dust. In no one respect, perhaps, can this be ascertained with perfect precision, but still even a rough approximation to the extent of the evil is of value, as giving us more definite ideas on the subject.

It will be seen, on reference to the preceding table, that the quantity of street-refuse collected in dry weather throughout the metropolis is between 300 and 400 cart-loads daily, or upwards of 100,000 cart-loads, the greater proportion of which may be termed street-dust.

The damage occasioned by the street-dust arises from its penetrating, before removal, the atmosphere both without and within our houses, and consists in the soiling of wearing apparel, the injury of the stock-in-trade of shopkeepers, and of household furniture.

Washing is, of course, dependent upon the duration of time in which it is proper, in the estimation of the several classes of society, to retain wearing apparel upon the person, on the bed or the table, without what is termed a "change;" and this duration of time with thousands of both men and women is often determined by the presence or absence of dirt on the garment; and not arbitrarily, as among wealthier people, with whom a clean shirt every morning, and a clean table-cloth every one, two, three, or more days, as may happen, are regarded as things of course, no matter what may be the state of the displaced linen.

The Board of Health, in one of their Reports, speak very decisively and definitely on this subject. "Common observation of the rate at which the skin, linen, and clothes (not to speak of paper, books, prints, and furniture) become dirty in the metropolis," say they, "as compared with the time that elapses before a proportionate amount of deterioration and uncleanliness is communicated in the rural districts, will warrant the estimate, that full one-half the expense of washing to maintain a passable degree of cleanliness, is rendered necessary by the excess of smoke generated in open fires, and the excess of dust arising from the imperfect scavenging of the roads and streets.

Per

sons engaged in washing linen on a large scale, state that it is dirtied in the crowded parts of the metropolis in one-third the time in which the like degree of uncleanliness would be produced in a rural district; but all attest the fact, that linen is more rapidly destroyed by washing than by the wear on the person. The expense of the more rapid destruction of linen must be added to the extra expense of washing. These expenses and inconveniences, the greater portion of which are due to local maladministration, occasion an extra expenditure of upwards of two to three millions per annum-exclusive of the injury done to the general health and the medical and other expenses consequent thereon."

Here, then, we find the evil effects of the imperfect scavenging of the metropolis estimated at between two and three millions sterling per annum, and this in the mere matter of extra washing and its necessary concomitant extra wear and tear of clothes.

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As this estimate, however, appears to me to exaggerate the evil beyond all due bounds, I will proceed to adduce a few facts, bearing upon the point and first as to the expense of washing.

In order to ascertain as accurately as possible, the actual washing expenses of labouring men and their families whose washing was done at home, Mr. John Bullar, the Honorary Secretary to the Association for the Promotion of Baths and Washhouses, tells us in a Report presented to Parliament, "that inquiries were made of several hundred families of labouring men, and it was found that, taking the wife's labour as worth 5s. a week! the total cost of washing at home, for a man and wife and four children, averaged very closely on 2s. 6d. a week, 5d. a head. The cost of coals, soda, soap, starch, blue, and sometimes water, was rather less than one-third of the amount. The time occupied was rarely less than two days, and more often extended into a third day, so that the value of the labour was rather more than twothirds of the amount.

=

"The cost of washing to single men among the labouring classes, whose washing expenditure might be expected to be on a very low scale, such as hod-men and street-sweepers, was found to be 44d. a head.

"The cost of washing to very small tradesmen could not be safely estimated at much more than 6d. a head a week.

"It may, perhaps," continues the Report, "be safe to reckon the weekly washing expenses of the poorer half of the inhabitants of the metropolis at not exceeding 6d. a head; but the expenditure for washing rapidly increases as the inquiry ascends into what are called the 'middle classes."

"The washing expenses of families in which servants are employed may be considered as double that of the servants', and, therefore, as ranging from 1s. 6d. to 5s. a week a head.

"There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining with any exactness the washing expenditure of private families, but the conclusion is that, taking the whole population, the washing bills of London are nearly 18. a week a head, or 5,000,000l. a year.

"Of course," adds Mr. Bullar, "I give this as but a rough estimate, and many exceptions may easily be taken to it; but I feel pretty confident that it is not very far from the truth."

As I before stated, I am in no way disposed to go to the extent of the calculation here made. It appears to me that in parliamentary investigations by the agency of select committees, or by gentlemen appointed to report on any subject, there is an aptitude to deal with the whole body of the people as if they were earning the wages of well and regularly-employed labourers, or even mechanics. To suppose that the starving ballast-heaver, the victim of a vicious truck system, which condemns him to poverty and drunkenness, or the sweep, or the dustman, or the street-seller, all very numerous classes expends 1s. a week in his washing, is far beyond the fact. Still less is expended in the washing of these people's children. Even the well-conducted artizan, with two clean shirts a week

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(costing him 6d.), with the washing of stockings, &c. (costing 1d. or 2d.), does not expend 1s. a week; so that, though the washing bills of many ladies and of some gentlemen may average 10s. weekly, if we consider how few are rich and how many poor, the extra payment seems insufficient to make up the average of the weekly shilling for the washing of all classes.

A prosperous and respectable master greengrocer, who was what may be called "particular" in his dress, as he had been a gentleman's servant, and was now in the habit of waiting upon the wealthy persons in his neighbourhood, told me that the following was the average of his washing bill. He was a bachelor; all his washing was put out, and he considered his expenditure far above the average of his class, as many used no night-shirt, but slept in the shirts they wore during the day, and peid only 3d., and even less, per shirt to their washer-woman, and perhaps, and more especially in erinter, made one shirt last the week.

or less than 1d. per head.

In this calculation it will be seen the cheapest soap is reckoned, and that there is no allowance for the wife's labour. When I pointed out the latter circumstance, my informant said: "I look on it that the washing labour is part of the wife's keep, or what she gives in return for it; and that as she'd have to be kept if she didn't do it, why there shouldn't be no mention of it. If she was working for others it would be quite different, but washing is a family matter; that's my way of looking at it. Coke, too, is often used instead of coals; besides, a bit of bacon, or potatoes, or the tea-kettle, will have to be boiled, and that's managed along with the hot water for the suds, and would have to be done anyhow, especially in winter."

One decent woman, who had five children, "all under eight," told me she often sat up half, and sometimes the whole night to wash, when busy other ways. She was not in poverty, for

she earned "a good bit" in going out to cook, and her husband was employed by a pork-butcher.

I may further add, that a great many single men wash their own clothes. Many of the street-sellers in particular do this; so do such of the poor as live in their own rooms, and occasionally the dwellers in the low lodging-houses. One street-seller of ham sandwiches, whose aprons, sleeves, and tray-cloth, were remarkably white, told me that he washed them himself, as well as his shirt, &c., and that it was the common practice with his class. This washing-his aprons, tray-cloths, shirts, and stockings included-cost him, every three weeks, 44d. or 5d. for 1 lb. of soap, which is less than 1d. a week. Among such people it is considered that the washing of a shirt is, as they say, "a penn'orth of soap, and the stockings in," meaning that a penny outlay is sufficient to wash for both.

But not only does Mr. Bullar's estimate exceed the truth as regards the cost of washing among the poorer classes, but it also errs in the proportion they are said to bear to the other ranks of society. That gentleman speaks of "the poorer half of the inhabitants of the metropolis," as if the rich and poor were equal in numbers! but with all deference, it will be found that the ratio between the well-to-do and the needy is as 1 to 2, that is to say, the property and income-tax returns teach us there are at least two persons with an income below 150l. per annum, to every one having an income above it. Hence, the population of London being, within a fraction, 2,400,000; the numbers of the metropolitan well-to-do and needy would be respectively 800,000 and 1,600,000, and, allowing the cost of the washing of the former to average 1s. per head (adults and children), and, the washing of the labouring classes to come to 2d. a head, young and old (the expense of the materials, when the work is done at home, average, it has been shown, about 1d. for each member of the family), we shall then have the following statement :Annual cost of washing for 800,000

people, at 1s. per head per week . £2,080,000 Annual cost of washing for 1,600,000 people, at 2d. per head per week. 693,333 Total cost of washing of metropolis £2,773,333

I am convinced, low as the estimate of 2d. a week may appear for all whose incomes are under 150l. a year, from many considerations, that the above computation is rather over than under the truth. As, for instance, Mr. Hawes has said concerning the consumption of soap in the metropolis, "Careful inquiry has proved that the quantity used is much greater than that indicated by the Excise returns; but reducing the results obtained by inquiry in one uniform proportion, the quantity used by the labouring classes earning from 10s. to 30s. per week is 10 lbs. each per annum, including every member of the family. Dividing the population of the metropolis into three classes: (1) the wealthy; (2) the shopkeepers and tradesmen; (3) labourers and the poor, and allowing 15 lbs., 10 lbs., and 4 lbs. to

soap

.

Professor Clarke reckons the gross consumption of soda in the metropolis, at 250 tons per month, costing 10l. a ton; hence for the year the consumption will be 3000 tons, costing

The cost of water, according to the same authority, is 3s. 4d. per head per annum, and this, for the whole metropolis, amounts to

Estimating the cost of the coals used in heating the water to be equal to that of the soap, we have for the gross expense of fuel annually consumed in washing

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nevertheless, an under-estimate for maintaining, at the present expense of washing, a proper amount of cleanliness in linen."

Proceeding, however, with the calculation as to the loss from the imperfect scavenging of the metropolis, we have the following results:-

400,000

600,000

550,000 550,000 50,000

Total cost of washing of metropolis £2,780,000 Hence it would appear, that viewed either by the individual expense of the great bulk of society, or else by the aggregate cost of the materials and labour used in cleansing the clothes of the people of London, the total sum annually expended in the washing of the metropolis may be estimated at the outside at two millions and three quarters sterling per annum, or about 17. 3s. 4d. per head. And yet, though the data for the calculation here given, as to the cost and quantity of the principal materials used in cleansing the clothes of London, are derived from the same Report as that iu which the expense of the metropolitan washing is estimated at 5,000,000l. per annum, the Board of Health do not hesitate in that document to say that," Of the fairness of the estimate of the expense of washing to the higher and middle classes, and to the great bulk of the householders, and the better class of artizans, we entertain no doubt whatever. Whatsoever deductions, if any, may be made from the above estimate, it is,

£1,000,000 Hence it would appear that the loss from dust and dirt is really enormous.

In a work entitled "Sanatory Progress," being the Fifth Report of the National Philanthropic Association, I find a calculation as to the losses sustained from dust and dirt upon our clothes. Owing to the increased wear from daily brushing to remove the dust, and occasional scraping to remove the mud, the loss is estimated at from 31. to 71. per annum for each well-dressed man and woman, and 17. for inferiorly-dressed persons, including their Sunday and holiday clothing.

I inquired of a West-end tailor, who previously to his establishment in business had himself been an operative, and had had experience both in town and country as to the wear of clothes, and I learned from him the following particulars.

classes, of those who could always command a With regard to the clothes of the wealthy carriage in bad weather, there are no means of judging as to the loss caused by bad scavengery.

following calculations, the results of his experience. My informant, however, obliged me with the His trade is what I may describe as a medium business, between the low slop and the high fashionable trades. spoke were those worn by clerks, shopmen, The garments of which he students, tradesmen, town-travellers, and others not engaged in menial or handicraft labour.

tive to town and country customers, my informant Altogether, and after consulting his books relathought lowing estimate as regards the duration and cost might be easy to substantiate the folof clothes in town and country among the classes I have specified.