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LONDON, the Metropolis of Great Britain and Ireland, is situated upon the River Thames, about fifty miles from its mouth; the northern and larger portion lying in the counties of Middlesex and Essex, the southern in Surrey and Kent. By the Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120) the Metropolis is held to include the cities and liberties of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the parishes, precincts, townships, and places mentioned in a Schedule attached to the Act, in

cluding among others the extreme points of Hampstead, Islington, Stoke Newington, and Hackney to the north; Stratford le Bow, Limehouse, Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, Charlton, and Plumstead to the east; Camberwell and Streatham to the south; and Kensington, Fulham, Hammersmith, and Putney to the west.

§ 2. The population of London, according to the last census (1851), was 2,362,236.

§ 3. The Metropolis is supposed to consume in one year 1,600,000 quarters of wheat, 240,000 bullocks, 1,700,000 sheep, 28,000 calves, and 35,000 pigs. One market alone (Leadenhall) supplies about 4,025,000 head of game. This together with 3,000,000 of salmon, irrespective of other fish and flesh, is washed down by 43,200,000 gallons of porter and ale, 2,000,000 gallons of spirits, and 65,000 pipes of wine. To fill its milk and cream jugs, 13,000 cattle are kept. To light it at night, 360,000 gas-lights fringe the streets, consuming, every 24 hours, 13,000,000 cubic feet of gas. Its arterial or water system supplies the enormous quantity of 44,383,328 gallons per day, while its venous or sewer system carries off 9,502,720 cubic feet of refuse. To warm its people and to supply its factories, a fleet, amounting to upwards of a thousand sail, is employed in bringing annually 3,000,000 tons of coal, exclusive of what is brought by rail. The smoke of this immense quantity of coal (and at a time when it was considerably less than at present) has been often traced as far as Reading, 32 miles distance, where, at times, it was so dense that the elder Herschel was unable to take observations. To clothe its multitudes, we find, by the "London Directory," that there are some 23,520 tailors, 28,800 bootmakers, and upwards of 40,000 milliners and dress-makers; whilst the domestic servants amount to an army of 170,000. By the colossal proportions of these detached statistical fragments, we are enabled to judge of the vast extent of this mighty city; as, by the sight of the gigantic granite hand in the British Museum, the imagination speedily builds up the towering statue of the ancient Egyptian god.

§ 4. The first and most natural action of a stranger, upon his first visit to London, is to consult a Map-just as he scans

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