The Modern Babylon.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 54, 1 August 1885, Page 3

The Modern Babylon.

The material progress of London is almost overwhelming. In 1882 there • were no less than. 23^301 new houses built, and 508 new streets, formed, 75 miles m length : and -on the 31st December there were 5264 houses m course of erection. * The total number of houses, streets, etc., built from 1849 to 1882 is as follows :— Houses, 420,830 ; streets, 9650 ; squares, 94; miles 6t streets, 1645. To protect this vast assemblage of houses with their untold wealth of belongings no less than 11,669 policemen ar-e pu P duty ; and that their offices are not sinePiires is shown by the number of persons taken into custody annually. The bluebook for 1883 reveals a total of 78,416, of whom 19,254 were for being drunk and disorderly. Some 12,010 cabs are m daily use, with 22,275 drivers and conductors. The total extent of London is 700 square miles, its separate houses 700,000, and its population only just under 5,000,000. The blue-ribbon army m.ay be interested to know that this modern Babylon Has no less than ¥068 publichqusesjn it, and we daresay a connection will be traced between 'this fact and the 19,250 convicted drunkards. It is undoubtedly the supreme scandal of the world. In Church matters, London is almost entitled to be called a Christian Benares. "We cannot give the figures, but. on every hand superb edifices are rising under the auspices of the respective se;cl«. Unhappily th« nion and women most needing redemption are notoriously left outside these magnificent temples. We have, sometimes speculated on the horrible catastrophe of a hundred putcast Londoners venturing within the charmed circle. Fancy the consternation among those silk dresses !