nd the price of the additional land must, in thousands of cases,
have determined the health and morality of the inmates. I do not mean to
say that this pecuniary difference is a slight matter, but still I do
think it is somehow or other to be provided for. There is always this to
be considered, that the better the tenement, the more it will be cared
for. In the same Committee I have mentioned before, the Town Clerk of
Leeds is asked:

"Would not the building of the better kind of cottages always secure
the best tenants?--Unquestionably.

"And the person who invested the property in buildings of that kind
would rather take six per cent. of good tenants than seven per cent.
of bad ones?--Yes; we have a number of instances in Leeds. There is
a gentleman named Croysdill, who has 200 or 300 cottages; he receives
the lowest rents on an average of any large proprietor of cottages,
and they are unquestionably the most comfortable dwellings, and the
best occupied."

It may be a strong thing to say, but I can conceive it possible, in a
Christian country, for a man to restrain himself from making the utmost
profit out of his possessions. I can imagine, for instance, an owner of
land in a town being unwilling to demand such a price for it, as would
prevent the cottages of the labouring people from being built with those
comforts and conveniences upon which civilization may almost be said to
depend. A man may think that there is some responsibility attached to
ownership; and he may not like to be in any way accessory to the building
of such habitations for the poor as he thoroughly disapproves of. And if
the owner of land feels this, still more may the capitalist who
undertakes to build upon it. It may be a satisfactory thing to collect
in any way much money; but I think, on the other hand, that most men have
a great pleasure in doing anything well, in a workmanlike and stable
manner. And, strange as it may seem, it is very possible that motives of
profit and loss may not be the only ones which have led to such miserable
building, as is often to be seen in the houses of the poor. People have
not thought about the matter. If they had seen the merit of building
good houses of a small kind, I think that in many cases, the additional
money required would not have stood in the way. In the Select Committee
of 1842, the following questions are asked of a witness from Liverpool:

"Is Li