It is the nature of prosperous communities, and the fashion of modern
times, to centralize too much their numbers and their powers. But the
question of distribution and proportion is almost as important in
politics as that of production itself. Money and manure are not the only
things which are the better for being spread. London and the country
would both be gainers by transplanting bodily, a hundred miles off, some
dozens of its streets--inhabitants and all. There are whole counties
which we should like to colonize with the surplus talent of the
metropolis. That surplus talent comprises scores of men, waiting on
Providence, feeding on foolish speculations, hanging on the skirts of
some frivolous circle, doing nothing there, or worse than nothing,
spoiling and wasting daily, who, planted out into a sphere of more
favourable opportunities, are capable of being a blessing to a
neighbourhood. However, it is not a case for violent measures. We do not
propose that London should be compressed into _London proper_,--within
the bills of mortality; or that its clubs should be called out on
country service. Patriots, philosophers, and diners out, rusticating by
royal proclamation, and under the _surveillance_ of the police, would
not come with a temper very suitable to our purpose. An experiment of
that sort was made under more likely circumstance, and failed;--as all
experiments must, which seek to remove the symptoms, instead of trying
to act upon the cause. It was in vain that James I. pulled down the new
houses as fast as they were built; and that Charles I. ordered home the
country gentlemen.

Although there seems something artificial, and almost monstrous, in the
actual size of London, the means which have led to this result are
altogether natural. Indeed, whatever forcing has been at any time used,