We find the difference so slight that it will suffice for our purpose to assume in each case that it would be necessary the property should bear an increased rental of 11l. 58. to pay the required minimum interest of 5l. per cent.; which rental divided, as before, among the four separate flats, gives 21. 16s. 3d. or an additional weekly rent in each case of thirteen-pence, in return for which we offer an entirely additional bedroom in addition to all the advantages (with the sole exception of the common wash-house) given in design 'B.'

Enough has surely been said to convince the most sceptical that I made myself the champion of no vain chimerical idea, when I asserted the practicability of adapting existing buildings to the purpose of letting them out in separate flats, each combining in itself all the usual conveniences of a dwelling-house of the poorer class, and yet obtaining for the outlay a return such as should satisfy the most exacting. For be it well remembered that though the above increases on present rentals are such as show an interest on outlay of 5l. per cent., they are in no case such as the apartments might reasonably be expected to command,

provided that the property dealt with be judiciously selected as to locality.

In proceeding now to consider the return on outlay promised by the alteration I have explained in Chapter VII., viz., that by which I propose the conversion of three houses into two, I am hardly in a position to place the matter before the reader on the same substantial basis as the last, having no surveyors' estimates or builders' contracts upon which to base my calculations. We may, however, arrive at an almost equally certain result if, instead of calculating the amount of increased rent required to produce a certain rate of interest on a given outlay, we show the undoubted improvements in present rentals which may be produced by carrying out alterations based on this scheme.

Take for example three four-roomed houses of two storeys in height, letting, as such houses may fairly be calculated to do in most parts of London, at 6s. a week, producing consequently a total weekly rental of 18s. We do away entirely with the centre house, not in any way interfering with the party walls, but simply removing the internal partitions and staircase, and utilising the space so obtained in providing convenient sculleries, W.C.s, staircases, and lobbyentrances to the sets of apartments obtained in the other two houses, the only structural alteration in which will be the removal of the staircase in each, and the utilisation of the space occupied thereby as an additional bedroom. The outlay therefore would

obviously not be a large one; but with the outlay, as I before said, I do not propose to deal. The fact remains that we have to offer in exchange for the three houses letting at 18s. a week, four sets of apartments, having the living-room and one bedroom the same size on the first floor as in the present houses, and larger on the ground floor, an additional bedroom, and every possible convenience in the way of W.C.s, sculleries, dust and coalboxes, &c. Now I do not think anyone can accuse me of exaggeration when I say that each of these sets of apartments should readily command 58. per week, so that we get out of our two houses 20s. a week as against 18s. produced by the existing three houses. Now this gives 5l. 4s. improved rental-surely a considerable one on this amount of property.

I have said I would not deal with the question of outlay, but just for example's sake, assuming the cost of the alteration reached 50l., which, upon careful consideration, I must consider a liberal estimate, the above rental would yield a return of over ten per cent. Can anything better be required to induce capitalists to convert these wretched, narrow-fronted, small-roomed tenements into healthy homes, with every sanitary requirement and appliance for domestic comfort? 'Let it be proved,' said the Earl of Carlisle, in one of his eloquent and powerful speeches, that the act of doing good, in however unpretending and commonplace a manner, to large masses of the struggling and impoverished, would pay its own way, and ensure its

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fair profit, and it would follow that benevolence, instead of being only an ethereal influence in the breasts of a few, fitful and confined in its operations, would become a settled, sober habit of the many; widening as it went, occasioning its own rebound, and adding all the calculations of prudence to all the impulses of generosity.'

CHAPTER IX.

SUGGESTIONS HOW THESE HOMES SHOULD BE FINISHED INTERNALLY— FIXTURES AND FITTINGS.

THIS chapter I intend to devote to the fixtures, and fittings, and finishings.

First, as to finishing our homes, I would say always plaster the walls and ceilings. I strongly object (though I do not think I do so more than the occupants, if I am correctly informed) to the method of finishing adopted in the Peabody and other buildings. Take first the opinion in report issued by the Society of Arts, as to this, in 1864. There has been adopted in the Columbia Square and Rochester Buildings, an expedient which is decided cheap, but which I fear is not likely to become popular. The internal walls are not plastered, but merely pointed neatly, and tinted with a warm distemper colour.'

And again, speaking of lining the walls with glazed bricks or tiles: It has been proposed to line the internal walls with glazed bricks or tiles, but no method has yet been found for preparing and adapting them cheaply enough for the dwellings of the poor, and it is indeed questionable whether the plan, if practicable, would be acceptable.' Since then no