"If you go to the remains of London Wall, or examine any old brick buildings, you will find it more difficult to pull it down, than it was for the architect to raise it; but let any person attend to the continual accounts given in the papers _of the number of half-built houses that tumble down before they can be finished_, and he will tremble for those who are to inhabit the many piles of new buildings that are daily rising in this metropolis. When we consider the practice among some of the brick-makers about the town, we shall not wonder at this consequence, though we must shudder at the evil. The increase of buildings has increased the demand, and consequently the price of bricks. The demand for bricks has raised the price of brick-earth so greatly, that the makers are tempted to mix _the slop of the streets_, _ashes_, _scavengers dirt_, and every thing that will make the brick-earth or clay go as far as possible. It is said the price of this brick-earth is more than doubled within these two or three years. The Scavenger, unwilling to be behind with the Landholder, has doubled the price of ashes, trebled the price of cinders, and charges a considerable price for the filth, mud, and what they call the slop of the streets. This slop makes near one half of the composition that is to raise the enormous and very numerous buildings which are to unite London with Highgate, Bromley, Rumford, and Brentford, within these five years; unless, what seems very possible, the bricklayers, carpenters, and masons, with all their labourers and workmen, are overwhelmed in the ruins of their own buildings before the plan is finished. The Legislature has provided for our safety against the roguery of the Builders; but, unless the materials of which the bricks are made shall be taken into consideration, London may shortly resemble the City of Lisbon, without the intervention of an Earthquake."