for the Metropolis. 689 



carriers, letter carriers, &c., might be established for ready and economical 

 intercommunication. Every man might thus ride from any one point in 

 the metropolis to any other point without loss of time, and at very little 

 expense. For instance, A living in the central circle, wishes to call on B in 

 the second zone of town; then, by the radiating coach which passes nearest 

 B 's house, he will be set down where the radiating street crosses the con- 

 centric street in which B lives; and when one of the concentric street 

 coaches belonging to B 's street passes, A will step into it and be set down 

 at B 's door. Supposing steam carriages running on railroads to be estab- 

 lished in every street, or even in all the main streets, this might be done 

 with inconceivable rapidity. 



It is evident that every description of goods and provisions being brought 

 in by the radiating market roads, might be distributed by the concentric 

 market-roads, on public conveyances, and by the ordinary concentric roads 

 on private conveyances, with as great ease as in the case of personal inter- 

 course. Letters and books, also, could be so distributed with great facility 

 and rapidity. Under every street we would have a sewer sufficiently large, 

 and so contrived as to serve at the same time as a subway for the mains of 

 water and gas, and we would keep it in view that hot water, hot oil, steam, 

 or hot air, may in time be circulated by public companies for heating 

 houses ; and gas supplied not only for the purposes of lighting, but for those 

 of cookery, and some for manufactures The matters conveyed by the 

 sewer we would not allow to be all wasted in a river ; but here and there, 

 in what we would call sewer works, to be placed in the country zones, we 

 would strain the water by means of machinery, so as to gain from it almost 

 every particle of manure held in mixture. This manure being dry from 

 compression might be conveyed to any distance without smell or other 

 inconvenience. The water, freed from its grosser impurities, might be 

 raised to towers, and, by the pressure of the atmosphere, forced through 

 pipes to tracts of country beyond the outer zone, for the purposes of 

 irrigation. 



In the country zones we should permit individuals, on proper conditions 

 of rent and regulations, to establish all manner of rural coffee-houses, and 

 every description of harmless amusement ; and the space not occupied by 

 these establishments, and by the public buildings before mentioned, we 

 would lay out as park and pleasure-ground scenery, and introduce in it all 

 the plants, trees, and shrubs which would grow in the open air, with innu- 

 merable seats, covered and uncovered, in the sun and in the shade. We 

 would also introduce pieces of water, under certain circumstances (especially 

 if there were no danger of it producing malaria), rocks, quarries, stones, wild 

 places in imitation of heaths and caverns, grottoes, dells, dingles, ravines, 

 hills, valleys, and other natural-looking scenes, with walks and roads, 

 straight and winding, shady and open; and, to complete the whole, there 

 should be certain bands of music to perambulate the zones, so as at certain 

 hours to be at certain places every day in the year. 



Though we have not the slightest idea that this beau ideal of a capital 

 for an Australian or a European union will ever be carried into execu- 

 tion ; and though we would rather see, in every country, innumerable 

 small towns and villages, than a few overgrown capitals; yet we think, 

 that, as there must probably always be some grand central cities in the 

 world, some useful principles for regulating the manner in which each is 

 increased may be deduced from the foregoing hints. The principle of 

 having all the public or government buildings in the centre will apply in 

 all cases, and so will that of ratliating and concentric roads. Wherever a 

 country town is likely to extend beyond a diameter of half a mile, we 

 think a zone of breathing ground should be marked out as not to be built 

 on, for the sake of the health of the poorer part of the inhabitants. In 

 cases where towns and villages stretch along rivers, in very narrow vales, 

 Vol. V. — No. 23. y y 



