THE VOICE OF HUMANITY.
WE have had put before us the Fifth Number of a little work under this title : the praiseworthy object of the periodipal is to call the attention of the public to the cruelty practised in slaughter-houses, by drovers in the driving of cattle, by horse-butchers in the knacker-yard. Bees are also objects of sympathy with the ami- able people who support the society of which the " Voice" is an organ : the wanton inhumanity of suffocating the bees, to get at their treasure, is provided against by a newly-invented hive. Mr. Nurr has fitted up a delicious little apiary on this principle for the Duchess of LEEDS, at Hornby Castle, where her bees may live and make honey all the days of their lives. We should like to point out to the notice of the friends of humanity, and such kind-hearted souls as the Duchess of LEEDS, who will not let even their bees reside in confined apartments, a human hive, in which, if the unhappy indwellers do not die of suffocation, they probably will of pestilence.
i The following is a description of an " apiary" in the parish of St. Giles.
" The under-ground door, consisting of one apartment, is occupied by one man, one woman, and five children. Ground-floor—Two apartments, occupied by two men, two women, and eight children. First-floor—Two apartments, stuffed with two men, three women, and forty-five children. Second-floor—Two apartments, containing three men, four women, and six children. Garret—Two rooms, occupied by three men, three women, and five children. -
" Thus it appears, that a house situated in a densely-populated and ex- tremely unhealthy neighbourhood, consisting of nine small rooms, is oc- cupied by no less than eleven men, thirteen women, and sixty-nine chil- dren; making a total of ninety-three human beings breathing the air of pestilence in the dog-days.
" The internal area of this house is only about twelve feet by twenty- four."—Morning Herald, August 26.
In this manner are hundreds of houses in this neighbourhood
crowded with living creatures! the streets are narrow, the build- ings are high, the apartments swarm, the wretches who dwell there are the victims of disease and penury—they are overrun with filth, their humours are corrupted by unwholesome food, and they are vicious and drunken. Thus have we, in the very centre of the most civilized capital of Europe, unnoticed and disregarded, a hot- bed reeking with pestilence. As long as death rages within the limits of penury, its ravages will remain uncared-for ; but when the poison extends into better quarters, we may expect that some eyes will be opened while many are closing. Verily, St. Giles's requires more looking to than Smithfield: let the Voice of Humanity be heard crying in its cellars and its garrets.
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