The death-rate of children in the poorer districts of London is found to be nearly three times that which obtains among the richer neighbourhoods.

Contemporary history has no darker page than that which records not the death-rate of children, but the conditions of child-life in our great cities.

In setting down such facts and figures as may assist readers to adequately realize the nature and extent of poverty, it has seemed best to deal exclusively with the material aspects of poverty, which admit of some exactitude of measurement.

The ugly and degrading surroundings of a life of poverty, the brutalizing influences of the unceasing struggle for bare subsistence, the utter absence of reasonable hope of improvement; in short, the whole subjective side of poverty is not less terrible because it defies statistics.
Sec.7.Figures and Facts of Pauperism .-- Since destitution is the lowest form of poverty, it is right to append to this statement of the facts of poverty some account of pauperism.

Although chiefly owing to a stricter and wiser administration of the Poor Law in relation to outdoor relief, the number of paupers has steadily and considerably decreased, both in proportion to the population and absolutely, the number of those unable to support themselves is still deplorably large.