350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cent of the total population. This percentage slowly gained at each 

 successive census, until in 1840 it had reached 8'5 per cent. In fifty- 

 years it had thus gained a little over 5 per cent. But in 1850 it rose 

 to 12*5 per cent, in 1860 it was 161 per cent ; in 1870 it was 20'9 per 

 cent, having in this one decade gained as much as in the first fifty 

 years of our political existence. In 1880 the population resident in 

 cities was 22 5 per cent of the whole population. 



Contemporaneous with this rapid growth of urban population have 

 grown the complaints of corrupt administration and bad municipal 

 government. The outcry may be said to be universal, for it comes 

 from both sides of the Atlantic ; and the complaints appear to be in 

 direct proportion to the size of cities. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 the knowledge of the art of local government has not kept pace with 

 the growth of population. I am here by your favor to speak for the 

 city of New York, and I should be the last person to throw any dis- 

 credit on its fair fame ; but I think I only give voice to the general 

 feeling when I say that the citizens of New York are satisfied neither 

 with the structure of its government nor with its actual administra- 

 tion, even when it is in the hands of intelligent and honest officials. 

 Dissatisfied as we are, no man has been able to devise a system which 

 commends itself to the general approval, and it may be asserted that 

 the remedy is not to be found in devices for any special machinery of 

 government. Experiments without number have been tried, and sug- 

 gestions in infinite variety have been offered, but to-day no man can 

 say that we have approached any nearer to the idea of good govern- 

 ment which is demanded by the intelligence and the wants of the com- 

 munity. 



If, therefore, New York has not yet learned to govern itself, how 

 can it be expected to be better governed by adding half a million to 

 its population and a great territory to its area, unless it be with the 

 idea that a " little leaven leaveneth the whole lump " ? .Is Brooklyn that 

 leaven ? And if not, and if possibly " the salt has lost its savor, where- 

 with shall it be salted ?" Brooklyn is now struggling with this prob- 

 lem it remains to be seen with what success ; but meanwhile it is idle 

 to consider the idea of getting rid of our common evils by adding 

 them together. 



Besides, it is a fundamental axiom in politics, approved by the ex- 

 perience of older countries as well as of our own, that the sources of 

 power should never be far removed from those who are to feel its 

 exercise. It is the violation of this principle which produces chronic 

 revolution in France, and makes the British rule so obnoxious to the 

 Irish people. This evil is happily avoided when a natural boundary 

 circumscribes administration within narrow limits. While, therefore, 

 we rejoice together at the new bond between New York and Brook- 

 lin, we ought to rejoice the more that it destroys none of the con- 

 ditions which permit each city to govern itself, but rather urges them 



