July 21st, 1905.

A LONDONER who is in a great hurry to get from one part of the capital to another is fairly provided with the means of transit within certain areas and in certain directions. But if, so to speak, his errand leads him across country, he is fairly stranded. The River absolutely divides the North from the South. He must walk across the bridges, or go to the expense of a hansom. He must trudge long distances where no omnibus or tram is to be seen. . . The Commission which has been considering the question of London traffic has at last reported, and its recommendations comprise a vast scheme of widened roadways, new arteries of communication, the linking up of places now splendidly isolated with others equally remote. It is proposed that a Board of Traffic shall be appointed. We may be sure that the Board would have to do its work in the face of much opposition. Indeed, the House of Lords, on Tuesday, gave us a foretaste of what we may expect, when it rejected the Bill authorising the London County Council’s scheme of a tramway-line over Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges and along the Embankment . . . because the tramway would spoil a thoroughfare which seems to exist for the convenience of rich people to bowl along it in motors and hansoms.