1842 LONDON APPRENTICESHIP 23 



of filthy exhalations ; and the only relief to the general 

 dull apathy was a roar of words filthy and brutal beyond 

 imagination between the close -packed neighbours, 

 occasionally ending in a general row. All this almost 

 within hearing of the traffic of the Strand, within easy 

 reach of the wealth and plenty of the city. 



I used to wonder sometimes why these people did not 

 sally forth in mass and get a few hours' eating and 

 drinking and plunder to their hearts' content, before the 

 police could stop and hang a few of them. But the poor 

 wretches had not the heart even for that. As a slight, 

 wiry Liverpool detective once said to me when I asked 

 him how it was he managed to deal with such hulking 

 ruffians as we were among, " Lord bless you, sir, drink 

 and disease leave nothing in them." 



This early contact with the sternest facts of the 

 social problem impressed him profoundly. And 

 though not actively employed in what is generally 

 called " philanthropy," still he did his part, hopefully 

 but soberly, not only to throw light on the true 

 issues and to strip away make-believe from them, but 

 also to bring knowledge to the working classes, and 

 to institute machinery by which capacity should be 

 caught and led to a position where it might be useful 

 instead of dangerous to social order. 



After some time, however, he left Mr. Chandler 

 to join his second brother-in-law, 1 who had set up in 

 the north of London, and to whom he was duly 

 apprenticed, as his brother James had been before 

 him. This change gave him more time and oppor- 

 tunity to pursue his medical education. He attended 



1 John Godwin Scott. 



