straight. Let me endeavour so far to put
matters straight as to make clearly known, if
I can, the cause of this disorder. There
have been in operation during the last four
or five years certain scraps of law which
provide for the decent ordering of common
lodging-houses in all towns of England. The
provision thus made for the decent ordering
of those lodgings which are let to the poor
tramper at the cheapest rate has proved a
blessing not only to the lodgers whom the
law in this manner protected, but to the
community of which they form a part. But
the operation of the Common Lodging-houses
Act was very limited. It applied only to a
small class of lodgers, and left unprotected
the poor families to whom a money-making
landlord lets in single rooms a house unfit
for decent occupation. To ensure to such
families possession of the right that had been
won already for people a step lower in the
social scale, and to fill up one or two notable
omissions in the former acts of legislation on
this subject, was a duty that had been
pressed earnestly upon the government, and
that the government accepted. During the
last session of parliament a bill to prevent
overcrowding in a dwelling let off room by
room to many families went through the
House of Lords and was, in the last week of
the session, under care of government passing
its last stage in the House of Commons,
warmly supported by Lord Palmerston, who
defined its subject as "a question between
speculating builders, who wished to over-
crowd the houses they erected, and the poor
who were the victims of their cupidity." But
in that its last stage, the bill was opposed
violently by certain members of the House of
Commons, chiefly representatives of London
boroughs. One gentleman asked for a new
name to the bill, another thought that "at
that period of the session it should be
abandoned," and another thought its object
"hardly urgent enough to induce the House
to pass it at that period of the session," and
another thought it "not of sufficient
importance to keep the House sitting at one
o'clock in the morning," and another
protested that it interfered "as to the mode in
which every man chose to live in his own
house," whereas "every Englishman's house
was his castle," and another said that it was
"unintelligible," and another said by such
measures "the same system of gradual
encroachment which had enslaved the nations
of the continent would be insidiously extended
to this country," and the opposition was
wound up by Mr. Cox, who said to Lord
Palmerston "Had the noble lord ever read
the History of England? If he meant to
play Wat Tyler with the people of England
they would be able to play the tyrant against
him." This opposition being put, when time
pressed, into an obstructive form, the bill had
to be withdrawn.

Chaos is come again! Lord Tyler had
risen in a despotic way on behalf of
the homes of the people. He had in his
mind what had been done for the worst
of them by W. Rufus's Common Lodging
Houses Act, 14 & 15 Vict, c. 28, and 16 & 17
Vict., c. 41. He pasted that act round his
hat after the  manner of a catch-'em-alive-O!
and getting upon London Stone, thus
addressed Richard Whittington, thrice Lord
Mayor of London, and the humpbacked
Richard the First, senior alderman, before he
felled him with his mace, and rode up to the
rioters, exclaiming, Take away that bauble.

O yes, O yes, O yes, people of London and
England, common people, hear what has been
done in common lodging-houses, and how
they have become more decent than your
common homes, because a wicked government
secures the tramp against the griping
of a landlord, and yet will not stir a finger
to secure decency and health for the hard-
working artisan who makes out of a little
room the heaven of an independent home.

Rise and bestir yourselves! Take up your
lime-pails and your whiting-brushes! Shout
help, ho! Soap for England! To the rescue,
water and fresh air!

Comrades, you see this Act. I take this
Act, and lay this Act upon the floor of yonder
common lodging-house. Behold a room ten
feet square, with no partitions between beds
that it makes the flesh creep to look at, and
the stomach turns to smell. Seven men, nine
women, and a child are crammed by the
landlord of that common lodging-house upon
those foul beds, in yonder foul room, ten feet
square. I lay this Act down within yonder
room. That landlord is fined four pounds,
or goes to prison for six weeks. That house
becomes a clean house. The Act causes it to
be kept in a clean state. Poor, independent
artisans! many of you cannot compass such
a wholesome place of daily rest as tyranny
has given to the scamp, and tramp, and
outcast of society, who, in the common lodging-
house, is taken in and done for. Rise, therefore,
and bestir yourselves! Take up your
lime-pails and your whiting-brushes! Shout,
help, ho! Soap for England! To the rescue,
water and fresh air!

Britons, I bid you follow me to war against
all landlords who think to acquire wealth by
denying you what they are bound to give in
any rooms they let. A landlord is a retail
dealer in homes. The fishmonger is forbidden
by the law to sell you stinking fish; the
butcher may not sell bad meat. The land-
lord shall not sell you poisonous and stinking
homes, if Tyler can prevent it. Let the law
in this matter also exercise an oversight in
your behalf. It is needed. Take Lord
Tyler's word for it; but he won't ask you to
take it—not he—until he has proved it good.
Hear, then, what has been done by the law
in declaring itself to be on the side of the
poor lodger, before you join in claiming that
it shall extend also its care to the poor tenant.