“Expenses of Cleansing and Watering the Streets, &c., of the City of London, on the old system of Scavaging, from June, 1845, to June, 1846.
| Annual Expense. | |
| To scavaging contractors | £6040 |
| Value of ashes and dust of the city of London, given gratis to the above contractors in the year ending 1846, and now purchased by them for the year ending 1847 | 5500 |
| Estimated contributions levied for watering streets | 4000 |
| Salaries to surveyors, inspectors, beadles, clerks, &c., of Sewers’ Office, according to printed account, March 3, 1846 | 2485 |
| Expense for cleaning out sewers and gully-holes (not known) | |
| Annual expense under the imperfect system of street-cleansing | £18,025 |
“Number of men employed, 58.
“State of the Streets:—Inhabitants always complaining of their being muddy in winter and dusty in summer.”
Two estimates, then, show an expectation of a yearly saving of no less than 2320l. to the rate-payers of two parishes alone; 938l. to St. James’s, and 1382l. to St. Martin’s. And this, too, if all that be augured of this system be realized, with a freedom from street dust and dirt unknown under other methods of scavagery. I think it right, however, to express my opinion that even in the reasonable prospect of these great savings being effected, it is a paltry, or rather a false, because miscalled, economy to speculate on the payment of 10s. and 12s. a week to street-labourers in the parishes of St. James and St. Martin respectively, when so many of the contractors pay their men 16s. weekly. If this low hire be justifiable in the way of an experiment, it can never be justifiable as a continuance of the reward of labour.
If the street-orderly system is to be the means of permanently reducing the wages of the regular scavagers from 16s. to 12s. a week, then we had better remain afflicted with the physical dirt of our streets, than the moral filth which is sure to proceed from the poverty of our people—but if it is to be a means of elevating the pauper to the dignity of the independent labour, rather than dragging the independent labourer down to the debasement of the pauper, then let all who wish well to their fellows encourage it as heartily and strenuously as they can—otherwise the sooner it is denounced as an insidious mode of defrauding the poor of one-fourth of their earnings the better; and it is merely in the belief that Mr. Cochrane and the Council of the Association mean to keep faith with the public and increase the men’s wages to those of the regular trade, that the street-orderly system is advocated here. If our philanthropists are to reduce wages 25 per cent., then, indeed, the poor man may cry, “save me from my friends.”
As to the positive and definite working of the street-orderly system as an economical system, no information can be given beyond the estimates I have cited, as it has never been duly tested on a sufficiently large scale. Its working has been, of necessity, desultory. It has, however, been introduced into St. George’s, Bloomsbury; St. James’s, Westminster; and is about to be established in St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields; and in the course of a year or two it seems that it will be sufficiently tested. That its working has hitherto been desultory is a necessity in London, where “vested interests” look grimly on any change or even any inquiry. That it deserves a full and liberal testing seems undeniable, from the concurrent assent of all parishioners who have turned their attention to it.
It remains to show the expenses of the Philanthropic Association, for I am unable to present an account of street-orderlyism separately. The two following tables fully indicate to what an extent the association is indebted to the private purse of Mr. Cochrane, who by this time has advanced between 6000l. and 7000l.
“Balance Sheet.
Receipts and Expenditure of the National Philanthropic Association, for the Promotion of Social and Sanatory Improvements and the Employment of the Poor, from 29th September, 1846, to 29th September, 1849.