The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

; 4 NN PT Hero 4 o> LA CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN TOWNS sds z 3 5 Wnlvesjiy eet danger to health. In Manchester, and the towns round JAD He | there was a vast increase of population, and as early as 1782, os . . : “, Dr Aikin® and Dr Percival called attention to the miserable Up gg character of their accommodation. The sudden flocking of ated ce . attention the population™ to these towns was the occasion of over- crowding in its worst forms, and gave the speculative builder a magnificent opportunity for erecting insanitary dwellings. Friedrich Engels’ painstaking description of the housing of the Manchester poor is well worth perusal? The evil had then been of long standing, and was probably connected with the decay of municipal institutions which was so noticeable in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. In mediaeval times the townsmen had been eager for the maintenance of public health, but it was only after the Municipal Reform of 1833% that administrative authorities were available to attempt to deal with the new problem. Even then an out- re Dat: side stimulus was needed: not till the cholera appeared, cholerain . . ui . . 1831 and it became obvious that the condition in which the labourer constantly lived was a source of public danger in he highly extolled. The changed character of poor relief in modern times is but an instance of the alteration which has taken place in regard to so many duties; as they become common, they also become secularised. There was less difference between the law in England and Scotland than is generally supposed, though there was a very great difference in the administration. Reports, 1839, xx. 168. 1 J. Aikin, A description of the country from thirty or forty miles round Hanchester, 1795, p. 192. t Engels, Condition of the Working Class, pp. 24—66. 8 The increased efficiency of municipal institutions reorganised under parlia- mentary authority has been one great factor in progress. The old state of affairs ig thus described: “In conclusion we report to your Majesty that there prevails amongst the inhabitants of a great majority of the incorporated towns a general and in our opinion a just dismatisfaction with their Municipal Institutions; 3 distrust of the self-elected Municipal Councils; whose powers are subject to no pcpular control and whose acts and proceedings being secret are unchecked by :he influence of public opinion; a distrust of the Municipal Magistracy tainting with suspicion the local administration of justice, and often accompanied with contempt of the persons by whom the law is administered ; a discontent under the surthen of Local Taxation, while revenues that ought to be applied for the public advantage are diverted from their legitimate use, and are sometimes wastefully bestowed for the benefit of individuals, sometimes squandered for purposes injurious to the character and morals of the people. We therefore feel it to be our duty to represent to your Majesty that the existing Municipal Corporations of England and Wales neither possess nor deserve the confidence or respect of your Majesty's subjects, and that a thorough reform must be effected before they can become, what we humbly submit to your Majesty they ought to be, useful and efficient instruments of loeal government.” Municipal Corporations Commission Report, in Renorts, etc. 1835, xxImxr. 49.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The Industrial Revolution

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation