require; they
would really be conferring an amount of benefit on the community at
large, and, at the same time, we believe, upon themselves, which it
would not be easy to overestimate.

But there also needs the active co-operation of the dwellers in poor
men's homes themselves. They, too, must join cordially in the sanitary
movement; otherwise comparatively little good can be effected. You may
provide an efficient water supply, yet, if the housewife will not use
the water as it ought to be used,--if she be lazy and dirty,--the house
will be foul and comfortless still. You may provide for ventilation,
yet, if offensive matters be not removed, and doors and windows are kept
closed, the pure outer air will be excluded, and the house will still
smell fusty and unwholesome. In any case, there must be a cleanly woman
to superintend the affairs of the house; and she cannot be made so by
Act of Parliament! The Sanitary Commissioners cannot, by any
"Notification," convert the slatternly shrew into a tidy housewife, nor
the disorderly drunkard into an industrious, home-loving husband. There
must, therefore, be individual effort on the part of the housewife in
every working man's Home. As a recent writer on Home Reform observes,--

"We must begin by insisting that, however much of the physical and moral
evils of the working classes may be justly attributable to their
dwellings, it is too often the case that more ought, in truth, to be
attributed to themselves. For, surely, the inmate depends less on the
house, than the house on the inmate; as mind has more power over matter
than matter over mind. Let a dwelling be ever so poor and incommodious,
yet a family with decent and cleanly habits will contrive to make the
best of it, and will take care that there shall be nothing offensive in
it which they have power to remove. Whereas a model house, fitted up
with every convenience and comfort which modern science can supply,
will, if occupied by persons of intemperate and uncleanly habits,
speedily become a disgrace and a nuisance. A sober, industrious, and
cleanly couple will impart an air of decency and respectability to the
poorest dwelling; while the spendthrift, the drunkard, or the gambler
will convert a palace into a scene of discomfort and disgust. Since,
therefore, so much depends on the character and conduct of the parties
themselves, it is right that they should feel their responsibility in
this matter, and that they should