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 this means a slight contraction in the consumption of many people. But the condemnation of bad houses threatens a great contraction in the consumption of a few people; and this, of course, involves far greater proportionate suffering. In consequence, the scope of this negative remedy of condemnation is often found, as regards housing accommodation, to be very narrowly limited. Its adoption on a large scale, as a means of abolishing the accumulated slums of the past, is rarely likely to be practicable except in association with some positive policy for the provision of new houses.

What has been said will have made it plain that both the two policies we have been considering are, in their place, valuable means of improvement. Advice and help to poor persons in the art of keeping their houses in a good state—like instruction in the art of cooking—and the condemnation of uninhabitable houses—like the condemnation of diseased meat—may accomplish no small amount of good. By themselves, however, it is