for accommodating an equivalent number of people to the number removed.
But the evil does not arise solely from the conduct of the Railway Companies, and from the neglect of Parliament to require due provision of sites for dwellings in their private Bills. I am sorry to say that we, or the Government, in times past, have been guilty of similar mischief. I refer particularly to the clearance of the space for the new Law Courts. The space cleared was very large: it still lies void and vacant: and about 4,000 people were turned out, causing very great misery. I need only allude to that to show how careless we have been of the comfort and interests of the working classes.
I regret to be informed, too, that some of the measures taken by the School Board of London have more recently inflicted similar misfortune on working people by dismissing them from their homes. In all these cases provision should be made for those who are displaced.
I was going to fortify myself upon this point by some high authorities who refer to the results of railway and improvement bills.[1] But, Sir, I think the House is awakened to the necessity of doing its duty in these cases, and I do not think I need say any more on the subject. I shall therefore close what I have to say by moving the resolution which stands in my name.
But before I do so I must not omit to draw the special attention of the House to the words of the memorial which has come before it with the high authority of the College of Physicians. It was presented to the First Lord of the Treasury, and ordered to be laid upon the table of the House. They make this statement:
'That it is well known to your Memorialists that overcrowding, especially in unwholesome and ill-constructed habitations, originates disease, leads to drunkenness and immorality, and is likely to produce discontent among the poorer portion of the population.
'That it is within the knowledge of your Memorialists that the wholesale demolition of the houses inhabited by the poor which has been carried on of late years under various railway and improvement Acts, while it has been serviceable in removing many very bad streets and dwellings, has incidentally caused much distress to the persons displaced, and has almost uniformly driven them to crowd into neighbour-
- ↑ See App. III.
