836 KEPORT — 1892. 



In 189 dwellings resided 9o4 persons, of whom 114 were under five years of age. 

 The density of population was 240 per acre, as against 64, the city average. The 

 death-rate "has crept up to an average of over 50 per 1,000 for the past four years, 

 as against a city average of only 18 per 1,000. The buildings (two-story brick) in 

 this area were mostly erected before 1830, were very deficient in ventilation, and 

 had become so unsanitary as to be condemned by the medical officer of health. 

 Over ninety of them were back-to-back houses. The Corporation will clear the whole 

 tract, and erect a five- or six-story apartment house thereon, similar to the Jersey 

 Street dwelhngs in Manchester. These dwellings were constructed in 1891-0:2 

 by a private company. The building is 17G feet long, 48 feet deep, and six stories 

 high ; is fireproof, and provided front and rear with balconies for providing access 

 to the 149 apartments. Excellent ventilation is secured. A resident superin- 

 tendent enforces a set of rules which are made necessary by the circumstances, but 

 which incidentally are of a very civilising character, ('leanliness and self-control 

 laecome a necessity to the tenant. As no tenant can sublet, overcrowding — one of 

 the worst features of slum life — is impossible. The conduct of the tenants is suf- 

 ficiently under the guidance of the superintendent to insure health and happiness to 

 a considerable degree. Certain voluntary societies organised among the tenants, it 

 is hoped, will have a further influence for good among them. 



Whenever, therefore, a slum gets so unhealthy that it can be condemned as 

 imhealthy, the way is open to forcible interference by the municipalit)'. If such 

 buildings can be made to pay, they will of course multiply through private enter- 

 prise, and a demand for sanitary dwellings may perhaps be cultivated among the 

 denizens of the slums. 



5. Parliamentarij Heturns on Social and Economic Subjects. 

 By C. S. Locn, B.A. 



Figures are used every day as ' decisive and conclusive arguments,' as means of 

 agitation, or as means of instruction. AVe have to deal especially with figures as 

 they are drawn up in parliamentarj' returns. One out of many instances of the 

 misuse is quoted. In ' Facts for Londoners ' the Fabian Society publish, by way of 

 agitation, such statements as the following : — ' In London one person in every five 

 will die in the workhouse, hospital, or lunatic asylum. In 1887, out of 82,545 

 deaths in London, 45,507 being over twenty, 9,399 were in workhouses, 7,201 in 

 hospitals, and 400 in lunatic asylums ; or, altogether, 17,000 in public institutions.' 

 ' One in every three London adults will be driven into these refuges to die.' ' One 

 in eleven of the whole metropolitan population is driven to accept Poor-law relief 

 during any one year.' 'In spite of all, twenty-nine deaths were referred in 1888 

 to direct and obvious starvation.' 



Deaths in Public Institutioiis.—' Workhouse,' in the Registrar-General's returns, 

 includes Poor-law infirmaries and the district hospitals of the Metropolitan 

 Asvlums Board for infectious diseases. Without explanation the reader would not 

 understand this. The evidence taken by the Select Committee on Hospitals shows 

 that the poor are not driven to these institutions to die, but go only too readily. 

 Nor are people driven to die in lunatic asylums, which, like the district hospitals, 

 are provided for the general benefit of the community. Figures show how, since 

 1867, when the Metropolitan Poor Act was passed, there have been very many 

 fewer deaths in workhouses, and a larger proportion in the Poor-law infirmaries 

 and hospitals and asylums of the board. And ' hospital' in the Kegistrar-General's 

 return includes such dift'erent institutions as the Herbert Military Hospital and a 

 cancer hospital, i^'c. — institutions not to be ' put under one hat.' Artisans who earn 

 good wages are rightly in long illness in-patients at these hospitals, and they con- 

 tribute to them, as the Hospital Saturday Fund lists show. Besides, many hospital 

 cases are accidents. The argument of ' the facts' comes to this, that the better our 

 medical provision, the worse our social state. The figures, too, are incorrect. 

 London institutions outside the metropolitan division are not included. Nor is 

 allowance made for non-Londoners dying in London institutions. Lastly, the 

 return is misapplied. The object of it was to show what allowance was to be made 



