No. 8.
State Charities Aid Association,
52 East 20th Street.
Homes of the London Poor
BY
MISS OCTAVIA HILL.
Reprinted from the "Fortnightly Review" and "Macmillan's Magazine,"
by Permission of the Author.
Price, 25 Cents.
TO BE OBTAINED AT THE OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATION.
NEW YORK.
1875.
In reprinting the following articles, by Miss Octavia Hill, of London,it is not proposed that the system described is, in all its details,applicable to this country. The conditions of poverty in America andin England differ widely. The Municipal forms of Government there arevery unlike our own. But the broad truths of humanity are the sameeverywhere, and the principles which underlie Miss Hill's efforts,those of helping the poor towards self-support and self-respect; ofbringing to their aid an unwearied patience, a true sympathy, and alarge hope; of loving them and trusting them; above all, of realizingthat they and we are children of One Father; these principles areapplicable to all countries and to every people.
Louisa Lee Schuyler,
President,
State Charities Aid Association.
New York, April 14, 1875.
COTTAGE PROPERTY IN LONDON.
November 1, 1866.
The subject of dwellings for the poor is attracting so much attention,that an account of a small attempt to improve them may be interestingto many readers, especially as the plan adopted is one which hasanswered pecuniarily, and which, while it might be undertaken byprivate individuals without much risk, would bring them into close andhealthy communication with their hard-working neighbors.
Two years ago I first had an opportunity of carrying out the plan Ihad long contemplated, that of obtaining possession of houses to belet in weekly tenements to the poor. That the spiritual elevation ofa large class depended to a considerable extent on sanitary reformwas, I considered proved, but I was equally certain that sanitaryimprovement itself depended upon educational work among grown-uppeople; that they must be urged to rouse themselves from the lethargyand indolent habits into which they have fallen, and freed from allthat hinders them from doing so. I further believed that any ladywho would help them to obtain things, the need of which they feltthemselves, and would sympathize with them in their desire for such,would soon find them eager to learn her view of what was best for them;that whether this was so or not, her duty was to keep alive their ownbest hopes and intentions, which come at rare intervals, but fade toooften for want of encouragement. I desired to be in a condition tofree a few poor people from the tyranny and influence of a low classof landlords and landladies; from the corrupting effect of [Pg 6]continualforced communication with very degraded fellow-lodgers; from the heavyincubus of accumulated dirt: that so the never-dying hope which Ifind characteristic of the poor might have leave to spring, and withit such en