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SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE POOR. 61
ment; an education which, by sensible experience,
would teach them to feel the comfort and the
profit of sanitary observances, and would apply
their instinct of self-preservation to the deliberate
avoidance of disease.
It is in this point of view, Gentlemen, that I
would solicit your attention to the useful and philanthropic
exertions of three societies which have
been established in the last few years, with the
object of improving the condition of the labouring
classes, and I would venture to suggest that the
course, which those societies have adopted in
various parts of the metropolis, is one that might
with the utmost advantage be pursued within the
City of London.
The establishment of Model Dwelling and Lodging-houses,
and of Public Baths and Laundries, for
the use of the labouring population, is now no
longer a matter of recent speculation. Under the
beneficent auspices of the Societies to which I have
referred, the following experiments have been
tried:—
The Committee for promoting the establishment
of Baths and Wash-houses, having Mr. W. Cotton
first, and then Sir H. Dukinfield, for its Chairman,
and including in its number, with other influential
persons, several members of this Corporation, founded
at great pains and expense a model institution at
Goulston-square, Whitechapel. In spite of many
circumstances conspiring to render this first and