beyond a few main trunk lines, upon a day in
May, the total number of persons entering the
City between eight o'clock in the morning and
five o'clock in the evening was three hundred
and fifteen thousand. Twelve years afterwards,
in the same month, the total number had risen
to seven hundred and six thousand—that is to
say, a number equal to more than one-fifth of
the whole population of the metropolis, and
three times the whole population of Liverpool.
These people arrived by forty-eight entrances, of
which three were bridges and thirty-three
carriage-ways with footways. Of the whole
number, one hundred and seventy-one thousand
were conveyed in wheeled conveyances of some
kind, and the rest made their way into town on
foot.

That many persons out of these multitudes
are maimed and killed is not amazing, when we
find that there crossed at the junction of Cornhill,
Leadenhall, and Gracechurch-street more
than twenty-eight thousand persons; at the
Ludgate-hill and Farringdon-street junction,
more than thirty-seven thousand; at King
William-street and Cannon-street central junction,
more than forty-two thousand; and opposite
the Mansion House, more than fifty-six
thousand.

On the footpath, although incommoded,
fatigued, and delayed, except at crossings, limb
and life are in no danger. As to the wheeled
traffic, supposing we commence our journey at
the west, it flows with tolerable regularity by
two great streams along the Strand and
Holborn. The Strand stream meets its first dead
lock at Temple Bar, and, between that hideous
and perfectly useless obstruction and St. Mary-
le-Strand, creeps painfully along Fleet-street,
with many pauses and bumps, after receiving
and giving auxiliary currents at Chancery-lane,
until it reaches the quadruple crossing of
Farringdon-street and Blackfriars, with its railway
stations and complement of railway cabs—
then pushes up Ludgate-hill and through St.
Paul's-churchyard—and, losing a very slight
stream at Cannon-street, arrives at the mouth
of Cheapside, to be swollen by the branch stream
which, after leaving wide Holborn, has been
squeezed through Newgate-street. From Cheapside,
the straits of the Poultry have to be passed
into what is called Mansion House-street, which
ought to be a square or circus. Thence, the
first outlet is when the Thames has to be crossed,
though there is a sure jam on London-bridge,
and some frightful slippery work in King
William-street; but if it be necessary to pass the
Bank and proceed toward the north-east, then
there are the straits of Threadneedle-street,
where two omnibuses, by help of sidings, can
just manage to pass each other. To continue
eastward, the dangers of the crossing between
Gracechurch-street and Bishopsgate have to be
encountered.

It was once thought that railways, by taking
stage-coaches off the road and bringing stations
to which passengers might walk instead of
ride, would diminish the demand for cabs and
carriages, and by so much clear the streets; but,
up to the present time, the railroads seem to
have created two for every one set of wheels
they were supposed to put down. Waggons,
carts, and vans, to deliver the goods ordered by
penny-post and brought by locomotion, are more
numerous than ever. Suburban residence has
created within this generation a contingent of
light carts which encumber the streets at all
hours—butchers, bakers, grocers, fishmongers,
wine-merchants, and, not least, the donkey-drawn
costermonger-truck. The effect may be traced
on London-bridge, which, relieved of traffic by
various changes, still draws increasing numbers
across this great gate between Middlesex and
Essex and Surrey and Kent.

In 1850 the wheeled traffic over London-
bridge, in twelve hours of the day, was thirteen
thousand. In 1860 the Brighton Railway
relieved this traffic by opening a West-end station
at Pimlico. In 1864 the South-Eastern opened
a station at Charing-cross. In the same year,
New Southwark-street opened by Blackfriars-
road a short clear route from Westminster, which
was used by five thousand seven hundred
vehicles. Late in the same year Southwark-
bridge was opened free, and its wheeled traffic
rose from one thousand to four thousand seven
hundred. In the face of these successive
tappings of the main stream, the wheeled traffic of
London-bridge increased to sixteen thousand
in 1860, and to nineteen thousand four hundred
in 1865. Thus it is plain that the business of the
two sides of the City Thames grows faster than
the means for diverting traffic.

Under these circumstances, with the near
prospect of the period when it will be half a
day's journey to get a cart or cab through the
City, it is not unreasonable to inquire what has
been done, what is doing, and what must be
done, in the City. For it is evident that the City
holds the key of the situation.

Many years ago, the improvement of Cannon-
street was carried out as a relief to Cheapside;
but Cannon-street has, at its western end, the
narrow straits of St. Paul's Cathedral; but
upon its eastern end, London-bridge and the
alleys—they can scarcely be called streets—
that lead to the Tower Hamlets, the half million
sterling the improvement cost has not produced
much effect on a traffic which is constantly
increasing. Very slowly and bit by bit, as might
be expected where land is valued by the inch—
parts of Newgate-street have been widened
almost to fifty feet; but already the traffic
demands a width of seventy feet, on ordinary
days. On market-days it is absolutely closed by
Common Council order. The new street from
Southwark, made by the Metropolitan Board
to relieve the Strand and the line to London-
bridge of the Lambeth and Westminster traffic,
has been assisted, as far as cab-passengers are
concerned, by the stations at Pimlico, Charing-
cross, and Ludgate, which receive passengers
who formerly were all compelled to pass to the
south side of London-bridge. The new stations
at Farringdon-street, Finsbury-pavement, and