14 DECEMBER 1844, Page 1

A concentrated movement has begun, to effect a general amelio-

ration in the dwellings of the poor, such as is within the scope of public measures, for draining, ventilating, supplying water, and the like. Indecency, dirt, and disease, poison the existence of " the people' and rob them of the resources of industry : to an extent Incredible, it seems, only because untried, the abolition of those vast evils might be procured at small cost—if that can be called cost which would at once be compensated in vast saving of mor- tal suffering and its penalties. The sole things wanting are— earnest purpose, the will to do what everybody allows to be right but assumes to be difficult, and some community of understand- ing. That community of understanding the new society ought to supply : it comprises some of the best men of all shades in politics and other pursuits, and the most zealous and profound students of such questions.