44 : - 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
gd SIS Sear 
No. 209.] 
FEBRUARY: 1, 1811. 
[1 of Vox. 31. 
” 
A® long as thofe who write are ambitious of making Converts, 8nd of giving their Opinions a Maximum of 
Influence and Celebrity, the moft exténfively Girculated Mifcellany will repay with the greate& Efteét thi 
Curiofity of thofe who read cither for Amufement or Inftruction,x— JOHNSON, 
Ea 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
‘For the Monthly Magazine. 
O- question is so common as, 
whence come. the inhabitants of 
‘all the new houses built in the suburbs of 
* London ? 
Nothing can be more rational than 
such an enquiry; at least one thousand 
houses per annum having been finished 
‘in the suburbs of London during the last 
‘forty years—yet every new’house is taken 
and occupied before it is finished, or its 
walls dry! This rate of increase being 
ten times greater than it was between 
the death of Elizabeth and the accession 
‘of the Hanoverian family, the causes 
“may be deserving of investigation, not 
“only as matter of curiasity, but with re- 
ference to their connection with the sci- 
~€nce of political economy. 
As the new houses are generally of 
respectable size, and may be -taken at 
the full. number of eight souls te a house, 
_the population -of the metropolis is as- 
certained, from the occupation of the 
new buildings, to have increased in. the 
“present age upwards of three hundred 
thousand souls. | So rapid an increase of 
‘inhabitants is not therefore to be ac- 
* counted for on ordinary principles; and it 
‘obviously involves a variety of consi- 
derations. 
It is not unusual to account for the 
occupation of the new streets, by advert- 
ing to a change of manners among the 
citizens and the trading classes. It is 
said, and with truth, that the houses of 
- trade do not satisfy the citizens of our 
days, and that, to avoid the smell and 
bustle of the shop, the dwelling-house 
must be ata distance. Doubtless, from 
this cause, many capital houses at the 
west end of London are occupied by bill- 
’ manufacturers called bankers, by bank- 
_ directors, by upstart monopolists, and 
successful speculators in various branches 
of trade. These, however, are not nu- 
» merous, probably they do not exceed five 
_ hundred families ; and, as their houses of 
‘trade are generally occupied by junior 
Jloxtury Mag. No, 209. 
partners or head clerks, and the pupils 
(the fashionable city-name for shop-boys 
and apprentices) are domesticated there, 
the population of the city remains nearly 
the same, and is probably not affected 
to the number of a thousand-souls by 
the affectation and- extravagancies of 
this class of citizens. 
The sober ard more respectable city 
families have their country-houses at 
distances varying between four and ten 
miles from St. Paul’s, These are pro- 
bably ten thousand in number; but as 
their houses are not an integral part of 
the metropolis, they form, of course, no 
part of the population of the forty thoa- 
sand new houses built within forty years 
in the suburbs. Even these ten thou- 
sand families diminish but slightly the 
resident’ population of the metropolis, 
because they generally dwell in their 
- town-houses in the winter season ; and, in 
summer, these are occapied by junior 
partners, clerks, or shopmen. , 
I refer to seven causes chiefly, the ag- 
gregation of the houses anu population 
of the suburbs of the metropolis, 
1. London is not only the ancient me- 
tropolis of England and Wales, but it is 
now the new metropolis of the added 
kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland; and’ 
moreover, of our increased colonies in alf 
parts of the world. In the reign of Bli- 
zabeth, it was. the metropolis of about 
seven millions of people, but it is now the 
metropolis of an aggregation of twenty 
millions. It is not therefore to be won. 
dered, without reférring to other causes, 
that London has increased to treble its 
size since that time, and that the popue 
lation within ten miles of St, Pauls, 
should be four times greater. All the 
colonists consider Londen as theirhome; 
it is the focus of their correspondence 
and interests; their fortunes are remitted 
to its; and.here they-find pleasanter 
means of spending them than among their 
native“ wilds, whether in Scotland, 
Ireland, Yorkshire, or other districts. 
A These 
