Page:Dwellings of working-people in London.djvu/20

 in 1866 an Act called the City Improvement Act. Before the passing of that Act, the Lord Provost told us the city of Glasgow was even more crowded than London was. There were 50,000 people huddled together on 80 acres, which made 600 to the acre, while in Westminster, a very crowded part of London, the population is 235 to the acre. How did the Corporation propose to deal with this evil, and how did Parliament enable them to deal with it? The Corporation deposited plans of the parts of the town they desired to improve, and they obtained power to borrow a million and a quarter of money. They were empowered to pull down all the places which were shown in these deposited plans, and to rebuild upon the sites thus obtained, or sell them for the purpose of being built upon. They were also empowered to levy a sixpenny rate. They did not find this necessary for more than a year; they had a fourpenny rate for two years, then a threepenny one, and now I think it is reduced to twopence. The Corporation did not use their power to rebuild except to a very limited extent. In order not to discourage speculators and prevent their stepping in to do what was necessary, the Corporation exercised their powers of reconstructing in only two cases; they built two lodging-houses for 500 people, which are quite models of their kind, and which have paid ten per cent. The rest of the building operations have been conducted throughout by private agencies which came at once to the aid of the trustees, and acted readily under certain prescribed restrictions of sanitary construction. One provision in the Glasgow Act prevented the removal of more than 500 persons at once without a certificate from the Sheriff that accommodation for the number removed was obtainable in the neighbourhood.

Following the example of Glasgow, the people of Edinburgh were induced in 1867, by Dr. William Chambers, to obtain an Act which enabled the Corporation to borrow 350,000l., restricted them to removing 500 people at a time, and gave power to spend 10,000l. in rebuilding. They exercised this power by building a block of 36 houses, consisting of flats, which were eagerly purchased by working men, at prices varying from 170l. to 185l.

Liverpool, in 1864, obtained a special Act, called the Sanitary Amendment Act, which was on the same basis as Torrens's Act (subsequently passed for London and other towns), but the Liverpool Bill contained the principle of compensation which was struck out of the hon. member for Finsbury's Bill in the House of Lords, so that Liverpool