210 LONDON LABOUR ANd the lonDON POOR. or district authorities to remove the dust from the house-bins as well as the dirt from the streets under one and the same contract; some undertake to execute these two offices under separate contracts; and some to perform only one of them. It is most customary, however, for the same contractor to serve the parish, especially the larger parishes, in both capacities. "Your Committee, anxious to prevent any increase in the watering-rate from being levied, and considering the amount required by the contractors for this service as excessive and exorbitant, and even evincing a spirit of combination, resolved to make an inroad upon this system, and after much trouble and attention adopted other mea There is no established or legally required form of agreement between a contractor and his principals; it is a bargain in which each side strives to get the best of it, but in which the parish representatives have often to contend against something looking like a monopoly; a very common occurrence in our day when capital-sures for watering the district, the results of ists choose to combine, which is legal, or unnoticed, but very heinous on the part of the working men, whose capital is only in their strength or skill. One contractor, on being questioned by a gentleman officially connected with a large district, as to the existence of combination, laughed at such a notion, but said there might be "a sort of understanding one among another," as among people who "must look to their own interests, and see which way the cat jumped;" concluding with the undeniable assertion that "no man ought reasonably to be expected to ruin himself for a parish." There does not appear, however, to have been any countervailing qualities on the part of the parishes to this understanding among the contractors; for some of the authorities have found themselves, when a new or a renewed contract was in question, suddenly "on the other side of the hedge." Thus, in the south-west district of St. Pancras, the contractor, five or six years ago, paid 1007. per annum for the removal and possession of the street-dirt, &c.; but the following year the district anthorities had to pay him 500l. for the same labour and with the same privileges! Other changes took place, and in 1848-9 a contractor again paid the district 957. I have shown, toɔ, that in Shadwell the dust-contractor now receives 450. per annum, whereas he formerly paid 2407. To prove, however, that a spirit of combination does occasionally exist among these contractors, I may cite the following minute from one of the parish books. Extract from Minute-book, Nov. 7, 1839. 66 Commissioner's Office, "Your Committee beg leave to report that for the past three years the sums paid by contract for watering were respectively : which they have great pleasure in presenting to "P. CUNNINGHAM, "30, Howland-street, Fitzroy-square." The following regulations sufficiently show the nature of the agreements made between the contractors and the authorities as to the cleansing of the more important thoroughfares especially. It will be seen that in the regulations I quote every street, court, or alley, must now be swept daily, a practice which has only been adopted within these few years in the City. "SEWERS' OFFICE, GUILDHALL, LONDON, RAKERS' DUTIES, MIDSUMMER, 1851, TO MIDSUMMER, 1852. "CLEANSING. "The whole surface of every Carriage-way, Court, and Alley shall be swept every day (Sundays excepted), and all mud, dust, filth, and rubbish, all frozen or partially frozen matter, and snow, animal and vegetable matter, and everything offensive or injurious, shall be properly pecked, scraped, swept up, and carted away therefrom; and the iron gutters laid across or along the footways, the air-grates over the sewers, the gulley *The reader will remember that in the historic al sketch given of the progress of public scavengery, the word" Rakers" occurred in connection with the sworn master scavengers, &c., &c.; the word is now unknown to the trade, except that it appears on city documents. LONDON LABOUR ANd the lonDON POOR. grates in the carriage-way of the streets respectively; and all public urinals are to be daily raked out, swept, and made clean and clear from all obstructions; and the Contractor or Contractors shall, in time of frost, continually keep the channels in the Streets and Places clear for water to run off and cleanse and cart away refuse hogan or gravel (when called upon by the Inspector to do so) from all streets newly paved. "The Mud and Dirt, &c., is to be carted away immediately that it is swept up. "N.B. The Inspector of the District may, at any time he may think it necessary, order any Street or Place to be cleansed and swept a second time in any one day, and the Contractor or Contractors are thereupon bound to do the same. "The Markets and their approaches are also to be thus cleansed DAILY, and the approaches thereto respectively are also to be thus cleansed at such an hour in the night of Saturday in each week as the Inspector of the District may direct. Every Street, Lane, Square, Yard, Court, Alley, Passage, and Place (except certain main Streets hereinafter enumerated), are to be thus cleansed within the following hours Daily: namely "In the months of April, May, June, July, August, and September. To be begun not earlier than 4 o'Clock in the morning, and finished not later than 1 o'Clock in the afternoon. "In the months of October, November, December, January, February, and March. To be begun not earlier than 5 o'Clock in the morning, and finished not later than 2 o'Clock in the after noon. "The following main Streets are to be cleansed DAILY throughout the year (except Sundays), to be begun not earlier than 4 o'Clock in the morning, and finished not later than 9 o'Clock in the morning. 211 treated), and specify the fines, varying from 17. to by which means any one having cause of complaint 66 Any man working without his Badge, for each day he offends, the Contractor is liable to the penalty of Five Shillings. "All the sweepings of the Streets, and all the dust and ashes from the Houses, are to be entirely carted away from the City of London, on a Penalty of Ten Pounds for each cart-load." These terms sufficiently show the general nature of the contracts in question; the principal difference being that in some parts, the contractor is not required to sweep the streets more than once, twice, or thrice a week in ordinary weather. The number of individuals in London styling themselves Master Scavengers is 34. Of these, 10 are at present without a contract either for dust or scavenging, and 5 have a contract for removing the dust only; so that, deducting these two numbers, the gross number 34 is reduced to 19 scavenging contractors. Of the latter number 16 are in a large way of business, having large yards, possessing several carts and some waggons, and employing a vast number of men daily in sweeping the streets, carting rubbish, &c. The other 3 masters, however, are only in a small way of business, being persons of more limited means. A large master scavenger employs from 3 to 18 carts, and from 18 to upwards of 40 men at scavengery alone, while a small master employs only from 1 to 3 carts and from 3 to 6 men. By the table I have given, p. 186, vol. ii., it is shown that there are The 52 contracts between the several district authorities and master scavengers, and nineteen contractors, without counting members of the same family, as distinct individuals; this gives an average of nearly three distinct contracts per individual. The contracts are usually for a twelvemonth. Pavement' and without "N.B. In times of frost and snow these hours of executing the work may be extended at the discretion of the Local Commissioners." The other conditions relate to the removal of the dust from the houses (a subject I have already Although the table above referred to shows but 19 contractors for public scavenging, there are, as I have said, more, or about 24, in London, most of them in a "large way," and next year some of those who have no contracts at present may enter into agreements with the parishes. The smallness of this number, when we consider the vast extent of the metropolis, confirms the notion of the sort of monopoly and combination to which I have alluded. In the Post-Office Directory for 1851 there are no names under the heads of 212 LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR. Scavengers or Dustmen, but under the head of "Rubbish Carters," 28 are given, 9 names being marked as Dust Contractors" and 10 as "Nightmen." Of large contractors, however, there are, as I have said, about 24, but they may not all obtain contracts every year, and in this number are included different members of the same family or firm, who may undertake specific contracts, although in the trade it is looked upon as 66 one concern." The smaller contractors were repre sented to me as rather more numerous than the others, and perhaps numbered 40, but it is not easy to define what is to be accounted a contractor. In the table given in pp. 213, 214, I cite only 7 as being the better known. The others may be considered as small rubbish-carters and flying-dustmen. There are yet other transactions in which the contractors are engaged with the parishes, independently of their undertaking the whole labour of street and house cleansing. In the parishes where pauper, or "poor" labour is resorted to for it is not always that the men employed by the parishes are positive "paupers," but rather the unemployed poor of the parish-in such parishes, I say, an agreement is entered into with a contractor for the deposit of the collected street dirt at his yard or wharf. For such deposit the contractor must of course be paid, as it is really an occupation and renting of a portion of his premises for a specific purpose. The street dirt, however, is usually left to the disposal of the contractor, for his own profit, and where he once paid 501. for the possession of the street collected dirt of a parish, collected by labour which was no cost to him, he may now receice half of such 50%., or whatever the terms of the agreement may be. I heard of one contractor who lately received 251. where he once paid 501. In another way, too, contractors are employed by parishes. Where pauper or poor labour in street cleansing is the practice, a contractor's horses, carts, and cart-drivers are hired for the conveyance of the dirt from the streets. This of course is for a specific payment, and is in reality the work of the tradesmen who in the Post Office Directory are described as "6 Rubbish Carters," and of whom I shall have to speak afterwards. Some parishes or paving boards have, however, their own horses and vehicles, but in the other respects they have dealings with the contractors. To come to as correct a conclusion as possible in this complicated and involved matter, I have obtained the aid of some gentlemen long familiar with such procedures. One of them said that to procure the accounts of such transactions for a series of years, with all their chops and changes, or to obtain a perfectly precise return, for any three years, affecting the whole metropolis, would be the work of a parliamentary commission with full powers "to send for papers," &c., &c., and that even then the result might not be satisfactory as a clear exposition. However, with the aid of the gentlemen alluded to, I venture upon the following approximation. As my present inquiry relates only to the Scavenging Contractors in the metropolis, I will take the number of districts, markets, &c., which are specified in the table, p. 186, vol. ii. These are 83 in number, of which 29 are shown to be scavenged by the "parish." I will not involve in this computation any of the more rural places which may happen to be in the outskirts of the metropolitan area, but I will take the contracts as 51, where the contractors do the entire work, and as 29 where they are but the rubbish-carters and dirt receivers of the parishes. I am assured that it is a fair calculation that the scavengery of the streets, apart from the removal of the dust from the houses, costs in payments to the contractors, 1507. as an average, to each of the several 54 districts; and that in the 29 localities in which the streets are cleansed by parish labour, the sum paid is at the rate of 50%. per locality, some of them, as the five districts of Marylebone for instance, being very large. This is calculated regardless of the cases where parishes may have their own horses and vehicles, for the cost to the rate-payers may not be very materially different, between paying for the hire of carts and horses, and investing capital in their purchase and incurring the expense of wear and tear. count then stands thus :— Parish payment on 54 contracts, 1507. each The ac or, apportioned among 19 contractors, upwards of 500l. each; and among 83 contracts, about 1151. per contract. Even if other contractors are employed where parish labour is pursued, the cost to the rate-payers is the same. This calculation is made, as far as possible, as regards scavengery alone; and is independent of the value of the refuse collected. It is about the scavengery that the grand fight takes place between the parishes and contractors; the house dust, being uninjured by rain or street surface-water, is more available for trade purposes. From this it would appear that the cost of cleansing the streets of London may be estimated in round numbers at 10,000l. per annum. The next point in the inquiry is, What is the value of the street dirt annually collected? The price I have adduced for the dirt gained from the streets is 3s. per load, which is a very reasonable average. If the load be dung, or even chiefly dung, it is worth 5s. or 6s. With the proportion of dung and street refuse to be found in such a thoroughfare as the Haymarket, in dry, or comparatively dry weather, a load, weighing about a ton, is worth about 3s. in the purchaser's own cart. On the other hand, as I have shown that quantities of mixed or slop "mac" have to be wasted, that some is sold at a nominal price, and a good deal at 1s. the load, 3s. is certainly a fair average. Thus the annual sum of the street dirt, as re |