Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/590

 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL of classes A and B, plus half of C and D,' and an attempt is made to show how far the poverty thus revealed is connected with widowhood, sickness, old age, intemperance, irregularity, or want of work. In Chapter IV. of this part of the volume, which is entitled ' London Street by Street,' the question of model dwellings is brought under review in a similar manner; and Miss Octavia Hill contributes a suggestive section on their ' influence on character.' She thinks that it is more difficult to deal with the 'undisciplined and untrained' in model blocks than in individual houses, and that in the latter cae there is more hope of bringing these classes by degrees to a better mode of life. Part II. of the volume before us is devoted to Central London as Part III. is to South and )utlying London, &c. Of Central London full particulars of occupation as well as of states, obtained on the same plan as for East and here, as in the case of Battersea, he was class were, Mr. Booth London and Hackney; able to avail himseft of the labours of other inquirers. In Central London there is apparently 'no such evident utter poverty among those who seek to lay out their money to best advantage ' in buying from the stalls in the streets as in South or East London. The people are said to be 'more conscious.' ' If they are bad, they know it; if they are poor, they feel it more.' Points of comparison between the conditions of tailoring and boot- making in East and in Central London are shown in Chapter II. by the editor, a working tailor, and Miss Collet; in Chapter III. a graphic description is furnished of Covent Garden, which corresponds to the docks as the resort of casual labour and the scene of irregular employ- ment; in Chapter IV. an account is given of common lodging-houses, from which it appears that they are urgently in need of stricter regulation and registration, and more efficient inspection; in Chapter V. the question of homeless men is discussed; and in Chapter VI. the editor compares Central London with other districts. In Part III.' South London and various outlying parts' are handled with similar thoroughness, but our limits of space permit us to do little more than give a bare analysis of its contents. But no more than this is really needed, for there are few economists who will be content to deprive themselves of the opportunity of consulting Mr. Booth's pages for their own information and instruction;and the detail contained in them is so great, and the treatment so exhaustive, that they scarcely admit of any analysis which will do them thorough justice. South London poverty, it seems, is chiefly concentrated in the neighbourhood of the river, and diminishes as we recede from its banks. There is a ' lack of spontaneous social life among the people,' which is 'perhaps due to the want of local industries.' Despite of religious activity, of energetic local government, of ' wholesale dis- placement of old insanitary property by improved dwellings,' ' there is something wanting;' and ' there is altogether less going on.' Battersea receives a chapter to itself in this section of Mr. Booth's work; and here he incorporates the results of a separate inquiry made on his