Page:The homes of the working classes and the promises of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.djvu/10

6 spot for the displaced poor. They carted the sweepings of the streets and the accumulated filth of the markets to the spot, and tilted it into the hollow places. Having thus "laid out" and levelled the spot, they let it out, and building operations commenced. Meantime the destruction of the homes of the poor went merrily on. Then, to the amazement of everyone, it was found that the so-called artizans' dwellings erected on the old burial ground had taken the form of large and handsome shops, at a rental of about £40 per year. The speculators who ventured to take the land recently came to a "tremendous smash," as most people have done who have ventured to have anything to do with the Corporation in connection with land. Although the Corporation could not build, they endeavoured to make some provision for the people displaced. They patched up and let out many of the houses which they had before declared to be unsanitary. These patched-up places were let out to anyone who felt disposed to take them at higher rentals than were asked before they passed into the hands of the Corporation. Nay, it was stated the other day in the Council Chamber, and not denied, that, although the Corporation posed as a moral body, yet some of these patched-up houses had been let out as brothels, and the moral Corporation had absolutely been receiving the wages of sin and iniquity.

This is no new thing in Birmingham. Three or four years ago I drew attention to the fact that the Corporation were letting out places in another part of the town for this abominable purpose. Thus, up to the present time, or eight years after the promise to build, not the ghost of a dwelling for artizans has been erected. As time goes on, the promise fades farther and farther into the background. The displaced poor have been obliged to herd together more thickly in areas as unsanitary as that from which they were driven. In many cases two families had to herd in one small house. This would not have been the case had houses been erected at a reasonable rental, as distinctly promised.

Eight years have passed away since the scheme was floated, only half the proposed grand street has been made, and not a third of the portion laid out is occupied. Several of the plots of land taken are occupied by persons directly interested in the success of the scheme, because it is the child of Mr. Chamberlain. For instance, the proprietors of the Daily Post, Mr. ex-Councillor Marris, the Liberal Club committee, and other ardent Radicals gave the thing a start at enormous ground rents. By underhand influence the Government were persuaded to take a site for the new County Court, against which a most vigorous protest was made by the solicitors of the town. A speculator, who was recently made bankrupt for a large amount, took several sites and erected Inns of Court to accommodate the lawyers, who, it