70 
Mr. Sheldon, quoting Lord Rosebery’s remarks at Burnley, 
said there was room for a “ thinking department” on this 
question. Consideration of it would raise doubts about certain 
ideas. Was the Poor Law system as efficacious as it might be; 
was the system of local taxation as it should be; ought we to 
encourage or discourage the exodus of the rural populations : 
was drunkenness responsible for bad housing or bad housing for 
drunkenness ; and why did great wealth and distress exist side 
by side? ‘To get at the remedies they had to get at the causes. 
Bad housing conditions arose from several causes, three being, 
the habits of the occupiers, structural defects, and unhealthy 
and unwholesome environments. Coming to Burnley, he said 
the district of Wapping had been cleared out, but the people 
migrated to another district, and before long that was rendered 
almost as bad. The Croft was not, in exterior, a slum 
district. There was nothing there to prevent decent living 
by decent people, and was a proof of the habits of the 
people being the difficulty. Referring to defective houses— 
back-to-back and single-roomed tenements—he said it was just 
that property the rapacious landlord chose for making money out 
of (Hear, hear.) Two other causes were poverty and over- 
crowding—there might be one without the other, though the one 
aggravated the other. Some of them would have read the 
sermon preached by the Rev. R. M. Julian, which was extremely 
painful reading, but whether over-crowding was generally pre- 
valent in Burnley, was a question difficult to decide. Out of 
21,279 tenements in Burnley, 13,087 were under five rooms, 
The proportion of inhabitants per house was fairly good, being 
4°5, which compared well with other towns. But our 351 one- 
roomed tenements stood out badly. Taking these in percentage 
to the total tenements, Burnley had 1°6 of single-roomed tene- 
ments, against Blackburn only 0°4, Bolton 0:2, Bury 0:4, 
Oldham 0:3, Preston 0:1, St. Helens 0°4, Rochdale 0:5, and 
Wigan 071. On the other hand, Huddersfield had 874 of these 
tenements, and Halifax 1,118, and the proportion of two-roomed 
tenements there was even greater. Poverty had a good deal to 
do with people living in such, but vice had also. Between 
1871 and 1891, Burnley doubled itself, and the habit 
sprang up of living in furnished rooms, and it seemed as if 
people could not get rid of the habit. If they found why 
people clung to that they would be on the highway to a remedy. 
No Act of Parliament could alter character in a short time, but 
that did not excuse the legislature for not acting. It was said the 
municipalities should step in. They would have to build decent 
houses and let poor people have them at small rent, so that the 
rest of the community would have to pay. If it were a national 
question, then there should be some exchequer contribution to 
