§ House in Committee.
§ Clause 5,
§ THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURYsaid, he had to propose some important and additional clauses calculated to carry out the object of the Bill. That object was most admirable—to provide suitable dwellings for the labouring poor. But the great difficulty was in procuring proper sites for that purpose, and to this it was that the clauses he had to propose related. The labouring poor required dwellings as near as possible to the scene of their labour. It would be of no use to them to have dwelling-houses situate a mile or two from their work, so as to add to their labour the fatigue of walking backward and forward, or put them to the expense of some conveyance. To procure sites, however, for their dwellings in large towns was extremely difficult, the land being mostly in 794 the hands of middlemen, who exacted the largest rents they could get. But there were in all large towns certain localities crowded with foul and noisome houses, in close courts and alleys—localities very likely to cause pestilence, and such as it was necessary for sanitary purposes to open up and get rid of. Now, those sites would prove invaluable for the purposes of this measure, as they were often in the most convenient positions for the poor, in the very heart of the town, or in its populous suburbs. And it would be of the greatest importance to obtain them for the purpose of clearing them of those bad houses, and erecting clean and wholesome dwellings for the poor in their place. Indeed, unless some such measures were resorted to it was not easy to see how the present Bill could possibly be rendered effective. Now, there was a Bill before their Lordships' House—the Dwelling Houses (Scotland) Bill—which contained clauses to effect this very object; and as that which was good for Scotland in this respect would be equally good for England, he proposed to adopt those clauses into the present Bill. The clauses in question empowered a certain body answering to the Board of Health in this Bill to clear localities in which the houses were so close, so crowded, and so unclean as to be unfit for human habitation—unwholesome and likely to breed nuisances—and to erect proper houses for the poor on the sites so obtained. These provisions would be most invaluable in the present Bill, which without them would be comparatively valueless; and he therefore proposed to include them.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he was disposed to concur with the noble Earl; but the Bill in question which stood next on their Lordships' paper, had not yet gone into Committee, and the clauses referred to had yet to be discussed and adopted.
§ Clause agreed to; as were the remaining clauses.
§ Amendments made; Report to be received on Monday next.