be more than seven millions to-day; or, to state the fact with more essential point, the London of a century ago contained a sixteenth of the population of England and now it has a fifth. How has it come about? When Parliament was originally set up, you had not only to pay the members to get them to attend, so busy were they with their absorbing local life, but before long you had also to fine the communities which failed to elect their representatives. That was the right condition of things, a federalisation against strong local magnetisms. When Macadamised roads were introduced a star of them was made, radiating from London; they brought the life of the country up to London, sapping it for the growth of London. When the railways were constructed the main lines formed a star from London, and the expresses run up and down, feeding London, milking the country. Presently the State also must needs step in to accentuate the centralising tendency by establishihg such services as the parcel post. Thus it has come about that the market-towns for a hundred miles around are degraded in respect of the variety of their life.
Not in four out of five cases does the Londoner profit in any true sense from the
