The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

THE NEW REFORM BILL.

(Flows the Dad, News.)

Portman Estate, through Manchester and Cavendish-'
squares, across Regent-street, and up Oxford-street,
we go, till we reach, my lord, St. Gdes's Church. In
a straight line the distance is a good two miles and
a half, through squares and streets of mansions ; past
shops which tempt the passenger with every-
luxury that England makes or imports; and
abodes which speak the wealth that all this trade
accumulates. Rave we got to the end of our journey ?
By no means. Up Tottenham-court-road—better
known, no doubt, to Queen Elizabeth than you;
down the New-.road; past Euston-square, to the
station of the Northern Railway ; then up Gray's-inn-
lane, as if entering the City, until somewhere about
the Sessions-house, at Clerkenwell, the map informs
us that the limit of " St. Marylebone" is reached in
that direction, and that we must turn again to see
the rest of it.

tip Gray's-inn-lane again, my lord, and past St.
Fencing church ; through the Regent's Park or
`Somers-town; through Camden-town or over Prim-
rose-hill; through Kentish-town (if you prefer the
former road); up Highgate-hill until you reach the
summit, where sitting down to rest in the church-
yard, as rest you must after a ten mile walk, you may
survey, so far as eye can reach, the miles of streets
and houses which you formed into a borough, and
designated " Marylebonc."
Yes, from St. ellles'e Church to the Westbourne
Cemetery—from Kensington Palace to Highgate
Hill—extend the limits of the borough I have faintly
attempted to describe to you!
But what is this to FINSBURY ? Finsbury, which
your lordship supposes is somewhere in the vicinity
of Islington! My lord, do you know Holborn-
bars ? What will you think when I tell you
that Finsbury begins there? Aye, Holborn-bar, the
western limit of the city which your lordship repre-
sents, is the southern boundary of your borough of
Finsbury! The northern boundary—for we may as
well jump to it at once—the northern boundary is
somewhere out at llornser. Five good miles you have
to walk to reach it; and if you take a cab the driver
will charge eight shillings, and think it moderate. In
the other direction Finsbury extends from St. Giles's
Church to St. Luke's Hospital, in Old-street-road
—fit place for those who could have mapped
out such a borough, and who fancy that its 300,000
people will remain content with the share of re-
presentation which they have.
Your lordship knows something more of WEsr-
missree ? You have lived there all your life, and
your family are the largest proprietors in that great
city. Well, look at the extent of Westminster. It
runs due west from the Temple-gardens out to Ken-
sington. North and south you have to travel
through it from Cliclaca Hospital to Soho-square.
Lamas:tat—Lambeth, which your lordship looks
at from the windows of Mr. Barry's palace, and
which appears, therefrom, a very dirty, gloomy, low
locality. My lord, Lambeth extends from Waterloo-
bridge to Forest-hill, which Mr. Bradshaw's distance
table tells me is five miles from the Ibames, in the
straight line the railway runs. 'Transversely it rims
from the boumlaries of Clapham to the boundaries of
notherhithe, taking in upon the road more than half a
million people, and three-quarters of a million of
rated property.
My lord, these are strong, very strong, cases; but
they arc mere foils to that lam approaching. Your
lordship does not know the TOWER HAMLETS. I
should wonder if you did. I should like to meet
with the member of the House of Lords, or Com-
mons, who has ever been through the Tower Ham-
lets; I should like to see the medal he would have
obtained as a prize member at the Great Exhibition.
The Tower Hamlets!! Why, my lord, excepting the
live counties of Middlesex, Devonshire,-
Staffordshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire,
there is no single county in Great Britain that ap-
roaches within 60,000 the population of the Tower
Hamlets! The Tower Hondas contains at this present
time nearly :150,000 souls. It has 76,873 inhabited
houses. Its rateable property is valued at 1,266,972/.
Devonshire, which is the fifth largest county in Eng-
land in point of population, contains 570,000 in-
habitants, 99,000 houses, and its entire property is
assessed at 2,0243,0001. Yet Devonshire returns 22
members, whilst the Tower Hamlets, is only repre-
sented by two! Contrast another county—Hamp-
shire : Let us examine the two cases in a tabular
form.
Population. Property. Houma
The Tower Hamlets 523,762 £1,266,000 76,875
All Ilampshire 41.2,034 1.400,000 74,588
Number of members returned for Hampshire.. 19!
Number of ditto fur the Tower Hamlets
Contrast another county :—Wiltshire.
Population. Property. Houses.
The Tower Hamlets.. 543,762 £1,266,000 76,375
All Wiltshire 241,003 1,243,000 49,061
Number of members for Wiltshire 18!
Number of ditto for the Tower hamlets 2! '
With these startling facts before you, doubtless
your lordship will be anxious to know something
more of the Tower Hamlets—this great county of itself
—this group of small counties in one borough ? Sup-
pose we go down the river by steamer to Greenwich,
and cross over from the Hospital-stairs to the
new town Mr. Cubitt is erecting on what
was once called the Isle of Doge. Hero
among the tall warehouses which now line
this part of the river side, commences the Tower
Hamlets. We go north, my lord, through the large
parishes of Poplar and Limehouse, to Stepney and
St. George-in-the-East—north still through Mile-end
New-town, Whitechapel, and Spitalfields to Bethnal-
green. On the east, we here have the great parishes
of Shoreditch; on the west, the parishes of Bow and
Bromley. Through Bethnal-green we go, and reach
the populous hamlets of Haggerstone and Houton.
For several miles to cast and west the borough now
extends. We get to Hackney, a large and populous
and increasing town. From Hackney to Dalston ;
thence to Clapton and Stamford-hill, the far
north-east of the bills of mortality. We have
long passed Stoke Newington, which may be
fairly considered as the most northern suburb
of our city ; and curiously enough, we have
also crossed the " old coach road to Newmarket,"
and got far beyond the commencement of the mile-
stones. At length, on the summit of a hill which
commands a distant view of Hertfordshire and Essex,
we stop, fairly tired out, and survey, fading in a hazy
distance, the boundary of the borough which you
call "The Tower Hamlets."
Suppose we go round them. What a journey !
From Blackwell up the river, in a steamboat, to the
Tower. From the Tower, round the boundary of the
City of London, to Old-street. From Old-street, by
a zigzag up to Islington. From Islington to Stoke
Newington; from Stoke Newington to Stamford-
hill; from Stamford-hill away due east to Essex;
along the river Lea to the village of Old Ford;
from Old Ford to Bow, from Bow to Bromley, and
from Bromley, through the marshes where they feed
the foreign cattle, to the wharfs at Blackwell, where
they land them.
Take, my lord, the parallel of St. Paul's : draw a
straight line through the ball, due east and west.
That line will run a little south of the Commercial-
road, which as any one who looks at the map may
see, is in the Tower Hamlets. Measure with rour
compasses the limits of the Tower Hamlets, and'you
will find that they extend five miles, as the crow
flies, northward of the parallel and nearly two miles
to the south of it ! Fancy a borough extending in a
straight line over seven miles of London houses!
To one who is not familiar with the localities of
London this description may seem tedious; to those
who do know London I will answer for it that it will
be astonishing. But let me suggest to people who
know London, as well as to those who do not, a good
way to see a part at least of the borough of the
Tower Hamlets. There is a railway called the East
and West India Dock Railway, which runs half
round London, and carries passengers, every quarter
of an hour, for 4d. or thereabouts, from the City, by
a circumbendibus, to Camden Town. Now, let any
' one step into one of the carriages of this railway at
Mark-lane. The platform is only a short distance
from the boundary of the Tower Hamlets. He will
reach that boundary even before ho gets beyond the
station. Well, he stops at Stepney, a densely
crowded district, bordering upon the river :—that's
within the borough. He reaches Limehouse, still
within the borough; he turns off north-east to Bow;
gets out of the smoke into the fields; stops at a sta-
tion near the back of the Victoria Park ; passes over an
immense bridge that spans the street at Hackney;
stops there and next atDalstsn ; and, indeed, until
he reaches Islington, never once quits the limits of
the borough of the Tower Hamlets! In the journey
I need not say that he will meet with people of
every grade and representing every sort of interest.
The shipowners of Blackwell ; the bock labourers of
St. George's; the retired seafaring population of

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1851.