as my decided
opinion that they were, as a rule, as well qualified to be on Committees,
and quite as eligible as others, because they were, as a class, good
business men, and the highest rated people in the parish, and therefore
had the most at stake. That T thought it would be an