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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the dens of London. Mr. Godwin is not a mere compiler or sensation-writer. 
He states facts. He exposes to onr eyes what he has had the courage to look 
at with his own. If the picture he a ghastly one — if it depicts the life of 
men in cities as hardly removed from the life of the most loathsome beast it 
is possible to conceive of — the fault is none of the artist. Let it rather be 
ascribed to the advance of civilization, which has most certainly brought 
about the unhappy state of things which the philanthropic vniter has 
revealed. 
Wherever we follow Mr. Godwin in his rambles among the cellar and 
garret habitations of London, the same scene is presented to our gaze : — 
wretched apartments — prisons would be a less objectionable expression — 
devoid of light and air, damp to a degree of rottenness, and crammed with 
human beings. Adjacent sewers give off their noxious gases in large quanti- 
ties ; foul cesspools accumulate beside the door-ways ; water is deficient ; 
and yet within the neighbouring tenements “ God’s o^vn image ” is driven to 
seek a residence. Can any language convey with sufficient force an adequate 
conception of the disgrace which such facts attach to those who have the 
means, but not the inclination, to establish a better condition of affairs ? If 
the atmosphere of one of our fashionable thoroughfares became tainted, even 
to the slightest extent, a thousand voices would be raised in outcry ; the 
Commissioners of Public Works would be called to account ; the great 
Jupiter of the press would declaim against the evil. Yet the whole amount 
of impurity, though slightly offensive to “ gentle ” nostrils, might be perfectly 
harmless in reality. But here, when the lives of thousands who constitute 
the thews and sinews of the population are in jeopardy, hardly one indi- 
vidual is found who has the courage to come forward and demand investiga- 
tion. The poor labourer, even though he be all but suffocated by the 
pestilential vapours of some ill-constructed sewer, or deprived of even a 
minimum supply of water, has no Times in which to call attention to his 
grievance. No, he must suffer ; but certainly he cannot be expected, in a 
physical aspect, to “ be strong ” in addition. To such men, therefore, as Mr. 
Godwin the poor must ever be grateful ; for, without a selfish motive, at 
much risk to their own lives, and at considerable pecuniary expense, they 
exert themselves to the utmost to benefit the condition of the labouring 
classes. 
This book is a clever expose of the sanitary, let us rather say, in-sanitary, state 
of our back-streets, lanes, and alleys, and is accompanied by numerous wood- 
cuts illustrating the writer’s views, and contains three important propositions 
relative to the improvement of the poor man’s dwelling : — (1) There should 
be power to overlook houses let in tenements, and to enforce necessary 
improvements. (2) There should be power to prevent the letting of such 
houses to more persons than the amount of space will healthfully admit of. 
(3) There should be established ragged-schools, and means provided for the 
removal of youth of both sexes from situations which leave no hope. Mr. 
Godwin’s volume is both interesting and profitable reading ; but it is rather 
of his mission than his writing that we would speak. He has undertaken a 
heavy labour, but one of which he may well feel proud ; he will have many 
difficulties to grapple with ; but let him not despair. His effort is a God-like 
one ; Heaven send it may prosper. 
