that laid down by the Scotch Nuisances Removal Act, and hinged on price. The space demanded was to be 12 cubic yards. APPENDIX. No. 2. Modes of Administration tried in Scotland, Glasgow, A few well-authenticated details about Leith will probably apply to many of the prosperous towns of Scotland. Houses were scarce. The Housing of the class of houses offered to be let were from 127. to 207. a year, and the Poor in Towns, landlord would hold them empty rather than see them degraded into by Dr. Hunter. single-room tenements. The few small self-contained houses were reputed damp, cold, and poorly finished; substance and value were thought well laid out in building even for the poor. A steady man with 20s. or 22s. a week seldom lived in less than two rooms, and would pay a rent of 67. to 81. A tenement of a kitchen 14 feet by 14, and Liverpool. with a bedroom 12 feet by 12, part of a great house, was let for 71. 10s., paid half yearly. A room and closet, 5l. 5s. A room in basement, 41. 4s. Single garrets, 31., 21. 15s., and 27. All these rents were inclusive of water, and not above 5 per cent. of these sums was lost. The Loith factors collect for absent proprietors at 5 per cent. DUMFRIES. At Dumfries also the Scotch Police Act of 1862 was of too recent and incomplete introduction to afford much information as to its working. No byelaws have yet been framed under the Act. A house-to-house visitation now going on will give data for their construction in the matters of overcrowding and unfit dwellings. The superintendent of police was inspector of nuisances and of common lodgings; a common arrangement in Scotland where there is no Common Lodgings Act, but the lodging houses are controlled under the Nuisance Removal Act of 1856. The regulations respecting such houses are printed, and contain the usual Scotch definition, "where "lodgers are housed at an amount not exceeding 3d. per night for "each person whether the same be paid nightly or weekly." There was no cubic minimum of space expressed in the regulations ; this was left to discretion. With this exception, they were good enough. But in the only house I visited the majority of the regulations were set at defiance in noon day. Mrs. S.'s had seven beds for 14 persons who paid 3d. a night, or 1s. 6d. a week. The house was a ground floor only, with a stone pavement throughout, below the level of the ground outside,-dark and rough. On measurement I found only 150 cubic feet of space per head. The windows were closed. There were not the usual tickets and utensils. A cart came round every morning to carry away the contents of the pots where there were any. There were about 12 such houses with about 10 beds each, and S.'s was represented to be an average specimen. The house was dirty, and showed that the regulations wanted strict administration, and that night visits and exact measurements will have to be introduced before moderate comfort and decency can be attained. GLASGOW. DUMFRIES. GLASGOW. The only local act of much importance in Scotland is at Glasgow. * 3d. a night, paid nightly or weekly. APPENDIX. On the Modes of By section 256 the medical officer is directed to point out parts of the city which require sanitary amendment, and to propose the necessary measures. Housing of the Poor in Towns, By sections 257 and 260 the authorities, on receipt of the medical by Dr. Hunter. officer's report, can, with the consent of the Privy Council, declare special sanitary regulations to be in force within certain districts. The Administration nature of these regulations is to be found in section 261, and among tried in Scot- them is that "for preventing the overcrowding of private dwelling land, Glasgow," houses, by fixing the maximum number of persons who shall live or and Liverpool." be lodged therein, in the same way as is herein-after provided with "reference to lodging houses." Overcrowding. Unfit houses. Extraordinary powers. Section 266 professes to define the expression "lodging house" to be a building "in which any person is lodged by the night or other short "period, at a rate for lodging not exceeding 6d. per night, or at a "rate for lodging and boarding, or part boarding, not exceeding Is. per night." 66 Section 375 provides that it shall not be lawful for any person to suffer to be used for the purpose of sleeping in, any apartment unless one third of its height is above the level of the ground outside, and unless there is some space in front of the windows proportionate to the height of the buildings. A fine is provided; but certain exceptions may be pleaded, and a register of excepted apartments is ordered to be kept. The exceptions are all unimportant but the last, in which are included all rooms which were in use as sleeping apartments before the passing of the act. The claims to exemption are not admitted without a sifting by the very acute master of works. The important clauses which give a peculiar and exemplary character to the act begin with section 384, and are, abbreviated, as follow : Sect. 384. It shall not be lawful for any proprietor to let, or for any person to take in lease, or, after the 28th May 1863, to use or suffer to be used for the purpose of sleeping in, any apartment in which there is not at least one window, or in which each window is not so constructed or hung as that at least one third of it may be conveniently and easily opened, or in which the sash of such window, or the sashes of the several windows therein, are not of the dimensions herein-after provided, viz.: If the said apartment contains less than 2,500 cubic feet of space, unless the sash give a superficial area in the proportion of one foot to every 100 of such cubic feet: If the said apartment contains more than 2,500 cubic feet of space, unless the sash give a superficial area in the proportion of one foot for every 150 of such cubic feet. or after Sect. 385. It shall not be lawful to let or to take in lease, 28th May 1863 to suffer to be used as a separate dwelling, any building or part of a building, which, exclusive of lobbies, closets, or presses, not of the following dimensions, namely: is If such dwelling house consists of only one apartment, and was used as a separate dwelling house previous to the passing of this act, unless it contains at least 700 cubic feet of space, or if it was not so used unless it contains at least 900 cubic feet of space: If such dwelling house consists of only two apartments, and was used as a separate dwelling house previous to the passing of this act, unless it contains at least 1,200 cubic feet of space, or if it was not so used unless it contains at least 1,500 cubic feet of space: If such dwelling house consists of only three apartments, and was used as a separate dwelling house previous to the passing of this act, unless it contains at least 1,800 cubic feet of space, or if it was not so used unless it contains at least 2,000 cubic feet of space. Sect. 386 provides penalties for letting or using apartments in con travention of the act. Sect. 387. It shall be lawful for any person appointed by the board from time to time to enter any dwelling house which consists of not more than three apartments, for the purpose of measuring in cubic feet the space contained therein, exclusive of lobbies, closets, or presses, and to mark on or over the outside of the door if the cubic contents do not exceed 2,000 feet, or to affix thereto a ticket on which are marked the number of such cubic feet, and the number of persons exceeding the age of eight years, who, without a breach of the provision next herein-after contained, may sleep therein; and any person who defaces such ticket shall be liable to penalty. Sect. 388. If any dwelling house which consists of not more than three apartments is used for the purpose of sleeping in by a greater number of persons than in the proportion of one person of the age of 8 years or upwards for every 300 cubic feet of space, or of one child for every 150 cubic feet contained therein, exclusive of lobbies, closets, and presses, or by a greater number of persons than is marked thereon in pursuance of the provisions herein-before contained, every person so suffering it to be used shall be liable to penalty. By sect. 389, when a building is ruinous and dangerous to the inhabitants, the surveyor may cause them to remove; and by sect. 391 waste or ruinous properties may be sold by the authorities, and the proceeds divided among the owners. It does not appear that in the Glasgow Act the owner is made so directly responsible for overcrowding as under the General Act. The sects. 263 and 264 relate to the owner executing works, but not abating crowding, while sect. 265 appears to bring under fine the occupier only. The condition of the Glasgow poor was always bad. They were Administration. of dirty habits, and want of room deprived them of the means of reformation. Houses had been destroyed in Glasgow, but others had been built up, intended for the poor, and not of so capacious or convenient a character as the old. Here, as too often in large agglomerations of men, the experiment of providing more room had failed even under the favourable conditions (which must always b exceptional) of a gratuitous supply. Poverty induces filth, and on of the commonest forms of filth is the love of close companionship. It was not until charitable effort had been balked by the character of the people that an act was applied for, which had not for its object the extension of the accommodation, but rather the increase of the demand for accommodation then dormant, by routing out colonies of people who were ruining each other, body and soul, through permitting an unnaturally constant observation of each others doings, and contact with each others persons. The ample powers given to the Glasgow corporation are carried out by Dr. Gairdner, the medical officer, Mr. Carrick, the master of works, and Captain Smart of the police. In addition to Dr. Gairdner, canitary objects have the services of Dr. M'Gill and the four APPENDIX. other surgeons of the police, who act each in his own district. These officers, although to some extent having concurrent jurisdiction over the same class of evils in the same localities, work harmoniously, Housing of the and their action, stringent as it is, is now accepted by the inhabitants Poor in Towns, of nearly all classes as beneficial. by Dr. Hunter. No. 2. On the Modes of Administration Powers and duties of medical officers. The police surgeons visit all localities in which there is a prevalent epidemic disease, of which they have received warning from their assistants or from the officers of public charities. These visits lead tried in Scot- to cleansing, for which the corporation will in poor neighbourhoods land, Glasgow, pay. Whenever necessary, the police surgeons call in the chief officer, and Liverpool. Dr. Gairdner, and he, if he considers the condition of affairs sufficiently urgent, puts in force the sections 256-61 already quoted, thus declaring a sort of state of siege within a defined district, where he can exercise great additional powers. The reports of the visiting medical officers or police surgeons to their chief do not necessarily lead to invocation of the above-mentioned sections. The chief deals with cases (such as want of water) where the authority will have to negotiate with the landlord, or to recommend structural changes. He licenses new applicants for keeping common lodging houses. He from time to time submits to the master of works instances which his department has discovered of persons whose poverty of accommodation brings them within the terms of sections 384-389, which are administered by the master of works. It may be observed here that the present able medical officer does not consider that the cubic space named either in the Glasgow Act as proper for private houses, or the 12 cubic yards of the Scotch lodging-house law sufficient, although he is obliged to take them as his guide. But it must not be inferred that he has dealt with the matter in an inconsiderate doctrinaire sort of way; on the contrary he is generally thought responsible, and probably will not disclaim the responsibility, for the numerous exceptions made in favour of single persons or of old couples, who had made what they intended to be their permanent resting place before the act, and are allowed to live out their term, on conditions very different from what will be allowed to their successors. Dr. Gairdner's reports, like those of the metropolitan officers of health, teem with instances of overcrowding and of wretched accommodation. The instances have this peculiarity, that nearly all are breaches of the law which have been since remedied. In July 1863, Dr. Gairdner reports that at 285, Argyle Street, is a house of 72 rooms, nearly all of which are separate tenements, and that some such, containing only 600 cubic feet of air, are occupied by 4 or 5 persons. He then describes the unreformed state of the Rookery, relating how rooms of 497 cubic feet received 3, 5, and even 6 persons as their only habitation. In October 1863 he relates the advantages of a purchase by the corporation of some old and neglected property, by means of which hundreds of people were routed out of a small group of houses. At 65, Bridgegate, lived a whole family in a room without a window. At 103, Gallowgate, 5 persons were ill with fever in a room sunk below the level of the close, without a window of any kind, and damp, dark, and noisome. At 47, Coalhill Street, a room of 800 feet was the sole habitation of nine persons. At 14, Broad Street, 3 persons occupied a room little more than 5 feet in each direction. In their proper place in Dr. Gairdner's reports, but not necessary to be extracted here, are frequent instances contributing to the evidence that at Glasgow disease is the constant guest in houses so constructed and so inhabited. APPENDIX. No. 2. On the Modes of The Glasgow Act provides against the crowding of persons in a house; the Liverpool Act against the crowding of houses on the ground; and both are retrospective in action, running in the face of vested interests; though in the Liverpool case giving compensation, Housing of the and in Glasgow none. As far as they have gone, both acts may be Poor in Towns, considered as successful. Instances were abundant where misery was by Dr. Hunter. plainly traceable to badly constructed houses as the cause, and not a few instances were shown where the greatest benefit had attended the Administration application of the extraordinary powers of the act. It is but a small tried in Scotpart of the services of Mr. Carrick to carry out the clauses against land, Glasgow, overcrowding, and it is done well. The vast edifices with which he and Liverpool. has to deal did until lately really swarm with people. Old Glasgow was originally set out in narrow lanes of one or two storeys high, the Powers and field of duty of high houses of the front streets being the residences of the wealthy. Master of The lane, always too narrow even for cottages, became (as may even Works. now be seen) simply intolerable for human existence when the cottages rose on the original sites to be houses of 5 or 6 storeys. The cottages had no yards, and the houses have often none. The cottages had no privies, and the houses have often none, though the population is five foided. As to want of outlet, the sight of yard-arms projecting from the bedroom windows of the narrow streets of the northern cities, and the petticoats and linen hanging from them, are really so many flags of distress, for upstair washing may be taken as the signal of the residence of a miserable people, a mark at once of single-room occupancy and of incomplete cleaning. As to the other want, education in the use of closets, such as is given in Welsh schools, is wanted in Glasgow. There are some public closets cleaned by the corporation, but very few regular domestic closets, and the lanes suffer for the arrangement. The master of works despairs of these localities. The application of the act may much reduce the population, though in such warrens it is very difficult, as the people habitually stay out visiting or drinking until the police have finished their inspection; but nothing short of a Liverpool act can cure the main evil. Relief is expected from the demolitions of a coming railway; but this will not be enough. Between the Saltmarket and King Street, between High Street and Shuttle Street, and between Stirling Street and Bell Street are three masses of chambered stonework, where the population sleeps respectively 670, 880, and 954 on the statute acre,† measuring to the centres of the bounding streets. Were the front houses in these good streets excluded from the quotation, the space occupied by the poor in the back alleys would be densely covered indeed. Glasgow houses are immense in size and solid in construction; but in this noble looking city there are 35,000 tenements at rents below 51. a year, the average rent of them being but 31. 12s. 6d. There is another 35,000 of houses above 51. but below 107., and their average rent is but 77. * Pipe House Close was an instance, with five-storied houses and 1,400 persons, in a lane 14 feet wide at the widest part. The ground plot here alluded to is of about 10 acres. The following are the rates of the density of the population of cities of Great Britain and Ireland: Liverpool 93.3 Dublin 66.9 London 38 7 79.1 Birmingham 41.9 The boundaries of these places are, however, merely political, and by no means represent the area of continuous building. For a whole parish Sunderland, which is said to carry 176 persons on the acre, is one of the most populous; but the small parishes within the metropolis are the highest on the list. |