[295] Evelyn. 4th February, 1684-5.
[296] For the prose writers of those days who give lively pictures of manners and morals, the reader is referred to the pages of Fielding, Smollett, and especially De Foe, who wrote much upon low life.
[297] “Pure, and above all reproach in her own domestic life, the queen knew how to enforce at her court the virtues, or, at the very least, the semblance of the virtues which she practiced. To no other woman, probably, had the cause of good morals in England ever owed so deep an obligation.”—Lord Mahon’s History of England, 1713-1782, vol. iv., p. 221, 222.
[298] It was asserted some years ago, and by many believed, that after his death a large number of prurient French prints, which were in the Custom-house of London, and designed for the private amusement of the king, were burned. The story of the prints and their deflagration may be true, but it is very questionable if they were for royal use. A number of low class London papers always attacked George IV. personally, among which the Weekly Dispatch (the “Sunday Flash” of Warren’s novel of “Ten Thousand a Year”) took a prominent position from the coarseness of its language and the acerbity of its animosity, assumed at a time when party feeling ran high, as an attractive bait to its readers.
[299] Census of Great Britain, 1851.
[300] Dr. Ryan.
[301] The ineffectual provisions of the law have recently engaged the attention of the inhabitants of London, and a meeting was held in January of the present year (1858) to consider the evil, and decide what steps should be taken in the premises. We shall notice in another part of this work some of the suggestions made on that occasion.
[302] General secondary questions do not come within the scope of this work, but the labors of these dwelling improvement associations are intimately connected with the subject we have now under investigation. In London, model lodging-houses for single men, single women, and married couples with their children, have been tried and found eminently successful, both as a moderate interest-paying investment, and as a very admirable arrangement for promoting the comfort and health of the working classes. The details given some two years ago, through the daily papers, on the lodgings of the poor and the very poor of New York, were frightful enough to excite the active sympathy of the benevolent capitalists of this great city. The very best philanthropy is that which teaches and enables the poor man to benefit his own condition. This principle is practically in operation all over the United States: but in great cities, the freedom of action, and the directly beneficial results of frugality and industry, are not so immediate as in country places. The attempt by the poor to improve their own dwellings in these large cities is almost hopeless, because it does not depend upon individual exertions, but on combination both of money and knowledge. The “how, when, and where” have to be found out and carried through: very small difficulties these, and easily overcome, if those who have the requisite means to carry out such a reform, and thus lend their aid to the solution of an important social problem, have an inclination commensurate with their resources.
[303] See, in particular, as regards London, Statistical Society’s Reports, vol. xiii.; Reports of Metropolitan Association for improving the Habitations of the Poor; Board of Health Papers. And for the country districts, Health of Towns Reports; Report on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture, 1843.
[304] Mayhew’s Letters to the (London) Morning Chronicle; Mayhew’s London Labor and the London Poor.