CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Under the mild sky of Asia, Africa, Greece, and ! 

 Italy, cities were built first, and in the greatest 

 number. The Phoenicians and Egyptians par- 

 ticularly distinguished themselves by the erection 

 of cities, which soon attained a high degree of 

 wealth, and consequently of civilisation. The 

 Egyptians considered their city Diospolis (Thebes) 

 older than any of the Greek cities; and Pliny 

 says that Cecropia (erected in Attica by Cecrops 

 1 jS2 B.C. and afterwards called Athens) was the 

 oldest city of Greece. Several confederations of 

 cities existed in the ancient world ; for instance, 

 the Phoenician, consisting of the cities of Tyre, 

 Sidon, &c. ; and the Achaean League, formed by 

 the most important cities of Greece, in order to 

 strengthen themselves against the power of Mace- 

 don. Under Augustus and his successors, the 

 Romans began to establish colonial cities in 

 Germany, having done the same long before in 

 Gaul, Spain, Africa, &c. In Switzerland, they 

 first erected cities about 70 A.D. which, however, 

 were mostly laid waste by the Alemanni, and 

 subsequently rebuilt under the government of the 

 Franks (496 A.D.). 



The Germans, accustomed to a wild, rambling 

 life, did not shew any disposition to live in cities, 

 until Charlemagne laboured to collect them to- 

 gether in settled abodes, from his desire to civilise 

 them. Henry I. distinguished himself particularly 

 in this way, and on this account has been called 

 by some Henry the City-builder. He gave the 

 cities great privileges, in order to induce his sub- 

 jects to live in them, and thus laid the foundation 

 of that power which at a future period contributed 

 most to break down the feudal system. In many 

 cities, imperial castles were erected to protect the 

 inhabitants; and the insupportable oppressions 

 and even cruelties exercised by the feudal lords 

 upon their peasants, or by the wandering knights 

 and robbers, drove many people into the cities. 

 The attacks of the neighbouring lords gave firm- 

 ness to their union, and compelled them to culti- 

 vate their resources. Commerce, and the various 

 arts and trades, were soon cultivated within their 

 walls, and their wealth and respectability in- 

 creased. 



One of the most important remnants of the 

 great fabric of ancient civilisation was the cities 

 of Italy. What the world would have become 

 without them is not to be calculated. In spite of 

 their bloody contests with each other, and the 

 vices to which these gave rise, they must be con- 

 sidered as having lighted the torch of modern 

 civilisation. It was not the monarchies, it was 

 not the courts of the great princes, it was the 

 cities of Northern Italy which opened the way 

 for the progress of improvement; and the petty 

 princes of Italy caught from them the spirit which 

 prompted their efforts to promote it. Under the 

 reign of Conrad III. (1138-52), the cities of 

 Lombardy, and particularly Milan, which stood at 

 their head, had acquired a high degree of wealth 

 and power, and had formed themselves into a 

 confederation. The struggles between the empe- 

 rors and these cities form one of the most im- 

 portant portions of the history of the German 

 Empire and of Italy. Frederick I. in vain 

 demolished the powerful city of Milan. It was 

 soon rebuilt; and the cities of Lombardy, in 

 alliance with the pope, obliged the emperor to 

 conclude with them a very disadvantageous peace 



at Constance. Two other confederations of cities, 

 highly important, were formed during the inter- 

 regnum of the German Empire, between 1256 and 

 1272. One of them was the powerful league of 

 the Hanse towns; the other, the confederacy of 

 the High-German and Rhenish cities from the 

 foot of the Alps to the mouth of the Maine, estab- 

 lished, by Walpode of Mentz, in 1255. A similar 

 confederacy, and a very important one, was that 

 of the Swabian cities, instituted in 1488, to repel 

 the outrages of the feudal lords and knights. 

 By degrees, great cities arose in the different 

 countries ; and wealth, industry, knowledge, and 

 equal laws spread from them through Europe. 



Much has been said and written on the immor- 

 ality of large towns and cities, and the fact cannot 

 be denied ; but immorality is not confined to them. 

 The petty vices of small places, though less glaring, 

 are perhaps equally injurious, making up in con- 

 stant repetition for their comparatively less degree 

 of noxiousness. It is much more difficult, more- 

 over, to preserve one of the most important 

 possessions independence of character in a 

 small place than in a large one. The cry against 

 the immorality of large cities should not make us 

 forget the many great and admirable things which 

 mankind have been enabled to perform by means 

 of the collected strength of talents and resources 

 combined in large cities, and their influence in 

 forming the character of great men, who could 

 not have acquired elsewhere their variety of 

 accomplishments, and the well-proportioned culti- 

 vation of their various faculties. But though such 

 considerations may be advanced to palliate, if not 

 to controvert the charge of immorality against 

 great cities, it is impossible to deny their ex- 

 ceeding unhealthiness. In the supplement to 

 the monthly and quarterly returns for 1872, the 

 Registrar-general says (p. 9) : ' The several town 

 and rural districts of Scotland shewed the usual 

 striking differences in their mortality during the 

 year just closed. Thus, for every 10,000 persons 

 in each of the five new groups of districts into 

 which Scotland is divided, there occurred 276 

 deaths in the principal towns, 251 deaths in the 

 large towns, 215 in the small towns, 172 deaths in 

 the mainland rural districts, but only 157 deaths 

 in the insular rural districts. These facts might be 

 otherwise expressed by saying, that there occurred 

 one death out of every 36 persons in the principal 

 towns, one death in every 40 persons in the large 

 towns, one death in every 46 persons in the small 

 towns, one death in every 58 persons in the 

 mainland rural districts, but only one death in 

 every 64 persons in the insular rural districts.' It 

 is true that the birth-rate compensates the death- 

 rate, the result being the production of a more and 

 more numerous population, which goes on con- 

 tinually degenerating in physical if not also in 

 moral and intellectual qualities. Yet, notwith- 

 standing these deplorable facts, which are con- 

 tinually published on the highest authority, the 

 country populations continue to pour into the 

 towns both in this and, though in a minor degree, 

 in other countries. The only remedy seems to 

 consist in attempting, as far as possible, to 

 counteract the now established law, that the death- 

 rate rises with the density of the population, by 

 spreading the cities over the country. It is a 

 remedy which admits of extensive application, 

 and which, there seems reason to hope, is now 



