Chapter XXVI: Appendix (16)

“What are their habits in respect to sobriety?—I may mention that I
strictly prohibit on my works the use of beer or fermented liquors of
any sort, or of tobacco. I enforce the prohibition of fermented
liquors so strongly that, if I found any man transgressing the rule in
that respect, I would instantly discharge him without allowing him
time to put on his coat.

“Have you any peculiar grounds for adopting this course?—No; but as
respects myself I wish to have an orderly set of workmen; and in the
next place I am decidedly of opinion that it is better for the men
themselves and for their families.

“Are you aware that it is a prevalent opinion that strong drink is
necessary as a stimulus for the performance of labour?—I am aware that
that was a prevalent opinion amongst employers of labour, but it is
now very generally abandoned; there are nevertheless some foundries in
which there is drinking throughout the works all day long. It is
observable, however, of the men employed as workmen, that they do not
work so well; their perceptions are clouded, and they are stupified
and heavy. I have provided water for the use of the men in every
department of the works. In summer time the men engaged in the
strongest work, such as the strikers to the heavy forges, drink water
very copiously. In general the men who drink water are really more
active, and do more work, and are more healthy than the workmen who
drink fermented liquors. I observed on a late journey to
Constantinople that the boatmen or rowers to the caiques, who are
perhaps the first rowers in the world, drink nothing but water; and
they drink that profusely during the hot months of the summer. The
boatmen and water-carriers of Constantinople are decidedly in my
opinion the finest men in Europe as regards their physical
development, and they are all water drinkers: they may take a little
sherbet, but in other respects are what we should call in this
country, tee-totallers.

“What is their diet?—Chiefly bread; now and then a cucumber, with
cherries, figs, dates, mulberries, or other fruits which are abundant
there; now and then a little fish.

“Do they ever use animal food?—Occasionally I believe the flesh of
goats, but I never saw them eating any other than the diet I have
described.

“Did they appear to eat more than the European workmen?—About the
same; if anything, more moderate as respects the quantity.”

I have collected much other information to the same effect. In the Appendix, I have given, as a contrast, an instance of arrangements which tend to promote the habit of drinking, and the consequences, a part of which are met and dealt with by the administrators of relief from the poor’s rates, in the shape of claims to relief on the ground of sickness and consequent destitution; and another part of which fall as disorders and crimes to be encountered by the police.

I submit here one important instance of the exercise of a wise influence on the habits of the agricultural population:—

In a form of lease used in leasing the Highland property of the Duke of Sutherland, which appears to be ably devised to ensure progressive improvement, care for the moral welfare of the population is not omitted. The poverty, disorder, and crime engendered by the destructive habit of whisky drinking, fostered by the practice of illicit distillation, is encountered by a clause which provides that if the tenant “distill whiskey, or shall permit any one to distill whisky, or shall sell or permit the same to be sold on the said premises hereby set, or on any part of the said estate, or shall contravene any of the regulations the said proprietors have established for the management thereof, and that if he or they shall be convicted of any of the said offences before the sheriff, depute, or substitute, or any two of his Majesty’s justices of the peace for the said county; then, in either of these events or cases, this agreement shall be, _ipso facto_, void and null, and the said tenant shall be forthwith removable by summary process before the judge ordinary, whereupon decree shall be pronounced upon relevant proof of the fact.”

The lease ensures the improvement of the tenements, and provides that “no earthen houses or huts are permitted to be built on any consideration.” The one provision is the proper complement of the other; and Mr. Hill gives his testimony to the excellent effect which the support given to the law, and the prevention of whisky drinking, produce on the habits of the population.

_Employers’ Influence on the Health of Workpeople by the Promotion of
Personal Cleanliness._

I proceed to another instance of the power of the employers to protect the health, as well as the morals of their workpeople, by influencing their habits of personal cleanliness.

But I shall first submit a few instances of the extent and prevalence of personal uncleanliness amongst whole classes of workpeople.

_Mr. John Kennedy_, in the course of the examinations of some colliers in Lancashire, asked one of them—

“How often do the drawers (those employed in drawing coals) wash their
bodies?—None of the drawers ever wash their bodies. I never wash my
body; I let my shirt rub the dirt off; my shirt will show that. I wash
my neck and ears, and face, of course.

“Do you think it usual for the young women (engaged in the colliery)
to do the same as you do?—I do not think it is usual for the lasses to
wash their bodies; my sisters never wash themselves, and seeing is
believing; they wash their faces, necks, and ears.

“When a collier is in full dress, he has white stockings, and very
tall shirt necks, very stiffly starched, and ruffles?—That is very
sure, sir; but they never wash their bodies underneath; I know that;
and their legs and bodies are as black as your hat.”

One labourer remembered that a particular event took place at Easter, “because it was then he washed his feet.” The effects of these habits are seen at the workhouse on almost every one of the paupers admitted. When it is necessary to wash them on their admission, they usually manifest an extreme repugnance to the process. Their common feeling was expressed by one of them when he declared that he considered it “equal to robbing him of a great coat which he had had for some years.” The filthy condition in which they are found on admission into the hospitals is frequently sufficient to account for the state of disease in which they appear, and the act of cleansing them is itself the most efficient cure. The out-door service of the union medical officers amidst such a population is often most painful and disgusting: _e. g._—

_Mr. J. F. Handley_, medical officer of the Chipping Norton union, states in his report—

“When the small pox was prevalent in this district, I attended a man,
woman, and five children, all lying ill with the confluent species of
that disorder, in one bed-room, and having only two beds amongst them.
The walls of the cottage were black, the sheets were black, and the
patients themselves were blacker still; two of the children were
absolutely sticking together. It was indeed a gloomy scene. I have
relished many a biscuit and glass of wine in Mr. Grainger’s
dissecting-room when ten dead bodies were lying on the tables under
dissection, but was entirely deprived of appetite during my attendance
upon these cases. The smell on entering the apartments was exceedingly
nauseous, and the room would not admit of free ventilation.”

Such conditions of the population, of habitual personal and domestic filth, are not necessary to any occupation; they are not the necessary consequence of poverty, and are the type of neglect and indolence; this is proved by the example of men engaged in the same occupations with improved habits. The medical officers of the Merthyr Tydvill union, in their returns, represent the health of the colliery population to be very good, a circumstance which is ascribed to their habitual cleanliness.

_Mr. J. L. Roberts_, surgeon, states—

“The colliers in our district invariably, on their return from the
pits in the evening to their houses, strip to the skin, and wash
themselves perfectly clean in a tub of lukewarm water, and wipe with
towels until the cuticle is dry. The miners are not so particular. I
firmly believe that the health of other workmen employed generally
about the ironworks is not so permanently good as the colliers; they,
generally speaking, not undergoing complete ablution as the colliers
do. Generally, the colliers are quite free from any cutaneous disease,
or at least not so much affected with psora, &c., as the generality of
their fellow-workmen. Cutaneous diseases are frequent amongst children
from want of cleanliness.”

In the places of work where there is the greatest need for cleanliness, in every place where there is a steam-engine, hot water, which is commonly allowed to run waste, is already provided in abundance for warm or tepid baths, not only for the workpeople, but, where there are numerous engines, for the whole population. If the same hot water arose at the same heat and abundance from any natural spring, baths would be erected, and medical treatises would be written in commendation of its medicinal virtues, which, the better opinion appears now to be, are ascribable, in the majority of instances, simply to the hot water, and to its application in cases where it had not before been used. Hot or tepid baths are deemed of more importance for the labouring classes in winter than are cold baths in summer, and they might be generally provided for the working classes in the manufacturing districts at a cost utterly inconsiderable.

A few years since a gentleman, observing some ditches in London, in the neighbourhood of the City-road, smoking with clean hot water running away from the steam-engine of a manufactory, directed attention to the waste, and suggested the expediency of using that water to supply public warm or tepid baths. After a time the suggestion was acted upon as a private speculation, and large swimming-baths were constructed; one, with superior accommodation and decorations at 1_s._; another, with less costly fittings-up, at 6_d._ the bath. These were luxurious tepid baths, kept at a heat of 84°. The example appears to have been followed in Westminster by the establishment of similar tepid swimming-baths, where only 3_d._ is charged to persons of the working-class. As many as 2000 and 3000 of this class have resorted to these baths in one day, and the bath at the lowest charge is stated to make the best return for the capital invested in it. Similar establishments are, we believe, in progress in other parts of the metropolis. _Mr. Samuel Greg_, at Bollington, has formed baths for the use of his workpeople, which he thus describes:—

“The bathing-room is a small building, close behind the mill, about 25
feet by 15. The baths, to the number of seven, are ranged along the
walls, and a screen about six feet high, with benches on each side of
it, is fixed down the middle of the room. The cold water is supplied
from a cistern above the engine-house, and the hot water from a large
tub which receives the waste steam from the dressing-room, and is kept
constantly at boiling temperature. A pipe from each of these cisterns
opens into every bath, so that they are ready for instant use. The men
and women bathe on alternate days; and a bath-keeper for each attends
for an hour and a half in the evening. This person has the entire care
of the room, and is answerable for everything that goes on in it. When
any one wishes to bathe he comes to the counting-house for a ticket,
for which he pays a penny, and without which he cannot be admitted to
the bathing-room. Some families, however, subscribe a shilling
a-month, which entitles them to five baths weekly; and these hold a
general subscriber’s ticket, which always gives him admittance to the
room. I think the number of baths taken weekly varies from about 25 to
70 or 80. We pay the bath-keepers 2_s._ 6_d._ and 2_s._ a-week, and I
believe this amount has been more than covered by the receipts. The
first cost of erecting the baths was about 80_l._”

The feet of the female as well of the male workers in such establishments, who work in the mills without their stockings, are seen coated with the filth of years, for which there is no other necessity than their own habitual indolence. These habits mere admonitions will not always remove from the adult population. A manufacturer in London, who did not care to take this trouble with them, began with his apprentices, and took them several times to the new tepid baths, as a holiday and a reward, until they had experienced the comfort, and had formed a habit, when he left them to themselves, and they paid out of their own pocket-money the small amount necessary to defray the expenses. Where the use of hot or warm water has been given to the workpeople, and baths have been provided, they have frequently been defective in some important point. _Dr. Barham_ states that the miners, on their ascent to the ground, have commonly only the means of using the hot water from a rivulet on a bleak and exposed situation; in other places, as where bath-rooms are provided, the accommodation for dressing was defective, in being cold and chilling instead of being made warm, as it might be at a very trifling expense. It was only at Camborne, the mine already noticed, that anything deserving the name of proper baths had been erected. _Dr. Barham_ observes, in a communication on this subject—

“The security from chill during the ablution, and the abundance and
comfortable temperature of the water in the cases mentioned as
examples of superior accommodation, have no doubt contributed to a
comparative immunity from pulmonary disease and catarrhal affections,
which the managers and the men themselves have noticed since this
provision has been made.

“The cost of the practice is so inconsiderable as to be unworthy
notice. Timber and iron for such purposes are always to be found in
our mines among what is no longer fit for its original destination. No
charge of any kind is made for the use of these accommodations.

“The owners of steam-engines might always supply hot water, in
proportion to the amount of condensation effected, without any extra
cost to themselves, when they do not employ the heated water to some
purpose of their own. In some mines the warm water is husbanded for
the cleansing of the ores, but this is an exceptional case. Generally
speaking, there is a great quantity of iron cylinder and other
materials convertible to the conveyance of the water, which maybe
supplied at a very low rate, as unserviceable for engine-work.

“I have thought that steam-engines are not the only sources for the
supply of hot water to the public at an insignificant cost. All works
in which great heat is employed, or almost all such works, might
supply heat to large bodies of water after the fuel has been most
economically applied to their own purposes. Smelting-houses,
foundries, glass-houses, for instances, have always heat enough to
spare for the warming of extensive thermæ. By the use of brick pipes,
surrounded by wood or some bad conductor, such heat, first applied to
the bottom of large reservoirs, might be distributed over extensive
districts, and buildings might be warmed and workshops supplied with
warm water for the thorough purification of the labourers, at a very
trifling expense. My own opinion is, that a system of _washing_ is
more desirable as a national habit than a system of _bathing_. The
latter is doubtless excellent for bodies of men who are under
effectual control, and for the young.”

_Employers’ Influence on the Health of Workpeople by the Ventilation of
Places of Work, and the Prevention of Noxious Fumes, Dust, &c._

In some of the “dusty trades,” the excessive amount of premature mortality is so great as to justify interference, defensively, as against the charges which, from the neglect of sanitary measures, fall neither upon the employer nor upon the consumer, who directly benefit by the produce of the industry, but upon ratepayers, to whom the manufactory itself may be a nuisance. In the instance of such trades, personal cleanliness is so far a requisite as to justify an additional rate of insurance where it is neglected. Yet the regulations preventive of disease are by no means onerous, either in their cost or their interference with the processes. Some of the noxious manufactures, and especially those in lead, have been the subject of examination by the “Conseil de Salubrité of Paris,” and the preventive rules they prescribed were as follows:—1. The establishment of a good ventilation in the workshops or manufactories. 2. Exacting from the workpeople close attention to personal cleanliness; obliging them to wash the hands and face before dining, and before leaving the workshop; forbidding them taking any of their meals in the workshop, and, by reasoning and information, directing their attention to the dangers by which they are surrounded. 3. Employing the practicable means for conducting the processes so as to raise the least dust possible. 4. Boarding off the mills and sieves, so as to prevent the escape of the smaller particles. 5. Requiring of the workmen engaged in the processes where there is lead-dust or any other injurious dust suspended in the air, that they cover the nose and mouth with a handkerchief slightly moistened. 6. Subjecting the workshop to occasional medical inspection, in order to prevent the intensity of any maladies that break out, and with that view to examine the workmen from time to time to detect any symptoms of disease, and to oblige the workman attacked to abstain from work until the medical officer declares that he may resume it without inconvenience. 7. Obliging workmen to wear frocks or blouses, which they should leave in the workshop when they quit work; and these blouses should from time to time be washed. 8. Sending away from the workshop every workman who gives himself up to debauchery or drunkenness. 9. Endeavouring to get the workmen, (_i. e._ workers in lead) to form the habit of drinking every day, on leaving the workshop, a little hydro-sulphuretted water, to neutralize the effects of the lead that may have been taken into the stomach.

All these regulations, with the medical attendance for the purpose of prevention, would be greatly below any charge of insurance to the individual workman for procuring medical attendance and remedies when thrown out of work by sickness.

In some of the trades, scattered instances of attention to cleanliness and measures of prevention are found: for example, amongst the journeymen painters. In answer to a question put by Dr. Mitchell to _Mr. Tomlins_, the clerk to the Painters’ Company, whether painters suffer so much as formerly from the disease to which they are peculiarly liable, the clerk says,—

“Not so much as formerly. This has been ascertained by a charity
administered at Painters’ Hall to men labouring under sickness. The
men are now more attentive to cleanliness. Formerly they would throw
their clothes on their beds and go to their meals without washing
their hands. A large proportion of the journeymen now carry a
workingdress to their job with them, and when they quit work at night
they exchange and put on clean clothes which are free from paint. This
applies more particularly to the westward of Temple Bar. One
master-painter of my acquaintance, Mr. Thornton, of Doctors’ Commons,
keeps a pail of solution of potash in his shop, in which the men wash
their hands, and which takes off every particle of paint; and it is
worthy of remark that only two men in 20 years have been afflicted
with paralysis in his employ. This is taken from 15 men constantly
employed on an average for seven years.”

It will suggest itself that another generation of workpeople, and their premature sickness and death, ought not to pass away leaving this practice confined to the painters to the west of Temple Bar, and leaving the beneficent expedient exclusively to the shop of Mr. Thornton, of Doctors’ Commons.

In connexion with the instance of the painters, I may give the following from _Mr. James Gibbins_, a manufacturer of colours at the Mile-end road. He was asked—“Are there any peculiar hazards to health connected with the trade?” He replies,—

“Arsenic and lead are employed in making colours, and hence injury
does arise, but such need not necessarily be the case; but although
water, towels, and soap are placed at the use of the men, there is no
persuading them to be habitually cleanly. After making or grinding
colours, they will not take the trouble to wash their hands, but
merely wipe them a little on their clothes, and then will take their
bread and meat, by which particles are carried off into the stomach.
It is impossible to persuade the men to be more cautious. The lead is
much more in use than the arsenic, and on the whole does more harm, as
the men are more on their guard against the arsenic.”

The prevalent impression upon such instances would be expressed by such phrases as, “If men will be so careless, there is no help for it; they must take the consequences:” but they only take a part of the consequences—the sickness; the main part of the consequences are taken by others, especially if they are married, when the premature widowhood and orphanage are sustained by the wife and children, who are maintained at the expense of the relations or of the public. This recklessness is however the result of neglected education, of which the workmen are the victims, and for measures of beneficence such workmen are to be regarded and treated as children, for they are children in intellect. An instance of a beneficial measure of compulsory prevention taken by some employers of labour is mentioned by Mr. John Kennedy, jun., in a report on the condition of some classes of workpeople examined under the Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children, not included in the regulations of the Factory Act. Some workmen employed in “Kyanizing” wood became frequently ill from the fumes created in the process, to which fumes they unnecessarily exposed themselves. Admonitions to care were found to be of no avail, and the employer at length gave notice that he would discharge entirely from employment the first that was attacked with the peculiar illness produced by the fumes of the metal. This threat was acted upon, and no other cases of illness afterwards occurred.

In France, where the diseases by which the working classes are afflicted have been investigated by those medical men who have given their attention to the improvement of the public health, the general conclusion has been established of the futility of leaving protective measures to the voluntary adoption of the individual workman. In the course of one of his reports, _M. Duchâtelet_ observes, that—

“It appears certain that the greatest part of the attacks of asphyxia
which have taken place in the sewers have arisen from the traps being
closed. I know that it is now enjoined on the workmen to open these
traps while they are at their labour. But do they do this? Assuredly
not in by far the majority of cases. Is it not a maxim to render
independent of the will and superintendence of men, and above all of
workmen, everything which appertains in a notable manner to their
preservation? In the grave and learned discussions which have occupied
this year (1824) the Academy of Sciences, on the means of preventing
the dangers arising from steam-engines, not only all the members of
the Commission, but the entire Academy, have been unanimous on the
necessity of rendering independent of the workmen the direction of the
level of the water in the boilers, and the tension of the steam. It
evidently appeared that on this depended the solution of the problem.
The same thing is now discussing on the subject of lighting by
hydrogen gas.”

I will further adduce parallel examples, drawn from experience, in respect to the condition of the working population in France. It is contained in a treatise by _M. Emile Beres_, on the Means of Ameliorating the Condition of Artisans:—

“The condition of the labouring population would be less precarious,
and their lives less exposed to accidents of every kind, if more
foresight presided over their operations. Employers are often guilty
of unpardonable carelessness with respect to the employed. To see
their conduct, one would suppose that the men in their service were
inert machines, or else that they possessed the power of the Creator
to reconstruct broken limbs, to restore exhausted constitutions, or to
give life to the dead. Here a deleterious atmosphere, which ought to
be carefully purified, is imprudently allowed to be inhaled; there a
poison, which ought to be handled with precaution, is allowed to
penetrate every pore. Further on, as if man had wings, he is embarked
on the most fragile scaffolds. Again, he is inconsiderately left to
prosecute dangerous researches which demand the utmost care. It is not
thus that we should act when the health and life of human beings are
in question. To such neglects how many families owe their poverty and
misery!

“There have long existed mills to grind plaster, which have not,
nevertheless, prevented the unhappy workmen from being employed, in
many places, and even in Paris, to pound it with a wooden club, their
bodies bent towards the ground, and thus inhaling it in such
quantities that the greatest number of them die young, of pulmonary
phthisis.

“The use of the moveable inodorous tanks has been long understood in
Paris. It consists in substituting for the tanks of masonry vessels of
oak, painted, and strongly hooped with iron, so as to allow neither
matter nor smell to escape. They are placed beneath the pipe which
conveys the contents of the water-closet, and, when full, are carried
away, and replaced by others at every hour of the day, without
difficulty, without danger to the workmen, without inconvenience to
the inhabitants. Well; not only are the ancient tanks not suppressed
in favour of this system, so convenient in all respects, but every day
new ones are constructed, though not a year passes in which we do not
hear of unhappy men perishing in the process of emptying, suffocated
by the gas which escapes in their disgusting operation. Now, if we add
to the danger of emptying the receptacles, the nuisance to all the
inhabitants of the house, which is infected in its remotest corners,
as well as the neighbouring houses of the same street, or even
quarter; when we take into account the damage to furniture (especially
to things that are gilt) by the escape of sulphureous gas, we shall
have the measure of the negligence, I will not say of the proprietors
only who maintain such an abuse without any justifiable motive, but
even of the authority that suffers it. It is no rare thing, after the
emptying has taken place, to see asphyxia produced in the masons who
are employed in repairing the walls, or in remedying the infiltrations
from the privies.

“There is another method, more recent, and, in all probability, more
advantageous, of preventing the inconveniences of the ancient
receptacles; it is the system of disinfecting fecal matter, discovered
by a learned chemist, M. Payen. Independently of its hygienic
advantages, and the procuring a powerful manure, this method comprises
a question of human dignity of great value. It is necessary, as far as
possible, to take from our fellow men the mischievous necessity to
perform labours which invest them with ideas of disgust.

“Since the use of gas for lighting, several accidents have happened.
Are they not due, for the most part, to the want of precaution in the
directors of these manufactories, who have not sufficiently prescribed
to their men the necessary measures of prevention? Should they not all
know that one must not run with a candle into a place where there is a
stream of gas, as one would go in search of a stream of water? It is
this imprudence which commonly occasions the explosions that happen,
and which are ordinarily followed by the gravest accidents. Do we not
find the same carelessness in our mines, followed by the same
catastrophes? It is in vain, therefore, that Sir Humphry Davy applied
his genius to the discovery of the safety-lamp! Do not the most
ordinary rules of health condemn the ignorance with which the
preparations of mercury, of sulphur, of lead, of oxide of copper, &c.,
are made? In the places, lastly, in which wool, hides, and other
animal substances are prepared, why not purify the atmosphere in which
the workmen exist with such difficulty? This omission is the more
strange, that some centimes of solution of chlorine every day would be
sufficient to purify the largest shops.

“I insist strongly on the contents of this chapter, because it reveals
one of the deepest plague-spots of the labouring population of towns,
and because the remedies that it indicates are neither difficult to
discover, nor expensive in their application. With more solicitude and
surveillance on the part of the government, with more philanthropy on
the part of masters, with more precaution as well as self-love on the
part of the workmen, would our hospitals receive so many unhappy
beings, and death reap so many victims?”

_Employers’ Means of influencing the Condition of the Working Population
by regard to respectability in Dress._

Besides those means which affect immediately the health and moral condition of the workpeople, others are within the control of their employers which affect the personal appearance, and, through the self-respect, the morality of the population. _Mr. William Fairbairn_, in the course of an examination, adverted to the means of promoting respectability in personal appearance:—

“It is always,” said he, “an indication of looseness of character, and
a low standard of moral conduct, to see a mechanic in dirt or in his
working-clothes on Sunday. Thirty years’ experience leads me to draw a
very unfavourable conclusion as to the future usefulness to me, and of
success to himself, of any workman whom I see in dirt on a Sunday.

“As a general rule, does the advance of his house keep pace with the
advance in condition of the person?—As a general rule, it does. Better
personal condition leads to better associates, and commonly to better
marriage, on which the improved condition of the house is entirely
dependent. It is due to the labouring classes of females in Lancashire
and the surrounding districts to state that, in the important
household virtue of cleanliness, they are superior to the females of
the same class in Scotland.

“Are you aware of what is the condition of their houses. Have you
visited them?—I have not made it a practice to visit them, I chiefly
judge of their circumstances from seeing them with their wives and
families, and their well-dressed and respectable condition on the
Sundays. These externals are always indications of greater comforts
and respectability at home. I am a strong advocate for dress, and
encourage the working men to dress well; if I see any workman in a
dirty condition and in his working-clothes in the streets on the
Sunday, I do not, perhaps, speak to him then, but on the Monday I tell
him that I have been looking over the books, that I find that he has
had as good wages as other men who dress respectably, and that I do
not like to have any one about me who will not dress well on the
Sunday. This intimation has generally had the desired effect.”

_Employers’ or Owners’ Influence in the Improvement of Habitations and sanitary Arrangements for the Protection of the Labouring Classes in the Rural Districts._

I would now submit, for consideration the evidence collected to show the appropriate means for the improvement of the condition of the labouring; classes in the rural districts; and first, as to the effects produced by improved residences:—

These are stated in a letter from the chairman of the Bedford union to Mr. Weale, the Assistant-Commissioner of the district, who had been requested by the Board to inquire as to the moral as well as the sanitary effects of improved tenements:—

“_Turvey Abbey, January 4, 1841._

“My dear Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the
1st of January. You there state that, in a Return made to you by the
Board of Guardians of the Bedford Union on the sanitary condition of
the labouring population, it is reported that, in a few instances,
cottages of an improved description have been erected by the employers
of labour, the advantages of which have had a salutary influence on
the moral habits of the inmates: and you request to know in what
particular acts the improvement in moral conduct is displayed.

“I have much pleasure in saying that some cases of the kind have come
under my own observation, and I consider that the improvement has
arisen a good deal from the parties feeling that they are somewhat
raised in the scale of society. The man sees his wife and family more
comfortable than formerly; he has a better cottage and garden: he is
stimulated to industry, and as he rises in respectability of station,
he _becomes aware_ that he has a character to lose. Thus an important
point is gained. Having acquired certain advantages, he is anxious to
retain and improve them; he strives more to preserve his independence,
and becomes a member of benefit, medical, and clothing societies; and
frequently, besides this, lays up a certain sum, quarterly or
half-yearly, in the savings’ bank. Almost always attendant upon these
advantages, we find the man sending his children to be regularly
instructed in a Sunday, and, where possible, in a day-school, and
himself and family more constant in their attendance at some place of
worship on the Lord’s-day. I know of more instances than one where, in
consequence of encouragement of the kind above mentioned to the father
of a poor family, the children were regularly sent to school, and
there became so much improved in character and learning that they are
now filling situations of high respectability, (one a confidential
clerk in a large mercantile house in London,) and are assisting to
support their parents in a manner as delightful as it is creditable.

“A man who comes home to a poor, comfortless hovel after his day’s
labour, and sees all miserable around him, has his spirits more often
depressed than excited by it. He feels that, do his best, he shall be
miserable still, and is too apt to fly for a temporary refuge to the
alehouse or beer-shop. But give him the means of making himself
comfortable by his own industry, and I am convinced by experience
that, in many cases, he will avail himself of it.

“Believe me, my dear sir, sincerely yours,
“CHARLES LONGUET HIGGINS.

“_To Robert Weale, Esq._,
“_Assistant Poor Law Commissioner_.”

The next exemplification is afforded in a letter from the clerk of the Stafford Union:—

“_Marston, Stafford, January 20, 1841._

“Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 1st
instant, as to the Return made by the Board of Guardians on the
sanitary condition of the labouring population of this Union, in which
it is stated that improved cottages have been erected by landed
proprietors for their labourers, and the advantages afforded by such
cottages have had a salutary influence on the moral habits of the
inmates, and requesting to be informed in what particular acts the
improvement in moral conduct is displayed.

“In answer thereto, I will endeavour to illustrate the remark of the
Board of Guardians by contrasting the habits, the condition, and
prospects of a labourer occupying an improved cottage with the
occupier of a cottage of a contrary description. If we follow the
agricultural labourer into his miserable dwelling, we shall find it
consisting of two rooms only; the day-room, in addition to the family,
contains the cooking utensils, the washing apparatus, agricultural
implements, and dirty clothes, the windows broken, and stuffed full of
rags. In the sleeping apartment, the parents and their children, boys
and girls, are indiscriminately mixed, and frequently a lodger
sleeping in the same and the only room; generally no window, the
openings in the half-thatched roof admit light, and expose the family
to every vicissitude of the weather; the liability of the children so
situated to contagious maladies frequently plunges the family into the
greatest misery. The husband, enjoying but little comfort under his
own roof, resorts to the beer-shop, neglects the cultivation of his
garden, and impoverishes his family. The children are brought up
without any regard to decency of behaviour, to habits of foresight, or
self-restraint; they make indifferent servants; the girls become the
mothers of bastards, and return home a burden to their parents, or to
the parish, and fill the workhouse. The boys spend the Christmas
week’s holiday and their year’s wages in the beer shop, and enter upon
their new situation in rags. Soon tired of the restraint imposed upon
them under the roof of their master, they leave his service before the
termination of the year’s engagement, seek employment as
day-labourers, not with a view of improving their condition, but with
a desire to receive and spend their earnings weekly in the beer-shop;
associating with the worst of characters, they become the worst of
labourers, resort to poaching, commit petty thefts, and add to the
county rates by commitments and prosecutions.

“On the contrary, on entering an improved cottage, consisting on the
ground-floor of a room for the family, a wash-house and a pantry, and
three sleeping-rooms over, with a neat and well-cultivated garden, in
which the leisure hours of the husband being both pleasantly and
profitably employed, he has no desire to frequent the beer-shop or
spend his evenings from home; the children are trained to labour, to
habits and feelings of independence, and taught to connect happiness
with industry, and to shrink from idleness and immorality: the girls
make good servants, obtain the confidence of their employers, and get
promoted to the best situations. The boys, at the termination of the
year’s engagement, spend the Christmas week’s holiday comfortably
under the roof of their parents; clothes suitable for the next year’s
service are provided, and the residue of wages is deposited in the
savings’ bank; a system of frugality is engrafted with the first
deposit, increasing with every addition to the fund: they are
gradually employed in those departments of labour requiring greater
skill, and implying more confidence in their integrity and industry,
and they attain a position in society of comparative independence.

“I have selected an extreme case to show more fully the advantages
derived from improved cottages, and the immoral effects of inferior
dwellings, unfortunately too numerous, in this Union.

“I have the honour to be, sir,
“Your obedient servant,
“PETER LOWE.

“_To Robert Veale, Esq.,
“Assistant Poor Law Commissioner._”

Much regret is frequently expressed at the change of condition which has taken place in the cultivation of the soil by farm labourers instead of farm servants living in the house of the farmer, and subject to the household rules at his board; but whatever real ground there may be to regret the change, it appears to be one generally preferred by both parties, and there appears to be no reason to expect that the ancient system will be revived. In the Appendix I have given an examination of the Rev. Thomas Whately, in reference to some frequent and most important mistakes in respect to cottage economy.

The Board agreeing that the most important leading examples of improvement were to be expected from the benevolence and public spirit of opulent individuals, requested the assistant commissioners in England to note the most conspicuous improvements of labourers’ tenements they have met with in their districts, and procure plans with a view to their promulgation. From these I have selected several examples, and have added several that I have met with in the course of my own inquiries.

Some eligible plans of cottage tenements are thus described in _Mr. Twisleton’s_ report from Norfolk and Suffolk:—

“Although the general aspect of the cottages in Norfolk and Suffolk is
pleasing and attractive, I do not think that these counties can be
generally cited as abounding with model cottages. Some of the best
which I have seen belong to the Earl of Stradbroke, at Henham, near
Halesworth in Suffolk; to the Earl of Leicester, at Holkham; and to
the Rev. Mr. Benyon, at Culford, about five miles from Bury St.
Edmunds. Those of the Earl of Stradbroke are built of brick, roofed
with tiles, have four rooms at least, and have all proper conveniences
of pantries, cupboards, and out-offices; but, at the same time, as
they are principally with only one story, so that the bed-rooms are on
the same floor with the parlour and kitchen, such cottages would only
be built where land is no object; and they must be considered in the
light of luxuries and ornaments. Some of the cottages of the Earl of
Leicester, at Holkham, are perhaps the most substantial and
comfortable which are to be seen in any part of England; and if all
the English peasantry could be lodged in similar ones, it would be the
realization of an Utopia. I have obtained from Mr. Emerson, of
Holkham, their builder, drawings of the plans and of the elevation of
eight of these cottages, which are built of brick roofed with tiles. I
herewith transmit them to you, and it will be observed that there are
three sets, two of two cottages each, and one of four cottages.
Without entering into details respecting all the eight, I will draw
your attention to the double cottages of 1819. Each of these has a
front room, 17 feet by 12 feet in width, and 7 feet to 7 feet 6 inches
high; a back kitchen of the same height, and 13 feet by 9 feet wide,
together with a pantry on the same floor. Above these are three
bed-rooms which, in different proportions, cover the space already
specified for the ground-floor. At a convenient distance behind, each
cottage has attached to it a wash-house, a dirt-bin, a privy, and a
pig-cot. I may add that the drainage is excellent, that the water is
good, that each cottage has about 20 rods of garden-ground, and that
the rent, including gardens, is only three guineas a-year. Hence it is
not to be wondered at that Mr. Emerson the builder has been enabled to
say, in a letter to me: ‘I have never known in them an instance of
fever or any epidemic.’

“These cottages are cited as showing what may be done by a landed
proprietor who takes as great a pride in his good cottages and farms
as others in fine hunters and race-horses, rather than with the least
intention of asserting that the example is ever likely to be
universally imitated. The cost of building two such cottages is stated
by Mr. Emerson to be 220_l._ or 230_l._, which would be 110_l._ or
115_l._ each. Now, although individuals, here and there, may build
cottages without regard to the pecuniary return, it may be assumed as
incontrovertible, that no class of cottages will be universally
adopted which does not command a reasonable interest for the money
expended on them. But considering the cost of repairs, and the
frequent trouble and uncertainty of obtaining the rents, it will
probably not be denied that 6_l._ a-year would be the _minimum_ as a
remunerative rent for the outlay of 110_l._ or 115_l._ on a cottage.
However, the rent of 6_l._ would scarcely be paid by the agricultural
population generally at the present wages: for reckoning the rate of
wages at 12_s._ a-week (which would be high for some parts of the
country), very few would be willing, out of that sum, to expend 2_s._
3¾_d._ a-week, or nearly a fifth of their earnings, for the rent of
their cottage.

“I would take, therefore, a more attainable standard of excellence in
the cottages of the Rev. E. Benyon, at Culford. This is a remarkable
village of about fifty cottages, built within the last twenty years by
Mr. Benyon de Beuvoir. The outward appearance of them is pretty, and
it was this which first attracted my attention to them. They are built
with bricks, faced with blue flint-stones, which harmonize agreeably
with the blue slate of the roofs. They have each four rooms—two below
and two above—with a pantry and a cupboard. I herewith transmit to you
plans and drawings of five of these cottages in two sets—one
consisting of double tenements, and one of three tenements. It will be
observed that the principal room is 14 feet by 12 feet wide, and 7
feet high, which is inferior in size to those at Holkham, and that
they have only two bed-rooms, while those at Holkham have three. At
the distance of a few feet from each set of cottages there is a wooden
building, roofed with tiles, which comprises a space for fuel, and a
privy for each cottage, and a common oven. The average cost of the
double cottages at Culford is stated to have been 170_l._, or 85_l._
each.”

_Mr. Loudon_, who has paid great attention to the subject of cottage architecture, directs attention to the labourers’ cottages, either newly erected, or altered, or improved, on the estate of Gregory Gregory, Esq., at Harlaxton, near Grantham, Lincolnshire.

“The village of Harlaxton,” says Mr. Loudon, “is, if possible, more
interesting to us than even the new mansion and gardens. We have seen
many ornamented villages both at home and abroad, but none so original
and so much to our taste as this of Mr. Gregory’s. Some of old date
are too like rows of street houses, such as those of Newnham
Courtenay, near Oxford; and Harewood, near Leeds; others are too
affectedly varied and picturesque, such as that at Blaize Castle, near
Bristol; and some have the houses bedaubed with ornaments that have
not sufficient relation to use, as when rosettes and sculptures are
stuck on the walls, instead of applying facings to the windows,
porches to the doors, and characteristic shafts to the chimney tops.
We recollect one near Warsaw, which is a repetition of the Grecian
temple, with a portico at each end; and one at Peckra, near Moscow,
every opening in which has a pediment over it, with highly enriched
barge-boards. In some villages the attempt is made to ornament every
house with trellis-work round the doors and windows, which produces
great sameness of appearance, and if ornamental, is so at the expense
of comfort, the creepers by which the trellis-work is covered
darkening the rooms, and encouraging insects; while, in other
villages, the cottages are so low and so small, that it is obvious to
a passing spectator they cannot contain a single wholesome room.
However, though we find fault with villages ornamented in these ways,
we are still glad to see them, because any kind of alteration in the
dwellings and gardens of country labourers can hardly fail to be an
improvement, both with reference to the occupiers and to the country
at large.”

The external condition of the residence, and the apparent rank it holds, is not without a beneficial moral effect on the occupants, by increasing their self-respect and pride in the decencies of life. Mr. Loudon’s enumeration of the requisites for cottage building are given in the Appendix, together with views of the groups of cottages Mr. Gregory has erected; contrasted with these is a group of hinds’ cottages, as described by Dr. Gilly, in his appeal in behalf of the border peasantry, from which a conception may be formed of the great difference in morals as well as in health that may be anticipated from the effects of the different order of residences on the population.

GROUP OF NORTHUMBRIAN COTTAGES COPIED FROM REV^D. D^R. GILLY
]

GROUPS OF DOUBLE COTTAGES AT HARLAXTON.
]

VILLAGE SHOP AND DOUBLE COTTAGE AT HARLAXTON.
]

GROUP OF COTTAGES AT HARLAXTON.
]

PLANS OF A TREBLE COTTAGE FOR THREE FAMILIES,
SITUATED ON THE ESTATE OF
GREGORY GREGORY ESQ^R, AT HARLAXTON.
_Estimate, inducting all Expenses & Out Buildings, £ 280._

_M^r. Twistleton’s Report on Cottages &c._

COTTAGES
BUILT BY
BENYON de BEAUVOIR, ESQ^R.
AT
CULFORD in SUFFOLK.

_M^r. Twistleton’s Report on Cottages &c._

COTTAGES BUILT BY THE EARL OF LEICESTER.

AT HOLKHAM. IN NORFOLK.

_Dimensions of Cottage._

_1. It is 36 feet in front. Its cost about £70._

_2. Each room is 16 feet square & 8 feet in height._

_3. There are two Garrets, used for sleeping rooms._

_2_
_Apartments._

Nº 1 _Is a necessary._

2 _Coal, Wood & Peat House._

3 _Scullery._

4 _Larder._

5 _Cowhouse._

6 _Kitchen._

7 _Sitting room._

8 & 9 _are Garrets._

_3_
_Warming Apparatus._

_Behind the fire place of No. 6, Kitchen, is an Iron box, one side of this Iron box, made of strong sheet or plate Iron, forms the back of the fire place of No. 6. As two plates of iron are rivetted together, leaving a space of 6 inches between the plates which forms a box, a passage or pipe below the door as seen in the Plan, opened through the wall. This pipe or passage made of stone or brick, or of iron, admits a current of cold air to pass into the Iron box. This air entering the box and being heated by the fire in No. 6, gives its warmth out to No. 7. By means of a pipe which ascends from the top of the Iron box the two garret rooms are warmed. Wet linen may be dried by placing a screen with it before the Iron box in room No. 7._

_4_

_The advantages of a fire place No. 7, constructed with an Iron plate for its back, and made into a box having two Iron plates fastened together, as seen in the Iron box between rooms No. 6 & 7, are that_

_1. One fire place is made to warm two apartments on the same floor,
and by means of an Iron pipe, warm air is conveyed into the two
garrets above._

_2. The house can never be damp with such a simple economical method
of heating._

_3. In the Southern, Eastern & Midland Counties of England, where fuel
is sold at a high price, it is beneficial for the labourer to heat
his house in the manner just shown in the Closeburn Cottage._

_4. Much of the sickness of the labourer and delicacy of his children
proceed from damp Cottages._

PLAN OF COTTAGES

ERECTED BY SIR STEWART MENTEATH, BARONET,

FOR HIS LABOURERS AT CLOSEBURN.

PLANS OF COTTAGES ERECTED AT EGERTON FOR H. & E. ASHWORTH.

PLANS OF A DOUBLE COTTAGE, ERECTED AT BOLLINGTON.

PLAN
OF THE
FARM COTTAGES
ERECTED UPON
_THE EARL of ROSEBERRY’S ESTATES_.

I have been favoured by the Earl of Roseberry with plans of the new labourers’ cottages he has built on his property in Scotland, which have been highly approved by the Highland Society, who have inserted the plans for publication in their “Transactions,” _vide_ Appendix. I have been favoured by James Monteath, Esq., with a model of the cottages erected by his father, Sir Stewart Monteath, Bart., for his labourers at Closeburn. The plan of these cottages presents an important improvement, by which one fire-place is made to warm two apartments on the same floor, and by means of an air pipe warms the air in the two rooms above them. I was informed that it admits of a further improvement in practice, namely, of some means of closing the access of the warm air to the sleeping-rooms during summer.

The best plans I have obtained of tenements in actual occupation of the rural manufacturing population appear to be those at Turton, and those erected at Bollington. The best plans of labourers’ tenements in towns are those supplied by Mr. Hodgson, and the Committee of Physicians and Surgeons at Birmingham; the drawings and working plans of which I have appended.

In several of the plans for the rural districts there is one appendage of the cottage of which the best-informed witnesses consider they ought invariably to be divested, namely, a pigsty. The medical witnesses strongly object that it is injurious to the health, especially in rows of cottages, as it occasions accumulations of filthy refuse. Other witnesses, such as the Rev. Thomas Whately, object that the pig is not economical to the labourer, and that it furnishes a temptation to dishonesty. His evidence on that subject, and on the other more important question of large cottage allotments, will be found in the Appendix.

Mr. Loudon has favoured me with two drawings and plans of model cottages, which need no other explanation than the specification. These comprise the best examples that have come under observation during the present inquiry of tenements in occupation that are well approved on trial.