been indicated to show that London comprises procreation and accumulation—have formed the within itself elements of decomposition, or more basis and creative orgasm of their grandeur and correctly of distribution and tendency to form new elevation ; to which may be added the auxiliary centres of combination, that may perpetuate its im- adjunct of the long peace, riveted on nations by perial supremacy for an unassignable period of time. the victory of Waterloo. Leaving, however, the dim future, let us resume All interests, however, have not grown with the the palpable presen by considering the great growth of London. Churches and chapels have interests that have almost imperceptibly grown multiplied ; infant schools, national schools, and with the growth and strengthened with the strength schools of the British and Foreign Society, have of the metropolis. largely increased ; but there has been no marked Of these, that which is the most patent to increase of great charitable, collegiate, or sanatory observance, and most frequently dwelt upon, is foundations. Still, the revenues of the Charterthe enormous increase in the ground-rental of house, Christ's Hospital, St. Paul's School, Westthe capital, which, within a century, has ex- minster School, and other old endowments, are panded into gorgeous affluence the patrician fam- known to have enormously augmented ; and why ilies of Cadogan, Portman, Grosvenor, Fox, and the objects for which they were intended have not Northampton ; and East of Temple Bar has en- been pari passu multiplied, and what new channels abled those lords of the soil the City Compa- have been found for the dissipation of the surplus nies, as trustees of the poor, to riot in sumptuous incomes accruing, would doubtless open curious banquets all the year round. Not dwelling on avenues for exploration, did time or space permit. these familiar facts, we may remark that there are The order of clubs 100 must be passed ; indeed, chattel interests that have swollen with the great the species or class of interests to which they per“ wen” into as prodigious development as the real- tain is not easy to define ; and, besides, they are ity. Of this order are the banking firms; though too recent and palpable an insertion in the mesome of these, as Child's, Fuller's, and others, are tropolitan polypus to require exposition. So we not of fungous or local growth—they struck their hasten to a new topic. roots early, and with other houses have been fed The sage Lord Burleigh, much perplexed, shook by provincial and colonial progress, as well as that his wise head, and wondered how London, with which is metropolitan. But the big brewers are its gathering of some 100,000 people, could be strictly native—have drawn their nutriment from “ lodged and fed.” That ditch, however, has the soil, and are to the manner born." Every been cleared, and the great difficulty now is, less new street, square, court, or alley, is as certain to in feeding even twenty times the population of the create new demands for butts of Barclay and Be- Elizabethan age, than in having them thoroughly van, Meux and Co., Whitbread and Co., or Han- cleaned and aired. But, in the unlooked-for vicisbury and Co., as of batches of loaves from the situde, it is singular to remark how material bakers', or joints from the butchers'. The book- causes, unaided by human thought and contrivance, sellers form a progressive and ancient fraternity; have operated to our deliverance. It would natof a “ Thomas Longman, stationer," a predeces- urally have been anticipated, a hundred and fifty sor in the great house of the name, we read that or two hundred years past, that the city—that is, he was fined for not serving the office of sheriff, the limited compartment within the ancient walls— above a century past. Intimately connected with would by this time have become the greatest contype is the newspaper interest, which is closely centration of pestilent venom, squalor, and popuidentified with metropolitan demonstrations. In lousness, imaginable. How opposite the actual the provinces has been working a similar and result !-as superb and salubrious, more open, and almost contemporaneous, though not so potent, an less densely peopled, than any part of the metropimpetus. The Mercury of Leeds, and other old olis! How could anybody have foreseen that the country journals, are the natural adjuncts of the population would be fewer now than at the comexpanding wealth and population of their respec- mencement of the last century, and that narrow, tive localities. But the great Times is the most filthy streets, courts, and alleys, would be replaced impressive fact; allowing for the shrewd ability by spacious areas, offices, Manchester warehouses, and untiring vigilance with which it has been con- and noble public edifices? Yet so it is. In 1700, ducted for half a century, still its prosperousness the city of London within the walls contained may be ascribed, in even a greater degree, to the 139,000 inhabitants ; in 1750, 87,000 ; in 1801. multiplication of metropolitan people and build - 78,000 ; in 1821,58,400 ; in 1841, 54,626. So that ings; for it may be safely affirmed, that not a len- the citizens have been undergoing a gradual displacepound or a twenty-pound house is erected that does ment or extrusion outwards from the centre towards not bring a customer, or at least a fraction of a the circumference, to make way for mercantile and customer, to Printing House Square. Indeed, the shipping conveniences, for dock-houses, clearingremark applies to all the magnate interests enumer- houses, electric-telegraph houses, and other needs ated, from those of bankers, brewers, and bakers, of commerce, science, and riches. 19 booksellers and littérateurs ; their rise has been And the end is not yet come; there must be spontaneous, and less of their own shaping of means further evictions, and further local improvements, to ends than of natural causes, as vessels rise by to meet growing wants. That which seems most the swell of the tidal flood. Material impulses urgently to press, is the disposal, living and dead, |
