TORONTO: AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



The plan of the future capital was drawn in that 

 rectangular form which the military engineers of the 

 Romans impressed on the conquered provinces of 

 Europe, and of which the city of Chester is an inter- 

 esting survival. However suitable for the camp of 

 a Roman legion, or for the compact walled cities 

 which grew out of such camps, this rectangular mode 

 of laying out streets has proved far from practical 

 for the widely extended cities on the American con- 

 tinent, where land is plenty and wars are rare. Pro- 

 fessor Shaler had a theory that the Roman empire 

 fell because of the economic waste due to the vast 

 cost of the Roman roads. It is highly probable that 

 the yearly loss due to the Roman system of laying out 

 cities would build any road in the Roman empire. 

 Few cities show this fault in so marked a degree as 

 Toronto. In its growth from the tiny rectangle 

 enclosed by George, Duke, Berkeley and Palace (now 

 Front) Streets, about an eighth of a square mile in 

 extent, to its present area of over thirty^two square 

 miles, there has been hardly any variation in the 

 rigid angularity of its outlines. Neither hill nor 

 dale, creek nor river, bluff nor ravine has been 

 allowed to deflect the monotonous straight lines of 

 its streets. This is the more surprising since the few 

 exceptions which help to prove the rule are so strik- 

 ing. The fine vista effects of the City Hall at the 

 head of Bay Street, Osgoode Hall at the head of 

 York, and the Parliament Buildings facing the 

 Queen's Avenue were as barren of influence on the 

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