This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: …and its comforts. In the report of some valuable inquiries on the condition of the houses occupied by labourers in the town of Bradford, in Yorkshire, by Mr. Smith, of Deanston (Report, p. 156), a case is stated, strongly showing the ill effects of a want of consideration in this respect. In one street, observes Mr. Smith,
where some houses of a better class have been built, the one rising above the other up the steep, the drainage of the upper houses falling in upon those below causes constant ill-health to the inhabitants, and fever is seldom absent from the locality. Near this situation, in the cellar, I found ii wool-comber and his family. He told me he had formerly lived on the heights, in a dry situation, where he and his family enjoyed a fair share of good health; but that, since they camo to live in the cellar, they have been visited with much sickness. He said he had come to that house for cheapness of rent; and I was able to show him, by reckoning up all the losses of wages from the sickness of himself and family, which he detailed to me, that he was a loser to a greater amount than the whole rent of the healthy house he had formerly occupied. He said he saw the force of what I said, and declared that he would look out for a house better situated. One beneficial effect of giving the people greater intelligence, by a more complete and proper education, would be to enable them to appreciate the importance of placing themselves, as far as possible, in localities favourable to health. The injurious effects upon the character of the labourer produced by want of cleanliness, a regard to decency, and to the ordinary comforts of life, have never been regarded, in the construction of the peasants’ cottages, …
