In Darkest England and The Way Out [11]
earnings 18s.to 21s. per week .. .. 129,000 258,000 387,000 ------- ------- ------- 331,000 662,000 993,000
Regular wages, artizans, etc., 22s. to 30s. per week .. .. 337,000
Higher class labour, 30s. to 50s. per week .. .. 121,000
Lower middle class, shopkeepers, clerks, etc. .. 34,000
Upper middle class (servant keepers) .. .. .. 45,000 ------- 908,000 It may be admitted that East London affords an exceptionally bad district from which to generalise for the rest of the country. Wages are higher in London than elsewhere, but so is rent, and the number of the homeless and starving is greater in the human warren at the East End. There are 31 millions of people in Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland. If destitution existed everywhere in East London proportions, there would be 31 times as many homeless and starving people as there are in the district round Bethnal Green.
But let us suppose that the East London rate is double the average for the rest of the country. That would bring out the following figures:
HOUSELESS East London. United Kingdom.
Loafers, Casuals, and some Criminals 11,000 165,500
STARVING Casual earnings or chronic want .. 100,000 1,550,000
Total Houseless and Starving .. 111,000 1,715,500
In Workhouses, Asylums, &c. .. 17,000 190,000 -------- ---------- 128,000 1,905,500
Of those returned as homeless and starving, 870,000 were in receipt of outdoor relief. To these must be added the inmates of our prisons. In 1889 174,779 persons were received in the prisons, but the average number in prison at any one time did not exceed 60,000. The figures, as given in the Prison Returns, are as follows: --
In Convict Prisons .. .. .. .. .. 11,600 In Local Prisons.. .. .. .. .. .. 20,883 In Reformatories.. .. .. .. .. .. 1,270 In Industrial Schools .. .. .. .. 21,413 Criminal Lunatics .. .. .. .. .. 910 ------- 56,136
Add to this the number of indoor paupers and lunatics (excluding criminals) 78,966--and we have an army of nearly two million: belonging to the submerged classes. To this there must be added at the very least, another million, representing those dependent upon the criminal, lunatic and other classes, not enumerated here, and the more or less helpless of the class immediately above the houseless and starving. This brings my total to three millions, or, to put it roughly to one-tenth of the population. According to Lord Brabazon and Mr. Samuel Smith, "between two and three millions of our population are always pauperised and degraded." Mr. Chamberlain says there is a "population equal to that of the metropolis,--that is, between four and five millions--"which has remained constantly in a state of abject destitution and misery." Mr. Giffen is more moderate. The submerged class, according to him, comprises one in five of manual labourers, six in 100 of the population. Mr. Giffen does not add the third million which is living on the border line. Between Mr Chamberlain's four millions and a half, and Mr. Giffen's 1,800,000 I am content to take three millions as representing the total strength of the destitute army.
Darkest England, then, may be said to have a population about equal to that of Scotland. Three million men, women, and children a vast despairing multitude in a condition nominally free, but really enslaved;--these it is whom we have to save.
It is a large order. England emancipated her negroes sixty years ago, at a cost of #40,000,000, and has never ceased boasting about it since. But at our own doors, from "Plymouth to Peterhead," stretches this waste
Regular wages, artizans, etc., 22s. to 30s. per week .. .. 337,000
Higher class labour, 30s. to 50s. per week .. .. 121,000
Lower middle class, shopkeepers, clerks, etc. .. 34,000
Upper middle class (servant keepers) .. .. .. 45,000 ------- 908,000 It may be admitted that East London affords an exceptionally bad district from which to generalise for the rest of the country. Wages are higher in London than elsewhere, but so is rent, and the number of the homeless and starving is greater in the human warren at the East End. There are 31 millions of people in Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland. If destitution existed everywhere in East London proportions, there would be 31 times as many homeless and starving people as there are in the district round Bethnal Green.
But let us suppose that the East London rate is double the average for the rest of the country. That would bring out the following figures:
HOUSELESS East London. United Kingdom.
Loafers, Casuals, and some Criminals 11,000 165,500
STARVING Casual earnings or chronic want .. 100,000 1,550,000
Total Houseless and Starving .. 111,000 1,715,500
In Workhouses, Asylums, &c. .. 17,000 190,000 -------- ---------- 128,000 1,905,500
Of those returned as homeless and starving, 870,000 were in receipt of outdoor relief. To these must be added the inmates of our prisons. In 1889 174,779 persons were received in the prisons, but the average number in prison at any one time did not exceed 60,000. The figures, as given in the Prison Returns, are as follows: --
In Convict Prisons .. .. .. .. .. 11,600 In Local Prisons.. .. .. .. .. .. 20,883 In Reformatories.. .. .. .. .. .. 1,270 In Industrial Schools .. .. .. .. 21,413 Criminal Lunatics .. .. .. .. .. 910 ------- 56,136
Add to this the number of indoor paupers and lunatics (excluding criminals) 78,966--and we have an army of nearly two million: belonging to the submerged classes. To this there must be added at the very least, another million, representing those dependent upon the criminal, lunatic and other classes, not enumerated here, and the more or less helpless of the class immediately above the houseless and starving. This brings my total to three millions, or, to put it roughly to one-tenth of the population. According to Lord Brabazon and Mr. Samuel Smith, "between two and three millions of our population are always pauperised and degraded." Mr. Chamberlain says there is a "population equal to that of the metropolis,--that is, between four and five millions--"which has remained constantly in a state of abject destitution and misery." Mr. Giffen is more moderate. The submerged class, according to him, comprises one in five of manual labourers, six in 100 of the population. Mr. Giffen does not add the third million which is living on the border line. Between Mr Chamberlain's four millions and a half, and Mr. Giffen's 1,800,000 I am content to take three millions as representing the total strength of the destitute army.
Darkest England, then, may be said to have a population about equal to that of Scotland. Three million men, women, and children a vast despairing multitude in a condition nominally free, but really enslaved;--these it is whom we have to save.
It is a large order. England emancipated her negroes sixty years ago, at a cost of #40,000,000, and has never ceased boasting about it since. But at our own doors, from "Plymouth to Peterhead," stretches this waste