14 DECEMBER 1872, Page 2

Lord Rosebery, a Peer who does not talk half enough,

has added a chapter to the great English " History of the Uncomfort- able." In a speech at Edinburgh on Monday he told the citizens, on the authority of the Census return, that there were forty-six families in Edinburgh living in single rooms without a window of any sort, and 15,000 families—a third of the population—dwelling in single rooms with windows—that is, enjoying about one-third the accommodation decency requires. Lord Rosebery says the true remedy is an increase of self-respect, but a little more liberality would seem also to be required. The poor folk of Edin- burgh drink too much, we dare say ; but if they did not, they could not build houses without sites, or pay the kind of rent which tempts a capitalist to build "self-contained" cottages. London is nearly unmanageable, but a Scottish Peabody could

make Edinburgh a model city before he died. When is he coming ?