"These streets," says an English journal in an article upon the
sanitary condition of the working-people in cities, "are often so
narrow that a person can step from the window of one house into that
of its opposite neighbour, while the houses are piled so high, storey
upon storey, that the light can scarcely penetrate into the court or
alley that lies between. In this part of the city there are neither
sewers nor other drains, nor even privies belonging to the houses. In
consequence, all refuse, garbage, and excrements of at least 50,000
persons are thrown into the gutters every night, so that, in spite of
all street sweeping, a mass of dried filth and foul vapours are
created, which not only offend the sight and smell, but endanger the
health of the inhabitants in the highest degree. Is it to be wondered
at, that in such localities all considerations of health, morals, and
even the most ordinary decency are utterly neglected? On the
contrary, all who are more intimately acquainted with the condition of
the inhabitants will testify to the high degree which disease,
wretchedness, and demoralisation have here reached. Society in such
districts has sunk to a level indescribably low and hopeless. The
houses of the poor are generally filthy, and are evidently never
cleansed. They consist in most cases of a single room which, while
subject to the worst ventilation, is yet usually kept cold by the
broken and badly fitting windows, and is sometimes damp and partly
below ground level, always badly furnished and thoroughly
uncomfortable, a straw-heap often serving the whole family for a bed,
upon which men and women, young and old, sleep in revolting confusion.
Water can be had only from the public pumps, and the difficulty of
obtaining it naturally fosters all possible filth."

In the other great seaport towns the prospect is no better. Liverpool,