Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/384

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London fn the Eighteenth Cmtury. — London under the HAnorerun kinga lost the beauty it formerly had

and became a vast collection of houses, plain but com- fortable, a condition from which it la only now success- fully emerging. There was a great extension of build- ing in tlic West end and in the neighliourhoods ot Bloomsbury, Marylebone, and May Vair, but unfortu-

or rebuilt to meet the nants of the increasing numbers of the poor. Among these were Westminster Hos- pital (founded 1719), Guy's (1725), St. Bartholomew's (rebuilt 17:J0-1733), St. Thomas's (1732), the I-onHon Hospital (instituted 1741), and the Uiddleaex Iloapital (1745). Besidea these, that noble charity the Found-

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Relief Act (1778). During the same ^riod new» papers began to appear, sevoral of which still ex- ist: the "Morning Post" (1772) '"nmea" (1788), "Ob- server" (1781), "Morning Advertiser" (1794), and " Globe" (1803). This century also witnessed the rise of the British Museum (1753), the Royal Academy (1768), and the Royal Institution (1799).

lAtndon in the Nineteenth Ccn/un/.— In 1801 the first census was taken and showed that the total popula- tion of London was 900,000 and of the city, 78,000. As the population in 1901 wsa returned os 4J millions it will be seen how rapid has been the growth of I.011- don during the past hundred years. .\noIhcr fact illustrating this is that during uic period 1S79-1909 more than 1500 miles of new streets were built. It

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fing Hospital, was institutod in 1738 and was moved to the present building in 1754.

Till this time I-ondon had only one bridge, but in 1738Westminst«r Bridge was liegun and in 17.'>itwas opened. Blackfriars Bridge followed in 17St). In 1758 the houses on London Bridge had lx«n doniol- idted and shortly after, five of the old city Gat«s, Howgate, Aldersgate, Aldgale, Cripplegate, and Lud- cate, were pulled down. The Westminster Paving Act, passed in 1762, introiluced many improvements in the Uioroughfares; pavements were laid, and ob- structions removed from the streets. About this time people commenced to place their names on their doors and the system of numbering houses began. There was, however, indescribable squalor and filth in many

Eirts of the town, as may be seen in the pictures of logartb, and the moral corruption of the people was indescribable. The term " Rookery" was by no means unapt. The city bad many troubles to en- counter during the latter part of the century, such aa the Silk-weaveiB riota (1765); the auarrel with the Court and Pariiament about the election of John Wilkes (1708), and the terrible Gonlon Riots (171*0) [<j. V.) which were the outcome of the first Catholic

is clearly impossible within these limits to give any but the most snlieut facts. In ISOl the fir^t ntteinpts at steam navigation were made on the Thauies. "The London docks were begun four years later. They cover an area ot 120 acres and e0.1t four million pounds. In 1806 three great fiinerals took place in London, Nelson being buried in St. Paul's, Pitt and Fox in the Abbey. In 1807 gas was first used to light the public streetfl, and five years later a charter was granted f« the Gas Light and Coke Company, the oldest of the lighting companies. Once more tnere was activity in bridge l)uildmg; Old Vauxhall Bridge was opened In 1811, Waterioo Bridge in 1817, Southwark Bridge in 1819, and new London Bridge, a little farther west than its predecessor, was begun in 1825 and finiiihed in 1831. The bridges at Westminster and Blackfriare have since been rebuilt, anrl the magnificent To«-er- Bridge was opened in 1S94, bo that the .seven chief London bridges are ot nineteenth-century construo- fion. Among the new buildings of this period were the Mint (1811), Regent Street (1813). the British Museum (1823), General Post Office (1H24), while. others were necessitated by the fjre.'i wliirli destrovefl the Old Housf« of Pariiament in 1><M and the Royal