ADVANTAGES TO LARGE CITIES. 



It is evident that any improvement in transport which, \viil 

 double its speed will double the radius of this circle ; an improve- 

 ment which will treble its speed will increase the same radius in a 

 threefold proportion. Now, as the actual area or quantity of soil 

 included within such a radius is augmented, not in the simple 

 ratio of the radius itself, but in the proportion of its square, it 

 follows that a double speed will give a fourfold area of supply, a 

 triple speed a ninefold area of supply, and so on. How great the 

 advantages therefore are, which in this case attend increased 

 speed, are abundantly apparent. 



23. So far as relates to the transport of persons, the advantages 

 of increased speed are equally remarkable. The population of a 

 great capital is condensed into a small compass, and, so to speak, 

 heaped together, by the difficulty and inconvenience of passing 

 over long distances. Hence has arisen the densely populated state 

 of great cities like London and Paris. With easy, cheap, and 

 rapid means of locomotion, this tendency, so adverse to physical 

 enjoyment and injurious to health, is proportionally neutralised. 

 Distances practically diminish in the exact ratio of the speed of 

 personal locomotion. And here the same arithmetical proportion 

 is applicable. If the speed by which persons can be transported 

 from place to place be doubled, the same population can, without 

 inconvenience, be spread over four times the area ; if the speed be 

 tripled, it may occupy nine times the area, and so on. 



Every one who is acquainted with the present habits of the 

 population of London, and with those which prevailed before 

 the establishment of railways, will perceive the practical truth of 

 this observation. It is not now unusual for persons whose place 

 of business is in the centre of the capital, to reside with their 

 families at a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles from that 

 centre. Nevertheless, they are able to arrive at their respective 

 shops, counting-houses, or offices, at an early hour of the morning, 

 and to return without inconvenience to their residence at the usual 

 time in the evening. Hence in all directions round the metropolis 

 in which railways are extended, habitations are multiplied, and a 

 considerable part of the former population of London has been 

 diffused in these quarters. The same will, of course, be applicable 

 to the country which surrounds all other great towns. It is felt 

 at Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and other capitals of 

 Europe, just in the same proportion in which they are supplied 

 with railway communication. 



This principle of diffusion, however, is not confined to the 

 towns only. It extends to an entire country when well inter- 

 sected by lines of easy, rapid, and cheap communication. 



The population, instead of being condensed into masses, is 



11 



