ing quarters, which were already as full as, or fuller than, was consistent with healthiness.
'That private enterprise is powerless to provide the fresh and improved house accommodation which is required for those who have been expelled from their former habitations, in addition to that which is called for by the constant increase of the population, by reason of the impossibility of securing suitable sites for building. Even so rich and powerful a body as the Trustees of the Peabody Fund has been repeatedly foiled in particular attempts to obtain land to build upon.'
They conclude thus: —
'That your Memorialists believe that the mere enabling powers which are at present entrusted to various authorities have proved, and must prove, insufficient to effect the desired object.
'That in the opinion of your Memorialists a remedy for these evils is urgently required.'
Sir, I need not again refer to the great dangers to the community at large from crime, from epidemic, from fire, arising out of the neglect of a great evil, nor to the far worse misery and degradation inflicted upon the poorest classes of the people by the existence of these wretched houses which, whilst they exist, are sure to be inhabited. I appeal to the Home Secretary not to confine himself to mere words in any reply he may make to what, at too great length and with insufficient ability, I have ventured to bring forward, but to tell us what will be his acts; to tell us that he intends to take the subject in hand and to carry through such a measure or such measures as the national urgency and importance of the subject imperatively demand. The time is past for admitting the evil and for declaring that something must be done. Let the right hon, gentleman tell us what, in his opinion, ought to be done, and let him say that he intends to do it. (Cheers.) I beg to move, 'That in the opinion of this House a necessity exists for some measure that will provide for the improvement of the poorest classes of dwellings in London, and that this question demands the early attention of Her Majesty's Government.'
