The sanitary conditions amid which the great majority of these alien immigrants labour and live may truly be described as appalling. It is a remarkable thing that just as the lower organisms of animal life are capable of living under circumstances which are intolerable to higher organisms, so can these people exist—and even to a certain extent thrive—in an atmosphere and amid surroundings which to the more highly-developed Englishman and Englishwoman mean disease and death. Cleanliness and sanitation are peculiarities of Western rather than of Eastern nationalities. When Peter the Great went back to Russia after his famous visit to London two centuries ago, he left behind him such a filthy habitation, that the cleansing of it had to be defrayed by an especial grant from the Exchequer. This is a matter of history; and if rumour is to be believed, a similar experience in connection with the visit of an Oriental potentate has occurred in very recent years. If this sort of thing is incidental to the visit of Eastern Princes, how much rather then is it liable to accompany the wholesale inundation of poor and degraded foreigners, who flock into London and our large cities from every country in Europe?

In treating of this sanitary aspect, in order to avoid any possible charge of exaggeration, I prefer to quote the statements of unimpeachable authorities rather than to advance any theories of my own. The surroundings amid which these people are content to labour and to live are deplorable and filthy beyond description. To quote from the Majority Report of the Sweating Committee—a Report which has been attacked because of the undue moderation of its language, and which certainly cannot be said to unduly exaggerate the evil:—

"Three or four gas-jets may be flaring in a room, a coke fire burning in the wretched fire-place, sinks untrapped, closets without water, and, altogether, the sanitary conditions abominable. A witness told us that in a double room, perhaps 9 feet by 15 feet, a man, his wife, and six children slept, and in the same room ten men were usually employed, so that at night eighteen persons would be in that one room. These witnesses alluded to the want of sanitary precautions, and of decent and sufficient accommodation, and declared that the effects of this, combined with the inadequate wages earned, had the effect of driving girls to prostitution."

The state of the sweaters' dens in East London is revolting beyond measure, and resembles rather the description of Dante's Inferno, than the abodes of a professedly civilized people. Here is the description of one taken almost at random from a mass of evidence teeming with similar details. A Factory Inspector, who described it, says it gives a fair idea of all the rest, and he certainly ought to know, seeing that some 4000 factories and "workshops innumerable" are under his inspection. He says:—

"You find a filthy bed, on which garments which are made are laid; little children, perfectly naked little things, lying about on the floor and on the bed; frying-pans and all sorts of dirty utensils with food of various descriptions on the bed, under the bed, over the bed, everywhere; clothes hanging on a line, with nothing more than a large gas-stove with the ashes all flying about, and the atmosphere so dense that you get ill after a night's work there; and that is the reason I am deaf now."

In respect of sanitation, the foreign Jews appear to be the worst offenders. The Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians admit in their Report that of 880 houses visited by the inspector, 623 were defective, and below the standard required by the Local Authority. Of these no less than 341 were in Whitechapel alone. To quote a few samples:—

"In Whitechapel, some so-called 'Model Dwellings' exist, in which the drain of a water-closet had been entirely stopped up for three weeks prior to the visit of the Inspector, while two of the cellars (inhabited) were flooded with sewage, and had been so flooded for four days past. At another place, where a noxious odour had prevailed for years, the refuse which the Committee succeeded in causing to be removed from the basement room, contained among its various components the dead bodies of five cats, a dog, and a rabbit. The water-closet drains of three other houses were discovered on the Inspector's visit to have remained in a choked condition for three, five, and six weeks respectively. At a house in St. George's-in-the-East, three boot-finishers were found at work in a front basement room, while the adjoining back basement room was flooded with sewage, which forced its way up a gully supposed to be protected by a bell-trap. The cover of this trap, as is generally the case with these appliances, was absent, and thus the sewer had direct and unobstructed communication with the interior of the house."

This extract is taken bodily from the Report of the Sweating Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians. They are writing of their own people, and are certainly not likely to exaggerate the state of affairs.

The habitations of the Italians are little better; in fact in many ways they are just as bad. The sanitary arrangements of the cheap dwellings around Saffron Hill, where the Italians mostly abound, leave everything to be desired. On this subject I had lately some conversation with an officer of the Italian Benevolent Society. He described to me a sleeping-room—it often served as a living-room as well—in one of the ordinary dwelling-houses in the neighbourhood of Saffron Hill. In this one room, neither very lofty nor very large, may frequently be found a dozen persons herded together rather like cattle than human beings, sleeping promiscuously as follows:—In one bed, or what serves as a bed, a married couple; in the next, two young girls; in a third, a single young man; in the fourth, three or four children of different ages and sexes—and so on. Owing to the lack of ventilation, and the number of human beings crowded in the room—to quote the words of my informant—"the stench was awful." The result of all this upon the victims, both physically and morally, can easily be imagined. Another instance was that given by Inspector Holland to Mr. Biron the magistrate.[20] An Italian, who was summoned for sending his little girl out begging, was traced to his home, and there the police inspector found the parents occupying a miserably furnished little apartment in Aldis Mews, with six children. The room, which "smelt horribly," contained a single bed, under which were kept the appliances for making ice-cream; and Inspector Holland also found the room to be inhabited by a dog, a cat, a monkey, and several white mice. The moral of all this is obvious, viz. that these people are able to live under conditions amid which it would be impossible for an average Englishman to exist at all. Therefore it is only one more illustration of the unfair nature of this unnatural competition.

There is, however, another point to be noted in connection with this sanitary aspect. The conditions under which work is done in the sweaters' dens, and in their homes by these unfortunate people, largely assists in the spreading of infectious diseases. I refer of course more especially to the cheap tailoring trade. Some materials carry infection very quickly. Dr. Bate, a medical officer of health in the East End of London, speaks, in his evidence before the Sweating Committee, of infection being carried far and wide by the garments being often made up in rooms where children are lying ill with small-pox, scarlet fever, and other maladies. He had seen the garments thrown over the children's beds; and a case is mentioned of a child covered with measles being wrapt up in one of the half-made garments to keep it warm. And yet the articles made under such conditions are sold in the cheap, ready-made clothes-shops all over London and throughout the provinces.

Nor are matters in the foreign quarters of the provincial towns much better. From Manchester, from Leeds, from Liverpool, from Glasgow, the same tale reaches us, of the filthy habits of these foreign immigrants, and their neglect of all sanitary precautions. For instance, at Meadow Bank, an outlying district of Winsford, there is a large colony of Poles and Hungarians. They are employed in some local salt works, and were especially brought over to England some years ago in consequence of a strike in the Salt District, and now fill the places which were formerly occupied by Englishmen. A description of the way in which these people live, will best show how impossible it is for decent English workmen to compete against them. It is best told in the words of Dr. Fox, the medical officer of the District Board of Health. In his report he writes:—

"To say that these people are living together like beasts would be an insult and a libel upon beasts. Beasts would be better provided for than are those human beings. In the first place the rooms are, without exception, overcrowded. Again, they are destitute of furniture. The beds are trays covered with filthy straw; the bed-clothing is entirely constituted of filthy sacking. The men sleep in their clothes, even in their boots. The windows are rarely if ever opened; the beds in point of fact being many of them never empty; one set of workmen occupying them by day, and another by night. The atmosphere is necessarily foul, foetid, and pestilential to persons of ordinary susceptibilities; and yet, in the absence of larders, and kitchens, and separate living-rooms, in this foetid, stinking atmosphere the food is stored and cooked. Arrangements for washing there are none, except the outside taps. In one room six men and one woman are sleeping, unmarried, promiscuously; and in another, a man, his wife, and daughter—fourteen years of age—were occupying one bed. Canal-boats are palaces and temples of cleanliness, comfort, and morality, compared with this horrible colony of Bohemianism."

It is not possible to say anything which would add to this tale of horror. The facts speak for themselves. Dr. Fox, though subjected to a severe examination before the House of Commons' Committee, maintained that there was not a syllable of exaggeration in his report, though in consequence of public attention having been attracted by its publication, a slight improvement had since taken place in some minor details. There was no necessity, it should be noted, for these foreigners to live in the way they did. In this instance they were paid a sufficient wage for them to exist under decent and sanitary conditions. It was simply that they preferred doing so, and were but following the instincts of a nature which had become engendered in them by long years of filthy and degraded habits. Yet it was to make room for such as these that the English workmen were ousted, and are being ousted daily, in the great manufacturing centres of Great Britain. The question is, therefore, how long are these people to be allowed to pour in upon us unchecked, bringing with them their foreign habits and customs, and living in conformity with these alone, an outstanding defiance to English law, and a serious danger to the health and well-being of the surrounding English community? Is it right or just that our people should be forced by this unnatural competition to live and toil side by side with such people, surrounded by bad light, bad air, bad food, bad water, bad smells, bad and degrading occupations—by every circumstance which depresses the vital energies, and leaves them an easy prey to pestilence? But we are told that to shut our doors upon these aliens would be to reverse England's traditions. I maintain that we have lavished sympathy enough upon them already, and that it is now necessary for us to keep a little of our sympathy for our own flesh and blood. It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of sanitation. Where it is neglected, disease and death surely follow. Doctors tell us that more human beings are killed in England every year by unnecessary and preventible diseases, than were killed at Waterloo or Sadowa, and the great majority of these victims are children. Preventible diseases, according to Sir Joseph Fayrer, still kill 125,000 per annum, entailing a loss of labour from sickness estimated at £7,750,000 per annum. "Why then," as the Prince of Wales[21] asked, "are they not prevented?"

Sanitary legislation is all very well, but it deals with effects and not with causes. Such dens as those described, not by my imagination, be it noted, but by unimpeachable authorities, are nothing less than breeding-houses of pestilence. If we swept them clean to-morrow others would soon be found as bad, for the filthy and unsanitary habits of these immigrant aliens are bred in the bone, and wherever they go they take them with them. It cannot be healthy for a nation to have such a sore as this existing in its side, yet we allow this plague-spot to continue in our midst, and to spread its contamination far and wide. If we wish to perpetuate that healthy, sturdy stock which has made England what she is, we must prevent the strain from being defiled by this ceaseless pouring in of the unclean and unhealthy of other lands. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," and nothing is more contagious than dirty and unsanitary habits. The physical health of the people should be the first care of the State, for upon it depends not only the present, but the future, of our race. Salus populi suprema est lex—and before this inviolable law all other considerations must bow.

The Majority Report of the Sweating Committee—from which Lord Dunraven dissented—complacently recommended the more frequent use of "limewash" in the sweaters' dens and workshops where these indigent foreigners chiefly congregate. But it will require a great deal more than "limewash" to whiten this hideous evil. People who bring with them filthy and unsanitary habits are a standing source of danger to the rest of the community. Cattle from an infected district are refused admission to our ports; surely the health of even one of the meanest of our people is of more importance than many cattle.