In the very same number of the Times in which
this meeting is described, Lieutenant-Colonel Roxburgh describes the condition of certain " neighbourhoods " in Golden Lane, Gomel! Street, and Clerkenwell. They are filled with old, tall, rotten houses, each room inhabited by a family, sickness and want, "often extreme," in every room. "Here and there are cellars also inhabited. One of these was the first place I entered last winter, descending to it by two short flights of steps. It was tenanted by a widow and five children, every one of whom had had putrid fever the beginning of the winter from the sewerage communicating with the water-pipes." Suppose people thus situated do ask for work at the State expense, is that better or worse than asking for alms without it, or joining the great criminal army, or—a third alternative which our poor townspeople are too sensible to try, but which has been tried by the agricultural labourers,1—waging battle against society with the torch for weapon? There never was on earth a race so patient under suffering as
these Londoners, and to pour ridicule on their economic follies, follies absolutely harmless in themselves, is criminal cynicism.
