How the Poor Live, and Horrible London. By George R.
Sims. (Chatto and Windus.)—In these papers, reprinted from two news- papers, Mr. Sims's facts do not always justify his arguments. His taste is sometimes questionable; but his remarks on some of the evils under which our London poor suffer are deserving of attention. These evils are so familiar, that we are apt to regard them as in-
evitable. There is no doubt that the overcrowding of the poor in un- healthy dwellings is one cause of drunkenness, though in numerous cases it is drink that has forced them to seek such homes; there is no doubt, too, that the demands of the Education Act prove a severe tax upon parents who are living on the lowest scale at which existence is possible ; that the herding together of the labouring and criminal classes does infinite harm to the former, and that the want of a mortuary in every parish is a disgrace to London. Mr. Sims complains that the poor are grossly neglected by the State, and that the working of the Artisans' Dwellings Act has rendered thousands upon thousands of families homeless "by the demoli- tion of whole acres of the slums where they hid their heads ;" but the difficulty of rehousing the very lowest class of the London poor, whose instincts make them prefer filth to cleanliness, is not easily surmounted. The external appliances are at hand, as Mr. Sims admits, but sanitary inspectors, inspectors of nuisances, and medical officers of health cannot do their work when thwarted by the greed or apathy of the men whose servants they are. According to the author, the sanitary inspection of licensed lodging-houses is a farce ; and in many cases, the vestrymen who ought to put the law in motion are themselves the owners of houses which he styles "murder-traps." " The first thing, as a rule," he writes, "which a man does who acquires low-class and doubtful property, is to try and be elected as vestryman." The little book should be read, for the subject is of the deepest interest. Mr. Sims speaks, however, as if its importance had only lately been discovered,—a frequent mistake with writers eager to reform abuses.
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