FLOEWR, FRUIT, AND VEGETABLE MARKETS. 541 



invariably heaped up over loads of dung. What a contrast 

 between the central market in Paris and this famous spot ! 



Can we not secure a good wide market accessible to river, 

 rail, and streets somewhere on the new Embankment, and 

 leave Covent Garden to some one branch of the trade? 

 Can we do nothing to remedy a state of things which is not 

 only discreditable to our system of managing such matters, 

 but must have a positively bad effect on the supplies of 

 almost every family that invests in a Cauliflower? The 

 new cattle market at Islington and the new meat market 

 in the City are things to be proud of — they, like the 

 Thames Embankment, are really worthy of London and 

 the Victorian age ; but as yet we do not seem to have 

 moved a step towards the establishment of a fruit, vege- 

 table, and flower market. Were this done with as broad 

 and excellent an aim as has been shown in the two markets 

 just named, we should have a feature added to London 

 which from its nature would assuredly be of the greatest 

 utility and benefit to the public at large. We should also 

 have a grand exhibition of all that is fresh and lovely, 

 indicative of the fecundity and beauty of nature and the 

 industry of man throughout the year, and presenting new 

 objects of interest every day. 



In the Paris market, in addition to every provision for 

 wholesale trade, there are streets of stalls containing every- 

 thing the purchaser requires, classified so that the neat and 

 well-to-do market women who vend the same sorts of produce 

 are brought into close proximity and competition with one 

 another. The advantages gained by the public are obvious — 

 the thrifty housewife has not only the opportunity of pur- 

 chasing everything good and at a moderate price ; she also has 

 an immense variety to choose from, and can compare prices. 

 But it is needless to enumerate all the blessings that a good 

 retail and wholesale market confers upon its neighbourhood. 

 One of them, however, we do not often think of, and might 

 omit were it not that Mr. Sala admiringly alluded to it 

 recently in London. Above all advantages, said he, is that 

 so plainly written in large letters — no credit ! In those 

 little streets of neatly arranged stalls in all the Paris markets 



