the fullest individual liberty, the long-sought-for means of reconciliation between order and freedom—between the well-being of the individual and of society.
The effects produced on our over-crowded cities, whose forms are at once, by the light of a new contrast, seen to be old-fashioned and effete, will be so far-reaching in their character that, in order to study them effectively, it will be well to confine our attention to London, which, as the largest and most unwieldy of our cities, is likely to exhibit those effects in the most marked degree.
There is, as I said at the outset, a well-nigh universal current of opinion that a remedy for the depopulation of our country districts and for the overcrowding of our large cities is urgently needed. But though every one recommends that a remedy should be diligently sought for, few appear to believe that such a remedy will ever be found, and the calculations of our statesmen and reformers proceed upon the assumption that not only will the tide of population never actually turn from the large cities countryward, but that it will continue to flow in its present direction at a scarcely diminished rate for a long time to come.[1] Now it can hardly be supposed that any
- ↑ It is scarcely necessary to give instances of what is meant; but one that occurs to my mind is that this assumption of the continued growth of London forms one of the fundamental premises of the Report of the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Water Supply, 1893. On the contrary, it is satisfactory to note that Mr. H. G. Wells has recently entirely changed his views as to the future growth of London (see "Anticipations," chap. ii. ). Read also "The Distribution of Industry," by P. W. Wilson, in "the Heart of the Empire" (Fisher Unwin), and Paper by Mr. W. L. Madgen, M.I.E.E., on "Industrial Redistribution," Society of Arts Journal, February, 1902. See also note on page 31.
