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3ST6VrtM5, 1853] T HE LEAD E R. 1067
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ADMINISTRATION OF LONDON IMPROVEMENTS. L...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The War Of Wig An. " The Strikes," As Th...
hold a generous acknowledgment from those whom they call in to " save society . " For our own part we do not highlyvalue a standing army . It is an expensive and a dangerous mode of concentrating the manly strength , of a country . In the absence of a standing army , a national force , such as that of a militia , is the true reliance for defending the State , both against the external invader and the internal traitor . It would be a , wild idea to attempt the invasion of the United States , whose whole manhood forma its standing army ; and experience has proved that disaffection is powerless to attempt any subversive movement in the Union , which is its own guardian of
its own peace . The militia of the United estates has always distinguished itself by its fidelity , not less than its gajflantrVj in the preservation of national order . The msurrectionarv movement during the native American riots , the anti-English Macready riots in New York , the revolution in New Jersey , the practical attempt at separation in North Carolina , were suppressed , not by a standing army , but by a national force . The republic has its own views , and highly national they are ; but it is quite prepared to maintain its own authority , its own self-possession , against the partial impulse of its own inconsiderate citizens . There is no essential difference
between English people and American people ; there is no reason to suppose that the English people , brought to a sense of discipline—as all trained bodies are—would be less faithful to order than the American militia . But the shop-keeping class , which in some districts has obtained too great a preponderance in local administration , is not competent to master any one of the alternative methods of governing a state . It will neither cultivate harmony between man and man by direct face to face conference ; nbr will it train the body of the people to discipline and self-defence ; nor will it even thank , or pay without grudge , that standing army upon whom it depends for a rescue against the disorders Which itself provokes .
3st6vrtm5, 1853] T He Lead E R. 1067
3 ST 6 VrtM 5 , 1853 ] T HE LEAD E R . 1067
Administration Of London Improvements. L...
ADMINISTRATION OF LONDON IMPROVEMENTS . London is inundated just now with incentives to material improvements , with promises and plans out of number ; and yet the universal remark is , that there is neither person , nor power , nor plan , to reduce these improvements to a consistent whole , or even to carry out those of which the necessity , and the design , are already before the superior authorities . This is a wide assertion ; but it can be made good in every particular , and there does appear some possibility that practical conception of the actual state of the case is
leading to a radical cure , and to such a material improvement of this metropolis as few hare hitherto contemplated . In ail processes of improvement there is a work of demolition as well as that of construction . In London , the work of demolition is not onl necessary beyond the usual degree , but it is also easy , nay , in some respects , selfacting . We have so great , , a variety of things to be done , that it would , be hopeless to compose ftn entire list . Wo have , for example , overcrowde d grave-yards , —drains constructed in all norts
of fashions at different periods , —buildings without any drains at all , —streets which arc too narrow for the traffic that now passes through them , —wholo districts built upon a plan devised about fifty- years ago , for constructing houses y cheaply , to stand a limited number of years , •—more than one groat bridge over the river bocoming unsafe from the spontaneous tendoney ^ ' Jail down , —a river which might bo the Jflnesl in tno world , but which is crowded with the ugliest ; buildings or ruins that any metropolis could exhibit , ' —the water converted to the stream of a
groat common sower , —wo have some millions of . nres , dail y disgorging a smoke which covers our public buildings with a coat of black , —wo have Publio buildings , Homo of thorn constructed for their purpose , and with an eye to architectural oitect , ofcWs consisting of temporary buildings Permanently occupied , in obscure streets and out-° » -the-way places of " no thoroughfare , " the whole- public' Horvico being scattered ^ about the wholo mofrrqpolis , —we have works of art which jl'uHtrato tlio incompotoncy of the nation either to couHtriict a publio building , or to give asuitablo abode for the works of foroign masters , or even to uuprovo tho natural capabilities of that which Wo booHt aa tho greatest metropolis in tho world . A direct remedy for these several eviln lies in
naily raised by a tax on coal for the benefit of widows and orphans in the city , and expended on outlying " approaches" so far off as Oxford-street ; we have a Board of Public Works , with a Cabinet Minister at its head , to receive and sanction plans that must be referred in part to Parliament , in part to the Commissioners of Sewers , in part to the City of London , and in part to somebodv whom it would be difficult to discover in this
many different hands . We liave a Home Secretary to close the grave-yards ; a Board of Health to stir up crowded and infected neighbourhoods ; a Commission of Sewers to exercise imperfect powers for constructing drains " looming ni the future j" another Commission of Sewers to make suggestions to the Common Council for similar purposes ; a Corporation of the City , with a power to make improvements , from funds
origicrowd of separate authorities . In neither of the preceding lists have we exhausted each subject * nor would it be possible to present anything like a correct account of the plans already under consideration , if not accepted for the improvement of the metropolis . There are some already going forward with real amendments upon the old state of things . There is Victoria-street , in a state of chronic demolition ; the ancient refuse of Westminster in that particular line swept away , but the promised
magnificent street , with improved buildings on the Scotch plan , aseparate house Upon every floor , as yet existing only in the imagination . We have the Commissioners of Sewers announcing a great project for intercepting the drainage on the North and the South of the river , by three drains , one on the North side , and two on the South , at alow and a high level ; we have the City Commission of Sewers taking the lead in recommending to the Court of Common Council a cemetery o the most improved plan . We have all but commenced an experimental underground railway , probably to become a circular line around
London ; we have a new market for cattle in rapid progress of construction , at Copenhagen-fields ; there is one scheme for the improvement of the Thames by a new embankment , with a new frontage for business on both sides from Richmond or Battersea , to London bridge , on the North side , and on the North side a railroad . There is also lyin ^ somewhere , perdu , a plan for the redistribution of public offices for the convenience of the service and the improvement of the metropolis . These , again , are a few specimens of the improvements designed and more or less accepted or commenced .
Some of these plans will probably succeed ; others will fail ; but it is certain that the gross amount of success would be much greater if it extended beyond these designs—if they could all be reduced to a whole , and be made to work together . Let us take a single example of the advantage to be derived from unity of design and concentration if not unity of authority . A discussion is proceeding , with some promise , on the subject of re-organizing the Civil Service . We are aware it has been under consideration of
statesmen in office with a view to improvements . We have no knowledge as to tho practical extent to which this consideration has gone , or to tho existence of any settled plan for carrying out the proposed reforms . But the idea has taken root , and it is mooted with so much interest and ability , that it is likely before many years to attain some tangible results . One suggestion is , that the whole of the service should be consolidated into one ; somewhat in the way that tho army is at present . Every clerk in now allotted to a particular department , or even lo a section of
a department , in which his career nniHt commence and terminate , with a prospect of promotion only within a few rooms . Amongst many oilier inconveniences there is the limitation of promotion , the vory partial , knowledge w'hich falls within tho training of any individual clerk ; with tho necessity , therefore , of repeating many processes many times over ; also a eortain fixity in the distribution of tho individuals , which deprives the superior
authorities of tho power of pinking and choosing their men according to capacity . Tho varied oxporienco , tho niovcaMoness , the wido range of promotion offered by the organization of the army , are totally wanting in the Civil Service . To r < mder the inconveniences ns great as possible , tho service is distributed about several buildings in London — even the same department being divided . Finance , for example , finds a fragmentary abode in every quarter—tho Oustoma' m one
part , the Inland Revenue in another , the Exchequer in a third , the Treasury in a fourth , the Pay Office in a fifth , the Audit Office in a sixth ,, the actual paying department , the Bank of England , in a seventh . The notion respecting improved buildings is , to continue a reform already commenced , by concentratin g the departments more to themselves , and lod ging them in suitable offices . This is in part effected by the better gathering together of the Inland Revenue Office in Somerset House . There is another sufrs-estion
—that a magnificent suite of public buildings should be constructed on the side of Whitehall now occupied by the Horse Guards , the Admiralty , the Pay Office , and others . Some of the buildings in that quarter have recently been improved , but there would be advantage , as there would be ground , for laying out a much more comprehensive range than any existing in that quarter . The new offices might be built behind those already standing , and either incorporated with the best of them or presenting an entirely
new range of buildings . The idea is , to construct them with a face forming an are of a very largo circle from Great Greorge-street nearly to Charingcross , with two wings projecting backwards on the line with Great George-street , and a corresponding wing about Spring-gardens . Here the major part of the public offices connected with the Supreme Government might be collected ; an arrangement , coupled with an improved organization of the service , which would get an amount of work out of the same staff of public servants
far exceeding what is now practicable . While recommended on these grounds , the improvement would also give , without cost , a magnificent range of buildings added to the ornaments of the metropolis . If we had a Ministry of Public Works , with power , staff , and means sufficient for its objects , the public might save itself endless expense and trouble , and a fine guiding point would be offered for the general improvement of the metropolis . But even much humbler works remain without the means or the authority . The plan for
intercepting the drainage of the Thames , just promulgated by the Commissioners of Sewers , would , in the language of Mr . Itobert Stephenson , " scarcely be felt , if not followed up by similar designs of much greater magnitude , both on the North and South sides of the Thames . " These partial plans , however , would appear to involve the expenditure of nearly a million of money ; whereas the Commissioners have only authority to raise about 200 , 000 ^ . a year ; a sum insufficient by about 60 , 000 / . for the annual expenses in current works
of a much more ordinary kind . Again , while the Home Secretary is shutting up grave yardsj and parishes are forced to find burial grounds be-Jrond the bounds of the metropolis , the City alone ias sufficient power and means to provide a cemetery for a large section of the metropolis in one spot , and on one adequate design . And yet again , the City , which has so many improvements in hand , and which has performed improvements for Finaburv or Marylebone , is obliged to filch the money for . tho purpose out of the void cellar of the poor as well aa the rich—of the rustic in
Hertfordshire aa well as the real citizen . This part of the great scheme of improvements rests upon a fraudulent species of coal tax , levied in a manner which renders its continuance a bare possibility , if go much ; another part rests upon tho authority of the Commissioners of Sewers , ludicrous for lacking both powers and means ; and others , again , repose in trading companies like tho railway companion , bound to no allegiance , but only by some Act of Parliament . Jf we blame the metropolis lor lacking the taste to arrange its own material dwelling place according to its own dignity and importance , tho metropolis might reply that it lias indeed no collective
existence . And here wo dome to the greatest improvement of nil , if it should bo carried out ;—tho promised incorporation of the whole metropolis , comprising a population of more than two millions , tho wealthiest population in the world , with moii of the highest attainments and experience , resident in many quarters of it , and having at command a larger amount of accomplished ami thoroughly informed pronwiiojml ixnd scientific men than any other < ri ( y save Paris . Tho metropolis only wants n collective existence and an administrative power ! o <; nll forth the moans for placing itself in or < W , and becoming in aspee !; , what it is in common !© and polities , a groat civic hnpori ; Mn > in imporio .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1853, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05111853/page/11/
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