The children of the city : what can we do for them? / by James B. Russell.

  • Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The children of the city : what can we do for them? / by James B. Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    responsibility has passed with political power from the throne to the people. The difficulties and national dangers inherent in the physical circumstances of cities cannot be better expressed than tbey were in the language of kings centuries ago, but the cen- turies have passed and the difficulties and dangers remain. It rests with the sovereign people, in the first place, to gi-asp as cleai'ly, but in the next place to attempt with more success to solve the problem. The object of my humble endeavour to-night is to help you to the accomplishment of both objects. The attempt to limit the growth of Paris by prohibiting the erection of new buildings beyond certain bounds was begun in 1549, and renewed from time to time do^\^l to 1672, when Louis XIV. justified his edict by the following reasons :—(1.) That by enlai-ging the city, the air would be rendered unwhole- some. (2.) That cleaning the streets would prove a great addi- tional labour. (3.) That adding to the number of inhabitants would raise the jirice of provisions, of labour, and of manufactures. (4.) That ground would be covered with buildings instead of corn, which might hazard a scarcity. (5.) That tlie country would be depopulated by the desire tliat people have to resort to the capital. (6.) That the difficulty of governing such numbers would be an encouragement to robbery and murder. Queen Elizabeth prefaced her proclamation issued in 1GU2, ])rohibiting the erection of new buildings within three miles of London, with the following preamble :— That foreseeing the trreat and manifold inconveniences and mischiefs which daily grow, and are likely to increase, in the city and suburbs of London, by confluence of people to inhabit the same; not only by reason that such multitudes can hardly be governed, to serve God and obey Her Majesty, without constituting an addition of new officers, and enlarging their authority ; but also can Iiardly be provided of food and other necessaries at a reasonable price; and finally, that as such multitudes of people, many of them poor, who must live by begging or worse means, are heajyed up together, and in a sort smothered with many children and servants in one house or small tenement; it must needs follow, if any plague or other universal sickness come among them, that it would presently sjjread through the whole city and confines, and also into all parts of the realm.