Thomas Beggs

“ It is a law of God that men shall reap as they have sown. In this land we have, under Providence, secured some of the blessings of good government, and in consequence a hardy and industrious race has sprung up. It is in the power of the richer classes to gather round the institutions of the country the affections of the people at large. They may do much to banish the grim forms of disease and want which now threaten the poor man’s home. They can carry light to his darkened abode, and dispense comfort and joy upon his gloomy hearth. ”

“ The workman has a right, by every law divine and human, to eat his daily bread by his daily toil. Is it not a mockery to allow him this, if the conditions of health are withheld? Is it not worse? Is it not injustice to leave him in a condition inferior to the criminal? ”

“ Have we never known a sober, industrious man stricken down by an attack of fever, and rising from his bed of sickness to look upon a prospect of poverty and want? His means have become exhausted—he has run into debt, and that debt clogs his future energies. Perhaps the fever leaves him in broken health and infirmity. ”

“ All delay is dangerous, and not only so, it is criminal. The evils of which we complain have been allowed to remain from a general ignorance of the laws of health. Up to a recent period, there was a want of knowledge amongst even the educated classes on these vital subjects. We cannot offer that plea now, to excuse our indifference or neglect. The evils have been fully explored, and most clearly exposed. The connexion between filth and disease—the suffering and vice flowing from them, have been exhibited in so striking a manner as to leave no room for mistake or misapprehension. ”

“ Once more we are awakened to a full knowledge of the fact, that thousands of our fellow creatures are perishing annually, victims to public neglect. The great bulk of our working classes are placed in a condition unfavourable to health—a condition that forbids the preservation of the ordinary decencies and moralities of life. There is a responsibility rests upon all who have influence or power—a responsibility which cannot be shaken off. The work of reform is not accomplished because we have got a legislative enactment and a Board of Health. ”

“ I must present some of these evils in detail. I begin with the lowest—the pecuniary loss. We have to estimate the unnecessary deaths, the unnecessary sickness, the number of funerals, the burthens upon every charity, and that upon the poor-rate. The fever-tax is the heaviest of all taxes. And yet a much larger sum is annually spent in sustaining a number of palliative expedients, than would suffice to support a machinery of prevention. It is laid upon us, sometimes by the neglect, sometimes by the false economy of local authorities. They have only one object—to keep down the rates. ”

“ It is not possible, in the compass of a tract, to enter into detail on all the evils of our present condition. They are too general to have escaped the attention of any careful observer. With regard to drainage and sewerage, every town in the kingdom is defective. Nearly all are equally so with regard to supplies of water; and the overcrowding in wretchedly constructed dwellings has become matter of universal complaint. The people have no control over the construction of their dwellings, little or none over the selection, as they must be near their place of work. ”

“ We find ample proof that the ordinations of Divine Providence cannot be violated with impunity:—if we sever the links of duty and of kindness which unite us to our fellow-men, we cannot separate ourselves from the guilt, the suffering, and the loss, such alienation may induce. ”

“ They have to pay a high price for the most wretched accommodation. The state of living is utterly at variance with cleanliness, order, or the cultivation of decent habits. Labouring under these disadvantages, they have a right to demand of the higher classes a complete system of drainage and sewerage, an efficient water supply, and a thorough cleansing of streets—no penny wise and pound foolish policy ought to stand in the way. They have a right to demand such reforms as will make their homes the abode of comfort to their families. ”

“ It is injustice, it is cruelty to withhold them. How is it that, in the active discussion of public and private rights, at present going on, there are so few to vindicate the poor man’s claims to pure air and good water? ”

“ How many widows and orphans are thus thrown destitute upon the world? How many thousands of poor children are cast, homeless and friendless, upon the streets, furnishing supplies for that great fund of juvenile depravity of which we have lately heard so much? ”

“ Before we reproach them with the neglect of their duties, let us see that our own are faithfully discharged. If we want to raise them up, we must begin by doing them justice. Remove the acknowledged evils that press so heavily upon their condition, and the assurance awaits us that the Almighty, who rewards all cheerful and honest labour, will bless the effort to the good of those who give and to those who may receive. ”

“ The rich man can command many comforts beyond the reach of the poor man. He has to work, perhaps, in a heated, crowded workshop, and to retire to a room wretchedly small, and unwholesome. Need we wonder that he should sometimes prefer the gin-shop, or the beer-house, to his own dim, close, and dirty apartment? I make no p. 10apology for his excesses. I do not wish to excuse his faults. But I ask whether many of the errors, so conspicuous in the character of the poorer population, may not have arisen from the neglect of those who had the power to stimulate them to higher and better things? ”

“ How can we expect to cultivate habits of temperance and industry—how can we hope to diffuse the blessings of education, so indispensable to the elevation of the people in morals and happiness, so long as they are left physically degraded and wretched? The soil is unfavourable to the reception of religious counsel and consolation. This lesson must be learnt before we can hope to legislate wisely. All p. 9practical remedies must begin by a due care for the material wants of the population. ”

“ Short-sighted economy! The question ought to be—“How much suffering and sickness will it prevent?” The largest sum that could by possibility be required to carry out all the p. 7needful schemes of sanitary improvement, are far exceeded by the sums now expended in various ways, and which are entailed upon us by the presence of disease, and the poverty it produces.
The moral evils far exceed any pecuniary loss, and outweigh any amount of physical suffering. The various epidemic diseases generally attack persons in the vigour of life. ”

“ The knowledge gives us the power to arrest the progress of a class of diseases which strike down so many of our fellow-creatures in the years of their strength and usefulness. Every day of supineness is so much opportunity wasted. Every delay carries death to thousands. ”

“ It is not less our interest than a duty enjoined upon us by the principles of our holy religion, to administer to the necessities of the lowly and distressed. Let us, while it is yet day, “break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity.” ”

“ It is known that there is scarcely a house without a cesspool under it, and that a large number have two, three, four, and more under them, so that the number of such receptacles in the metropolis may be taken at 300,000. The exposed surface of each cesspool measures, on an average, 9 feet, and the mean depth of the whole is about 61⁄2 feet; so that each contains 581⁄2 cubic feet of fermenting filth, of the most poisonous, noisome, and disgusting nature. ”

“ His sole possessions are his skill and industry. It is considered unjust to deprive him of free markets and fair play. Is it not cruel to surround him by such circumstances as greatly increase the chances of sickness? ”

“ If this applies to an occasional visit of cholera, it applies with ten-fold force to typhus. I know, at this moment, three different families suffering under this affliction. In two of the cases, the mother is left to struggle with a large family; in the other case, both parents were taken off by fever within a fortnight of each other. The children are in the workhouse.
Look at it in another light, as depriving the poor man of p. 8the ability to toil. Health is the working man’s all—his capital—his stock-in-trade. ”

“ By timely effort they may raise up a young generation, who will cherish the home attachments, pay ready obedience to the laws, and, by habits of sobriety and cheerful industry, give strength and stability to the State. They may, by a proper discharge of the duties of their p. 12stewardship, in a few years, cover the land with smiling homes and a contented population. ”

“ If the sanitary evils which have been proved to exist almost universally were removed, cholera and typhus would scarcely be known amongst us; and yet “the annual slaughter in England and Wales, from preventable causes of typhus, which attacks persons in the vigour of life, appears to be double the amount of what was suffered by the allied armies in the battle of Waterloo.” Every day, disease and death arise from the presence of p. ”

“ I would remind those who are in affluence and comfort of the duties of their station. Many of them can go away from the crowded streets, and spend the greater part of their time in a suburban residence ”