It is significant that the first debate in the Church
Congress was on the housing of the poor ; but it was a good one only in one way. It showed that the Clergy, rural as well as urban, are thoroughly awake to the existence and magnitude of the evil. The sugges- tions for remedy were not, however, very practical, the best, perhaps, being the fourth, offered by the Bishop of Bedford, that the people should be taught to care for better homes. The educated poor make terrible sacrifices to secure adequate lodging; and if the Clergy could breed in the uneducated poor a healthy discontent with needless squalor, there would soon be an improvement. At present, the sincere rage of the people
is directed, not against the inadequacy of their lodging, but against the price they have to pay for it. They would lynch a landlord, but not a jerry-builder. It is necessary for once to preach the gospel of discontent.
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