GROWTH OF LONDON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 84, 8 April 1879, Page 4

GROWTH OF LONDON.

The " Cornbill Magazine " for January contains cut article on the growth of London, which (brows up in a fresh light a well-worn theme. The following extract gives a fair idea of the whole article :— I # " From the compulations of authorities it appears that London, with all its suburbs, covers within the fifteen miles 1 radios of Chariog Cross nearly 700 JMuare miles. It numbers within ■Me boundaries over four millions of IBbabitaate. It contains more countrypersons than the counties of J^Hr° & od Gloucester combined, or 37 Hl^Bent. of its entire population. Our minutes a birth takes place H^^^Hk metropolis, and every sis ■B^BBg death. Within the circle HH^^Htaed there are added to the | 0 hundred and five per- i ■■^^^■B^' and seventy-five thous|flß^^Hfik London has seven j °^ streetß, and on an ||^H^H^^-eight miles of new and nine tboaaSrad

new houses built every year. Ooe thousand vesa^U end cine thousaud sailors are in its port evsry day. Its crime is also in proportion to its fixtent. Seventy-three thousand persons are annually taken into custody by the police, and more ihau one- third ol aH the crime in the country fir committed within its borders. Thirty-eight thousand persons are annually committed for drunkenness by its magistrates. The metropolis comprises upwards of one hundred thousand foreigners from every quarter of the globe. It contains more Roman Catholics than Rome itself, more Jews than the whole of Palestine, more Irish than Belfast, more Scotchmen than Aberdeen, and more Welshmen than Cardiff. Its beerahops and gin-palaces are so numerous, that their frontages, if placed side by side, would stretch from Charing Cross to Cbichester, a distance of sixty two miles. If all the dwellings in London could have their frontages placed side by aide, they would extend beyond the city of York. London has sufficient paupers to occupy every house in Brighton. The Society which advocates the cessation of Sunday labor will be astonished to learn that miles of shops are open every Sunday. With regard to churches and chapels, the Bishop of London, examined before a Committee of the House of Lords in 1820, said :— .« lf you proceed a mile or two eastward of St. Paul's you will find yourself in the midst of a population the most wretched and destitute of mankind, consisting of artificers, laborera, beggars, and thieves, to the amount of 300,000 or 400,000. Throughout this entire quarter there is not more than one church- io every nineteen thousand inhabitants ; and in two districts there is but one church to forty-five thousand souls.* In 1839, Lord John Buaaell stated in Parliament that London, with thirty-four parishes, and a population of 1,170,000, had church accommodation for only 101,000. These and other statistics furnwhed (ed to * The Metropolis Churches Fund, 1 established in 1836, which has been followed by the Bishop of London's Fund. It is still computed, however, that at least 1000 churches and chapels are required in thu metropolis." i