In case it’s tricky to read, the second paragraph says:

The scheme in respect to which the inquiry was held has already been described in The Times, and it is enough here to say that it involves the sweeping away of nearly a hundred acres of dirty, dilapidated, ill-ventilated, and unhealthy dwellings, chiefly occupied by artisans and the poorer class of tradespeople, to the number of 16,000, and the opening up of a new and more direct communication between the east and centre of Birmingham by carrying a new and spacious thoroughfare through the condemned districts.