Second report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classses : Scotland.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes
- Date:
- 1885
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Second report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classses : Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![Mr. Alderman W. Meagher, M.P., Professor C.A. Cameron, M.D., F.H.C.S.I.. Mr. J. Beveridge, Mr. P. Neville, C.E., Mr. S. Hart]). 23 May 1885. 28 ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE HOUSING OP THE WORKING CLASSES. Rev. J. Daniel. 22.463. {To Mr. Beveridge.) Is there anything further you desire to state?—I have a return here which shows the different sources of revenue for the police. 22.464. Will you please state the substance of it ?— For the year 1878 the police tax realised in round numbers 20,000/. ; carriage rents and public-house fees, 4,900/.; fees and penalties in police prosecutions. 7,300/.; pawnbrokers' licenses, 5,100/.; giving a total of nearly 40,000/. for that year ; and that is irrespec- tive of the Government contribution. I desire also to hand in a copy of the byelaws framed under the Public Health Act, and a copy of the special Act of 1864 for which an honourable member of the Commis- sion asked (handing in the same). The witnesses withdrew', The Reverend James Daniel examined. 22.465. {The Chairman.) You have had, I believe, an intimate acquaintanceship of more than a quarter of a century, as a working clergyman in some of the poorest and most populous districts of Dublin, with the dwellings of the poor in those districts ?— Yes. 22.466. And you have found the dwellings wretch- edly bad and unfit for the population who live in them, and miserably deficient in all respects ?—Yes. 22.467. And you consider that those dwellings have a depressing and demoralising influence upon the poor ?—Undoubtedly. 22.468. It is in evidence before us that a great deal has been done, especially in the last four or five years, by the corporation and the Artisans' Dwellings Com- pany to improve mattei's in Dublin ; but I suppose it is your opinion that a great deal more yet remains to be done ?—A vast deal more; I know of no city that requires greater supervision in this lespect than the city of Dublin. I have been now 25 years in Dublin, 20 of them mixing daily with the people in these disti-icts, and have been brought into contact with them in their houses, from being obliged to visit them when in sickness, and otherwise, and I have often been struck with amazement as to how they contrive to carry on existence at all. 22.469. Do you consider that there are areas avail- able for building ?—I do. 22.470. Do you mean in the city of Dublin itself? —Yes, in the city itself. 22.471. Do you mean on commercial principles, or through the action of the corporation, or how ?—I think through the action of the corporation and through the action of the Artizans' Dwellings Company, Avho have done a vast deal of service in the way of improvement of the workmen's dwellings. 22.472. Do you mean that they should purchase the land in the open market ?—Yes; but some facilities should be given to guard against exorbitant compensa- tion ; the demands made for the displacement of people by the clearance of areas have been to my mind excessive. With regard to an area that I am imme- diately connected with myself, and which Mr. Gray and I undertook to clear away, the cost in that one area for clearance was over 20,000/. 22.473. We have had evidence as to the whole of that area, Plunket Street area, and I rather stopped that evidence because it all occurred under the Acts previous to the Act of 1882; but there is an amend- ing Act of 1882 which greatly affects that question of compensation, and which is applicable to Ireland—it extends to Ireland ; and therefore in any new case now it is highly probable that those very startling cases of over compensation will not occur ?—I am very happy indeed to hear that. 22.474. Have you any other observations which you would like to make to the Commission upon the sub- ject?— No, unless it be merely to indicate that amongst the evil effects following from the overcrowd- ing of people in those large tenement houses and the want of accommodation is the great evil of public wakes. 22.475. We find in some cases in London that a dead body would be left for a long period, sometimes even over a week, in a room where a great many people are living, people who have only one room, and that they would send for others to come and sit with them, and so forth ; and that of course exists in a not more aggravated form in Dublin ?—Bodies ar* kept so long as a week ; but in some cases undoubt- edly, say, if a death occurs on Tuesday, the body is kept until Sunday to insure a large funeral. The inconvenience of those wakes arises from the large number of people in those houses; death always occasions inconvenience ; the entire house is kept dis- turbed during the continuance of the wake ; and then others gather into the room when a wake occurs, and so demoralisation and dissipation occur. 22.476. {Blr. Gray.) Under the existing law there is no power to interfere with those wakes ?—No, there is only the moral persuasion of the clergy of Dublin in trying to direct the attention of the people to the evils resulting from them. 22.477. Except in a case where some danger is likely to arise to health, from holding the wake, the local authority has no power to prohiljit it ?—I believe that is so. 22.478. You must have had considerable experience of the condition of the poorer labouring classes in the poorer districts of Dublin?—Yes, I have just been saying so. 22.479. I should like to ask you the question which I asked Dr. Cameron ; we have had some revelations as to the moral condition of the poorer classes, espe- cially of those who drink, where a whole family has to reside in a single room ; you are no doubt of opinion that that tends largely to immorality, but does your experience lead you to believe that the more terrible forms of immorality, incest, and such like exist to any serious extent in Dublin ?—My experience con- vinces me of the extraordinary morality of our people in those respects. In fact I have been brought into contact with these people, as I have been telling the Chairman, for nearly 25 years, and the cases are rare in which anything approaching to gross immorality occurs in families. As to unnatural crimes they are almost non-existent, I cannot remember to have met in my long experience with more than three or four cases of unnatural crimes; in fact I have been often filled with astonishment as well as admiration at the purity of the mode of living of our people. 22.480. {Sir Richard Cross.) The morality of the Irish is proverbial throughout the world ?—I am very happy to say that I can bear testimony to that. Of course instances do occur in which immorality will break out, but taking into consideration the way in which the 'houses are densely overcrowded, I am, I repeat, constantly struck with amazement at the absence of gross immorality. 22.481. Supposing a girl was to become immoral, would she or would she not be looked down upon by the class amongst whom she lives ?—Undoubtedly. 22.482. The actual public feeling amongst that particular class is set dead again.'^t anything of the kind, is it not ?—Yes, and there is a wonderful kind- ness, I must say, amongst the poor in that pai'ticular. If a girl falls they endeavour to correct her and bring her back to a sense of her moral obligations, and if slie resists then she is cast away, and becomes a marked character. As to unnatural crimes, I know nothing more beautiful than the reverence of the Irish parent for his children; the parents cast around them every possible safeguard of sanctity and purity, and the last thing that they would ever dream of would be any- thing in violation of that parental reverence.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24398329_0062.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
