LODGING-HOUSES BILL. (Hansard, 8 July 1851)

§ The EARL of SHAFTESBURY
then moved the Second Reading of this Bill, and in so doing said that he felt that it would be necessary for him to detain their Lordships for some two or three minutes by some preliminary observations, not so much to prove the existence of a great social mischief, as to explain and justify the principle of the remedy which he proposed to apply to it. But first he must give them some notion of the present state of things, and that could not be done without a statement of details; but as their Lordships had already passed a Bill for the regulation of common houses, he thought that they might be spared the most protracted and disgusting particulars. The measure which he had then to propose was intended principally for what might be termed the stationary population. The migratory population was that which chiefly resorted to the common houses, whilst the stationary population was that which resided in our large towns, and spread themselves over them in different directions. It was to improve the condition of the latter population that he now introduced this Bill; and to give them some slight notion of the condition in which that population was, even in the most favourable view which could be taken of it, he would read to their Lordships a return, which had been made to the Statistical Society, at the instance of his noble Friend (the Earl of Harrowby), in 1842. The result of an inspection made by that society in that year was as follows:— Total families inspected, 1,465; total rooms for whole, 2,174; having one room for whole family, 929; two rooms, 408; three rooms, 94; four rooms, 17; five rooms, 8; six rooms, 4; seven rooms, 1; eight rooms, 1; remaining three 'not ascertained.' Such was a sample of the condition in 326 which the population lived in one of the wealthiest parishes in the metropolis; but what must be the state of things in its less favoured dtstricts, such as Whitechapel, Shoreditch, St. Luke's, Spitalfields, and others which he could easily name? The return which he had just read to their Lordships showed that 929 families were sleeping in one room. He would say nothing of the cases in which their would find two, three, or four families residing in these single rooms. He would say nothing of their condition, nothing of the want of fresh air, nothing of the contaminated character of the room, nothing of the privies for several hundreds, nothing of the want of water, nothing of the want of drainage, nothing of the vast mass of filth, nothing of the neglect of the authorities, and of the helplessness of the people, nothing of the want of everything that was necessary to the comfort and health of the wretched inmates of these miserable dens. He confessed that he should like to detain their Lordships with details on these points, in order that he might impress on their minds how dreadful the real state of things was, and how necessary it was for them to apply to it an immediate remedy. For this was not a state of things applying only to that great metropolis—it applied also to the small towns and villages scattered over this great country. Their Lordships would find that even worse things than these were revealed to them by the ravages of disease. It was the ravages of the cholera which first revealed these rotten parts of our system, as it would do again, if we did not previously provide a remedy against them. He requested their Lordships just to let him state what were the secrets which the cholera revealed to us. Let not their Lordships run away with the notion that our villages, so beautiful to the passers-by, were full of Arcadian simplicity and purity. No such thing; in such villages were the most offensive localities that could be found. It was true that no remedy had yet been provided for the evils which prevailed there—for this Bill only applied to cities and boroughs which, according to the last census, had a population of 10,000 inhabitants., He would just bring under the notice of the House two instances which showed that in our villages there was a state of things which of itself was sufficient to breed a pestilence throughout the United Kingdom. First of all, he would bring under consideration the picture of Mitcham, an agricultural village in the 327 county of Norfolk, with a population not much exceeding 500 inhabitants. This was the report of the inspectors of populous places in that district:— During the prevalence of the late epidemic cholera, about one-fifth of the inhabitants were attacked, and the deaths in one month were 3.8 per cent of the whole population. On examining the patients whose lives had been spared, I found them, with scarcely an exception, in a state of great physical prostration. Four or five years previously the village was afflicted with typhus; the same houses were recently attacked with cholera, and only about five weeks before my inquiry influenza was so prevalent as to seize almost universally man and beast. But even this description was nothing to that given of another village in the same county of Norfolk—he meant the village of Nordelf. It was well worthy the attention of their Lordships:— There is no kind of drainage in the place; the houses are small, unventilated, dark, damp, and dilapidated; the floors are of brick, uneven, broken, and full of cavities; the roofs decayed, unsafe, and abounding with holes; the rooms are inconvenient, comfortless, and filthy in the extreme; pigstyes and privies, in the foulest condition, are situated within a few feet of bed-places, in which I saw many patients in cholera, lying enveloped in the disgusting effluvia from the surrounding abominations. Such was the report of the inspector. Now, let their Lordships mark the result. "There were 52 cases of cholera among a population of 150." Fifty cases of cholera in the small population of this village! Why, it swept away one-third of its whole population. What would their Lordships have felt if such a rate of mortality had occurred in that metropolis? Why, it would have carried off no less than 700,000 of the inhabitants of London. Everything was done which could be done to check the ravages of that pestilence. And mark the result:— After the cleansing operations, commenced on the 7th of December, only four additional cases of cholera occurred, together with a few cases of diarrhœa, that were arrested in the very onset. That was the state of things in a small parish, arising entirely out of the lamentable domiciliary condition of its residents. Now, there was, at no great distance from the splendid chamber in which their Lordships were then sitting, a wretched precinct, which they would do well to see with their own eyes, as he had done, before they returned home that evening—it was Church-lane, in the parish of St. John, Westminster. He had selected this pa- 328 rish from the report to which he had already referred, and he would read to their Lordships a summary of its condition:— Church-lane.—A picture in detail of human wretchedness, filth, and brutal degradation. In these wretched dwellings, all ages and both sexes; fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, grownup brothers and sisters, the sick, dying, and dead are herded together. He could say, from his own knowledge, that this was no exaggerated picture of the condition of the district; but the summary went on as follows:— Take an instance:—House, No. 2, size of room, 14 feet long, 13 feet broad, six feet high; rent 8s. for two rooms per week—under-rent, 3d. a night for each adult. Number of families, 3—eight males above 20; five females above 20; four males under 20; five females under 20; total, 22 souls. Landlady receives 18s. a week—thus a clear profit of 10s. State of rooms, filthy. Not to detain their Lordships longer, he would now give them the final summary of their inspector, who had visited 161 places and districts, containing an aggregate population of 1,912,000 souls. His statement was, that the reports were uniform on this point, that the condition of the domiciles of the labouring peasantry was such as he had described it. Let their Lordships next consider the consequences which were almost certain to result from such a melancholy description of affairs; and, first, with regard to the physical condition of the people. You could not enter into their habitations without seeing the physical degradation which it produced. All the persons who had fainted under the disgusting atmosphere which they had to breathe whilst inspecting their tenements—all who could bear testimony by personal experience to the deleterious miasma which reigned within them, concurred in stating that they could enter fully into the feelings of those who occupied them; for they themselves had felt the same necessity for some stimulus to support exhausted nature which the inmates felt. The depression of strength and energy which was there produced created a strong propensity for intoxicating drinks. Fever was never absent from such abodes. Hundreds and thousands were struck by it, and became easy subjects for cholera, or any other epidemic. It was a melancholy fact, that in such places fever selected for its attacks the heads of families, and not only the heads of families, but all who were in the prime of life, and were the fathers and 329 mothers of healthy children. That fact was clearly established by the records of our fever hospitals; and in the returns from those establishments their Lordships would find that the greatest mortality from fever always prevailed among the most vigorous patients. From a court adjoining Gray's Inn Lane, in a space not larger than the chamber in which he was then speaking, 84 cases had been sent to the Fever Hospital since February last, and more cases were still going. Could their Lordships suppose that these physical evils produced no mischievous moral consequences? He was sorry to have to inform them that they produced the most fatal and deadly consequences. They generated habits of drinking—they led to the overthrow of decency. Every function of nature was performed in public—there was no retirement for any purpose—there was no domestic education—nay, education itself was useless, if children returned to their homes to unlearn by example what they had learned by precept. He grieved to reflect that in these dens there could be no domestic training of that description which was more valuable than any other training—the training of the mother; and that the want of such domestic training could not be compensated by any system of public education which could be devised. This he saw daily. He had, as many of their Lordships perhaps knew, been for some time connected with the ragged schools recently established in the metropolis. Most of the ragged children whom they saw about the streets attended those schools, and not, he trusted, without benefit. A young boy or girl received there useful lessons; but they returned to the single room, in which six families might be residing, without any regard to the restraints which were necessary for a social, moral, and religious life, and they lost in one hour all the decent impressions Which they had gained in the previous six. Until this source of evil were removed, all your hopes to improve the morals of your people, all your efforts to give them a useful and religious education, will be vain. You must stop this welling fountain of disaster, if you would carry into execution the benevolent and provident views which you, in common with all who have property to protect, entertain towards the lower classes. There were other consequences from this state of things to which he wished to call the attention of their Lordships, and those were 330 its financial consequences. It was clear to him that a great part of the pressure on the poor-rates was produced by the condition to which the people were reduced by their habits of intoxication, and by the fever which always raged in their dwellings, owing to the causes he had already assigned. Thousands of widows and orphans, deprived of their natural protectors in this manner, were yearly carried to the poorhouse, and there became a permanent charge on the rates, or else were supported by private charities. He would give an instance of the working of this part of the system. During the prevalence of the cholera it was reported to the Sanitary Board, that there was a court near Chiswick in such a crowded and filthy condition, that if the cholera broke out there, its ravages must be deplorable. Mr. Grainger brought the case under our notice. We told the parish authorities to remove from that court some of the families residing in it; for we warned them that, if they did not, and the cholera ravaged it, the results would be most dangerous. Within three days after we had given that notice, the cholera did break out there. It seized, like fever, on the heads of the families. In one day several died, and fourteen children were in consequence carried to the public workhouse to become a permanent charge on the poor-rates, when the expenditure of 10l. in the first instance might have rescued the parish from further expense, and have saved the lives of their parents. He was quite sure, from calculations which he had made with his two excellent friends, Mr. Chadwick and Dr. Southwood Smith, that if the sanitary condition of our towns should be improved according to the plans which they superintended and suggested, within ten years from this time the poor-rates would be reduced to one-third of their present amount. It was a partial endeavour to meet this state of things that induced him to propound a measure, founded on a principle already recognised by their Lordships in the Baths and Washhouses Act. Let it be observed, in the first place, that the Bill was permissive, and not compulsory; and, in the second, that it was founded on the assumption" that such institutions as those which he was then about to propose were altogether remunerative, self-supporting, replacing both principal and interest, without anything of an eleemosynary character about them. He would just furnish their Lordships with an 331 instance of the mode in which a similar experiment had been tested by experience. He was connected with a society for ameliorating the situation of the labouring classes, and for improving their domiciliary condition. That society had proceeded on this principle, that it was impossible to improve their domiciliary condition unless they could be made to study their own interests. We constructed, therefore, houses of every description; we tried houses of every sort—from those containing only rooms enough for one family to the large barrack, in which several families, with two or three rooms each, reside under the same roof. In every instance we have found our outlay remunerative. We have expended in building, and in improving and adapting existing houses, 23,000l.; and the net result, deducting all incidental expenses for repairs, &c, averages 6 per cent, or 5½ per cent on the new buildings, and 12 per cent upon the old. And all this we have done at rents never more, and sometimes less, than what was paid for the most scanty and foul accommodation. Look at the average rent paid in Snow's Rents, Westminster, a vile place, where in 1844 it was 2s. 4½d. per week per room. Look at the apartments occupied by the London Dock labourers, for which they paid an average rental of 3s. a week, although nothing could exceed the filth which polluted them. In many lodging houses from 1s. 6d. to 3s. a week was paid for a single bed, several sleeping in the same room, wanting in everything like comfort and cleanliness. There was one remark which he had made before, and which he would venture to repeat then:— It had been said that an increase of rent was a consequence which the working people would not be able to bear. Assuming an increase, he was convinced that they would be able to bear it from the greater health they enjoyed, and the greater activity and diligence they would be able to bestow on their work. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that what he now proposed would lead to the payment of an increased rent by the working men, he thought he could show that they would be enabled to bear such increase; for, living in unwholesome dwellings, they lost about thirty days by ill health in every year, and, putting the loss at 1s. 6d. a day, the loss by the year was 45s., and when they removed from unwholesome to better regulated lodgings, their health was greatly improved. He 332 should never forget the remark made by a woman, who, having removed to one of the improved lodging houses, observed that it was a blessed thing to dwell there, for by the wages she earned she now was enabled to live, though she never could do so before. He could not give a better proof of the advantages resulting to the poor people from the improved air, drainage, and comfort in their lodgings, than by stating the fact, that when the cholera was raging in Church-lane, there was not a single case of sickness in the great lodging house, which was as near to Church-lane as he was to the woolsack at that moment. This was not merely the case with the lodging houses belonging to the society with, which he was connected, but an equally favourable account might be given with respect to all the model lodging houses in London. He had shown that the establishments such as he proposed to encourage by the present Bill were remunerative, and fully paid their expenses, repaying both principal and interest. The operation of the Bill would, in the first instance, be limited to boroughs and parishes not having less than a population of 10,000 persons; and it was provided that the council of any borough might adopt the Act, the expense to be charged on the borough fund; that, on the requisition of ten ratepayers, churchwardens might convene a vestry to determine whether the Act should be adopted; but the Resolutions were not to be deemed carried unless two-thirds voted for them; that, when the Act was adopted, the vestry should appoint commissioners for carrying the same into effect, and that the overseers should levy, as part of the poor-rate, such sums as the vestry should deem necessary; that vestries of two or more parishes might concur; that town-councils and commissioners might erect lodging houses, or adapt buildings, or purchase existing houses; that if lodging houses were considered unnecessary, or too expensive, they might be sold with the approval of the Treasury; that the council and commissioners might make bylaws, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Then came a provision which was necessary to prevent abuse, and it was to the effect that no person receiving parochial relief should be a tenant of these lodging houses, except the relief was given on account of accident or temporary illness. The Bill was guarded in every respect against the probability of jobbing, and against its being converted into eleemosy- 333 nary uses, which would entirely destroy the object in view. A too rapid and too general adoption of the Bill was also guarded against, and it had this advantage, that if faulty it could not be widely spread, as one or two failures would utterly check its operation. The Bill violated no principle, but merely enabled a locality to provide what a labouring man could not provide for himself. There were reasons why this undertaking should not be left to private speculators. First of all, they shrank very much from it, because it required a great deal more care and supervision than any private individual was inclined to bestow on it, and, moreover, private speculators had a tendency to have recourse to small, narrow, and confined houses; for there was no doubt that such houses, without having any arrangements for decency and comfort, gave a much larger profit than constructions on the plan such as he proposed, and such as were, in his opinion, indispensable for the comfort and decency of the population. In proof of the enormous profits yielded by very small houses, he mentioned an instance of a house belonging to the society with which he was connected, and which they now kept as a mere curiosity. That house, notwithstanding every means of comfort and decency were afforded in it compared with other houses of the same size, returned 30 per cent on the outlay. What, then, must be the profit made by those who, having a large number of these small houses, took from the inmates the same amount of rent, without giving anything like the same accommodation as the society he belonged to? There were at present a vast number of schemes for the improvement of the working classes, and he felt assured that those classes would, if the opportunity was afforded them, also improve themselves. The concurrent testimony of all persons conversant with the habits of the people went to show that the improvement of their domiciliary condition reversed all those frightful pictures which he had felt it his duty to present to their Lordships. On this subject also he might bring to bear the testimony of foreign nations. He knew no one subject which had so much excited the interest of foreign nations as that of the erection and management of lodging houses for the people. Their Lordships would be surprised to hear of the amount of correspondence which had proceeded from all parts of Europe; from Paris, Germany, Spain, 334 Italy, and also from the United States, asking for plans. He could assure their Lordships that not a few of the foreigners who arrived here to see the Crystal Palace, came to him desiring to be taken round to those establishments formed for the benefit of the working classes; and they expressed their opinion that nothing was more satisfactory, or more full of promise for the wellbeing of this country, than the efforts made for the advantage of the working people, more particularly in that particular direction to which he now called their Lordships' attention. The present really was a measure by which they would give to the working man that which he had a right to possess—a full and free opportunity for the development of his energies. It was really heartbreaking to see the effect produced on the honest workman, who came up to this capital, by being compelled to place himself in some filthy locality and some ill-ventilated house. He had seen, and he could bring evidence to the same effect from others who had more opportunities than himself of witnessing the circumstance, young persons in the vigour of their life, and quite capable of earning 30s. or 35s. a week, completely broken down within eight or ten months of their arrival in this town, in consequence of the unhealthy mode in which they were compelled to live, and either carried to their graves, or reduced to a position of hopeless want. A noble Friend whom he saw opposite, would no doubt corroborate what he stated, when he said that this was no exaggerated picture. Here he could not help mentioning what he had before noticed in another place, that Mr. Porter, in a little treatise called Self-imposed Taxation, showed that the working people of the United Kingdom expended annually on gin, other spirits, tobacco, and beer, no less a sum than 57,000,000l. Now, if the habits of those classes of the people were improved, what an advantage would be gained if, instead of that amount of money being so spent, it were expended in obtaining wholesome bread, meat, clothing, education, and comfortable and decent dwellings! He had propounded the present measure to the House of Commons, where it was received with great favour; and he trusted that it would be received with equal favour by their Lordships, who, he was quite sure, would not fall short in this labour. He felt convinced that their Lordships, while they had a common interest in the decency and comfort of all their fellow- 335 subjects, would show that, notwithstanding the difference of station and fortune, they were under the influence of common sympathies and a common Christianity.

The MARQUESS of NORMANBY
had on more occasions than one called their Lordships' attention to the necessity of legislation on this subject, and he now expressed his satisfaction at finding the cause taken up by one so well calculated to advance it. With regard to the limitation in the Bill, he must observe that the evils to be remedied existed almost to the same extent in localities which would not come within the operation of the measure, and he should have preferred if the limitation in respect to a population of 10,000 had not formed part of it. Knowing, however, the vigour, zeal, and energy of his noble Friend on these matters, and having witnessed the favourable manner in which his appeal had been received by their Lordships, he felt sure that, if the present measure should prove successful, it would only be considered as an instalment, and that next year its operation would be extended to those localities now excluded from the Bill, but which stood equally in need of improvement in the dwellings of the working classes.

LORD KINNAIRD
was aware that the machinery of the present Bill could not be acted on in Scotland; but when it came into successful operation, he trusted their Lordships would agree to apply its provisions to Scotland. In proof of the beneficial effects produced by the establishment of comfortable lodging houses, he referred to one formed in that neighbourhood, the establishment of which had caused all the other wretched lodging houses to be shut up; and he added as a proof that such institutions were not unattended with moral advantages, that on the day of the expected riots in 1848, all the lodgers returned to the dwelling and reported their presence.

§ The EARL of HARROWBY
suggested that when Bills were brought before Parliament for widening the streets, making improvements in the metropolis, and devoloping the resources of property thereby, care should he taken to insert in such Bills a provision for the erection of structures similar to those contemplated by the present measure, for the accommodation of the displaced population. That population could not, on account of its necessities, extend beyond a certain area; and if large 336 streets were made on the sites of their present dwellings, they could only occupy another spot in a more crowded condition, un-loss care was taken to provide proper accommodation for them. In conclusion, he congratulated his noble Friend (the Earl of Shaftesbury) on now presenting himself to their Lordships in the character which he had hitherto deservedly borne out of that House—as a most disinterested friend of the working classes.

§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE
did not rise to say anything in support of the present Bill, because all their Lordships who had heard the statement of the noble Earl must feel that it required no support, but spoke for itself, and claimed universal approbation. There had, however, fallen from the noble Earl an observation which he thought not the least valuable of his remarks—that they would labour in vain in respect to the education of the people, unless they accompanied their efforts in that direction by some provisions similar to those now recommended. In reference particularly to what had fallen from the noble Earl in respect to ragged schools, he (the Marquess of Lansdowne) having taken part for many years in the administration of the public grant for the support of schools, had felt the greatest desire to see the progress of those particular schools adverted to by the noble Earl. The ragged schools were very praiseworthy institutions; but he agreed with the noble Earl that the circumstances by which the children were surrounded at home, did away with all the beneficial results of attendance at the ragged school. Reformation was much needed in this respect, for in the present condition of the homes of the poor, a constant moral deterioration of their children was going on; and whatever good might be done to them by the ragged schools, was undone by the examples they beheld under the roof of their parents; for, after all, whatever might be attempted, morality or immorality must be inculcated under the roof of the parents. He therefore thought that the providing more decent and more wholesome habitations had a bearing on the education of the people. He approved of the limited application of the Bill, for confining it in the first instance to large towns, would set an example of voluntary action which would ultimately lead to the general adoption of the system. He thought the House was indebted to the noble Earl (the Earl of Harrowby) for his suggestion that, while great and magnifi- 337 cent streets were being constructed, it was worthy of consideration whether it would not be possible to make some provision for the displaced population. He was not prepared to say that their Lordships should make a Standing Order in their Journals on the subject, but there might be a Standing Order in their own minds when Bills for constructing large streets came under their consideration.