portion of the country towards that proud prerogative of teaching others how to live.' Farther, living in a matured period of the world's history, we may be considered fortunate in possessing a consequent superior experience than its youth; and by imitating the conduct of our ancestors in innovations on customs, for the sake of the true and useful only, we best compliment the noblest portion of former times, and their wisdom; and yet how many of the inconveniences to which we are still subjected arise from an obstinate retention of old practices, and a neglect of the advantages which a well-arranged system of co-operation would bestow!"

Dr. Robertson, in a few details to which we shall allude further on, shows that even in Birkenhead a vigorous supervision is necessary, to prevent the recurrence of evils, in the way of house building, which Liverpool and Manchester have long had occasion to deplore. But, in the meantime, it behoves us to see what really has been done in two distinct and notable

instances.

ings at a low rent, it will be the strongest of all incitements to others to do likewise.

These workmen's dwellings, then what are they? One hardly knows at the first glance what to think of them. They are so totally unlike anything of the kind to which we are accustomed, that a standard of comparison is not easily suggested. They are not rows of cottages containing two or three rooms each, fronted and backed by gardens. They are not scattered cottages, speckling a valley and the side of a hill, like so many of our pretty, old English villages. On approaching near them, along one of the wide roads which will one day form a chief street of Birkenhead, they appear more like houses for the upper classes of society; and we feel puzzled how to associate them with the requirements and limited wants of a working population. If we look at the front and end elevations (Cuts, No. 2 and No. 3), there is, it must be owned, something altogether out of the usual order of things, in respect to workmen's dwellings. Let us, then, look closer, and see what are the details of arrangement.

In a part of Birkenhead quite aloof from the general buildings of the town, and situated at least a couple of miles north-west of Woodside Ferry, is a beautiful Gothic church, St. James's, now erecting from the designs of Mr. Lang (Cut, No. 1, top). This church, when the vast scheme of the neighbourhood is completed, will occupy a centre, from which eight broad and handsome streets will radiate in as many different directions; so that the church will, by-and-by, have one of the finest positions, relatively to surrounding buildings, that can often fall to the lot of such a structure.

When the Dock Company commenced their operations in 1844, "finding," as they state, "that they must either provide accommodation for the numerous workmen required for the construction of their warehouses and docks, or submit to great inconvenience, expense, and delay, in consequence of the want of it, they determined to erect a number of dwellings for their labourers and mechanics. After calculating the cost and returns from various descriptions of cottages submitted to them, they determined to build to the plans designed by C. E. Lang, Esq." This has been effected; and the scheme is not one whit the less One of these incipient streets, Ilchester-road, worthy of attention because it is founded on a com- and another westward of it, Stanley-road, enclose mercial basis: if the Company find that a fair return between them, at the end nearest the church, a trianfor their capital can be obtained by letting good dwell-gular piece of ground; and as this ground is scarcely

far the new plans meet all the requirements of the case. Eight dwellings, then, form each house; and when we enter one of these dwellings, we cannot but admire the mode in which every inch of room is made available, and cleanliness is provided for. Every dwelling consists of three rooms, opening one into another; one sitting-room and two bed-rooms; or parlour, kitchen, and bed-room, according to the wishes of the inmate. The sitting-room is provided with a range and oven; and at a convenient part of the room is a jet of gas, which is turned on for a certain number of hours in the evening, to be lighted or not at the option of the family. Around are shelves and recesses and cupboards, and other little arrangements which a family well know how to appreciate, The two bed-rooms open into or from this sitting-room; and in one of them (if not both) is placed an iron bedstead, lent to the inmates by the Company, to be used if desired, Those who know how much the use of metal in bedsteads conduces to cleanliness, will see the motive of this arrangement. In a small compartment, wholly closed from the rooms by a well-fitting door, are all the arrangements belonging to the water and drainage of a house, planned on such an admirable scheme, that each small dwelling of three rooms has a complete privacy from all the others, and a degree of salubrity in its constructive economy, such as the dwellers in many a house of higher rank might well envy.

The little republic of each house-the denizens of eight dwellings, or twenty-four rooms are eight independent states, so far as regards their domestic arrangements; but they form (if the term may be admitted) a sort of federal union in general matters. On the flat roof of each house is a fine large cistern, capable of holding one thousand gallons; and the supply of water is most abundant for all. Pipes descend to supply all the eight dwellings; and from time to time the whole of the drainage-pipes are flushed by a torrent of water let down from the cistern; all the rain-water, too, that falls on the house-top, is made to contribute to the completeness of the drainage. Down through the centre of the house, from top to bottom, runs a square shaft or hollow trunk, containing within it the drainage, water, dust, and gas-pipes belonging to all the dwellings the gas is conducted upwards; the drainage and dust are conducted downwards; and the water is conducted both upwards and downwards; but none of the pipes containing them are visible to the inmates of the dwellings: they are enclosed within the vertical shaft, which has iron doors to admit a workman within it when any repairs may be necessary to the pipes. If we were to follow the busy housewife in her daily sweepings of her set of three rooms, we should see one among many remarkable instances of the thoughtful care that seems to have presided over the planning of these houses. A small sliding iron door, eight or ten inches square, is fixed in one corner of a recess, close to the ground; and, on this door being lifted, all the dust and dirt from the rooms are swept into the opening, and the door immediately closed: from that

moment the housewife knows nothing, or need know nothing, of what becomes of the dust; it goes into the dust-shaft, which receives the dust from all the eight dwellings by eight similar openings, and thence descends to a very large dust-cellar beneath the level of the house. A locked iron trap-door, sunk into the avenue behind each house, when opened, gives access to the dust-cellar, and allows of the removal of all the dust; which, as well as the water and gas and drainage of the houses, is not left to the mercy of the inmates, but is superintended by a manager appointed to attend to the whole group of houses.

The ventilation, too, is skilfully managed. Every room has two or more air-bricks,' as the builders term them, fixed in the outer wall; that is, a space equal to the size af a brick is left open to the admission of air, covered within and without by an iron grating, and capable of being wholly closed by an iron shutter if necessary. Some of these openings are made near the floor, to admit the fresh air; while others are made near the ceiling, for the exit of heated and vitiated air; and there are also air-flues or ventilating shafts in different parts. The windows, made of cast iron and glazed with plate glass, are hung on pivots, so as to be opened to any extent with great readiness.

But the gardens-where are they? Are there none? It will be a drawback, in the minds of many, to the advantages of these admirable houses, that they have no gardens. But if we come to look around us, we find that such pleasant adjuncts are, indeed, very seldom placed within the reach of the working classes in a busy town. Where land, as in Birkenhead is valued by the square yard instead of by the acre, we may without difficulty understand how different an aspect the enterprise of building these houses would have put on, had gardens been attached to them: either the internal arrangements would have been less complete, or the rent would have been higher-in either case frustrating in part the main object in view. Yet, although they have not gardens, in the general acceptation of the term, they have a pleasant substitute for them, such as in England may well be regarded as a novelty. Each house, measuring perhaps about thirty-five feet by twenty-five, has a flat roof, bounded by a sufficiently high and strong parapet; and this constitutes one of the most acceptable terraces imaginable. It has quite an oriental effect; for all the roofs are on the same level, though they do not communicate with each other. A staircase and doorway lead up to the roof, just as if it were one of the stories of the house; and when on the roof, a wide prospect meets the eye, including the greater part of Birkenhead, the Mersey with its shipping, the opposite buildings of Liverpool, and a good deal of open country in the other direction. Now, as all the eight families, or the tenants of the eight dwellings constituting the house, have common access to this terrace, may it not form a pleasant substitute for a garden? It is a common drying-ground for all; and on a summer evening a most welcome spot it is to breathe the fresh air. And may not the

Mignionette, and the Geranium, and the Daisy find a operations were much less advanced than they now little corner, and enjoy the fresh air there too?

are, a lively writer in 'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'
thus spoke of what met his view:-"When we had
passed a mere parterre of short streets overlooking
the river, we were at once launched into a mile's
breadth of street-building, where unfinished houses,
unmade roadways, brick-fields, scaffoldings, heaps of
mortar, loaded trains, and troops of busy workmen
meet the eye in every direction. It was like the scene
which Virgil describes when he introduces Æneas and
his companions into Carthage, but like nothing which
had ever met our eyes in real life. *
You ask for the most public buildings, and find they
are all in the mason's hands, excepting a few churches.
There is to be a capital town-hall-a capital market

And what, it may now be asked, does the working man pay for such a dwelling? To answer this, it must be borne in mind that the dwellings are really for working men, and not for poor men; for men in the receipt of weekly wages, for some handicraft employment; and not for those who are ignorant, day by day, how or where they will rest their head at night. Each dwelling or set of rooms lessens in rent as it approaches nearer to the top of the house. The lowest rental, we believe, is somewhere about half-a-crown a week, which includes payment for the three rooms, and those numberless little conveniences (including gas) to which allusion has been made; and from that point the rent rises to four or five shillings, according to various-a capital everything." advantages of situation, &c. ; but in every dwelling, even of the lowest rent, the sanatory arrangements are as fully carried out as in those of the more expensive kind. Some of the corner houses afford more than three rooms to a dwelling; and these command a higher rental.

These details have been somewhat long and minute; but the subject really deserves it; for while so much is being written and said about Sanatory Regulations and the Health of Towns, it is well to glance at what has actually been done. The building of these workmen's dwellings is, as the French would say, "un fait accompli;" the mind and the money have been applied; and it remains to see what results will be produced. Some of the dwellings are already occupied; and when the Dock enterprizes bring more population into that quarter, doubtless they all will be. As to the rate at which the speculation will remunerate the Dock Company (to whom the houses belong), they can afford to wait while the results develope themselves; but in all probability it will be quite sufficient. As to the advantage of a working man having three such. rooms and the other accommodations for three shillings or so, per week, let those decide who know what are the rentals in close, damp, ill-ventilated, and ill-regulated houses, in the midst of our busy towns. In a more central part of Birkenhead, a group of houses, very similar in many respects to those just described, has been constructed by one of the members of that family, the Lairds, whose name is so intimately associated with the recent progress of the town; and these, being nearer the scene of present working operations, are nearly all occupied.

THE NEW STREETS.

One hardly knows where Birkenhead begins or ends. So much that is new meets the eye on all sides-so many links are there between new buildings and green fields that the real extent of the town is left in doubt. And if a map or plan be referred to, the puzzle is rather increased than lessened, unless we carefully distinguish between the present and the future, the existing and the proposed, Two years ago, when the

The "capital everything" is coming by degrees. During the intervening period of two years, many of the buildings alluded to in this description have been advanced towards completion. Yet many of the streets are so long, and planned on such a grand scale, that several years must elapse before they are all built and occupied. And well so, too; for as the town is destined to grow with the growth of the docks, an incautiously-rapid extension of the town would be a useless sinking of capital: the members would outgrow the heart. Great, however, as are the works yet to be done, the plan shows how well arranged is the system which is to guide them. There is one street, sixty feet in width, extending for a length of two miles, in a perfectly straight line, from the vicinity of the market to the workmen's dwellings; and there are six other streets, parallel to it, and lying, like it, between the Park and the Docks, whose length varies from one to two miles. Beyond the workmen's dwellings, and all around the beautiful Park which will shortly call for a word or two of our notice, are other new streets, mostly of ample width. As a general rule, all the main streets extend from south-east to north-west; and are crossed in the other direction by shorter ones.

Few as may yet be the houses built in these five long streets, yet the underground arrangements are completed for establishing the town on a healthy basis. A most extensive system of sewerage has been formed, ramifying into all, or nearly all of the streets. Dr. Robertson, in the work before quoted, gives a tabular view that illustrates in a striking degree the comprehensive scale adopted in the arrangements of this new town. He states that there are eight miles of street sixty feet in width, thirteen miles about forty feet in width, and others of intermediate or of lesser width, making a total of about thirty miles of street, of which nearly twenty-seven miles are provided with sewers on a most ample scale.

Yet, even with all this completeness of arrangement, it would appear from Dr. Robertson's details, that the utmost vigilance on the part of the town commissioners will be requisite, to prevent the plan from being marred in part by individual negligence. Many houses and