The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-31 00:00:00

A Popular History of London.

Encouraged by the success that has attended their
former publication, Messrs. E Moses and Son, of
the Minories, have just issued gratuitously to the
public the fourth part of a new serial, entitled, " A
Popular History of London." The object in view
is to supply the reader with half an hour's cheerful
reading, to furnish a few pages that may shorten a
long journey, and pass pleasantly a little leisure
time in summer days or winter nights. The first
part commences from the time of the Roman occu-
pation of Llyn-Dyn [B.C. 55] to the granting of
the first City charter [A.b. 1066], and so tersely
written and entertaining is the little work that few,
if any, will lay it down until the whole has been
read from beginning to end. The story of London,
its rise and its progress, is a curious and interesting
narrative; it is, in fact, like the story of a human
life—hardy childhood, bold youth, enterprising
manhood, and triumphant maturity. Tha
work under notice is not a puffing trade
circular, but, on the contrary, a very interesting
book, true to its title, and admirably adapted to
the object for which it is issued. Those who take
the trouble to obtain a copy of the first part will
certainly lbok forward with pleasure for the appear-
ance of the second instalment, and, judging from
the specimen now under notice, it will be quite
worthy, on its completion, of finding a permanent
place on the bookshelves of every intelligent reader.
That so excellent a work should be published by
Messrs. Moses and Son is in itself highly com-
mendable, but that it should be issued gratuitously
to the public, on personal application or by post,
is in itself an extraordinary circumstance,
and one
the metropolis.
in the great trading community of

WORKMEN'S DWELLINGS IN LONDON, and else-
where, aro being swept away (as we all know) wholesale
by the railway extensions ; and the question, whore are
these evicted tenants to find other homes? has become ono
of pressing social interest. A paper read at the recent
Social Science Congress at Manchester, by Mr. B. Emanuel,
architect, has just been published, in which that gentle-
man recommends that " she cause of the evil" should be
made "the means of its removal," by demonstrating to the
railway companies that it is their interest to find means fo
the aecommodation of those whom they dispossess. The
plan proposed is actually nothing loss than to convert the
many railway arches in or near London, of suitable demon-
sions, into labourers' dwellings, and to provide for similar
accommodation in all future viaducts built in the neigh-
bourhood of groat cities. The author of the paper shows
that an arch, of certain dimensions, would enable the
builder to provide six moderate sized rooms on the ground
and upper floors, and, in addition to these, a washhouser
with yard, dust-bin, coal-cellar, &c. The accommodation
ho values at Bs. per week. It may be admitted, says the
Reader, that if a sufficient number of tenants is to be found
who can afford to pay the rent named, whose nerves of
sensation are not very finely strung, whose sense of hear-
ing is not acute, and who aro impervious to damp, and proof
against rheumatism, the speculation is likely to succeed,
but wo fear not otherwise.