Cambridge as Village and City 305 



population had reached 13,000, and was approach- 

 ing the point at which town meetings become un- 

 manageable from sheer bulk. For small commu- 

 nities, Thomas Jefferson was probably right in 

 holding that the town meeting is the best form of 

 government ever devised by man. It was cer- 

 tainly the form best loved in New England down 

 to 1822, when Boston, with its population of 

 40,000, reluctantly gave it up, and adopted a re- 

 presentative government instead. The example of 

 Boston was followed in 1836 by Salem and Lowell, 

 and next in 1846 by Roxbury and Cambridge. 

 From that time forth the making of cities went on 

 more rapidly. It was the beginning of a period of 

 urban development, the end of which we cannot 

 as yet even dimly foresee. This unprecedented 

 growth of cities is sometimes spoken of as pecul- 

 iarly American, but it is indeed not less remark- 

 able in Europe, and it extends over the world so 

 far as the influence of railroad and telegraph ex- 

 tends. The influence of these agencies of commu- 

 nication serves to diffuse over wide areas the effects 

 wrought by machinery at different centres of pro- 

 duction. With increased demand for human en- 

 ergy, the earth's power of sustaining human life 

 has vastly increased, and there is a strong tendency 

 to congregate about centres of production and ex- 



