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A GREAT CITY Confidered in Phyfical, Moral, and Political Views.

N all ages an opinion feems to have been prevalent, that a

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great city is a great evil, and that a capital may be too great for the state, as a head may be for the body. Confidering however the very shallow reafons that have been given for this opinion, it should seem to be but flightly founded. There are several my conibbs mabba vas samigereitent of Paris, and prohibiting new ordinances limiting Telge, fryses buildings beyond prefcribed bounds, the first of which is by pro skrb or botgobs Henry II. ann. 1549. These ordinances have been renewed from time to time, down to the 1672, in which year there is an edict of Louis XIV. to the same purpose. The reasons affigned are, “ First,

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That by enlarging the city, the air would be rendered unwhole"fome. Second, That cleaning the streets would prove a great additional labour. Third, That adding to the number of inhabitants would raise the price of provifions, of labour, and of maKurmodel adı ai nufactures. Fourth, That ground would be covered with buildings inftead of corn, which might hazard a scarcity. Fifth, That the country would be depopulated by the defire "that people have to refort to the capital. And, lastly, That the

difficulty of governing fuch numbers would be an encouragement to robbery and murder.") sd of bonneven ad vibed These reasons for confining the city of Paris within certain bounds are wonderfully fhallow. The most important of them conclude

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conclude justly against permitting an increase of inhabitants: the fecond and fourth conclude only against enlarging the city; and these, at the best, are trifling. The first reafon urged against enlarging the city, is a folid reason for enlarging it, fuppofing the numbers to be limited; for to prevent crouding is an excellent preventive of unwholefome air. Paris, with the fame number of inhabitants that were in the days of the fourth Henry, occupies thrice the space, much to the health as well as comfort of the inhabitants. Had the ordinances mentioned been made effectual, the houses in Paris must all have been built, like thofe in the old town, story above ftory, afcending to the fky like the tower of Babel, Before the great fire anno 1666, the plague was frequent in London; but by widening the streets, and enlarging the houfes, there has not fince been known in that great city, any contagious distemper that deferves the name of a plague. The third, fifth, and last reafons, conclude against permitting any addition to the number of inhabitants; but conclude nothing but conclude nothing against enlarging the town. In a word, the measure adopted in these ordinances has little or no tendency to correct the evils complained of; and infallibly would enflame the chief of them. The meafure that ought to have been adopted, is to limit the number of inhabitants, not the extent of the town, she mad[[ bagna? pro

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Queen Elisabeth of England, copying the French ordinances, iffued a proclamation anno 1602, prohibiting any new buildings within three miles of London. The preamble is in the following words: "That forefecing the great and manifold inconveniencies "and mifchiefs which daily grow, and are likely to increafe, in "the city and fuburbs of London, by confluence of people to in"habit the fame; not only by reafon that fuch multitudes can hardly be governed to ferve God, and obey her Majesty, with"out conftituting am addition of new officers, and enlarging their "authority; but alfo can hardly be provided of food, and other

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“neceffaries at a reasonable price; and finally, that as such mul❝titudes of people, many of them poor, who must live by beg"ging, or worfe means, are heaped up together, and in a fort "fmothered, with many children and fervants, in one houfe or "finall tenement; it must needs follow, if any plague or other "univerfal ficknefs come amongst them, that it would presently "fpread through the whole city and confines, and alfo into all 66 parts of the realm."

There appears no deeper penetration in this proclamation, than in the French ordinances. The fame error is obfervable in both, which is the limiting the extent of the town, instead of limiting the number of inhabitants. True it is indeed, that the regulation would have a better effect in London than in Paris. As ftone is -in plenty about Paris, houfes there may be carried to a very great height; and are actually fo carried in the old town: but there being no ftone about London, the houses formerly were built of timber, now of brick; materials too frail for a lofty edifice.

Proceeding to particulars, the first objection, which is the expence of governing a great multitude, concludes against the numbers, not against the extent of the city. At the fame time, the objection is at beft doubtful in point of fact. Tho' vices abound in a great city, requiring the strictest attention of the magistrate; yet with a well-regulated police, it is much less expensive to govern 600,000 in one city, than the fame number in ten different cities. The fecond objection, viz. the high price of provifions, strikes only against numbers, not extent. Befide, whatever might have been the cafe in the days of Elifabeth, when agriculture and internal commerce were in their infancy; there are at prefent not many towns in England, where a temperate man may live cheaper than in London. The hazard of contagious diftempers, which is the third objection, is an invincible argument against limiting the extent of a great town. It is mentioned above, that from the

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year 1666, when the streets were widened, and the houfes enlarged, London has never been once vifited by the plague. If the proclamation had taken effect, the houses must have been fo crouded upon each other, and the streets fo contracted, as to have occafioned plagues ftill more frequently than before the year 1666.

The ministry of the Queen's immediate fucceffors were not more clear-fighted than fhe and her ministers were. In the year 1624, King James iffued a proclamation against building in London upon new foundations. Charles I. iffued two proclamations to the fame purpose; one in the year 1625, and one in the year 1630.

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The progrefs of political knowledge has unfolded many bad ef fects of a great city, more weighty than any urged in these proclamations. The first I fhall mention is, that people born and bred in a great city are commonly weak and effeminate. Vegetius (a) observing, that men bred to husbandry make the best foldiers, adds what follows." Interdum tamen neceffitas exigit, et

iam urbanos ad arma compelli: qui ubi nomen dedere mili"tiæ, primum laborare, decurrere, portare pondus, et folem “pulveremque ferre, condifcant; parco victu utantur et rustico; "interdum fub divo, interdum fub papilionibus, commorentur. ແ Tunc demum ad ufum erudiantur armorum: et fi longior expeditio emergit, in angariis plurimum detinendi funt, proculque habendi a civitatis illecebris: ut eo modo, et corporibus, 66 eorum robur accedat, et animis *." The luxury of a great city.

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(a) De re militari, lib. 1. cap. 3.

*"But fometimes there is a neceffity for arming the townfpeople, and calling "them out to fervice. When this is the cafe, it ought to be the firft care, to en"ure them to labour, to march them up and down the country, to make themi carry heavy burdens, and to harden them against the weather.. Their food "fhould

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defcends from the higheft to the loweft, infecting all ranks of men ; and there is little opportunity in it for fuch exercise as renders the body vigorous and robust. This is a phyfical objection against a great city: the next regards morality. Virtue is exerted chiefly in restraint: vice, in giving freedom to defire. Moderation and felf-command form a character the most fufceptible of virtue: fuperfluity of animal fpirits, and love of pleasure, form a character the most liable to vice. Low vices, pilfering for example, or ly-, ing, draw few or no imitators; but vices that indicate a foul above restraint, fail not to produce admirers. Where a man boldly ftruggles against unlawful restraint, he is justly applauded and imitated; and the vulgar are not apt to distinguish nicely between lawful and unlawful restraint: the boldness is vifible, and they pierce no deeper. It is the unruly boy, full of animal fpirits, who at public school is admired and imitated; not the virtuous and modeft. Vices accordingly that fhow fpirit, are extremely infectious; virtue virtue very little. Hence the corruption of a great city, which increases more and more in proportion to the number of inhabitants. But it is fufficient here barely to mention that objection; because it has been much infifted on in antecedent parts of this work.

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The following bad effects are more of a political nature. great town is a profeffed enemy to the free circulation of money. The current coin is accumulated in the capital: and distant provinces muft, fink into idlenefs; for without ready money neither

fhould be coarse and fcanty, and they fhould be habituated to fleep alternately :“ in their tents, and in the open air. Then is the time to inftruct them in the ex"ercise of their arms. If the expedition is a diftant one, they fhould be chiefly "employ'd in the stations of pofts or expreffes, and removed as much as poffible. "from the dangerous allurements that abound in large cities; that thus they may “be envigorated both in mind and body."

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