686 Hints for Breathing Places 



" A notable project is suggested in the Journal des Debats, in a letter 

 from a Frankfort corresponrlent. This is nothing less than the formation 

 of a canal to unite the Danube and the Rhine, and thus to secure the means 

 of an uninterrupted navigation from the Tower of London to the Golden 

 Horn at Constantinople, or the most distant part of the Euxine and Levant. 

 Thus Europe might be traversed from its western to its eastern extremity 

 by steam-boats ; and travellers, without changing their conveyance, might 

 start from the Thames to visit the ruins of Troy, or the pyramids of Egypt." 



This project was talked of at Munich when we were there about this 

 time twelvemonth, and the engineer Bader was of opinion, that a suspen- 

 sion railway was greatly to be preferred, in that and in every country liable 

 to much frost and snow. We have no doubt that the time will come when 

 a railway will be laid down between Paris and Pekin, and steam carriages 

 employed on it. The tract of country by Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, and 

 Astrachan, we understand, is almost level; and if the governments of Eu- 

 rope were to become shareholders in such a railwaj', there can be little 

 doubt it would pay. In contemplating the introduction of railways and 

 steam carriages in Russia, North America, and Australia, it seems to reduce 

 these immense countries to the size of Britain, and viewing their extension 

 to Asia and A'Vica, the travelling capacity of the whole world is brought 

 within that ot Europe. The editor of the Scotsman truly says that whole 

 volumes might be written on the changes which this improvement is cal- 

 culated to effect, that the French revolution sinks into nothing in compa- 

 rison with it, and that the onl}' single impulse to civilisation that has ever 

 surpassed it is the art of printing. 



" The experiments at Liverpool have established principles which will 

 give a greater impulse to civilisation than it has ever received from any 

 single cause, since the press first opened the gates of knowledge to the hu- 

 man species at large. Even steam navigation gives but a faint idea of 

 the wondrous powers which this new agent has put into our hands. It 

 is no exaggeration to say, that the introduction of steam carriages on rail- 

 ways places us on the verge of a new era — of a social revolution of which 

 imagination cannot picture the ultimate effects." 



There are many, no doubt, who think that we are far too sanguine in our 

 ideas as to the practicability of establishing a system of high and equal na- 

 tional education (p. 692.) ; perhaps we may be so, but before our scheme be 

 pronounced to be utterly impracticable, let the history of the progress of 

 gas and of steam be deliberately considered. — Co7id. 



Art. VIII. Hints for Breathing Places for the Metropolis, and for 

 Country Toivns ajid Villages, on fixed Principles. 



A LATE attempt in parliament to enclose Hampstead Heath has called 

 our attention to the rapid extension of buildings on every side of London, 

 and to the duty, as we think, of government to devise some plan by which 

 the metropolis may be enlarged so as to cover any space whatever with 

 perfect safety to the inhabitants, in respect to the supply of provisions, 

 water, and fresh air, and to the removal of filth of every description, the 

 maintenance of general cleanliness, and the despatch of business. Our plan 

 is very simple ; that of surrounding London, as it already exists, with a zone 

 of open country, at the distance of say one mile, or one mile and a half, 

 from what maybe considered the centre, say from St. Paul's, (^^r. 171.) 

 This zone of country may be half a mile broad, and may contain, as the 

 figure shows, part of Hyde Park, the Regent's Park, Islington, Bethnal 

 Green, the Commercial Docks, Camberwell, Lambeth, and Pimlico ; and it 

 may be succeeded by a zone of town one mile broad, containing Kensington, 



