Part 2

The poor man is now sufficiently instructed to feel that many of the evils of which he complains admit of removal, and that the wealthier classes have the power to effect a change that would surround his condition with many comforts. Is there no danger in leaving such a feeling to grow and develop itself among the working classes? The security of the State depends upon the feelings of the people at large. What hold can there be upon their sympathies or affections, if they are left to themselves; to all the misery of their present lot, and with the knowledge, too, that those who have the power to help, though witnesses of their suffering and sorrow, like the priest and the Levite, turn away, and pass on the other side. We can expect no other fruit than alienation and disaffection. We shall see it manifested in contempt of the laws; in bitterness of feeling to the property classes; in an increasing disregard to the invitations of religion; in still greater recklessness of conduct, and still more irregular habits. Have the revolutions of 1848 been read to us in vain? What was there behind these mighty convulsions? Simply this:—The people had been little regarded; their appeals had met with no attention; their wants were neglected; their wrongs were left unredressed; government did not seem to secure or care for their prosperity and happiness. Tumult and disorder were the inevitable results. It is a law of God that men shall reap as they have sown. In this land we have, under Providence, secured some of the blessings of good government, and in consequence a hardy and industrious race has sprung up. It is in the power of the richer classes to gather round the institutions of the country the affections of the people at large. They may do much to banish the grim forms of disease and want which now threaten the poor man’s home. They can carry light to his darkened abode, and dispense comfort and joy upon his gloomy hearth. By timely effort they may raise up a young generation, who will cherish the home attachments, pay ready obedience to the laws, and, by habits of sobriety and cheerful industry, give strength and stability to the State. They may, by a proper discharge of the duties of their stewardship, in a few years, cover the land with smiling homes and a contented population. And then, again, there is the converse of this. They may, by neglect and indifference, by leaving the people in their present condition, prepare the way for a state of things that every generous mind would tremble to contemplate. Who is there so blind as not to see in one course security and happiness; in the other, wretchedness and peril? I hope there is no need to urge the propriety, the necessity of the former course. I trust that all classes will unite to secure the true glory of England—that of raising up a healthy and happy population. Science can have no higher aim; government no loftier purpose; philanthropy no holier pursuit. It is not less our interest than a duty enjoined upon us by the principles of our holy religion, to administer to the necessities of the lowly and distressed. Let us, while it is yet day, “break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity.”

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NOTE.—The following extract is from the Report of Mr. Phillips, Surveyor Metropolitan Sewers Commission:—“At the last census, in 1841, there were 270,859 houses in the metropolis. It is known that there is scarcely a house without a cesspool under it, and that a large number have two, three, four, and more under them, so that the number of such receptacles in the metropolis may be taken at 300,000. The exposed surface of each cesspool measures, on an average, 9 feet, and the mean depth of the whole is about 6½ feet; so that each contains 58½ cubic feet of fermenting filth, of the most poisonous, noisome, and disgusting nature. The exhaling surface of all the cesspools (300,000 × 9) = 2,700,000 feet, or equal to 62 acres nearly: and the total quantity of foul matter contained within them (300,000 × 58½) = 17,550,000 cubic feet, or equal to one enormous elongated stagnant cesspool, 50 feet in width, 6 feet 6 in. in depth, and extending through London, from the Broadway at Hammersmith to Bow-bridge, a length of ten miles.”

“This,” say the Metropolitan Sanitary Commissioners, “there is reason to believe, is an under estimate. The cesspool, however, in general, forms but one-fourth of the evaporating surface—the house-drain forms half or two-fourths, and the sewer one; but, connected as the sewers and house drains mutually are, and acted upon by the winds and barometric conditions, the miasma from the house-drains and sewers of one district may be carried up to another.”