394 Original Articles. [Julys 



the poor diseased creatures whom the police regulations will in- 

 evitably turn into the streets, or drive into pure and still untainted 

 localities. We trust, then, that the effect of this article will be, not 

 only to create a little sensation and sympathy for those who at present 

 live in our cities herded together as cattle, or like slaves in a ship's 

 hold, but that it may here and there move the hearts of good men and 

 women to assist, with heart and hand, in the foundation of self-sup- 

 porting model lodgings. Another good plan of reforming the un- 

 healthy habits of the poor which has been discussed, but not, we 

 think, practically or extensively followed out, is the distribution, in 

 the lowest neighbourhoods (through the medium of town missionaries, 

 and of the more intelligent of the class intended to be benefited), of very 

 brief, pithy instructions for the sanitary regulation of homes : stating, 

 for example, the best means of ventilating crowded rooms, and the 

 consequences of the neglect of such precautions, inculcating the 

 necessity for cleanliness, &c. Here is a work for our Mutual 

 Improvement Societies and Literary Institutions, which will be far 

 more useful to society at large, and to the members themselves, 

 than debates upon historical subjects long since exhausted. 



These are but two or three out of a great many ways in which the 

 general public, or earnest individuals, can aid in the reform of the 

 dwellings of the poorer classes ; but there are still others. In Liver- 

 pool, a lady, whose name we forbear to mention, as it may not please 

 her to have it published farther than her good deed has already made 

 it known in her own town, communicated to the Health Committee of 

 the Town Council her wish that they should pull down a house of 

 which she was the proprietor, and which she had been advised was 

 unfit to be used as a human habitation. We hardly expect that many 

 others will be found willing to follow the example of this excellent 

 lady, but there may be some who would prefer this course to leaving 

 such plague sjjots as legacies to their posterity. 



And again, the Railway Companies, who do not stand very high 

 in popular estimation at the present moment, may win golden opinions 

 by facilitating the transit of labouring men to and from their work- 

 shops or sheds, and thus helping them to remove their dwellings to 

 healthier localities ;* and Companies so disposed would not only be 

 doing a good work, but would undoubtedly be acting in the interest 

 of their constituencies. 



As the title of this paper indicates, its original object was 

 to point out the predisposing causes of what is vulgarly known as 

 " plague " or " pestilence ; " but the terrible scenes that have presented 

 themselves during its composition have induced us to deviate somewhat 

 from the original plan, to draw the attention of our readers to those 

 remedial measures which are being employed to remove the impending 

 dangers. None will be disposed to gainsay that we are not sur- 

 rounded by conditions in the highest degree favourable for the re- 

 ception or extension of any new epidemic, or any exaggerated form of 

 an existing one, that may visit us ; and we therefore conclude these 



* As is already done in the Metropolis. 



