Part 55
“‘The system of lodging-houses for travellers, otherwise trampers, requires to be altogether revised: at present they are in the practice of lodging all the worst characters unquestioned, and are subject to no other control than an occasional visit of inspection from the parish officers, accompanied by the constables, whose power of interference, if they have a legal right of entry, does not extend to some of the most objectionable points connected with those houses, as they can merely take into custody such persons as they find in commission of some offence. The state in which those houses are found on the occasion of such visit proves how much they require interference. The houses are small, and yet as many as thirty travellers, or even thirty-five, have been found in one house; fifteen have been found sleeping in one room, three or four in one bed, men, women, and children promiscuously. Beds have been found occupied in a cellar. It is not necessary to urge the many opportunities of preparing for crime which such a state of things presents, or the actual evils arising from such a mode of harbouring crowds of low and vicious persons.’”
In our First Report we observed, that—“The mischiefs of these migratory streams of depredators and vagrants, and other bad characters, is not confined to the crimes which they commit, though those must be extremely extensive to furnish such numerous hordes with the means of subsistence; these characters, experienced in the crimes and vices of the criminal associations of the larger towns from whence they sally forth, form such large proportions of the population of the gaols in the rural districts, as are stated in the return of prisoners in Knutsford gaol. The other portion of the inmates of the gaol, chiefly agricultural labourers, natives of the country, confined for misdemeanours, may in such receptacles be considered pupils in these normal schools of crime, to learn and carry back to the rural villages the knowledge and the incitement to felonious practices.”
It appears that, on the several grounds of public expediency, for the preservation of the public health, and for the preservation of the public peace, all common lodging-houses,—all places which are open for the reception of strangers, travellers, and wayfarers by the night, and houses laid out and provided for numbers of lodgers, should be subjected to regulations for the protection of the inmates as well as the public at large. This appears, indeed, to be consistent with the ancient police of the country. By narrowing the definition of the places for which licences were rendered necessary to those where spirits or fermented liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises, (as if a revenue were the only proper object of their government,) it appears that there has been a mischievous dereliction of the ancient and sound policy of the law which subjects the “victualler” as well as the keeper of the hostel, inn, or lodging-house to responsibilities for the protection of the inmates, and the convenience of the inhabitants in the neighbourhood where such houses may be situate. The common lodging-house keeper is in fact an inferior victualler, but evading the licence and the responsibilities of the victualler, by sending out for the fermented liquors which are consumed by the lodgers.
It appears, from various portions of evidence, that the occupation of a lodging-house keeper is a profitable one: instances are given from various parts of the country where the keepers of such houses have accumulated property; and whilst the keepers of public-houses, however small, or of beer-shops, are subjected to the necessity of taking out licences, there is no apparent reason for the exemption of lodging-house keepers from that charge by reason of poverty; neither should I consider that it would be a disadvantage, but the contrary, if the proper regulation of such houses were effected at some increase of the price of the lodgings. On examination of the description of persons accommodated in such houses, (whilst there is a public provision for those who are really in a state of destitution, and means are provided for removing them to their places of settlement when it is necessary,) I find no class whose migration is entitled to any encouragement by any diminution of the charge of providing proper lodgings. Another topic of consideration in connexion with houses of this class, is the tendency of the degraded accommodation to degrade the classes of the population who have recourse to it. I would therefore submit for consideration, whether all common lodging-houses should not be required by law to take out licences in the same manner as public-houses; and that, as the condition of holding such licences, they be subjected to inspection by the medical officers of the union (or the district medical officer), and bound to conform to such sanitary regulations in respect to cleanliness, ventilation, and numbers proportioned to the space, as he may be authorized to prescribe for the protection of the health of the inmates: and also that all such lodging-houses shall be subjected to the regulations of the magistrates, and shall be open to the visits and inspection of the police, for the enforcement of duly authorized regulations, without any search-warrant or other authority than that necessary for their entrance into any house belonging to a licensed victualler.
It may further be submitted for consideration that, by the beneficial progress made in the habits of temperance in some districts, the disuse of spirituous or fermented liquors may enable the proprietors of houses of a higher order of resort than those in question to convert them into coffee-houses or victualling-houses, and at the same time dispense with the expense of the licence, and avoid also the responsibilities for the protection of the public which the law has attached to licensed houses of resort for travellers.
From the reports received from the more populous towns, it would appear that there are few houses which are let for the accommodation of large numbers of regular lodgers which might not be benefited by the inspection of a medical officer. I believe it would be more beneficial to the public to extend than to narrow the definition of the places which should be subjected to regulations as lodging-houses; and that a discretion as to the description of house which shall be included might be safely confided to the magistrates who have local charge of the public peace and the public economy of the towns.
The report received from _Mr. Charles R. Baird_, on the state of the law applicable to the sanitary regulation of Glasgow, and the condition of the labouring classes, as affected by the incompleteness or absence of such regulations, affords evidence of the practical effect of measures such as those recommended. Powers for the execution of such measures have been already obtained and put into operation by the magistrates and authorities of that city.
“The lodging-houses,” said Dr. Cowan, “are the media through which the newly-arrived immigrants find their way to the fever hospital; and it is remarkable how many of the inmates of that hospital, coming from lodging-houses, have not been six months in the city.” He might have added, these lodging-houses are the great _foci_ of poverty, vice, and crime, as well as of disease. These houses are generally of a very wretched description, in low, unwholesome situations, exceedingly dirty and ill-ventilated, and are frequently crowded to excess, it being no uncommon thing to find 8, 10, and 12 persons in one small apartment, as 9 feet by 8, or 11 by 8. Some of them also have no beds whatever in them, the inmates lying on the bare floor, or with a few shavings below them, with their clothes on. A more particular description of them will be got in Captain Miller’s Papers on Crime in the City Proper, Mr. Rutherglen’s (one of the magistrates) on Calton, and Mr. Richardson on the Barony of Gorbals. It would appear from these published documents, and from what I have been able to learn otherwise, that the lodging-houses in the City Proper are decidedly of the worst description; but I am aware that the authorities are adopting means to have them in better order in future. In the burgh of Anderston they have for some time been under the surveillance of the police; and a record is kept of all lodging-houses for the accommodation of casual visitors in Gorbals (by which it appears that there were lately 92—50 kept by males, and 42 by females; only 25 of them entertain the lowest class of poor), so that they may be properly regulated. It is only in Calton, however, that they are attended to with that strict care which is requisite, and fortunately the last Police Act for that burgh gives ample powers for that purpose. It provides, by section 20, That no keeper of lodging-houses of an inferior description, for the accommodation of mendicant strangers and others, shall receive lodgers without the house having been inspected and approved of by the superintendent of police, and the superintendent is authorized to fix the number of lodgers who may be accommodated, and to order a ticket containing the number of lodgers for which each house is registered; and any rules or instructions of the commissioners of police regarding health, cleanliness, and ventilation, to be placed in a conspicuous part of each room in which lodgers are received. It also provides that the keepers of such lodgings offending against these regulations shall be liable in penalties. Section 21 enacts, That in the event of any person in such houses becoming ill of fever or other disease, the keepers shall be bound to give intimation thereof to the superintendent of police or inspector, so that the disease may be inquired into and treated, and the magistrates are authorized to order such persons to be removed. And section 22 further enacts, That on any contagious or infectious disease occurring in any such lodging-houses, or in any house or apartment in any house, or apartment in any common tenement, &c., where there is reasonable apprehension of such diseases spreading, the magistrates may cause the remaining lodgers to be removed, and measures to be taken for the disinfecting and cleaning of the houses and apartments, and for the washing and purifying of the persons and clothes of the inhabitants.
“In addition to these excellent provisions, the magistrates of Calton, in virtue of the powers in their police Acts, have issued the following rules and instructions to be observed by all keepers of lodging-houses, viz.—1st. The floors are to be washed at least twice in each week, viz., on Wednesday and Saturday. 2nd. The walls are to be whitewashed, and the houses thoroughly cleaned, on the 1st day of each of the months of June, August, November and March, or on the following day if any of these days fall on Sunday. And, 3rd. The blankets used in all lodging-houses are to be thoroughly cleaned and scoured on the 8th day of each of the months of June, August, November, and March, or on the following day if any of these days fall on Sunday; and if any person or persons in such house shall be affected with fever or other infectious disease, the blankets and bed clothes used by such person or persons shall be thoroughly cleaned and scoured immediately after the removal of the diseased, and the bedding used by persons affected with contagious disease fumigated immediately after the removal of such person or persons. And where the bedding used is shavings or straw, the same shall be burnt immediately after such removal.
“These provisions and regulations have been very judiciously enforced by the magistrates of Calton and their superintendent of police, and have been productive of most beneficial results. In addition to what was formerly stated by Bailie Rutherglen, I have now before me a distinct statement, by Mr. Smart, regarding the lodging-houses and state of fever in Calton, which enables me to give the following information:—Between 1st September, 1840, and 1st February last, 319 persons were brought before the magistrates of Calton for keeping unregistered lodging-houses. Of these 216 were ordered to desist from keeping lodgers till houses registered, &c.; 91 were fined and ordained not to keep lodgers; 12 cases were dismissed. Of the 307 convicted for keeping unregistered lodging-houses, 90 got their houses inspected and registered, 30 removed from the burgh, and 189 gave over keeping lodgers, and were refused registration—refused principally on account of the want of proper accommodation, and a few for harbouring disreputable characters. Mr. Smart also informs me that several hundreds of the worst houses of the poorer classes have been whitewashed with Irish lime, and the lodging-houses having been put under wholesome regulations, a marked improvement has taken place. In Whisky-close, New-street, for several years past, as many as 30 cases of fever occurred annually. Lime-washed in September last, and the vagrants removed; only one case of fever has been known: and Mr. Smart concludes, “I believe there are 1000 fever cases less in Calton this day than there were on 1st September last.” Why should not the same measures that have been so successfully enforced in Calton be introduced into the City Proper and the other suburban districts?”
It were only a statement of the concurrent opinion of the commissioners of police, of magistrates, of medical officers, and of the guardians charged with the administration of the poor’s rates, to represent the urgent necessity of legislative provisions for the general adoption of similar measures throughout the country.
IX.—RECAPITULATION OF CONCLUSIONS.
The last cited instance of the practical operation of measures for the abatement of the nuisances attendant on common lodging-houses may also be submitted as an instance of the advantages derivable from the extension of such fields of inquiries as the present. On each of the chief points included in it there would have been a loss of what I hope will be deemed valuable corroborative information, had the inquiry been confined either to England or to Scotland. The observation of the important productive use of the refuse of the city of Edinburgh would have been of comparatively little value as evidence leading to practical applications, apart from the observation of what is accomplished by the practical application of science to sewerage and drainage for the immediate and cheapest removal of all the refuse of towns by water through closed drains afforded by the operation in the Holborn and Finsbury division of the metropolis. It may be stated confidently that, if the inquiry could conveniently have had still further extension as to time and place, the information would have been strengthened and rendered more complete. From incidental facts I have met with, I am led to believe that the whole of the effects which are the subject of the present report would have been still more strikingly displayed in many parts of Ireland.
After as careful an examination of the evidence collected as I have been enabled to make, I beg leave to recapitulate the chief conclusions which that evidence appears to me to establish.
_First, as to the extent and operation of the evils which are the subject of the inquiry_:—
That the various forms of epidemic, endemic, and other disease caused, or aggravated, or propagated chiefly amongst the labouring classes by atmospheric impurities produced by decomposing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and overcrowded dwellings prevail amongst the population in every part of the kingdom, whether dwelling in separate houses, in rural villages, in small towns, in the larger towns—as they have been found to prevail in the lowest, districts of the metropolis.
That such disease, wherever its attacks are frequent, is always found in connexion with the physical circumstances above specified, and that where those circumstances are removed by drainage, proper cleansing, better ventilation, and other means of diminishing atmospheric impurity, the frequency and intensity of such disease is abated; and where the removal of the noxious agencies appears to be complete, such disease almost entirely disappears.
That high prosperity in respect to employment and wages, and various and abundant food, have afforded to the labouring classes no exemptions from attacks of epidemic disease, which have been as frequent and as fatal in periods of commercial and manufacturing prosperity as in any others.
That the formation of all habits of cleanliness is obstructed by defective supplies of water.
That the annual loss of life from filth and bad ventilation are greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times.
That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved from the poor’s rates in England and Wales alone, it appears that the greatest proportion of deaths of the heads of families occurred from the above specified and other removable causes; that their ages were under 45 years; that is to say, 13 years below the natural probabilities of life as shown by the experience of the whole population of Sweden.
That the public loss from the premature deaths of the heads of families is greater than can be represented by any enumeration of the pecuniary burdens consequent upon their sickness and death.
That, measuring the loss of working ability amongst large classes by the instances of gain, even from incomplete arrangements for the removal of noxious influences from places of work or from abodes, that this loss cannot be less than eight or ten years.
That the ravages of epidemics and other diseases do not diminish but tend to increase the pressure of population.
That in the districts where the mortality is the greatest the births are not only sufficient to replace the numbers removed by death, but to add to the population.
That the younger population, bred up under noxious physical agencies, is inferior in physical organization and general health to a population preserved from the presence of such agencies.
That the population so exposed is less susceptible of moral influences, and the effects of education are more transient than with a healthy population.
That these adverse circumstances tend to produce an adult population short-lived, improvident, reckless, and intemperate, and with habitual avidity for sensual gratifications.
That these habits lead to the abandonment of all the conveniences and decencies of life, and especially lead to the overcrowding of their homes, which is destructive to the morality as well as the health of large classes of both sexes.
That defective town cleansing fosters habits of the most abject degradation and tends to the demoralization of large numbers of human beings, who subsist by means of what they find amidst the noxious filth accumulated in neglected streets and bye-places.
That the expenses of local public works are in general unequally and unfairly assessed, oppressively and uneconomically collected, by separate collections, wastefully expended in separate and inefficient operations by unskilled and practically irresponsible officers.
That the existing law for the protection of the public health and the constitutional machinery for reclaiming its execution, such as the Courts Leet, have fallen into desuetude, and are in the state indicated by the prevalence of the evils they were intended to prevent.
_Secondly. As to the means by which the present sanitary condition of the labouring classes may be improved_:—
The primary and most important measures, and at the same time the most practicable, and within the recognized province of public administration, are drainage, the removal of all refuse of habitations, streets, and roads, and the improvement of the supplies of water.
That the chief obstacles to the immediate removal of decomposing refuse of towns and habitations have been the expense and annoyance of the hand labour and cartage requisite for the purpose.
That this expense may be reduced to one-twentieth or to one-thirtieth, or rendered inconsiderable, by the use of water and self-acting means of removal by improved and cheaper sewers and drains.
That refuse when thus held in suspension in water may be most cheaply and innoxiously conveyed to any distance out of towns, and also in the best form for productive use, and that the loss and injury by the pollution of natural streams may be avoided. That for all these purposes, as well as for domestic use, better supplies of water are absolutely necessary.
That for successful and economical drainage the adoption of geological areas as the basis of operations is requisite.
That appropriate scientific arrangements for public drainage would afford important facilities for private land-drainage, which is important for the health as well as sustenance of the labouring classes.
That the expense of public drainage, of supplies of water laid on in houses, and of means of improved cleansing would be a pecuniary gain, by diminishing the existing charges attendant on sickness and premature mortality.
That for the protection of the labouring classes and of the ratepayers against inefficiency and waste in all new structural arrangements for the protection of the public health, and to ensure public confidence that the expenditure will be beneficial, securities should be taken that all new local public works are devised and conducted by responsible officers qualified by the possession of the science and skill of civil engineers.
That the oppressiveness and injustice of levies for the whole immediate outlay on such works upon persons who have only short interests in the benefits may be avoided by care in spreading the expense over periods coincident with the benefits.
That by appropriate arrangements, 10 or 15 per cent. on the ordinary outlay for drainage might be saved, which on an estimate of the expense of the necessary structural alterations of one-third only of the existing tenements would be a saving of one million and a half sterling, besides the reduction of the future expenses of management.
That for the prevention of the disease occasioned by defective ventilation, and other causes of impurity in places of work and other places where large numbers are assembled, and for the general promotion of the means necessary to prevent disease, that it would be good economy to appoint a district medical officer independent of private practice, and with the securities of special qualifications and responsibilities to initiate sanitary measures and reclaim the execution of the law.
That by the combinations of all these arrangements, it is probable that the full ensurable period of life indicated by the Swedish tables; that is, an increase of 13 years at least, may be extended to the whole of the labouring classes.
That the attainment of these and the other collateral advantages of reducing existing charges and expenditure are within the power of the legislature, and are dependent mainly on the securities taken for the application of practical science, skill, and economy in the direction of local public works.
And that the removal of noxious physical circumstances, and the promotion of civic, household, and personal cleanliness, are necessary to the improvement of the moral condition of the population; for that sound morality and refinement in manners and health are not long found co-existant with filthy habits amongst any class of the community.