§ THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, in moving an addition to Standing Order No. 191, for the purpose of providing that the report made by the promoters of railway and other Bills of the number of houses and inhabitants displaced shall be referred to the Select Committee on each Bill, who shall inquire into and report on the same, said: My Lords, the proposal I now make is a necessary supplement to the Resolution carried by the noble Earl (the Earl of Derby) below me, which was granted for a special and particular instance, and to the Standing Order which I carried some years ago. It cannot be said that it will act in any way as an obstruction to public improvements; it is neither intended nor adapted for that purpose. I am ready to admit the great advantage of many improvements made in London, and the great benefits conferred in opening large thoroughfares for ventilation; all I ask is, that we should have the means of obtaining accurate information as to the number of houses and inhabitants displaced. My great object is to reduce the amount of 146 an evil which presses upon a vast mass of the population, and to see whether, by continually bringing the subject before the public mind, we cannot at last devise some remedy for it. Improvement Bills are now increasing in number and area so much, both in London and the provinces, that unless something be speedily done great moral, financial, and even political mischief will accrue. Since this subject was In at before your Lordships I have personally gone through the two districts which were then referred to, in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate. I have visited the courts and alleys through which this railway will pass, and I have conversed with a great number of the people, and the conclusion I have come to is that a greater misrepresentation never was made than the character which was given of the locality which will be affected by this scheme. It is not the abode of thieves and of vagabonds, but of decent. well-conditioned people, who have resided there for a considerable time, and who, if displaced, would suffer a very grievous wrong, and a very grievous injury. Again, your Lordships will find that in these districts the worst places are not those proposed to be taken for these railways. With a few exceptions, the worst places are left untouched, and even those worst places are infinitely better than a vast number of places within a few minutes' walk of this House, for instance, which will remain untouched. Thus I find that in King's Arms Yard eleven of the houses are in good condition, airy, and spacious. In King's Head Court the houses are in good condition. In Half Moon Alley they are very narrow, but good compared with many places. In Bowling Alley they are small and very bad. In Bowling Square there are three houses to be taken, and these are very airy and spacious. Cradle Court is new, airy, and spacious. We were told that none but the most filthy and the most overcrowded dwellings were to be removed, and that nothing but benefit would arise from driving a railway through the midst of them. Now, I find, not in the line of railway, Castle Court, which is very bad, with no opening at the end, and White Rose Place, which is very narrow and a cul de sac. In St. Bartholomew district I find Honeysuckle Square, which is full of new buildings, constructed only in 1859, and model lodging-houses, very large, new, airy, and spacious, two large rooms being allotted to each family. All these are to 147 come down. Maidenhead Court is airy, spacious, and in excellent condition. Green Arbour Court and Half Moon Alley are inferior to some others, but vastly superior to a great many localities which are left untouched. Angel Alley and Union Buildings are both bad. In Moor Square the houses are spacious and not bad. Carr Square is by no means bad. In New Court the ventilation is pretty good, the drainage bad; while Sun Court, not in the line of railway, is exceedingly bad. All these places are to be disturbed by the proposed railways, and it is very desirable to know the extent to which you will allow a quiet, orderly, decent. comfortable population to be affected in such a way. Consider the character of this population. It comprises a large number of skilled artisans, and a number, too, of ordinary working men. There are none of the migratory population who remain but a very short time in their houses. On the contrary, I found many persons who had resided in their houses for more than twenty five years, and who contemplated with horror their sudden enforced removal. No notice has been given to these poor people. The proprietors have received notice, but not the occupants of the houses. On the contrary, what has been done has tended to lull them into a false security. To almost every house notices have been sent, in which the lodgers were asked whether they assented to or dissented from the proposition that a railway should pass through their dwellings. A large portion of the persons thus appealed to expressed their dissent; and when I told them that their houses were to come down, they replied, "It is impossible, because we have had papers to fill up, and in them we refused our assent to the removal of the houses." The proprietors have given no notice to their lodgers, nor will they do so until within a week of the time when demolition begins, and then these poor people will be full of confusion and dismay. This process of demolition will operate very injuriously upon all, but upon many it will inflict absolute ruin. All who are displaced must be pressed into the already overcrowded houses of the neighbourhood, and many who are now living in houses and rooms of their own will be compelled to descend in the social scale, and to become inmates of a room in which another family is located. But this demolition will press still more heavily upon the skilled artisans. They cannot possibly go any distance from their work. I have 148 seen many of these men living in comfortable well-furnished houses of their own, and they must be turned out, with their furniture and their families, it not being possible that they should find another house in the neighbourhood. If they go to a distance, they must leave their work, for they are under engagement to their employers not to live more than a certain distance from the warehouse, in order that orders may as soon as possible be transmitted to the workman, and not a moment may be lost in executing them. Thus your Lordships will see how seriously such removals press upon the skilled artisan. A Committee which sat upon this subject reported that they had done what they could to alleviate this pressure by introducing a clause into the new railway Bills for the establishment of cheap and constant trains for the benefit of the working classes. The people will receive the assurance with gratitude, as a mark of sympathy on the part of Parliament; but it is giving them a stone when they asked for bread. The cheap railway trains will lead to nothing; for the railway is there, but there are no houses; a long period must elapse before any can be constructed, and no spots can be found without going to a very considerable distance. I shall not speak disparagingly of the proposal to build suburban villages. But what is the use of talking of them in the present crisis? The houses are not built, the land is not purchased, the site is not yet fixed upon; and even when these villages are forthcoming it will be very difficult indeed to persuade the people to leave the neighbourhood of their work, where they now live, and go to so great a distance. I do not, however, despair of these suburban villages being brought into general use. The overcrowding of London is caused partly by the natural increase of population and partly by a large immigration every year into those parts of the Metropolis which are already overcrowded. These suburban villages may probably be so arranged as to catch the immigrants and prevent them from crowding in upon the overcrowded districts, while the societies which now exist may do much to improve the domiciles already existing. It is necessary, however, that we should have ample time, as well as great zeal and energy in the cause; and it is with a view of creating that zeal and setting in movement that energy that I am anxious to lose no opportunity of laying before the House information bearing upon this great, this 149 increasing, and this dangerous evil. I believe that much good may be done by keeping the real state of things constantly before the country, by showing the operation of these various improvements, where all the evil is on the one side and all the benefit is on the other, and by proving that, although such improvements must go on, it is at the cost of much human happiness, which result may be obviated if proper measures were adopted. By constantly bringing before the country this information we shall stimulate the efforts I have indicated, and thereby make these improvements a source of unmingled good to the community. I hope your Lordships will pass this Standing Order, and I hope its result will be to impress men's minds with the absolute necessity of directing their attention to the remedy of this great and oppressive evil. It is an evil you cannot estimate by report; you must hear the evidence with your own ears; you must take the evidence of the working men themselves; they alone can enter into the minute details that make up the sum and substance of their existence. And when their story is told to the country at large, I am sure it will be roused to something like a great and magnanimous effort. If it is not so roused to that effort, I must say we have come to the time when we must declare there is no foundation of truth whatever in the professing philanthropy and self-glorifying language of the Nineteenth Century. The noble Earl concluded by moving that the following words be added to the Standing Order No. 191.
And that such Statement be referred to the Committee on the Bill, and that the said Committee do inquire into and report thereon.
§ LORD REDESDALEsaid, he had no objection to the proposed addition to the Standing Order. One of the Bills that had been referred to, the Metropolitan Railway, had come before him as an unopposed Bill, and he had that day made a detailed report to the House upon the matter. With regard to the subject on which the noble Earl had just spoken, it was very difficult to arrive at the truth on it. He had no doubt the noble Earl had been taken to many places where the inhabitants were likely to give answers favourable to the party who opposed the Railway Extension Bill. He was obliged to say this; for very different evidence on the same subject had been given before him. He had no reason to doubt that the witnesses he had heard gave honest evidence, and believed they 150 were speaking the truth; but their statements differed materially from what the noble Earl had described as the character of the population of the localities that would be affected by the Bill. They stated that this population was of a migratory character; that it was largely composed of Irish and other strangers, who same from different parts of the Metropolis; and that if a census of the district were taken, in three years another return would show that not one-fourth of the same people remained. If that were the case they could not suffer in the same way from removal as those who really belonged to the locality. These must suffer, more or less, by any change; it was to be regretted, but it was unavoidable, if any railway improvements were to be carried out at all. The noble Earl said that the Railway Company had rather taken the best districts than the worst. But the line must run according to the level of the ground; and as it was the great object of the companies to take the cheapest land, they would not take more of the most expensive land than was absolutely necessary. As to the returns of the number of people who would be displaced, he believed that the number would not be half of that named in the return, because where land was so expensive companies would not take more than was necessary, and the returns included all the people who lived within the limits of deviation allowed to the companies. With the perfect concurrence of the company to which he referred, he had introduced two clauses into the Bill—one similar to that introduced by the Committee on the North London Bill, providing that the company should run a cheap train every day, with this difference—in the North London Bill if the average of six months showed that 100 persons did not travel by it the train was to be discontinued. In the clause as he had framed it the Board of Trade might refuse to permit its being given up. It appeared to him that six months might not afford sufficient time for the labouring classes to acquire the habit of using the train. By another clause the company was bound to make provision for dwellings for their own labourers and servants, which would diminish the pressure on the crowded centres. He thought good might arise out of the inquiry secured by the addition of the Resolution of the noble Earl, and he should offer no opposition to it.
§ EARL GRANVILLEthought that the 151 noble Earl had taken somewhat of an exaggerated view of this matter, though, no doubt, he had done so under the influence of the most benevolent feelings. He might mention that when Prince Albert went to see some houses belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, he found them to be in a state which was disgraceful to property of his son, and he caused fresh houses to be built; but when he had done so be found it impossible to persuade the people to leave the old houses to which they had been accustomed. As to the Amendment which had been proposed, he thought there was no objection to it, for, on the contrary, he believed it would cause additional inquiries to be made; but he would suggest that the matter should be referred to the Standing Orders Committee.
§ THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURYassented.
§ Motion agreed to; and the said Words added accordingly.