where the linen, is aired as completely as it is
dried. Here is accommodation for eight or ten
women at once. Each has her copper, with
a little fireplace underneath, each has two
tubs provided, and each is screened by a
partition from her next neighbour. For the
common use, stands, in the middle of the
laundry, a machine which, by mere force of
rapid revolution, wrings the linen completely,
and saves a wonderful deal of hard labour
and wear and tear of clothing. For these
great conveniences the mother of the family
has not got even to cross the threshold of the
house.

Yet though gas is provided to light the corridors
and staircases, though these are kept
clean by two resident porters under a resident
superintendent—though there is all this
appearance of supply of gratuitous comfort
and help, this place is not an almshouse nor a
charitable institution. The independence of the
tenants has been borne in mind. The
undertaking pays.

This is one of the most remarkable and
important things connected with the matter.
Valuable and attractive as the institution is,
as a monument of a benevolent purpose
humanely carried out, it is almost more
valuable in the proof it affords that even an
undertaking on this magnificent scale—for,
comparatively speaking, on a magnificent scale it is
—will yet bring in a profit of nearly three per
cent. This profit is not enough for general
enterprise; it will never in these days tempt
the speculator; but it is a profit, and a solid
and secure one.

And so—having rendered our poor tribute
of deep admiration to this achievement of the
most nobly generous and most experienced
philanthropist of our age—we come next to the
important question: Is it possible to render
the building of decent houses for the poor, a
speculation which shall be sufficiently promising,
to engage the attention of the purely commercial
man? Individual benevolence has its limits.
It cannot rebuild the poor districts of London.
To carry out effectually the project so nobly
initiated, the "concern" must be made to pay
better.

To put this idea upon a sound basis, the
capitalist must be convinced that he is investing
his money safely, and to advantage, in erecting
dwellings for the poor. It is not unreasonable
to suppose that even Columbia-square
might have been brought more temptingly
within this condition. Some money was
expended in ornament; more in separate baths,
of which there are several; more in a handsome
reading-room, made at the sacrifice of space
that might have been devoted to two additional
sets of apartments. As to the first, it was an
indulgence of taste which the foundress allowed
herself; the second are special luxuries which
the poor man hardly needs in his own dwelling;
and thirdly, it is found that the reading-room is
very little used; for the sufficient reason that
the inmates choose rather to spend their spare
time in their own comfortable rooms with their
families. But for these items of expense there
would have been a slight reduction of the scale
of rents, or a higher interest realised on the
capital sunk.

Economical enterprise would save under all
the foregoing heads, and would probably
purpose to achieve less at first. But whatever it
might do, it would, if well directed to the object
in hand, do for the poor in the main, what
the benevolent foundress of Columbia-square
has done. It would supply the poor man
—at a profit—with the advantages derivable
from Capital. With these advantages he cannot
supply himself, because he has no Capital. But
he thankfully and readily pays for the good
domestic results which Capital can ensure him.
Tell the very poor man indeed that Cleanliness is
next to Godliness, and that he must set up a
good supply of water, a copper, and a washing-
tub; and he will show you his small and varying
week's wages, and ask you where on earth the
purchase money is to come from? But let
Capital supply those things for him on a greater
scale, making his washing-tub a laundry, and
his copper a furnace, and giving itself, as well
as him, the advantages derivable from combination,
—that is to say, from the things being used
not by him alone in a corner, but in common by
many people; and he will cheerfully pay Capital
a handsome interest, and be an immeasurably
better and happier creature. Capital can build
any number of Columbia-squares, with any
number of departures and deductions from the
now existing Columbia-square; but it will, for
instance, light its corridors and staircases with
gas, because, there being a combination of people
to provide with artificial light at night, to lay on
gas is to take the easiest, cheapest, and most
practicable way of lighting them. Alone and without
Capital the poor man pays for his wretched
candle and his own discomfort and degradation
at least as much as this gas will cost him. He
has nothing but income, and what Capital wants
is income, and it will be a blessed day that brings
the two to the advantage of both, to go hand in
hand together through the humblest ways and
details of life.

Let, for instance, a portion at least of the
munificent gift lately made by Mr. Peabody to
the London poor be regarded as for benevolent,
yet profitable, investment, not to benefit a
few fortunate individuals, but the whole mass of
the London poor. To raise buildings for the
poor on the surest foundation, they must be self-
supporting. And to make them self-supporting,
two things only must be considered—the barest,
commonest decency, and the preservation of
health. We must think of the miles and miles
of town we have got to reclaim from worse
horrors than one dares to write of, and we
must not be contented to furnish luxurious
accommodation for a favoured few—and those
not the poorest of all—but simple brick and
mortar structures, which shall afford decent and
wholesome house-room to chimney-sweepers and
dustmen. We must provide shelter for the