[1] The great officers of state and the household whom we have
particularly mentioned do not of course exhaust the catalogue of
them. We have named those only whose representatives are still
dignitaries of the court and functionaries of the palace. If the
reader consults Hallam (_Middle Ages_, i. 181 seq.), Freeman (_Norman
Conquest_, i. 91 seq., and v. 426 seq.) and Stubbs (_Const. Hist._ i.
343, seq.), he will be able himself to fill in the details of the
outline we have given above.
[2] The record in question is entitled _Constitutio Domus Regis de
Procurationibus_, and is printed by Hearne (_Liber Niger Scaccarii_,
i. 341 sq.). It is analysed by Stubbs (_Const. Hist._ vol. i. note 2,
p. 345).
[3] _A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of
the Royal Household, made in Divers Reigns from King Edward III. to
King William and Queen Mary_, printed for the Society of Antiquaries,
(London, 1790). See also Pegge's _Curialia_, published partly before
and partly after this volume; and Carlisle's _Gentlemen of the Privy
Chamber_, published in 1829. Pegge and Carlisle, however, deal with
small and insignificant portions of the royal establishment.
[4] _Liber niger domus Regis Edward IV._ and _Ordinances for the
Household made at Eltham in the seventeenth year of King Henry VIII.,
A.D. 1526_, are the titles of these two documents. The earlier
documents printed in the same collection are _Household of King
Edward III. in Peace and War from the eighteenth to the twenty-first
year of his reign_; _Ordinances of the Household of King Henry IV. in
the thirty-third year of his reign, A.D. 1455_, and _Articles
ordained by King Henry VII. for the Regulation of his Household, A.D.
1494_.
[5] _The Book of the Household of Queen Elizabeth as it was ordained
in the forty-third year of her Reign delivered to our Sovereign Lord
King James, &c._, is simply a list of officers' names and allowances.
It seems to have been drawn up under the curious circumstances
referred to in _Archaeologia_ (xii. 80-85). For the rest of these
documents see _Ordinances and Regulations, &c._, pp. 299, 340, 347,
352, 368 and 380.
[6] Burke's celebrated Act "for enabling His Majesty to discharge the
debt contracted upon the civil list, and for preventing the same from
being in arrear for the future, &c.," 22 Geo. III. c. 82, was passed
in 1782. But it was foreshadowed in his great speech on "Economical
Reform" delivered two years before. Since the beginning of the 19th
century select committees of the House of Commons have reported on
the civil list and royal household in 1803, 1804, 1815, 1831 and
1901.
[7] Torrens's _Memoirs of William, second Viscount Melbourne_,
ii-303.
HOUSEL, the English name, until the time of the Reformation, for the
Eucharist. The word in O. Eng. was _husel_. Its proper meaning is
"sacrifice," and thus the word _hunsl_ appears in Ulfilas' Gothic
version of Matt. ix. 13, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." The
ultimate origin is doubtful. The _New English Dictionary_ connects it
with a Teutonic stem meaning "holy"; from which is derived the
Lithuanian _szwentas_, and Lettish _swets_. Skeat refers it to a root
meaning "to kill," which may connect it with Gr. [Greek: kainein].
HOUSELEEK, _Sempervivum_, a genus of ornamental evergreen plants
belonging to the natural order _Crassulaceae_. About 30 species are
known in gardens, some of which are hardy perennial herbs, and grow well
in dry or rocky situations; the others are evergreen shrubs or
undershrubs, fit only for cultivation in the greenhouse or conservatory.
The genus _Sempervivum_ is distinguished from the nearly allied _Sedum_
by having more than five (about 12) petals, and by the glands at the
base of the ovary being laciniated if present. The common houseleek, _S.
tectorum_ (Ger. _Hauswurzel_, Fr. _joubarbe_), is often met with in
Britain on roofs of outhouses and wall-tops, but is not a native.
Originally it was indigenous in the Alps, but it is now widely dispersed
in Europe, and has been introduced into America. The leaves are thick,
fleshy and succulent, and are arranged in the form of a rosette lying
close to the soil. The plant propagates itself by offsets on all sides,
so that it forms after a time a dense cushion or aggregation of
rosettes. The flowering stem, which is of rather rare occurrence, is
about 1 ft. high, reddish, cylindrical and succulent, and ends in a
level-topped cyme, reflexed at the circumference, of reddish flowers,
which bloom from June to September. The houseleek has been known
variously as the houselick, homewort or great houseleek. _Sedum acre_
(stone-crop) is styled the little houseleek. In Germany it is sometimes
called _Donnerkraut_, from being supposed to protect the house on which
it grows from thunder. The leaves are said to contain malic acid in
considerable quantity, and have been eaten as salad, like _Portulaca_.
_S. glutinosum_ and _S. balsamiferum_, natives respectively of Madeira
and the Canary Islands, contain a very viscous substance in large
quantity, and are used for the preparation of bird-lime; fishermen in
Madeira, after dipping their nets in an alkaline solution, rub them with
this substance, rendering them as tough as leather. _S. montanum_,
indigenous in Central Europe, according to Gmelin, causes violent
purging; _S. arboreum_, [Greek: to mega aeizoon] of Dioscorides, is
employed in Cyprus, the East, and northern Africa as an external remedy
for malignant ulcers, inflammations and burns, and internally for mucous
discharges.
HOUSING. The housing of the poorer classes has become a pressing problem
in all populous Western countries, and has engaged, in a varying but
constantly increasing measure, the attention of legislative and
administrative bodies and of philanthropic individuals and societies.
The general interest was signalized by an International Congress held
in London in 1907. The recognition of the problem is due in the first
instance to the science of public health, the rise of which dates from
the second quarter of the 19th century; and in the second instance to
the growth of urban populations consequent on the development of
manufacturing industries and of trading and transporting agencies, both
of which tend to mass increasing numbers of people in convenient
centres. To have a clear view of the subject it is necessary to
distinguish these factors and their respective influence upon the
problem. Urban congestion is quite secondary, and only important because
and so far as it has a prejudicial effect upon health and strength.
Further, the requirements on the scientific side, made on behalf of
public health, are of very much wider application and more expansive
than those which arise from the mere growth of urban population. That is
obvious at once from the fact that they extend to rural housing, which
has indeed become a prominent feature of the question in recent years.
To ascribe the housing problem to the "factory system," as some writers
have done, is to put forward an inadequate and misleading view of it. It
is, in fact, particularly acute in some places totally devoid of
factories and least acute in some purely factory towns. If the factory
system were abolished with all its effects the housing question would
remain. But there is a more important distinction than extent of
application. The requirements of public health are indeterminate and
interminable; knowledge increases, or rather changes, and the standard
constantly rises. It is the changing standard which gives most trouble;
housing at one period thought good enough is presently condemned. Fifty
years ago no house existed which would satisfy modern sanitary
standards, and the mansions of the great were in some respects inferior
to the worst quarters to-day. And to this process there is no end. It is
quite conceivable that urban congestion might cease to be a difficulty
at all. That actually happens in particular towns where the population
is stationary or diminishing. One whole nation (France) has already
reached that point, and others are moving towards it at varying rates.
But even where the supply of houses exceeds the demand and many stand
empty, the housing problem remains; condemnation of existing
accommodation continues and the effort to provide superior houses goes
on. In other words, there are two main aspects of the housing question,
quality and quantity; they touch at various points and interact, but
they are essentially distinct. The problem of quantity may be "solved,"
that of quality has no finality.
The importance attached to housing is much enhanced by the general
tendency to lay stress on the material conditions of life, which
characterizes the present age. Among material conditions environment
takes a leading place, largely under the influence of the theory of
evolution in a popular and probably erroneous form; and among the
factors of environment the home assumes a more and more prominent
position. There is reason in this, for whatever other provision be made
for work or recreation the home is after all the place where people
spend most of their time. Life begins there and generally ends there. At
the beginning of life the whole time is spent there and home conditions
are of paramount importance to the young, whose physical welfare has
become the object of increasing care. But the usual tendency to run to
extremes has asserted itself. It may be admitted that it is extremely
difficult to raise the character and condition of those who live in
thoroughly bad home surroundings, and that an indispensable or
preliminary step is to improve the dwelling. But if in pursuit of this
object other considerations are lost sight of, the result is failure.
Bad housing is intimately connected with poverty; it is, indeed, largely
a question of poverty now that the difference between good and bad
housing is understood and the effects of the latter are recognized. The
poorest people live under the worst housing conditions because they are
the cheapest; the economic factor governs the situation. Poverty again
is associated with bad habits, with dirt, waste, idleness and vice, both
as cause and as effect. These factors cannot be separated in real life;
they act and react upon each other in such a way that it is impossible
to disentangle their respective shares in producing physical and moral
evils. To lay all responsibility upon the structural environment is an
error constantly exposed by experience.
Defective quality embraces some or all of the following
conditions--darkness, bad air, damp, dirt and dilapidation. Particular
insanitary conditions independent of the structure are often associated;
namely defects of water-supply, drainage, excrement and house refuse
removal, back-yards and surrounding ground; they contribute to dirt,
damp and bad air. Defective quantity produces high rents and
overcrowding, both of which have a prejudicial effect upon health; the
one by diminishing expenditure on other necessaries, the other by
fouling the atmosphere and promoting the spread of infectious illness.
The physical effects of these conditions have been demonstrated by
comparative statistics of mortality general and special; among the
latter particular stress is laid on the mortality of infants, that from
consumption and from "zymotic" diseases. The statistical evidence has
been especially directed to the effects of overcrowding, which can be
stated with greater precision than other insanitary conditions. It
generally takes the form of comparing the death-rates of different areas
having widely contrasted densities of population or proportions of
persons to a given space. It is not necessary to quote any of these
figures, which have been produced in great abundance. They broadly
establish a connexion between density and mortality; but the inference
that the connexion can be reduced to a precise numerical statement and
that the difference of mortality shown is all due to overcrowding or
other housing conditions is highly fallacious. Many other factors ought
to be taken into account, such as the age-distribution of the
population, the birth-rate, the occupations, means, character and habits
of the people, the geographical situation, the number of public
institutions, hospitals, workhouses, asylums and so forth. The
fallacious use of vital statistics for the purpose of proving some
particular point has become so common that it is necessary to enter a
warning against them; the subject of housing is a popular field for the
exercise of that art, though there is no need of it.
The actual state of housing in different countries and localities, the
efforts made to deal with it by various agencies, the subsidiary points
which arise in connexion with it and the results attained--all these
heads embrace such a vast mass of facts that any attempt to treat them
fully in detail would run to inordinate length. It must suffice to
review the more salient points; and the most convenient way of doing so
is to deal first with Great Britain, which has led the way historically
in extent of need, in its recognition and in efforts to meet it, adding
some notes upon other countries, in which the question is of more recent
date and for which less information is available.