Sanitary Condition. 7. misconception of the motives of ministers," poverty and crowded dwellings, and the inadequate supply of Christian agency.' That these causes have operated prejudicially, there can be no doubt; but the present reveals a growing improvement on the second and third. Ministers of religion are, to some extent, interesting themselves actively in the condition of the poor, and those neglecting public worship. The people generally seem to respect their motives and welcome their visits. The sermons to the working classes, lately organised, have been wonderfully successful, and will, we doubt not, prove eminently beneficial. But when we consider the rapid increase of great cities, and the necessity for the proportionate addition to places of worship and Christian agencies, all that has been done during the last seven years since the census was taken has produced little effect. There is at home, in this field of enterprise, a sphere for all Christian men, for liberality and benevolence, that the streets and alleys of our crowded cities may become the habitations of a religious people, who rejoice when it is said unto them, on the first day of the week, Let us go into the house of the Lord.' The IMPURITY prevalent in our great cities is attracting the attention of philanthropists at present. It is high time that it should engage their earnest consideration. We have allowed this sore to fester too long, until its dire results appal us. We cannot but regard the movements recently made on this subject as of the greatest importance to social health and public morals. Attention will be called to it in another portion of this journal. The shocking SANITARY condition of many of our cities and large towns is a blot on our advanced science and civilisation, and on our professed philanthropy. In many cases we have shown zeal on behalf of those who are at a distance, and have neglected our own flesh and blood, who are passing a brief and miserable existence in the dirty, badly-ventilated, overcrowded dwellings of the lanes and alleys of our populous towns. Bad air, bad light, bad water, bad drainage, and bad homes, are annually destroying many of our fellow-citizens, who claim at our hands some sympathy and help. Until very recently we have allowed these evils to produce their fevers, and encourage cholera and other fell diseases. In thousands of homes numbers are huddled together in apartments, where, as Sir James Clark declares :-"The atmosphere in the morning smells more like that of a charnel-house than an apartment for the repose of human beings.' In addition to this is the fact that many dead are retained in houses where whole families are living, eating, and sleeping in a single room. On this subject the statement of Mr. Hopley, in a Lecture on Respiration,' published a few years ago, is sufficiently alarming, when he says: • From From evidence laid before Parliament, it appears that of the deaths which take place in the metropolis, " upwards of one half are of the labouring classes ;” and further," that of these, four out of five occur in families that have only one living and sleeping room." Now the annual deaths for London may be estimated at 52,000, of which upwards of 26,000 are of the labouring population. Upwards of 20,000 of these deaths, therefore, occur in families possessing but one living and sleeping room;" that is to say, in upwards of 20,000 instances, every year, the corpse must be kept, during the interval between death and interment, in the same room in which the surviving members of the family live and sleep.' This consists with the harrowing description recently given by Dr. Letheby, Medical Officer of Health to the City of London, and copied into almost all the periodical press throughout the country. He found the rate of mortality increasing, the condition of the houses becoming worse, while amidst the overcrowding, the filth, and the indecency that were there, disease, licentiousness, and misery abounded. That which exists in London may be observed in many other places, and the consequences are everywhere the same. We need only to follow the footsteps of the cholera to mark the towns and villages whose sanitary condition was unhealthy. Of late, by means of the Board of Health, Acts of Parliament, sanitary associations, and other societies, considerable interest has been awakened in this matter, and some improvements made; but we are yet far from the normal condition which an enlightened people should attain. Until better air, better water, better houses be secured for the masses of the people, we cannot wonder that the narrow streets and lanes of our cities should flow with immortal sewerage,' while that which should be washed away stagnates and dispenses death. There can be no doubt that an improved sanitary condition of a place is a means of diminishing disease, poverty, vice, and crime. In houses that have been erected on sanitary principles this has been remarkably exhibited. Dr. Southwood Smith cites a case illustrative of this. In Lambeth-square, near Waterloo-road, a population of 434 souls were huddled together. One person in five was diseased, and fifty and sixty per thousand annually died. The square was drained, water was made abundant, and used to carry away what formerly remained in cesspools. The change soon appeared. The mortality declined to thirteen per thousand. 'Moral pestilence,' said Dr. Smith, has at the same time been checked. The intemperate have become sober, and the disorderly well-conducted, since taking up their abode in these healthful and peaceful dwellings. No charge of crime, no complaint even of disturbance has been lodged at any police-station, against a resident in these dwellings since their first occupancy.' It is possible, then, to amend these evils, and to promote the comfort, the health, and the morals of the sunken masses of the people by a sanitary reformation. The amount of PAUPERISM in the United Kingdom is great, when when considered in the light of the industrial advantages and colonial openings offered to the whole community. A million and a half of persons are annually receiving relief, and eight millions of pounds are expended from the public rates to meet this. But in addition, according to The Times,' the cost of begging amounts to a million and a half; thus making the annual expenditure of ten millions for the support of the poor. This is a large sum. That the poor should be provided with the means of sustenance is a positive duty. It is one of the beneficent influences of Christianity, that it cares for the poor. But it is remarkable that so much poverty should abound, amidst British industry and wealth, as to require an annual expenditure of ten millions. That this indicates social disease will, we think, appear to the reader ere he finishes this paper. The statistics of CRIME afford another means of ascertaining our social condition. Gaols are too small. Our colonies refuse to receive our criminals. The number of commitments is increasing. The total number of commitments in 1854 was 29,359 against 27,057 in 1853, and 27,510 in 1852, showing an increase of 8.5 per cent. on the four preceding years.' Increase of population may be pleaded against this; but crime was 30 per cent. higher in 1854 than in 1835, notwithstanding all educational efforts. Juvenile delinquency lately reached so great a height as to awaken an interest which has vibrated to the legislature, and has resulted in the public support of ragged schools and reformatories for the prevention of crime-institutions which have been an incalculable blessing to many youths. INTEMPERANCE is one of the greatest social evils in this empire. Our country, which ranks so high among the nations for civilisation, liberty, and commerce, is confessedly the most drunken. Its drinking customs eat out the life of the lower classes of the people. Formerly the upper and middle classes were public scandal for their drunkenness; but now, when these are reforming, the lower classes have become the prey of this insidious and destructive vice. The facilities for drink abound, and publicans outnumber all other trades. In cities and towns spirit-shops and beer-houses are at every corner, and in the most rural districts they are numerous. In some localities they are in the proportion of 1 to every 15 houses, and throughout the country there is 1 to every 137 people. They are resorted to by our mechanics, artisans, and labourers, and, alas! too frequently by their wives also: "Tis here they learn The road that leads from competence and peace Shakes her encumbered lap and casts them out.' Intemperance costs the country about 60,000,000l. a-year. It is the chief cause of all the social evils to which we have referred. Ministers of religion testify that it is the greatest hindrance to their success. City missionaries regard it as the most powerful obstacle to their labour among the sunken masses of the people. Poor-law guardians ascribe to it the majority of cases of pauperism. Our judges and prison governors declare that it occasions most criminal offences. Medical men in hospitals and in general practice find it the most prolific source of disease. Governors of lunatic asylums refer the insanity of many of their unhappy patients to its dire influence. Commercial statistics show its injurious effects on trade and shipping, and vital statistics its evil influence on life. It is the chief cause of pauperism. Sir Archibald Alison, the sheriff of Lanarkshire, attributes one-half of the pauperism to intemperance. The late Archibald Prentice, who was well versed in the social condition of Manchester, says that two-thirds of the pauperism there is similarly originated. An Edinburgh inspector of the poor made this statement: An experience of now nearly twenty years in the management of the poor has forced me to the conclusion that nearly two-thirds of the destitution which exists, and is relieved from the poor's funds, is traceable either to the more remote or immediate causes of intemperance.' Of 21,000l. expended, the same individual deducts 12,000l. for the fruits of drunkenness. If we take this proportion as a fair average, then of the ten millions spent in support of the poor, six are caused by intemperance; and of the million and a half of persons relieved, about one million are brought to poverty by drink. Were this social evil cured, or even considerably arrested, how much would taxation be lightened, and how many families would be saved from poverty! That intemperance is the chief cause of crime in this country has been frequently proved before Committees of the House of Commons on the evidence of magistrates, gaol chaplains, and others interested in the subject. From some statistics now before us, procured and published by the Scottish Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness, it is abundantly attested that nearly fifty per cent. of commitments in Scotland are directly caused by intemperance, and two-thirds of the other cases indirectly. The opinions of those who have occasion to come into closest contact with criminals have frequently expressed the same conclusion. We need not repeat what has been often quoted; but we may be permitted to give a few extracts from reports and speeches by persons whose words have authority. Matthew Davenport Hill, Esq., the recorder of Birmingham-a gentleman whose interest in social reform is known to all, and whose ample opportunity for careful examination of criminal cases, as well as his painstaking consider Intemperance a Great Cause of Disease. 11 ation of the question, entitle him to be heard with respect-made the following statement to the grand jury of Birmingham in January, 1855: Those of you who bear in mind the charges which have been delivered from this bench, on the causes of crime, will naturally ask how it is that the enormous consumption of intoxicating liquors which prevails through the land-a sonrce of crime not only more fertile than any other, but than all others added togethershould have been hitherto passed by, or only have been brought under notice as incidental to some other topic. The subject has occupied my thoughts for years; strange, indeed, must have been the state of my mind if it had not forced itself upon my attention, since the evils arising from the use of intoxicating drinks meet us at every turn. And, for myself, I cannot pass an hour in court without being reminded, by the transactions which are put in evidence before me, of the infinite ramifications of this fatal pest.' He then goes on to say :— 'Crime, gentlemen, is the extreme link in the chain of vice forged by intemperance the last step in the dark descent, and thousands who stop short of criminality, yet suffer all the other miseries (and manifold they are) with which the demon Alcohol afflicts his victims.'* The Rev. John Clay, long the chaplain of Preston Gaol, and well known as an accomplished statist and practical philanthropist, said in his Thirty-first Report, 1855: I would note the fact, that during two years I have heard 1,126 male prisoners attribute their offences-frauds, larcenies, robberies, burglaries, rapes, homicides to drink! And if every prisoner's habits and history were fully inquired into, it would be placed beyond doubt that nine-tenths of the English crime requiring to be dealt with by the law, arises from the English sin which the same law scarcely discourages.'† Similar testimonies are being delivered every day by those who are connected with the administration of criminal law; and they are sufficiently alarming to demand the attention of our statesmen, philanthropists, and the sober and industrious people. They force the conviction upon all who desire to advance social reform that some stronger restraint than has been hitherto tried should be laid on the traffic in intoxicating liquors for the protection of public virtue and the welfare of the people. Intemperance is a great cause of disease. Of course we do not mean to affirm that disease would be extirpated if the community were delivered from drunkenness. But just as the removal of filth is a prevention of cholera, so the promotion of temperance would lessen the multifarious ills which body and spirit endure from * See the valuable and able volume recently published, entitled- Suggestions for the Repression of Crime, contained in charges delivered to grand juries of Birmingham; supported by additional facts and arguments. Together with articles from reviews and newspapers, controverting or advocating the conclusions of the author.' By M. D. Hill, Esq. London, Parker and Son, 1857. + Strong language has also been used in reference to the evils of intemperance in a late number of the North British Review,' by Charles Buxton, Esq., M.P., and in the Edinburgh Review,' by the late Rev. W. J. Conybeare, in whose early death that journal has lost one of the happiest successors of that galaxy of brilliant men who first gave it celebrity. drunkenness |