which animates them happily became general. In presiding at the dinner of the Benevolent Society of St. Patrick, in 1868, he expressed his strong conviction, that the people of Ireland generally are thoroughly true and loyal,' and that the disaffection which exists has not been engrafted on the minds of any portion of the Irish people by the Irish people themselves.' No one who has traced the history of the present Irish agitation from the first can doubt the truth and justice of this view of it. On a later visit, in 1871, His Royal Highness made a cautious, but distinct, allusion to another great source of bitterness, especially in the past. I am assured,' he said, 'that if the many gentlemen and landlords who very often find soine difficulty in leaving England, but who have large interests and large estates in this country, could contrive to come over here more frequently, it would do more good than anything else I could imagine.' Perhaps if a Prince of Wales had talked in this strain long ago, we might not now have an Irish Question on our hands; or at least we may fairly say that it would not have reached its present acute stage. On still another point the Prince has more than once thrown out emphatic hints, in referring to the imperative necessity of providing decent homes for the people. Something, he admitted during his last visit to Ireland, had been done, but much remains to be done. Everything depends,' he reminded his hearers, upon the well-being of the people, and if they are properly lodged it tends to cleanliness, and very possibly to moral advantage.' It is well known that in this respect the Prince has carried into effect his own precepts. The cottages upon his Norfolk estates were in a dismal condition when he took the property, and now they are among the most comfortable in the kingdom. It is scarcely necessary to say, that this transformation has not been wrought without a considerable outlay-another phase of the Royal Income' question which the Financial Reform Association might find worthy of passing notice.

The housing of the poor has always been a subject in which the Prince has taken a deep interest. Long before it had received any general attention, or had given occasion for fashionable visits to the East End,' His Royal Highness had frequently shown how deeply impressed he was with the fact, that the homes of the poor ought to be, and must be, improved if very great dangers to the nation are to be warded off. He perceived that the population was increasing much more rapidly than the means of providing suitable accommodation for it. In large cities, the poorer neighbourhoods were being swallowed up by the encroachments of commerce, or of dwellings intended · for

were

for the well-to-do classes. Persons of humble means driven forth to find homes where they could. Squalid purlieus and filthy rookeries were broken up, but nothing better was provided for their miserable inhabitants. The rent exacted for dismal holes in narrow courts and alleys was comparatively high, and it had to be paid on the day it was due, or the tenant was turned out into the streets. 'Evictions' were, and are, far commoner in London, in Birmingham, or in Manchester, than ever they have been in Ireland. But there was no one to sympathize with the evicted. If they could not pay their rent they had to go, and whatever goods they owned, were seized and sold. They had no secret hoards of money, no comfortable balance in the bank. Even at the best, the houses accessible to the poor were badly drained, badly supplied with water, seldom or never repaired, possessing no sanitary appliances, and left to fall into a state of inconceivable neglect or dirt. All this was personally known to the Prince years before the general public had been made aware of what was going on around them. It was not in his power to do more than set a good example to other landlords on his own estates. But when Lord

Salisbury took public action on the question in 1884, by moving for a Royal Commission to enquire into the housing of the working classes, the Prince of Wales, departing from his usual custom, went to the House of Lords and spoke in the debate. A recognition of the anxiety he had already displayed to lessen a great evil was afforded in the general cheers with which he was received. It was by his own desire that he was appointed one of the members of the Commission. He told the House that a few days previously, he had visited two of the poorest courts in the district of St. Pancras and Holborn, and 'I can assure you, my Lords,' he said, 'that the condition of the people, or rather of their dwellings, was perfectly disgraceful. This in itself proves to me how important it is that there should be a thoroughly searching inquiry.' Nor did he stop there. He expressed an earnest hope, that 'the result of this Royal Commission will be a recommendation to Parliament of measures of a thorough and drastic kind, which may be the means of not only improving the dwellings of the poor, but of ameliorating their condition generally.' Not much, we are sorry to say, has yet been done towards the fulfilment of these desires, although the report of the Royal Commission has long since been issued. The attention of the Legislature has been drawn into other fields no doubt unavoidably-and a very pressing question has so far been shelved.' But there are signs that the present Session will not be allowed to pass over

without

without a determined attempt being made to procure a full discussion, at least, of the great problem, and if this is done, it will be easier for the Government afterwards to take up the question in a practical spirit. That it cannot rest much longer where it is must be obvious to any one who has given it even the most superficial consideration.

The knowledge of the Prince of Wales on this subject has been largely acquired by his own observation and experience. Wherever it was practicable, he has been in the habit of visiting personally the poorest quarters of any town in which he has found himself. Accompanied, probably, by only one of his suite, he has explored the localities where the most indigent classes are compelled to herd together, and seen with his own eyes the actual conditions under which they carry on a forlorn and precarious existence. He did so even in Dublin, in 1885, at a time when a certain faction was doing everything that lay in its power to excite the population against him. It could scarcely have been for his own pleasure that he sought to visit, and did visit, the Dublin 'slums' at such a moment. The efforts of agitators fortunately had little influence upon the people. They received him everywhere with enthusiasm. He went into some of the meanest and most crowded parts of the city, in so private a manner that it was some time before any one found out who he was. He had come among them,' records a reporter, with his eldest son, unattended by any guard, and the event showed that his confidence was not misplaced. Cheers and welcomes, and every outward demonstration of good feeling, attended him along his whole course.' Prince goes about in this way more frequently than is commonly supposed. He is by no means dependent for his information on the statements of others. It is tolerably certain that he is far better acquainted with the actual condition of the poor, in most of our large cities, than some who dilate with great energy upon it at public meetings. For that very reason, he has expressed with so much emphasis his opinion in favour of measures of a thorough and drastic kind.' It will be remembered that a great statesman, now no more among us, was similarly impressed with the magnitude and danger of this evil. The late Lord Beaconsfield lost no opportunity of impressing upon his party the duty of dealing with it in the spirit which led them to pass the Factory Acts, the Friendly Societies Acts, and many other measures designed for the express benefit of the working classes. Something definite was done to meet the exigency by the Conservative party, when they passed Lord Cross's Act, but it is now known that it is possible

The

to

to evade that measure to an extent which materially limits its usefulness. We cannot but hope also that the buildings erected by the generosity of Mr. Peabody have been of considerable service to the poor of London. The trustees have spent over à million and a quarter, and provided accommodation for 20,413 persons. The last annual report shows that the average rent of each dwelling is 4s. 94d. per week, and of each room 2s. 2d. But we shall require to go a great deal further than this. It is absolutely necessary to bring into operation stringent sanitary regulations for the class of dwellings which are let by rapacious landlords to the most poverty-stricken and helpless section of the community, at rents which are simply monstrous, considering the vile nature of the shelter afforded. In rainy or stormy weather, it can scarcely be described as shelter at all. The roof is half off, the floors are rotten, the windows are, as a rule, filled with anything but glass. There is no outer door, and the wretched waifs and strays of the streets huddle together on the staircases to sleep. Compulsory inspection, and the strict observance of the laws of health and decency, will have to be insisted upon in these localities. Long ago, the Prince of Wales tried to turn public attention to the subject, and at last there are many signs of approaching success. We do not desire to introduce party considerations into the question, any more than the Prince of Wales has done, but we are bound to say that the party, which has already accomplished so much for the labouring classes, and which during this very Parliament has carried a Small Allotments Act for the benefit of the rural population, will do well, now that it has the opportunity, to look after the housing of the poor. In England, at least, there is no social question at all comparable in importance with this, and it is much to be hoped that it will not be left to become the stock in trade of street orators and demagogues.

In a very similar direction were the labours of the Prince in connection with the People's Palace for East London. This, also, is a district with which the Prince has long been familiar, though it is quite probable that many of his explorations in it have escaped the notice of the most vigilant newspaper reporter. In the year 1880, however, he went publicly to Whitechapel, accompanied by the Princess of Wales-whose gracious and kindly presence always renders her husband's visits doubly acceptable to the people-and by Prince Albert Victor and Prince George. A small recreation ground had been formed out of a disused burial place, which had belonged to the Society of Friends, and it was thought by two well-known clergymen of the parishes of Whitechapel and Bethnal Green-the Rev. S. A.

Barnett

Barnett and the Rev. J. F. Kitto, whose names will long be held in honour by their poor parishioners—that if the Prince could be induced to open this ground, it would cause that part of London to become better known to many who knew rather less of it than they did of Central Africa. His Royal Highness required very little persuasion to induce him to perform this duty. Six years afterwards, he was requested to lay the foundation stone of a much more important undertaking, which was designed for the purpose of providing a place of amusement and instruction for a long-neglected portion of the community. This undertaking was most generously assisted by the Drapers' Company and by the Beaumont Trustees, and the People's Palace was rapidly proceeded with. In 1887 it was opened by the Queen; the route along which Her Majesty drove being lined with an astonishing concourse of persons from all the surrounding neighbourhoods. It was not in their power to do very much in the way of decorating their streets; but strips of coloured paper, where nothing else was procurable, served to give the dingy houses an unwonted look of gaiety. The Prince and Princess of Wales were present, and to the Prince fell the duty of declaring the building open. Not until our own day had Royalty ever visited, on a mission of this kind, the far regions of the Mile End Road. The great change that has taken place in this respect is one among many signs of the lessening of the chasm which once divided different classes in this country.

To diminish that chasm still further, if it be not possible to close it altogether, has been the constant endeavour of the Prince of Wales. The poor we shall have always with us; but they need not be left to bear their burdens without the sympathy of others, or be deprived of that practical assistance which can so materially mitigate many of their hardships. This volume will show that the Prince of Wales has always exerted himself strenuously to improve the condition of the poor; but it will also show that his generous instincts have not been reserved for any one class. He has been ready to stretch out a helping hand to all who were in necessity, or who were deserving of help. Soldiers and sailors, or their orphans, have found in him a devoted friend. Their schools and asylums have continnally received the benefit of his active support. Most of the hospitals have been more or less indebted to him for the same encouragement. Artists, actors, musicians, literary men, have also been assisted through the institutions which exist for their benefit. Among the first public dinners ever presided over by the Prince was that of the excellent society known as the Royal Literary Fund,' which has done more to relieve genuine distress, and

done