or £7 16s. a year. Of this class of house, according to the last return, 11 per cent. are unoccupied.

These houses are under the 'special supervision of the Sanitary Department.' They are occupied by 75,000 people; 46,296 living in one room, and 28,700 in two rooms. Rather less than one-half of the one-room houses are ticketed. It may be assumed that about 120,000 persons live in one-room houses (ticketed or not) and in two-room ticketed houses.

The subject of our enquiry will lead us to consider, (1) The overcrowding which exists in the congested districts of the town, and the structural condition of overcrowded tenements; (2) the social condition and habits of those who lodge in these tenements.

Glasgow compares favourably with London in these respects. The overcrowding in the latter is much more dense, and the rents much higher. The following instances of overcrowding are taken from the Report of the Royal Commission. They might be multiplied indefinitely. In Clerkenwell, at 15 St. Helena Place, a house was described containing six rooms, which were occupied at that time by six families, and as many as eight persons inhabited one room. At 1 Wilmington Place, there were eleven families in eleven rooms, seven persons occupying one room.

At

30 Noble Street, five families, of twenty-six persons in all, were found inhabiting six rooms. A small house in Allen Street was occupied by thirty-eight persons, seven of whom lived in one room. In Northampton Court there were twelve persons in a two-roomed house, eight of whom inhabited one room. In Swan Alley, in an old, partly wooden, and decayed house, there were seventeen persons inhabiting three rooms. In Tilney Court, St. Luke's, nine members of a family, five of them being grown up, inhabited one room, 10 feet by 8. In Lion Row there was a room 12 feet by 6, and only 7 feet high, in which seven persons slept. At 9 Portpool Lane, there were six persons in one small back room. At 1 Half Moon Court, in a three-roomed house, were found nineteen persons, eight adults and eleven children, and the witness, who has had much experience in the neighbourhood, said that he could hardly call that house over-crowded, as he knew of a case of twelve persons in one room in Robin Hood Yard, Holborn.

The rents of the houses are higher in London :

:

'Mr. Marchant Williams, Inspector of Schools for the London School Board, has given valuable evidence on this point. From personal investigation of parts of the parishes of Clerkenwell, St. Luke's, St. Giles, Marylebone, and other poor quarters of London, he finds that 88 per cent. of the poor population pay more than one-fifth of their income in rent; 46 per cent. pay from one-fourth to one-half; 42 per cent pay from one-fourth to one-fifth; and only 12 per cent. pay less than one-fifth of their weekly wages in rent. These figures are gathered from an inquiry extending over nearly 1,000 dwellings taken at random in different poor parts of the metropolis. Among them 4s. 10d. is the average rent of one room let as a separate tenement, 6s. of two-roomed tenements, and 7s. 51d. of threeroomed tenements. Rents in the congested districts of London are getting gradually higher, and wages are not rising, and there is a prospect, therefore, of the disproportion between rent and wages growing still greater.' The rents given above are weekly rents; the weekly rents in ticketed houses in Glasgow are 1/112 for one room, and 2/63 for two rooms. The value of ground in London is much costlier, and overcrowding apparently is not so efficiently dealt with.

Glasgow has won for herself a good repute for the efforts made by the Corporation to improve the housing and ameliorate the social condition of the poor; she has led the way in this movement. The Improvement Trust, constituted by Act of Parliament, began its operations about 1866. Streets were driven through the congested districts, back tenements pulled down, light and air admitted. The city railways have worked in the same direction; they have removed tenements of the worst description which covered acres of ground. The results have been beneficial in a high degree, as will be seen from the following remarkable statement made by Dr. Russell, the Medical Officer of Health :

'The mean annual number of deaths in Glasgow was as follows in the three successive periods of the last fifteen years, viz. :—

Mean annual deaths, 5 years, 1871-75=15,400

It is unquestionable, therefore, that in the five years 1876-80, as compared with the five years 1871-75, there was a mean annual decrease of 1,949 deaths, and in the five years 1881-85, as compared with the same five years, a mean annual decrease of 1,869 deaths. In other words, in the last ten

years 19,090 lives have been saved as compared with the preceding five years.'

The erection of lodging-houses by the Corporation-well devised and conducted—has vastly improved the provision made for the comfort of those who were formerly driven into common lodging-houses of the meanest and most debased sort. It has also reduced overcrowding in private houses to a remarkable exThe percentage of houses where there were strange lodgers has fallen from 70 per cent. in 1871 to 29 in 1888. It has fallen pari passu with the increase of these lodging-houses.' -(Russell, Evidence, p. 5.)

tent.

That there is room for further ameliorative measures, and that these will issue in happy results, there is no reason to doubt

'In Aberdeen the density, that is to say the number of persons who live on an acre of ground, is 18 ?—Yes. The average number of rooms to a house is 3.42, and the percentage of the population who live in one-apartment houses is 13'6 ?-Yes. And the death-rate in Aberdeen is 217 over the ten years 1871-80?-Yes. Then, to take Edinburgh, the density there is 55, average number of rooms to the house is 4.19, the percentage of the population who live in houses of one apartment is 16.8, and the death-rate is 23.2?-That is so. Then in Glasgow the density is 84, the number of rooms to the house is 2.34, the percentage of the population living in houses of one-apartment is 24-7, and the death-rate is 28.6 ?—Yes. So that the death-rate in Glasgow was 5'4 higher than in Edinburgh ? '— (Dr. Russell, Evidence, p. 2.)

In Aberdeen the death-rate is lowest, the density is lowest, and the percentage of the population living in one-room houses lowest.

The citizens of Aberdeen and Edinburgh live, apart from their better housing, under circumstances more favourable to health and long life than the citizens of Glasgow; but that does not fully account for the disparity in the rate of mortality.

The disparity between different districts within the city is much greater, and very startling. Contrast the best district with the worst:

'The best district (the most favoured of all) is the Blythswood district. There the density is 101, the mean number of rooms per house is 4, and the death-rate is 16·1?—Yes, the average death-rate in the three years 1880-1-2. The mean number of persons per room is 12? In Cowcaddens

district the density is 249, the mean number of rooms per house is 1·7, the mean number of persons per room is 2.6, and the death-rate is 32 ?Yes. Now take the worst district, which is the Bridgegate. The density there in 1881 was 223, having fallen from 428 to 223 during the ten years, 1871-81, owing to the railway as well as the Improvement Trust operations. Well the mean number of rooms per house is 1.8, the mean number of persons living in each room is 2·9 (just about 3, in short), and the death-rate on the average of three years is 38.3?'—(Dr. Russell, Evidence, page 3.)

'We have received the actual comparative death-rate of children. As Dr. Russell said, it was a very delicate comparison. The death-rate for one year is 38 per 1,000 ?—That is in the Bridgegate. And in the districts of larger houses it is only 16 or 17, while of the children who die in Glasgow before they complete their fifth year, 32 per cent. are in one apartment, and not 2 per cent. in houses of five apartments?—That is so.'-Dr. Russell, Evidence, p. 13.

After making every allowance for differences in the occupations, habits, and social surroundings of the inhabitants, there seems a wide enough margin left to encourage efforts to lift Bridgegate a little nearer to the level of Blythswood.

Mr. Wood, one of the night inspectors attached to the Sanitary Office, presented a realistic picture of the social condition and surroundings of the people, good and bad, decent and dissolute, who inhabit ticketed houses. He read before the Presbytery's Commission the chronicle of a visitation tour, commencing on the evening of December 17th, at 11 o'clock, and terminating on the morning of the 18th, at 3 a.m. It presents strange glimpses of how the poor live.

'Now, tell us something about the first house visited.—The first house visited (No. 1) was that of a labourer, with his wife, two children, aged respectively 2 years, 3 months, and the wife's brother. The husband, his wife, and the two children lay on an old mattress on the floor of a recessed bed-space, while the wife's brother lay in a corner of the house, with an old sack covering him. There was very little furniture in the house-an old table, a form, and a few dishes. An old butter-butt stood at the door, full of dirty water. Then the cubic contents of this house were measured to accommodate 2 persons ?—Yes, 761 cubic feet. And there were four persons in that house-Yes; and they seemed to have been drinking. You next visited the house opposite ?—Yes. It (No. 2) was the house of a blind man, who lived with his wife and two children, both under five years of age. His wife is employed in a hair factory, and he himself ekes out a living by selling laces at the street corners. There

were no furnishings in the house save a broken box and a few old pieces of delf. There was a bed recess, without bearers or bottoms, and these people all lay there, on the floor, with very little to cover them. The house, altogether, was very dirty. The rent was 7s. a month. There were no lodgers, and no overcrowding in this house, and the people were sober. The next house (No. 3) was that of a labourer and his wife and two children, aged seven and two years respectively. They were in bed, with no covering but a shawl. An old table was the only article of furniture in the house. That would be a reputable family?—Yes. The next house (No. 4) was occupied by a widow and her son, twenty-three years of age. The widow goes out to wash and clean, and the son is a labourer in an engineer's shop. There was a bed in this house, the apartment was fairly well furnished, and the shelves were decorated with dishes. The woman said she made a shakedown for her son sometimes, but the weather being cold they slept together. The cubic space was 800 feet, capacity for 2 persons, but only two were found living there. No. 5 house was occupied by a blacksmith and his wife, who lay in bed with very little covering over them. A small barrel, with a board on the top, served as a table; and a broken chair and a few dishes were the only articles visible in the house. The wife explained that her husband had been ill for a time, and unable to work. There was no overcrowding here. That, again, I take it, is the house of a poor but industrious man ?—Yes, but with a blacksmith's wage he might have had a better. No. 6 house was occupied by a carter and his wife, who lay in the recess of the bed, with nothing to cover them but an old mat. The only articles in the house (which was fairly clean), were two old boxes and a few dishes. The wife explained that she had been ill for a time, and unable to keep it tidy. There was no overcrowding in this house. Then I take it again that poverty was the cause of the lack of furniture and the discomfort in which this family lived ?-That is so. Then you went to South Coburg Street?-Yes. In that tenement (No. 16 Coburg Street) there are 12 oneroom houses and 3 two-room houses. That is one tenement out of six, the total number of one room houses in the block being 77 and of two-room houses 19?—Yes; that block is the worst for overcrowding in the city. I have found as many as thirty-three persons there in excess of the standard in one night. The Chairman-Well, give us details. Witness (continuing) said the first house was occupied by a woman and two children, the husband being presently on a voyage to Algiers. The house was almost devoid of furniture, only a few dishes being on the shelf. The apartment was remarkably clean. That seems also a case of decent poverty ?—Yes; it was not overcrowded. In the next house a carter and his wife were lying in bed, the man under the influence of drink. Their two children lay on the floor in front of the bed on a shake-down, along with an aunt (their mother's sister), a young woman of twenty-three. The mother does washing and cleaning in a model-lodging-house. The house was overcrowded, four being found, when the capacity (713 cubic feet) only allowed two. Rent, 9s. 6d. a month.'-(Wood, Evidence, pp. 46, 47, 48.)