Londons Resurrection, Discourse 18
DISCOURSE XVIII.
That the beſt way to diſpatch the City, would be to build ſome whole Streets together.
WEE have yet but a ſcattering Village (as it were) of the new part of London, whereas if we had been wiſe, we might have had by this time (almoſt as eaſily) a kind of New City. My meaning is this, If the Owners of ground belonging to ſome of the higheſt and nobleſt Streets, had all agreed together to begin, and carry on their buildings all at once, or to part with their ground to others, ſo many of them as were not in a capacity ſo to do) others being as willing to give them a valuable conſideration for it (as having a regard on both ſides to the publick good) then might we have ſeen ere now, a New Cornhill, a New Cheapſide compleat, and entire, and poſſibly ſome other ſtreets of greateſt note and eminency. Theſe would have lookt and ſignified like a new City, or ſome good part of ſuch a thing.
It is good to make an end of one thing firſt. Huſbandmen do not uſe to Plow and Sow a part of one Furrow, and a part of another, and ſo of fifty or a hundred before they have finiſhed any one, but count it the beſt Husbandry to Plow and Sow a whole Furrow at a time. We ſay, he that is aliquis in omn bus, is nullus in ſingulis, he that is ſome body in every thing, is good at nothing. He is more a Scholar that is throughly verſed in one Art or Science, than he that hath but ſipt of every one. In like manner, two goodly new Streets would look more like a new London, than all that is built as yet. I doubt not but they who made the Act for Building did foreſee this, but fearing to be injurious to particular perſons, by making ſome more forward than they could afford to be, and others more backward than they needed, or were willing to have bin, (who would have thought it unreaſonable to have ſtayed for others, till their houſes had bin firſt built (though ſcituate in more eminent places than were their own) thought fit to leave it to the Liberty and Prudence of men to agree amongſt themſelves what might in that particular be moſt for the general good.
If Workmen and Materials enough could have been procured, or yet may, (which I doubt not) to carry on all, and every houſe at one and the ſame time, in one or two noble ſtreets, and nevertheleſs to ſupply the occaſions of ſcattered buildings, and builders, in other more obſcure places (where a liberty of Building dividedly, and ſucceſſively, were allowed) then would the publick convenience no ways interfere with any mans private intereſt.
Suppoſe then it were proclaimed, that all and every houſe, in two or three eminent ſtreets ſhould be built at one and the ſame time, and at ſuch a time they would begin, do you think that workmen would not come from all parts of his Majeſties Dominions (if not alſo from Proteſtant Countries beyond the Seas) as not doubting to meet with good and full employment? Now in caſe they ſhould do ſo, there would not want hands to do every mans work, as well in private ſtreets, as in thoſe of greater eminency. Bells that ring for Weddings, and other joyful ſolemnities, are rung all together, and then we know they make the beſt muſick, whereas one, and but one Bell at a time, gives the doleful notice of Deaths and Funerals. In the caſe I am ſpeaking of, it is not only the more the merrier, but the fewer the worſe chear, contrary to the latter part of our Proverb. It hath been complained of, that houſes which have been built at ſome diſtance of time from one another, have been apt to ſever and part one from another, and one to ſink before the other were finiſhed, which ſhould make men ambitious to build houſes in the ſame ſtreet at the ſame time, which uſe to agree beſt, as twins are wont to do, who were bred and born, at or near the ſame time. It is beſt that houſes which muſt be contiguous, ſhould be contemporary, and they that muſt ſtand together, ſhould riſe together, and be a collateral ſecurity (if I may ſo call it) each to other.
Divided houſes (ſome one or ſome few in one ſtreet and ſome in another) do or may ſadly remember us of divided intereſts, every man ſhifting for himſelf, and ſetting up for himſelf, or ſome few together, like thoſe St. Paul ſpeaks of Acts 27.44. who in the time of Ship-wrack, Some caſt themſelves into the Sea, being able to ſwim, and the reſt, ſome on boards, and ſome on the broken pieces of the Ship, made towards the Land.
Methinks men ſhould ſtrain hard (their credit and purſes, I mean not their conſciences) to comply with a common and publick good, and particularly, with building ſome whole ſtreets together, or giving way to others, if that be ſuch. Nature hath taught the lifeleſs elements to quit their proper center when it may be for the good of the univerſe. So Water which naturally inclineth to aſcend, will deſcend to prevent an abhorred vacuum: So the Heavenly Spheres though they have a ſlow motion of their own, from Weſt to Eaſt, yet do more ſwiftly accompany the primum mobile, or firſt mover from Eaſt to Weſt, as if it were to ſhew us we ſhould be more ſwift in adhering to, and attending upon a publick good, than our own private.
Let it never be ſaid that men will not agree to do what is beſt for themſelves, unleſs they be forc'd to it, for that is juſt like Children: If then it appear to be for a publick and common good to build ſome whole ſtreets together, let no man oppoſe it with reſpect to his private intereſt, eſpecially, if there be thoſe that would compenſate him for it, for ſo to do, were (according to our Proverb) To burn other mens Houſes, that we might roaſt our own Eggs.