Statistics of Merthyr Tydvil. By G. S. KENRICK, Esq. (Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Cambridge, 24th June, 1845.)

It is our duty, while we enjoy superior advantages of station or condition, to strive to do something for our less fortunate brethren. To do anything for them with effect we must make ourselves acquainted with them, with the circumstances by which they are surrounded, and the effects which these are calculated to produce on them, both morally and physically. With this view I have been led, however imperfectly, to make an inquiry into the statistics of Merthyr Tydvil-the condition of its inhabitants, its means of education and religious instruction, and the operation of these as seen in the manners and habits of the people.

An Analysis of the Population of Merthyr Tydvil, made in the spring of

1841.

The mass of the population of Merthyr has been called into activity and brought into this wild district by the establishment of large ironworks belonging to Messrs. Crawshay, Guest, Hill, and Thompson. The

greater part of the people are supported by their daily labour at these works; and the remainder of the population consists of persons who supply them with food, clothing, furniture, beer, physic, law, and divinity. There are very few persons who reside in the black-looking village of Merthyr who are not either directly or indirectly interested in the iron works, in one of the modes mentioned above.

In proceeding to notice in detail the result of our census, we find, in the first place, that there are 5 persons on an average to each house, which shows that there is more accommodation in this respect than the population to the east of the coal basin enjoys.

The number of persons to each sleeping-room is three, being perhaps as little crowded as the generality of manufacturing towns. In some parts of the village there are houses, however, which contain far too many inmates, and where lodging-houses of a mean description are crowded with persons of different professions, including vagrants, gamblers, and men leading dissolute lives.

In consequence of the number of unmarried men who come from Cardiganshire, Pembrokeshire, and other adjoining counties, to take advantage of the high wages which are given at the iron-works, the usual proportion of males to females is reversed in this parish, and the males much exceed the females; the former being in the ratio of six to five of the latter. This influx of single men from the surrounding country accounts for the great number of lodgers, viz., 6140, whom we find located in Merthyr, being one-fifth of the population, and amounting to one lodger for every house in the parish.

It is surprising that a large village so near the boundary of an English county as Merthyr is, and having such frequent communication with it, should have so small a number of Saxons, as the English are called, among the population-only about 4000 out of a popula tion of 33,000; and there are 11,000, or one-third, who cannot speak English intelligibly, and would not understand an English sermon. The consequence is, that the service at the chapels is generally conducted in Welsh.

In all towns, whether large or small, there is a portion inhabited by persons in easy circumstances, which contrasts strongly with the district occupied by the poor; there is also a part where the decencies of life are generally observed, and another where these observances are not kept up: men will fix their abode and associate with those who resemble them in character and condition of life; added to which, the effect of example is great in producing a level in moral attributes as well as in personal and domestic habits. It will be necessary, therefore, that we should visit all parts of the town, and give as faithful a picture as we can of the inhabitants-their wants, their temptations, their comforts or destitution, their virtues and their vices-that corresponding efforts may be made to encourage what is praiseworthy, and to remove what is injurious or vicious.

It is remarkable how often crowded and uncomfortable dwellings, with unpaved and almost impassable streets, are inhabited by persons who appear to be degraded and demoralized by the unfavourable circumstances in which they are placed. We will begin with Dowlais, which does not captivate a stranger by its cleanliness or neatness, particularly in the back streets, and Longtown is one of the dirtiest

streets in Dowlais. The houses consist of only one room on the ground floor, which is used for all purposes. In one of these houses were stowed ten human beings, viz., a man, his wife, and five children, with three grown-up lodgers; the beds were in a corner of the room separated from the other part by a curtain. The furniture in this street and Twyn of Wagan is of a miserable description: the people are very poor; very few of them attend a place of worship, and almost every house is visited by that scourge of the working classes-intemperance. Eighteen adjoining houses in this district contain 96 persons, and only 22 of these go to a place of worship. Two houses at the back of Bethania Street consist of one small room each, to which there is no access except by walking up a deal plank to these miserable abodes. The one house is inhabited by nine persons, the other by seven. There is scarcely any furniture in these houses, and only one small bed at the corner of the room for all the family; the children must, therefore, be littered on the floor. In a house in an adjoining street there was little furniture, yet the house was neatly kept; but the poor woman complained that her husband was almost always drunk-that he went off on this errand a week ago and was not yet returned. Two of her children were dead; and she wished, for its own sake, the other was dead also. She seemed broken-hearted by the misconduct of her husband. These houses of one room each are said to belong to the Dowlais Company; the rent is about 1s. 6d. a-week, exclusive of coal.

Adkins Row. People poor-dirty-drunken. At one house the woman said she had no Bible now; she had a valuable one some time ago, and lent it to a neighbour, who pawned it for gin.

Street, No. 21. The habitations dirty and poor: there were twelve drunkards in one house, who were not at all ashamed to own it. Only two persons out of the thirteen who lived at this house went to a place of worship.

Street, No. 4. At one of these houses lives a pudler, getting 358. a-week; but he spends most of his money in drink, and his wife and five children are in a pitiable condition; she would have died for want of food during her last confinement, but for the charity of her neighbours.

Pullywhead. A large proportion of the people are poor, immoral, and drunken, and not more than one-half of them attend a place of worship. One woman said four of her children, under twelve years of age, were working in the coal-pit, and she complained that poverty obliged the younger ones to go, at the cost of their health, because her husband was a drunkard.

Before we leave Dowlais, and proceed to the lower part of the parish, we must make a few general observations. There are a number of houses about the Dowlais Iron Works occupied by 285 families, who mainly derive their support from these works, and we have noted their condition as follows:

Families bearing the appearance of comfort..
Ditto, poor.....

Ditto, miserably poor

129

137

11

Ten of these houses are used for the sale of beer, or one beer-house to twenty-seven houses. This fact explains the cause of the poverty of the people, as one-third of the earnings of the workmen is devoted to

the purchase of intoxicating drink. In two streets near this locality are eighty-five houses, and eight of them are used for the sale of malt liquor. These streets are filthy, the houses dirty and crowded; the inhabitants are addicted to drunkenness and immorality, and many of them never attend a place of worship. In passing through Dowlais on a Sunday morning, between seven and eight o'clock, without turning out of the main street, sixty-two drunken people were counted; several of them were sitting on the steps of the beer-shops waiting for the doors to be opened, that they might renew the practices of the previous night.

In proceeding to the houses in the neighbourhood of the Pendarran Iron Works there are three streets near to each other. Respecting the first, we must remark, that the people appeared rather poor and dirty, and there was great complaint of drunkenness. Of the next we must report that the people seemed very poor, and intemperance existed in almost every house. In the third street the houses were poor and filthy, and there are several instances of great wretchedness and distress. through intemperance. When the love of strong drink becomes prevalent, it is not confined to the male population, but spreads to the females. In a house in this neighbourhood, and elsewhere in this parish, we saw five or six women, at eleven o'clock in the morning, drinking tea with rum in it. Where women follow this practice of taking spirits while their husbands are at work, their houses and families are untidy and neglected.

Unfortunately, a working man cannot be wasteful or extravagant without making others suffer besides himself. His family suffers in many ways, but not least in the children being taken at a very tender age to work underground, before they have gained sufficient strength to support the fatigue and exposure to which they are subjected. We believe that there are many children at Pendarran, whose fathers, being colliers, carry them on their backs into the colliery, where they remain all day, and some of these children are under five years of age. A boy of seven years of age was taken to work in the coal-pit by his father, and very soon a cold fixed in his limbs, and he has been for several months, and still continues, a great sufferer. No. 53, 22, 100-Child caught cold by attending an air-door, and the lungs of these children are seriously affected. No. 19, 41, 45 bear similar testimony to the evils arising from this practice. At Twyn Rhodyn are eighty children of tender age who are at work, and there are several cases of ill health from this cause.

Street No. 10, Cabin Twyld-These are miserable huts; they lie low, and are damp, filthy, and unhealthy; the people are ignorant and drunken. Guarawar-The houses are ill-furnished and very dirty, and there is much drinking among the people.

It is pleasant to turn from this dark catalogue to Street No. 9 and Lluynvagor, which were formerly remarkable for drunkenness. Persons in private houses had been selling beer without a license, when two sober families removed to this place, and there was speedily a reformation in the characters of their neighbours, many of whom are now respectable in conduct, and regular in their attendance at public worship. Such is the effect of example for either good or evil: a drunkard makes others drunken; a virtuous man induces others to become sober and religious.

VOL. IX. PART I.

C

The neighbourhood of Pontstorehouse is remarkable for dirt and depravity. The houses in streets No. 15 and 16, Quarry-row, are dirty and badly furnished, and the streets in many parts knee-deep in mud: it is a low and unhealthy spot. Street No. 17, the most miserable holes (cellars), and the most wretched and immoral people; a collection of all that is bad. Yet in this place there are a few houses which are quite a contrast to the rest, and form an oasis in this desert.

Pontstorehouse itself is distinguished for its miserable houses and cellars, many of which are used as lodging-houses of the lowest class: there are 16 lodging-houses in this neighbourhood. To prevent reiterating the same thing over again, we must place in one category Street No. 3, storehouses, stable-houses, houses by Iron-bridge, Hollow Island, Pendarran Vach, the general report of which is, that the streets were filthy, the houses dirty, with little furniture, and the people ignorant and intemperate. In some houses the children were almost naked, having no clothes to put on, and their parents were not in the habit of attending public worship; indeed to some of the inhabitants of this district, religion is a thing almost unknown.

Now, we have seen that, in the neighbourhood of the Dowlais, Pendarran, and Cyfarthfa Iron Works, there is a great deal of distress among the people; that the streets in which they live are filthy and untidy; their houses are ill-furnished; they have scarcely clothes or food for the children; yet it is to be remembered that the persons employed in the iron-works have been receiving for seven years 29s. a week on an average, with regular work. But, under these favourable circumstances, in a parish containing 33,000, most of them workmen, only 91 workmen have built or bought houses of their own; and very few indeed have put money in the savings bank. Though they receive their money every week, and have a good market at which to make their purchases, yet the majority of the workmen are poor— many of them are deeply in debt to the shopkeepers. They cannot afford to send their children to school, but instead of that take them to work at too early an age, to the injury of their health. A large proportion of these sufferers, who are in the decline of life, if they had been prudent would now have been independent of the frowns of the world, and might have retired from work on a handsome competency. All the comforts that they might have enjoyed they have sacrificed for the sake of intoxication by means of a nauseous kind of beer, which would not be considered drinkable in other parts of the kingdom.

The High-street, and the better part of the town, is inhabited by a respectable class of persons, chiefly shopkeepers. Street No. 2, Nanty Gwyneth, contains convenient dwellings with gardens attached; the street is clean, and the moral character of the inhabitants was evinced by our finding several heads of families in the act of reading the Bible, or engaged in morning prayer. A portion of the glebe land is occupied by Scotchmen, who are wandering tea-dealers and hawkers, and some of their houses are furnished with good libraries of works on general literature; but it was very rarely that we found such books on the shelves of the Welsh or English workmen.

Having spoken of cases where parents neglected the moral culture of their children, we have great pleasure in mentioning the praise