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moderate standard of sanitation is preserved, there is little
to attract attention. It may not therefore be out of place
to state here that during the thirty-two years, although the
district only comprises an area of 815 acres, and 25 miles
of streets, 5£ miles of brick and pipe sewers have been
constructed, and the entire sewerage kept in good working
order at a cost of £28,041; the 830 lamp columns transferred
to the board at its commencement have been
supplemented by 553 others; the expenditure on general
sanitary works, exclusive of sewerage, had been £104,765,
on general paving works £264,312, and on public improvements,
£22,363. The total expenditure for these purposes
between 1st January, 1856, and 25th March, 1888, thus
amounted to £419,481, not to speak of a considerable sum
disbursed in office expenses and a variety of miscellaneous
matters.
Interesting as would be a description of the topographical
changes which the interior of the district has
undergone, it must suffice for the purposes of this retrospect
simply to mention the principal of them. Commencing at
the river boundary, the splendid bridge and the Victoria
Embankment deservedly find themseves at the head of the
list, and are joined by the costly block which includes St.
Stephen's Club and Palace Chambers, the site of which was
formerly occupied by Manchester Buildings. Proceeding
westward across Parliament Square, which was laid out in
connection with the construction of the Metropolitan
District Railway in 18(i9, and noting the costly improvement
effected at St. Margaret's Churchyard in 1880, Flood
Street and Dean Street (a portion of which is now incorporated
with Great Smith Street) are called to mind as places
of the past, removed to form a better approach to the west
door of the Abbey, on which approach the monument erected
to former Westminster Scholars who fell in the Crimea
now stands. The site of the Almonry, famous as the
spot to which Caxton brought the first printing press with