pelis, referring to the Yearly Bill of Mortality, by which it appears that nearly half the children that were born and bred in London at that period died under two years of age. "Some," according to the editor, "have attributed this amazing destruction to luxury and spirituous liquors: these," he argues, "are, no doubt, powerful assistants: but the constant and unremitting poison is communicated by the foul air, which, as the town still grows larger, has made regular and steady advances in its fatal influence." It may be doubted, however, whether food and irregularity of living are not the prime workers, even in consequences that result from bad air. The air may exasperate the cause of death, but we doubt whether it gives rise to it. We do not speak of an air decidedly pestilential, as the Mal-aria on the coasts of Italy, but of an equivocal or adulterated atmosphere. Children, like grown persons, are, in nine hundred and ninety-nine instances out of a thousand, rendered more liable to disease and mortality by the single circumstance of eating too much, than by any one, or any twenty others in the annals of Death; and the younger they are, the more likely are they to suffer from ignorant treatment. The universal prejudice in favour of eating much, and of pampering and stuffing children into that sort of appearance which is commonly called fine, but which is nothing better than a disposition to fever (as apothecaries soon make all parties feel to their cost) is a remarkable instance of the passions of mankind substituting themselves for a good principle, and agreeing to puff and swagger down objection. As more may be charged in this respect upon the smoke of the metropolis, than is due to it, so it may be accused over much of contributing to the rust and ruin of our buildings and furniture. Our moist climate is a great underminer in that matter. Again, with regard to colds and consumptions, whatsoever tends to make us too hot, may increase the peril; but ill-management ought to bear its part of the blame; for we believe it is now well understood, that more catarrhs are caught by sudden changes from cold to heat, than from any other cause; and those too from indulgence in the brightest fires, rather than such as repel us. The people in the highest parts of Europe, who are in the habit of living in a smoke that would suffocate an Englishman, are not, we believe, particularly subject to colds and consumptions. Nevertheless, nobody will dispute that it is highly desirable to put into action the causes that tend to make the metropolis more healthy, especially if smoke and disease can be diminished together. And Evelyn's plan of banishing manufactories and bringing up relays of sweet gardens, contains more in it both advantageous and feasible than might seem at first sight. The manufactories might at least be distributed, at good wholesome intervals, at a distance from the capital; and if a regular set in of Arabian wind is hardly to be expected by the faculties of a metropolis many times larger and denser than Evelyn seems to have anticipated, planting might go hand in hand with building to an extent of which our speculators have hitherto had no conception. Trees, and walks of trees, might as reasonably serve to increase the rent of houses, as the ornaments (not always in the best taste) that are now in fashion. Odoriferous plants and creepers might form as common an addition to the premises, as the balconies on which they are partially culti vated; and in order to make room for more open streets, and boulevards like those of Paris, houses might be warrantably built higher and larger, and let out in chambers like the Parisian houses and our Albany; which would also * A paragraph has just appeared in the daily papers, in which it is asserted that of the children born in the metropolis, not more than one half survive a twelvemonth. The mortality is chiefly among the "lower classes." Want of food is at some periods a cause of mortality in those quarters; but there is great abuse of the principle of sustenance even among them, and dirt and ignorance are in triumphant action. greatly increase the beauty of the West end of the town, where the buildings are far from being individually too large. Evelyn thinks the Plague connected with smoke. But this is not made out by the fact in other countries. London itself has had no plague since his time; and if our streets have widened, the metropolis has enormously increased, and the smoke with it. The two great preservatives of health in cities appear to be, wide streets to admit a free circulation of air,-and cleanliness. The great cause of their comparative unhealthiness may be traced to irregularity of living. It is this which fevers, or cuts short, the lives of grown people; and acts fatally, through the conduct and temperament of parents, upon their offspring. We conclude for the present with extracting thetermination of Evelyn's treatise on this subject, which (to use the critical style) affords a pleasant specimen of his manner. It is like bringing the reader, in the midst of his city reflections, a parcel of roses and violets from the country. "There goes a pleasant tale," says the author, "of a certain Sr Politick, that in the last great plague projected, how by a vessel fraight with peel'd onions, which should passe along the Thames by the city, when the wind sate in a favourable quarter, to attract the pollution of the aer, and sail away with the infection to the sea transportation of diseases we sometimes read of amongst the magneticall, or rather magical cures ; but never before of this way of transfretation: but, however this excellent conceit has often afforded good mirth on the stage, and I now mention to prevent the application to what I here propound; there is yet another expedient, which I have here to offer (were this of the poisonous and filthy smoak remov'd) by which the city and environs about it might be rendered one of the most pleasant and agreeable places in the world. In order to this I propose *, "That all low grounds circumjacent to the city, especially east and south-west, be cast and contriv'd into square plots, or fields of twenty, thirty, and forty akers, or more, separated from each other by fences of double palisads, or contr'spaliars, which should enclose a plantation of an hundred and fifty, or more, feet deep, about each field; not much unlike to what His Majesty has already begun by the wall from old Spring Garden to St. James's in that park; and is somewhat resembled in the new Spring Garden at Lambeth. † That these palisads be elegantly planted, diligently kept and supply'd, with such shrubs as yield the most fragrant and odoriferous flowers, and are aptest to tinge the Aer upon every gentle emission at a great distance: such as are (for instance amongst many others) the sweet-brier, all the periclymena's and woodbinds; the common white and yellow jessamine, both the syringa's or pipe trees; the guelder rose, the musk, and all other roses; genista hispanica: to these may be added the rubus odoratus, bayes, juniper, lignum-vitæ, lavender: but above all, rosemary, the flowers whereof are credibly reported to give their scent above thirty leagues off at sea, upon the coasts of Spain: and at some distance towards the meadow side, vines; yea, hops. * "If the reader should find himself disposed to smile when he sees the author gravely proposing to counteract the offensive smells of London by rows of trees, and borders of fragrant shrubs, and aromatic herbs; he should remember that this scheme, visionary as it may appear, was the foible of a writer whose enthusiasm for planting has proved of singular service to this kingdom; productive of noble plantations, ornamental to the country, and useful to the community.' † M. Monconys, in his “ Voyage d'Angleterre,” made in May 1663, has the following interesting passage concerning these Gardens which he visited. After having seen Westminster Abbey, he continues-" Au sortir, nous fumes dans un Bot de l'autre côté de la Tamise voir deux Jardins, où tout le monde se peut aller promener, & faire collation dans des cabarets qui y font: ou dans les cabinets du jardin. On les nomme Springer Gaerden, c'est à dire, Jardins du Printemps, dont celui qu'on nomme le Nouveau est plus beau de beaucoup que l'autre. J'y admirai la beauté des allées de gazons, et la politesse de celles qui sont sablées. Il est divisé en une grande quantité de quarrez de 20 ou 30 pas en quarré, clos par des hayes de groselliers, et tous ces quarrés sont plantés aussi de framboisiers, de rosiers et d'autres arbrisseaux, comme aussi d'herbages, et de legumes, comme pois, feves, asperges, fraises, &c. Toutes les allées sont bordées ou de jonquilles, ou de gerofiées, ou de lis." P. 29. Par. 1695. 12mo. Et arbuta passim, Et glaucas salices, casiamque crocumque rubentem, Et pinguem tiliam, et ferrugineos hyacinthos, &c. ‡ For there is a sweet smelling sally, § and the blossoms of the tilia or lime-tree, are incomparably fragrant; in brief, whatsoever is odoriferous and refreshing. "That the spaces or area between these palisads and fences, be employ'd in beds and bordures of pinks, carnations, clove, stock-gillyflower, primroses, auriculas, violets, not forgetting the white, which are in flower twice a year, April and August: cowslips, lillies, narcissus, strawberries, whose very leaves as well as fruit emit a cardiaque, and most refreshing halitus: also parietaria lutea, musk, lemmon, and mastick, thyme, spike, cammomile, balm, mint, marjoram, pempernel, and serpillum, &c. which, upon the least pressure and cutting, breathe out and betray their ravishing odors. "That the fields, and crofts within these closures, or invironing gardens, be some of them planted with wild thyme, and others reserved for plots of beans, pease (not cabbages, whose rotten and perishing stalks have a very noisom and unhealthy smell, and therefore by Hyppocrates utterly condemned near great cities) but such blossom bearing brain as send forth their virtue at farthest distance, and are all of them marketable at London; by which means, the aer and winds perpetually fann'd from so many circling and encompassing hedges, fragrant shrubs, trees and flowers, (the amputation and prunings of whose superfluities may in winter, on some occasions of weather and winds, be burnt, to visit the city with a more benign smoak,) not onely all that did approach the region which is properly design'd to be flowery; but even the whole city would be sensible of the sweet and ravishing varieties of the perfumes, as well as of the most delightful and pleasant objects and places of recreation for the inhabitants; yielding also a prospect of a noble and masculine majesty, by reason of the frequent plantations of trees, and nurseries for ornament, profit, and security. The remainder of the fields included yielding the same, and better shelter, and pasture for sheep and cattel than now; that they lie bleak, expos'd and abandon'd to the winds, which perpetually invade them. "That, to this end, the gardiners (which now cultivate the upper, more drie, and ungrateful soil,) be encouraged to begin plantations in such places only: and the farther exorbitant encrease of tenements, poor and nasty cottages near the City, be prohibited, which disgrace and take off from the sweetness and amœnity of the environs of London, and are already become a great eye-sore in the grounds opposite to his Majesty's Palace of White-hall; which being converted to this use, might yield a diversion inferior to none that could be imagin'd for health, profit, and beauty, which are the three transcendencies that render a place without all exception. And this is what (in short) I had to offer, for the improvement and melioration of the Aer about London, and with which I shall conclude this discourse." This may be thought sufficiently romantic; but the editor has furnished us with a good note on that point; and for our parts, we have no more doubt that the progress of reason and science will do wonderful things in the way of reconciling art and nature among great assemblages of mankind, than that we have already attained to facilities for that purpose which would have made the Greeks and Romans pronounce any body a madman who should have prophesied them. We can fancy the smoke itself as easily swallowed up, some day or other, by some large and easy process, as it is now actually consumed in sinaller instances, or as the beautiful and fairy gas-light has taken place of "the fishy fume" of the lamp-oil. Streets widen and grow better, every time the metropolis does any thing new; squares and their gardens increase, and make pleasant elbow-room, in all directions; and if the mass of houses extends itself in proportion, and fairly threatens to run a race with the Sabbath pedestrian, parks and pleasure-grounds accompany them; books and poetry keep up the love of nature; trades talk of not working to a later hour" than is reason ;" and the singular advancement of mechanism promises to aid the demands of reason, and force upon us that fair play between industry and leisure, which is the only real wealth of riches, and the lordof improvement of all sorts. Virgil. § Sallow or willow. "It has been conjectured that probably the lime-trees in St. James's Park were planted in consequence of this suggestion," THE UNKNOWN CITY. I SAT upon an ancient wall, And perhaps a Patriot spirit burn'd Which bard and prophet poured there, The past was all devour'd-and all Hope, fame, love, grandeur, wealth, and power, Had sought and revelled in-and small, Beyond the smallest in that hour, Were worth of actions that had been The Antiquary delved in vain For coin or relic where the plough Long furrowed, for the waving grain For ages grew where wastes were now Ay, long long ages since the day That unknown City pass'd away. Who could its secrets now disclose?— What virtues suffer'd, vices blazed What tides of human action rose And ebb'd, while its dead myriads gazed? Not one poor record now was left To tell of what we were bereft Not one !-while I upon the spot The long-lost race-the name forgot- A GOOD NAME. "Would you, Sir, if a Jew of a godfather had proposed the name (of Judas) for your child, and offered you his purse along with it—would you have consented to such a desecration of him?" STERNE. 66 MR. EDITOR,-I never could understand why Sterne should have thought it necessary to put so much insinuation into old Shandy's manner, in order to pass off his hypothesis on names; as if the matter of it were either new or rare,' or as if the theory were not as "good and lawful" a theory, as most that pass current among speculators. Certain it is that I, for one, have had frequent occasions for determining its validity, having through life been the victim of my own names ; so that I never reflect on that question of the catechism which asks "What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you?" without wishing them all heartily-no matter where. "What's in a name?" asks Juliet, and the question is well put by a love-sick inexperienced girl, for it would have been quite out of keeping in the mouth of any other character. It is, indeed, with names, as with physiognomies; they produce their impressions unconsciously, nay even in spite of the strongest predetermination to laugh theory out of countenance. to dwell upon such common-places as Alexander and Turpin, traitor and liberador, orthodox and heterodox, I shall simply appeal to "la sagesse des nations," as Figaro has it,-to that wisdom which cries out in the streets, and which expressly declares that to give a dog an illname is as bad as to hang him. Not Not that I am absolutely superstitious in the matter, or would go the whole length of honest Mr. Shandy, in believing that "there is a strange kind of magic bias which good or bad names irresistibly impress upon our characters and conduct:" neither am I so utterly prejudiced, as finally to condemn any man on the mere strength of his name, even though that name should be A. or B.; nay, though it were that of Barabbas or Oliver himself. Yet these opinions have been entertained-ay, and by wise men too. Augustus, the night before the battle of Actium, met a poor fellow driving his ass; and their names being respectively Eutyches and Nicon, (that is to say, Fortunate and Victor,) he thereon drew a happy presage of the morrow's fight:-the more ass he for his pains, perhaps you will say; and I so far agree with you, that if there be any thing in names, I hold that the benefit could belong legitimately to none but the owners. Of this we may be sure, that the modern Eutyches, Mr. Goodluck, the lottery-office keeper, in assuming that fascinating appellative, had an eye much more to his own fortunes than to those of his customers. But soldiers, you know, are ever superstitious; and the ass of Augustus was as good a hobby-horse to ride upon, as the "Cæsaris fortunam" of his predecessor, or the rival stars of Napoleon and the Wellington, about which so much has been said. St. Jerome tells us, that certain names were applied by the ancients, "quasi ob virtutis auspicium, sicut apud Latinos Victor, Probus, Castus;" or, as Camden expresses it," upon future good hope conceived by parents of their children, in which you might see their first and principal wishes towards them." Just so, in our times, certain little personages give their children the names of great men, upon future good hope" of what may be got through their influence; though, 66 |