_We_ make a more wigorous use of the powers with which we're
entrusted!
Wy, if we are at it all day with their drains, ashpits, roofs, walls,
and windies,
Wot time shall we 'ave for our feeds and our little porochial
shindies!
And all for the 'labouring classes'--the greediest, ongratefullest
beggars.
I tell you these Radical lot and their rubbishy littery eggers,
Who talk of neglected old brooms, and would 'ave _us_ turn to at their
handles,
Are Noosances wus than bad smells and the rest o' their sanitry
"scandals."'

Sir Charles's main object in local government was to decentralize, and
he sought to move in this direction by stimulating the exercise of
existing powers and the habit of responsibility in local popularly
elected bodies. But inquiry was also necessary.

'On February 8th, 1884, it had been decided to appoint a Royal
Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, and Mr. Gladstone
had expressed his wish that I should be chairman of the Commission,
on which the Prince of Wales desired to serve.'

'On the 9th it was settled that Bodley, my secretary, should be
secretary to the Royal Commission. I immediately wrote to Manning to
ask him to serve, and he consented on February 12th.'

Lord Salisbury's name lent another distinction to the list, which was
completed by February 16th. [Footnote: In addition to the Prince, the