THE ABOLITION OF OUR SLUMS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—I have been deeply interested in the correspondence which hag been 'taking plaCe in your columns for some time past the far-reaching and all-important matter of the slums of our cities and towns. I am reminded of an incident which occurred over thirty years ago when the late Mr. Ritchie was President of the Local Government Board. In an interview which niy father; the late Reverend Arthur Robins, then Rector of Holy Trinity, Windsor, and Chaplain to Queen Victoria, had with Mr. Ritchie, the Minister made use of these words : " This momentous question must be brought home to the people of 'England, and the national conscience stirred. Action will then follow on -the part of Parliament and publichectic:S." These words are being verified to-day', as witness the interest displayed by your journal, and in niany. yt'ays reflected in action in the country at the present time'. Will you let me remind your readers that, between thirty and forty years ago, my father 'was engaged in fighting -a strenuous battle to obtain better housing for the working classes in Windsor, where the late"Viince Consort had already .commenced this good work. For years my father contended, through the Press and in other ways, that bad housing was an evil of untold magnitude. 'He fought the matter locally to begin with, for he was rector ofa pariSh Which possessed sluni property:" He stood brivilY against" jealousies
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and animosIty. The Budder and the Lan& came to his aid and stated. the ,truth of his Case, and,-after he had been threatened with personal violence, and even -" burned-in
effigy," because he had spoken the unpalatable truth, the Local Government Board held a special inquiry in Windsor, and in their report vindicated all my father's statemenft, Whereupon better conditions resulted.
My father has been in his grave nearly twenty-seven years, but " the voice of him that is dead yet speaketh." How he would have rejoiced, had his life been spared, that the great cause for which he fought so vigorously and so disinterestedly for so many years, was at last receiving national recognition, and even immediate action, at the hands of our legislators and municipal authorities. Mr. Ritchie's prophecy is being fulfilled.—I am, Sir, &e., C. A. WILBERFORCE ROBINS, Late Vicar of Hounslow.
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