to petition parliament to vote a sum of money to give to the proprietors of these bridges, and to throw them open to the public free of toll, or failing in that, to raise by subscription, or by a local tax upon some article, a sufficient sum for the purpose. It would be a great convenience if these bridges were free of toll; for London and Blackfriars bridge are, at certain times of the day, almost blocked up with carts, omnibuses, and other carriages, a great many of which would go over Southwark and Waterloo bridges, but for the payment of toll. VAUXHALL BRIDGE was the first iron bridge erected over the Thames; it cost upwards of £300,000. We have thus described at length all the history of the bridges, as we were very much struck with their beauty and their magnificence. On a very dark night, to stand upon Southwark or Waterloo bridge, and to look on both sides at the beautifully lighted up bridges, is a grand sight. And upon a fine summer's morning, to stand upon the centre of either of them to behold the glorious sun rise, and to see the gilding of the top of St. Paul's, and of the numerous high buildings that are visible from hence, is a sight that has been witnessed by few perhaps of the inhabitants of London, except those whose occupations require them to be up at that early hour. But we would advise those who wish to see London to advantage, to rise at four o'clock some summer's morning, and they will see a beautiful view, there being then scarcely any smoke; and the great luminary of light will beam upon and illuminate every thing, and it will kindle in the human heart feelings of thanksgiving and praise to the great author of the universe. We could not refrain from asking ourselves where all the money could come from to build these bridges, and we were wondering what number of people London, and indeed, if it could be ascertained, all England, consisted of, to raise these immense sums. We therefore asked of a friend, if he could guess the number of living beings in England. He told us, that from 1801 parliament had directed every ten years an account of the population to be taken in every parish in England, Scotland, and Wales, by competent persons, and that they made a return of the same, which parliament printed, with their ages, and whether males or females, also the number of houses; and we find that the following are the numbers given for England and Wales in the years No actual dependence is to be placed on any except the last four; viz., 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, as previous to this, there was no accurate mode of taking the census, as it is called. The following table shews the population of the principal towns of England. When we see this immense population up to 1831, and which will be much greater when the population for this year (1841) is taken, we could not wonder at seeing bridges, churches, hospitals, or any thing else built, as a few shillings from every one would raise a sum of money of large -amount. The following number of acres of ground is the probable quantity in England and Wales, as stated in the third report of the Emigration Committee laid before the parliament. So that if it were requisite to lay a direct tax immediately to raise a large sum of money upon any sudden occasion, it might be readily done in two ways, either by calling upon every living human being in England to pay one or two shillings per year each, or to let the owner of land pay a shilling or two for every acre per year ; at the first appearance it would seem a hardship to tax the owners of the land but it would not in fact be a tax upon them but upon all the people who consume the produce of the land. For if a man now is about to hire a farm of land, he calculates so much for rent, so much for poor rate, so much for church rate, and then sells all his corn, or bullocks or sheep at prices to bring him his outlay back, with profit to live upon. And as it is necessary to raise a great deal of money in England for taxes, and for revenue in a duty paid upon timber, cotton, and every thing that comes into England, which is expensive in the collection, we think as much as could be laid upon land should be, as it is easy to collect, the produce would be certain, and but little expence to receive it, and as wheat and other corn is not allowed to come into England from abroad without paying a very high duty to protect, as it is said, the English Landowner from the competition of the Landowners of Poland, Prussia, and America, it is no more than right that the Landowner should bear a great proportion of taxation; yet we see that upon looking at tables, that wheat has varied very much in price notwithstanding they have a fluctuating duty, in 1792 a quarter of eight bushels of wheat sold for 43s., in 1800 for 1138., in 1801 for 1188., in 1803 for 56s., in 1810 for 1068., in 1812 for 125s., in 1822 for 43s., in 1827 for 568., in 1840 for 80s., and this variation in the price of wheat, has no doubt been produced by the fluctuating duty to be paid for all wheat imported into England, which is as follows; The duty to be paid for every quarter shall be Whenever wheat is 628. per quarter of eight bushels and under 63s. in the markets as declared by an average of the prices of all sold at all the £. markets in England Whenever 63s. and under 64s. per qr. 1 4 8 1 |