inhabitants, an increase of 66,459 since 1851. And yet this large town population is without a representative in Parliament, The palace is not in Kensington (lucus a non lucendo), but in the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster. At one end of this district are the International Exhibition Buildings, the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens, and the South Kensington Museum, and at the other end Holland House.

PANCRAS is the largest parish in Middlesex, having a circumference of 18 miles, and a population of 198,882 persons, according to the last census. It was anciently a lonely hamlet, one mile distant from Holborn Bars, and is still called Pancrasin-the-fields. Less than a hundred years ago, the population did not amount to 600. It is mentioned in Domesday book. Of its old church (recently enlarged), it has been said that it does not yield in antiquity to St. Paul's. Norden, quaintly speaks of it in 1592, as being "all alone, utterly forsaken, old, and wether-beten, yet about this structure have bin manie buildings, now decaied, leaving poore Pancras without companie or comfort; yet it is visited by theeves who assemble there not to praye, but to wait for praye; and manie fall into their handes clothed that are glad when they are escaped naked. Walke not there late." Camden Town, Agar Town, Somers' Town (so called from its being the freehold estate of Lord Somers), and Kentish Town, are all in Pancras. The termini of the London and North Western Railway (Euston Square), and the Great Northern Railway (Kings Cross), are in Pancras. It has a cemetery of 87 acres in the Finchley Road.

FINSBURY takes its name from the fenny ground that existed here. The manor is held by the Corporation of London under a lease originally granted so far back as 1315. This has been renewed from time to time, and the present lease will expire in 1867. It is said that the Mayor derives his title of lord from being lord of this manor. The tract once called Moorfields is in this district, the whole of which is now covered with buildings.

ISLINGTON, once a village two miles away from London, is now connected with it by a dense mass of houses. Its population of 155,291 persons has increased to the extent of 59,962 since 1851. Under the name of Iseldon it is mentioned in Domesday book, where it was stated to have 1000 acres of arable land. It includes Holloway, Highbury, and part of Kingsland.

The new Metropolitan Cattle Market and the Model Prison are in this district.

SOUTHWARK was an early settlement of the Romans, as the remains that have been from time to time discovered testify. The name, which appears to signify the southern fortification, has been spelled in no fewer than ninety-seven ways in old writings. Edward III. sold the place to the citizens of London, making certain reservations, but Edward VI. granted the full control of it to them. The affairs of the Borough, as it is now styled, are managed by a high bailiff and steward, appointed by the Corporations of London. It was constituted a ward of the city, under the name of Bridge-Without, and sends an alderman to the court. It has returned Members to Parliament ever since Edward the First's reign. Extensive manufactures are carried on here; at Bermondsey the tanners and rope-makers abound; at Rotherhithe, timber-merchants, sawyers, and boat-builders.

LAMBETH adjoins Southwark on the west. It was originally a Surrey village, with a name of uncertain derivation, but it has become a thickly populated district, covering much ground. Here are Lambeth Palace, Bethlehem Hospital, St. George's Roman Catholic Cathedral, the County Prison, and the Queen's prison. It is the seat of much manufacturing industry, including Price's Patent Candle Works, Pellatt's Glass Works, Beaufoy's Vinegar Works, Maudslay and Field's Engineering Works, and Clowes' Printing Office and Foundry, each of which is the largest of its class in the metropolis.

Let us now glance for a moment at this mighty world of London, with reference to the districts where certain classes of its inhabitants congregate.

The City is the great focus of commercial business, densely crowded with banks, counting-houses, and shops.

In Paternoster Row the publishers and booksellers meet in force; in Spitalfields the silk-weavers ; in Clerkenwell the watchmakers; whilst between Leadenhall Street and Houndsditch the Jews predominate.

The Temple, Chancery Lane, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, are filled with the chambers of the lawyers.

Regent Street, Bond Street, Piccadilly, and part of Oxford Street, are stocked with the best and most expensive shops, where persons having a supply of the one thing needful may procure every luxury under the sun.

The nobility, and people of the first fashion, chiefly reside1st, In the district included by Regent Street, and Hyde Park, Oxford Street, and Piccadilly, within which are Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares, Park Lane, and Mayfair, the last designation being applied to the streets between Park Lane and Berkeley Square, which cover some fields where a fair was held for many years under grant from James II., not finally discontinued until late in the reign of George III. 2d, The district (often styled Belgravia), lying between Grosvenor Place and Sloane Street, and including Belgrave Square. 3d, St. James Square, and the east side of the Green Park.

A district of very high respectability, staid, grave, and decorous, like the streets, is that which lies westward of Portland Place, between Oxford Street and Marylebone Road. (Portman and Cavendish Squares, included in this district, must be considered as an offshoot of that on the south side of Oxford Street, for several of the nobility reside in them.)

The new, handsome, and healthy district westward of the Edgware Road, and north of Hyde Park, is also highly respectable. It includes Westbourne Terrace, and many squares, inhabited by merchants, bankers, and lawyers.*

The terraces around the Regent's Park and the districts of St. John's Wood and Portland Town, west of that park, are tenanted by the same classes.

In

Lambeth, Southwark, and the eastern parts of London, are chiefly peopled by handicraftsmen and small shopkeepers. these districts the manufactories of the metropolis are for the most part situate.

LOCAL MANAGEMENT.

By an Act of Parliament passed in 1855 (18th and 19th Victoria, chapter 120), a Board of forty-six persons, to be elected by

*This district has been styled by Thackeray, "The elegant, the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia, the most respectable district in the habitable globe! Over that road which the hangman used to travel constantly, and the Oxford stage twice a week, go ten thousand carriages every day. Over yonder road by which Dick Turpin fled to Windsor, and Squire Western journeyed into town, what a rush of civilisation and order flows now! What armies of gentlemen with umbrellas march to banks and chambers, and counting houses! What regiments of nursery maids and pretty infantry; what peaceful processions of policemen; what light broughams and what gay carriages; what swarms of busy apprentices and artificers, riding on omnibus roofs, pass daily and hourly!"

the ratepayers, was constituted for the purpose of superseding a great number of local boards in the management of the streets,. drains, and buildings of the metropolis. This board was authorized to construct a system of main intercepting drainage, to improve the streets and make new ones, to provide parks and places of recreation, to attend to the naming of the streets, and the numbering of the houses therein; and in the building of new houses to enforce compliance with the existing regulations. This board is known as the Metropolitan Board of Works, and it has lately built for its own use a handsome set of offices on the site of Berkeley House, Spring Gardens, at the cost of £15,000. A ground rent of £500 a-year is paid to the Crown.

In addition to the main drainage works, which will be described hereafter, the board has been forming new streets and widening others. The cost of improvements of this nature in London is extremely great, owing in great part to the enormous value of the land. The sums that have been paid for small patches of only a few square yards sound quite fabulous, and it becomes more valuable every day. Land has been sold in the city at the rate of £900,000 an acre! Such being the case, it is easy to conceive that the progress of improvements is slow in consequence of the very large sums required to carry them out. Improvements involving the outlay of sixteen and a half millions sterling have been pressed on the board, and of these they admit that a large proportion are urgently demanded for the accommodation of the traffic. Another measure involving a large expenditure has been prominently brought forward of late, viz., the embankment of the Thames; but as yet no scheme has been adopted, though it seems likely that the requirements of the public will be best provided for by establishing a spacious thoroughfare between Westminster Bridge, and Blackfriars' Bridge, by means of a simple embankment and roadway; and that the new thoroughfare thus created will be continued eastward from Blackfriars' Bridge, by a new street from the west end of Earl Street, across Cannon Street to the Mansion House. The line of embankment at Westminster would coincide with the terrace of the New Houses of Parliament, and the general level would be four feet above Trinity high-water mark. As far as the Temple Gardens it is proposed to make the road 100 feet in width, and solid throughout. From this point eastward, it would be reduced to

piers of masonry,

the width of 70 feet, and carried on a viaduct supported on leaving spaces between the piers available for barges to lie in. The cost of this scheme has been estimated at £1,500,000. If carried out, it is probable that an embankment would likewise be formed on the Surrey side of the river.

SUPPLY OF FOOD.

The quantity of food consumed by the people of London must be something enormous, but no exact information can be obtained on this head. Nevertheless, the results of some calculations may be interesting.

Of fresh fish, excluding shell-fish, upwards of 400 millions of pounds weight come to market in the course of a year. As to shell-fish proper, oysters may be taken as an example; about 500 millions of these are swallowed by the Londoners. Of lobsters, something like 1,200,000, and of crabs, about 600,000 are annually consumed. To supply the metropolis with flesh meat during the year, it is calculated that 400,000 oxen, 1,900,000 sheep, 130,000 calves, and 250,000 pigs, are sent hither, as well as about 40,000 tons of country killed meat. As to poultry, game, and wild birds, it is believed that 2,000,000 of domestic fowls, 350,000 ducks, 105,000 turkeys, the same number of geese, and 1,300,000 rabbits are devoured; and probably the total number of these things, from grouse, partridges, and pheasants, down to pigeons and larks, is not far short of six millions, weighing several thousand tons. Upwards of 20,000 cows are kept in and near London to supply part of the milk and cream required, the rest, amounting to perhaps four millions of quarts, coming from the country by railway. Around London there are probably not less than 12,500 acres under cultivation for the supply of vegetables, and 5000 acres stocked with fruit trees. Strawberry plants alone cover more than 200 acres. Vast quantities of vegetables and fruit are poured into the London markets both from the country and from abroad. Sixty millions of oranges and fifteen millions of lemons are imported to supply the wants of London alone. It is supposed that nearly 1,700,000 quarters of wheat are turned into flour for the bread and pastry of the metropolis; whilst nearly 800,000 quarters of malt are employed by the sixteen or seventeen great brewers of London in making 2,800,000 barrels of beer, to say nothing of