8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ing upon their institution in St. Pancras the sura of £162 16«. in window-duties, 

 or one per cent per annum upon the original outlay. The average rental paid by 

 the society's tenants is 5s. Qd. per week, and the window-duty deducts from this 

 7i^. per week."—" Times," January 31, 1850. " Social Statics," p. 386 (origi- 

 nal edition). 



Neither is this all the evidence which the press of those days 

 afforded. There was published in the " Times " of December 7, 1850 

 (too late to be used in the above-named work, which I issued in the 

 last week of that year), a letter dated from the Reform Club, and 

 signed " Architect," which contained the following passages : 



Lord Kinnaird recommends in your paper of yesterday the construction of 

 model lodging-houses by throwing two or three houses into one. 



Allow me to suggest to his lordship, and his friend Lord Ashley to whom 

 he refers, that if — 



1. The window-tax were repealed ; 



2. The Building Act repealed (excepting the clauses enacting that party and 

 external walls shaU be fire-proof) ; 



3. The timber duties either equalized or repealed ; and 



4. An act passed to facilitate the transfer of property— 



There would be no more necessity for model lodging-houses than there is for 

 model ships, model cotton-mills, or model steam-engines. 



The first limits the poor man's house to seven windows. 



The second limits the size of the poor man's house to twenty-five feet by 

 eighteen (about the size of a gentleman's dining-room), into which space the 

 builder has to cram a staircase, an entrance-passage, a parlor, and a kitchen 

 (walls and partitions included). 



The third induces the builder to erect the poor man's house of timber unfit 

 for building purposes, the duty on the good material (Baltic) being fifteen times 

 more than the duty on the bad or injurious article (Canadian). The Govern- 

 ment, even, exclude the latter from all their contracts. 



The fourth would have considerable influence upon the present miserable 

 state of the dwellings of the poor. Small freeholds might then be transferred as 

 easily as leaseholds. The effect of building-leases has been a direct inducement 

 to bad building. 



To guard against misstatement or overstatement, I have taken 

 the precaution to consult a large East-End builder and contractor of 

 fifty-five years' experience, Mr. C. Forrest, Museum Works, 17 Victoria 

 Park Square, Bethnal Green, who, being church-warden, member of 

 the vestry, and of the board of guardians, adds extensive knowledge 

 of local public affairs to his extensive knowledge of the building 

 business. Mr. Forrest, who authorizes me to give his name, verifies 

 the foregoing statements with the exception of one, which he strength- 

 ens. He says that " Architect " understates the evil entailed by the 

 definition of "a fourth-rate house"; since the dimensions are less 

 than those he gives (perhaps in conformity with the provisions of a 

 more recent Building Act). Mr. Forrest has done more than this. 

 Besides illustrating the bad effects of great increase in ground-rents 



