57 



The newer and western part of the town, where the streets were 

 originally laid out for the planting of trees, is, of course, much the 

 most beautiful, and architects have discovered that even rather bald 

 masses of brick and Portland cement may be made agreeable to the 

 eye when shut off by the shade and greenery of trees and shrubs. As 

 used to be predicted by the Officer of Health, Dr. Taaff'e, who still sur- 

 vives in a green old age, this abundance of verdure has purified the air 

 and improved the health of the population, as well as their dispositions. 

 I remember in my younger days that there was a notion that trees 

 would not grow in Brighton ; of course, all that was necessary was to 

 prepare the soil and make a good selection of kinds. I have heard, 

 too, that thirty years ago, or even less, the local authorities treated the 

 foot pavements as the concern, not of the people who walked on them, 

 but of those who lived in the houses opposite, so that it was no uncom- 

 mon thing to find a street admirably paved except in a single spot a 

 few yards long where it had two or three inches of soft mud. This is 

 very much as if a railway were to be considered the affair of the 

 landowners through whose estates it passed, and any of them was at 

 liberty to leave an arch of a viaduct unfinished as long as he pleased. 

 Perhaps you will hardly believe this, but I can assure you not only was 

 the fact so, but, at the time when the practice prevailed, there were 

 plenty of people to justify it and to declare it was the only reasonable 

 one. 



One of the causes of all the improvements we witness, no doubt, 

 was the change that has taken place in the condition of the people. 

 Thirty years ago one in eighteen of the population of Brighton were 

 paupers. It has now long been recognised that a country may have 

 just as much pauperism and crime as it desires. Perhaps you will 

 scarcely credit me when I tell you that when I was approaching middle 

 age the State had scarcely taken any step towards the prevention of 

 these great evils. Parents were at liberty to allow their children to 

 run wild in the streets, growing up in ignorance even of reading, 

 writing, and arithmetic ; they might even encourage them to beg and 

 train them as thieves, and no questions were asked ; and, with the 

 notorious fact that troops of children were allowed to grow up in this 

 way and would almost necessarily become vagabonds and criminals, 

 no effort was made by the constituted authorities to reclaim them. If, 

 indeed, a crime was committed, or evei> if those wretched outcasts 

 made themselves a nuisance to respectable persons by begging for 



