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CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN TOWNS sds z 3 
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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.