116 



THE BOULEVAEDS. 



occupied and sometimes waste ground without tlie margins 

 of the citj, and square miles almost worse tlian waste witliin, 

 attest this. 



Of course such changes as I advocate would involve the 

 adoption of the ^^flat""" system^ which some say our people 

 have a great objection to. But that there can be no real 

 objection in this is proved by the fact that it is adopted by 

 a non- gregarious people like the Scotch_, as well as by the 

 French. In houses constructed in this way^, and with all 

 modern improvements and comforts never to be found in 

 the miserable and fragile structures now everywhere to be 

 seen^ the additional warmth and dryness which would result 

 from the thicker and better buildings necessary,, could hardly 

 fail to have a beneficial efiect on the public healthy while 

 efficient ventilation would prove a still greater aid. It is 

 by no means clear that any less thorough mode of proceed- 

 ing will prove a true remedy. Our narrow streets, the want of 

 anything like a generally recognised plan, and flimsy houses, 

 are worthy only of a period when men first herded together 

 for security, and not of the Victorian era. No sprinkling 

 about of disinfecting agents when danger becomes imminent, 

 or pulling down of a few shops that have protruded them- 

 selves and their outhangings so far into the narrow street 

 that they have become intolerable, even to those accustomed 

 to dodge through the streets of London, will touch more 

 than the surface-roots of the evil. Most of such narrow, 

 schemeless improvements as are now taking place will be 

 more than counteracted by the vast growth of what even in 

 Byron^s time was " this enormous city^s spreading spawn.'^ 



The change must be radical ! We want a plan with the 

 Thames embankment for its backbone. There is nothing to 

 prevent us having the best embellishments seen in conti- 

 nental cities, minus their trees in tubs and paltrier features. 

 But to have them it is indispensable that we first have 

 breadth and room, that the street traffic may circulate with- 

 out abrading them away. Footways and roads, wide and 

 open, are the first and greatest necessaries, and they ought 

 to be xilanted with trees, which do better in London than in 

 Paris. No fancy gardening, no expense for vases, griffins, 



