364 Architecture of- the Metropolis* 



dispute. The second seems somewhat more doubtful, because 

 many other places appear to exhibit a greater mass of manu- 

 facturing industry ; but in this point we are deceived by the 

 vast extent of the metropolis, and the consequent diffusion of 

 its scattered manufacturers. According to a late statement of 

 Mr. Huskisson, the silk manufacture alone now reaches the 

 enormous amount of fourteen millions sterling per annum, and 

 is consequently, after cotton, the greatest staple of the country. 

 Of this immense fabric, London is the principal seat, and 

 it nearly engrosses many others of a smaller extent, but yet 

 forming an immense aggregate when taken collectively, such 

 as jewellery, plate, porter, books, newspapers, and many others. 

 Being, then, unquestionably the richest, largest, and most 

 populous city of Europe ; the seat of a wealthier court, and a 

 more opulent body of nobility and gentry, than any other metro- 

 polis ; it seems only a natural and reasonable expectation that 

 it should likewise excel all others in the number and magnifi- 

 cence of its public edifices and private dwellings ; in its general 

 elegancies and accommodations as a city, and in all the appen- 

 dages and decorations which naturally accompany so manifest 

 a superiority. But this is very far from being the case, and 

 our striking deficiencies in these points afford matter for one of 

 the severest of our national reproaches. An overgrown capital 

 is essentially a great evil, as it is the natural confluence of the 

 worst species of misery, corruption, and crime. It brings 

 together the greatest extremes of luxury and poverty, of rude- 

 ness and refinement. The natural, though insufficient com- 

 pensation for these excesses, is sought for in the splendour of 

 its decorations, and the superiority to which the ornamental arts 

 of life may there be expected to attain. The art of architec- 

 ture especially, the only one of the arts which requires great 

 wealth for its successful prosecution, may there be expected to 

 rear its head in proud pre-eminence ; but the enlightened tra- 

 veller, who comes to London with this very justifiable prepos- 

 session, will find himself miserably disappointed. Till within 

 the last few years, that most splendid and impressive of all the 

 arts has been almost wholly neglected, and the extension and 

 improvement of the capital was left in the hands of sordid 

 ignorance and barbarous caprice. 



