the surveillance of the police inspectors, to
compel landlords to allow in every sleeping
apartment a certain amount of space for each
individual,: and thus prevent many diseases
now arising from overcrowding."  As to the
common lodging-houses, Mr. Faulkner,
Registrar of Births and Deaths for part of St.
Giles's, says, "I perfectly well remember the
dirty, filthy, overcrowded state they were
formerly kept in; the odour of the rooms in
many houses compelled me to relinquish my
registration duties, from the feeling of faintness
and sickness caused by the disgusting
places I visited. Most of the walls were
swarming with vermin, and decorated by
endless numbers smashed on and around the
heads of the bedsteads.... Now the case
is far different; there is an air of perfect
cleanliness imparted to the whole by the
whitewash so liberally used; the boards and
staircases are paragons of cleanliness
compared to what they were."  Rise, then, poor
tenants, comrades—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! Hear what is said by Dr. Barnes
of Shoreditch: "As fever cases are not at all
uncommon in other houses in the immediate
vicinity of registered houses, I cannot but
attribute the immunity of these latter to the
excellent provisions for cleanliness, the
prevention of overcrowding and the ensuring
a due supply and renewal of air enforced."
Hear what is said by Mr. Rendle of St.
George's, Southwark. He was "parish
surgeon for seventeen years before he was
appointed officer of health, and he can, therefore,
personally speak to this fact. Then the
worst cases of fever occurred in the common
lodging-houses, and a very large proportion,
and by far the worst part of the duty of the
parish-surgeon was the visiting of the sick in
these houses. Now very few cases of disease
occur; and by cleanliness and prompt
removal in case of attack, the spread of disease
is prevented. It is almost impossible," he
adds, "to over-rate the good that has resulted
from the operation of these acts."  Hear
what is said by Mr. Lovett of the Strand:
"The common lodging-houses in Newcastle
Court are cleaner, better conducted, and,
above all, there is a less amount of sickness
in them than in the remaining houses in the
court."  In Pentonville, says Mr. Butler of
such registered houses, "they are in every
respect far cleaner and healthier than the
rooms or houses occupied by those persons
over whom the Common Lodging Houses'
Act has no control."  "The common lodging-
houses of this town are clean," says Mr.
Walker at Woolwich. "I wish I could say as
much for those houses which are inhabited
by the poor, and let out in tenements to
single families; there I meet with disease,
filth, overcrowding to a frightful extent."  "I
rarely," says Mr. Cleland of Limehouse,
"meet with epidemic diseases in a common
lodging-house."  "A few months since,"
says Dr. Leete, "typhus fever broke out in a
small house in my parish, occupied by two
families, comprising eighteen individuals;
every one suffered from the disease and
several died; the poison was present in the
most highly concentrated form; it was
positively dangerous to pass the house. Much of
this evil might have been prevented had the
inspector authority to remove the first case
that occurred."  And so the doctors all might
set their hands to the certificate of one of
them, which I, Lord Tyler, call on each of
you to repeat after me. And here Richard
Whittington, Lord Mayor, called for silence,
and Richard CÅ“ur de Lion, his alderman,
shrugging his hump-back, seconded his
worship's call, and Lord Tyler, planting firmly
one foot upon London Stone, raising the
other foot into the air, gave the time with it
to the people, as he and each one of them
after him lifted up a voice that was like
the lowing of a number of sheep pastured on
the green slopes of Niagara, to this effect:
"I certify that it is my firm conviction that
the present system of common lodging-houses
is working the desired end, and were it
thoroughly developed and extended, the benefits
to society would be enhanced."

Then up starts Mr. Cox, member for
Finsbury, and says "Ha, ha!—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 find persons to play the tyrant against
him."  And as the noble lord had (like the
Wat Tyler that he was), been stirring up
the people to defend their homes, and to
assert their rights against the grasping
of a landlord, Mr. Cox, playing the
tyrant at once, kicked over the lime-
wash pail, and helped by a few kindred
bloods drove back the lower orders to the
dens in which it is vouchsafed to them to
live their dirty lives.

Now ready, price Five Shillings and Sixpence, neatly
bound in cloth,

THE FIFTEENTH VOLUME

OF

HOUSEHOLD WORDS,

Containing the Numbers issued between the Third of
January and the Twenty-seventh of June of the present
year.

Just published, in Two Volumes, post 8vo, price One
Guinea,

THE DEAD SECRET.

BY WILKIE COLLINS.
Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.