THE DEMON OF GREED. 347 



and misery; and I am not aware that any writer has 

 even suggested, much less proved, that such was the 

 case. I believe myself that in no earlier period has there 

 been such a large proportion of our population living in 

 absolute want below " the margin of poverty " as at 

 the present time; hence there has been no improvement 

 in the condition of the mass of miscellaneous unskilled 

 workers, who are now far more numerous than they ever 

 were before. A few reasons for this belief may be 

 given. 



Since 1856 the Registrar-General has given the num- 

 ber of deaths in workhouses, hospitals, and other public 

 institutions, for London, and also for England and 

 Wales, 1 and in both areas the proportion of such deaths 

 has been increasing for the last thirty-five years. In 

 1888 the Registrar-General called attention to this por- 

 tentous increase, which has not yet reached its maxi- 

 mum. The following are the figures, in quinquennial 

 averages, since 1870: 



DKATHS IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN LONDON. 



In 1861-65, the earliest five years, the proportion 

 was 16.2 per cent. In 1892-96, the latest published, it 

 was 26.9. And what makes this more terrible is, first, 

 that during this period private charity has been increas- 

 ing enormously; and, secondly, that almost weekly we 



1 The proportions for England and Wales are about half those for 

 London. 



