1G8 TUE BRITISH ISLES. 



case of a town standing at the head of a wide estuary, open to the fleets of an 

 enemy. It proved to bo so, at all events, when the Dutch under De Euytcr 

 were forced to retire baffled, after having produced a great panic, but done little 

 harm. 



Even looked at merely with reference to the other parts of the island, London 

 enjoys a natural pre-eminence, which has become more conspicuous from century to 

 century in proportion as the means of inland communication have expanded. The 

 position of London relatively to the sea-coast and the continent of Europe 

 substantially enhances the sources of its prosperity. The configuration of the 

 estuary of the Thames is most happily adapted to the purposes of commerce. 

 AVidor than the estuary of the Ilumbcr ; deeper, more secure, and less encumbered 

 with sand-banks tlian the bay of the Wash, the huge cavity filled by the mari- 

 time Thames is admirably fitted as a harbour of refuge for the vessels which 

 crowd the neighbouring seas. Moreover, this outer roadstead of London lies 

 near the south-eastern corner of England — that is to say, close to the strait which 

 joins the North Sea to the English Channel — and London in consequence has 

 become the great mart of the two opposing streams' of commerce which pass 

 through this strait. Just as the two tidal currents, the one coming straight from the 

 Atlantic, the other wheeling round the northern extremity of the British Islands, 

 meet in this locality and produce a tide of double the ordinary height, so does the 

 maritime traffic of the Channel mingle with that of Northern Europe in the 

 port of London. Without this common centre of exchange neither would have 

 attained its present importance. 



The position of London is equally favourable in relation to the more remote 

 parts of Europe and the other continents. As long as England was only feebly 

 peopled by four or five million inhabitants, whose energies were almost perpetually 

 being wasted in civil wars, London was unable to profit from the advantages 

 which it possessed as an international emporium. But no sooner had England made 

 up her mind to share in the wealth resulting from maritime enterprise than the 

 geographical superiority of the Thames as a port at once revealed itself. London 

 lies very nearly in the centre of the maritime regions of Europe, half-way between 

 the Strait of Gibraltar and the North Cape of Scandinavia, whilst at the same 

 time it occupies the centre of gravity of the great continental land masses. It is 

 the natural point of departure for vessels trading either with the two Americas or 

 the extreme East and the world of the Pacific. The great lines of navigation 

 converge upon it from every quarter of the globe. The Mayor of London who 

 ironically asked the King, who had threatened to remove the seat of his government, 

 whether the citizens would be permitted to keep the Thames, had an inkling of 

 the advantages London possessed as an international port long before they had 

 fully revealed themselves. 



London was already a town of some importance during the dominion of the 

 Romans, for Tacitus refers to it as being famous for its commerce and the resort of 

 numerous strangers. During the Middle Ages London grew but slowly, and 

 its progress was repeatedly arrested by wars, commercial crises, and epidemics. Up 



