“For London. Whitechapel; it aint a haristocratic part, but it’s busy sort of place in its way.” “I should like to go with you.” “Well, then, you shall, youngster. So that’s soon settled.” CHAPTER XXXVIII. PEACE IS INTRODUCED TO A GAMBLING CLUB. Charles Peace as we have already signified, had become sated of the village in which he had led so reputable a life for a no very inconsiderable period; indeed, if we take into consideration the erratic and adventurous nature of the man, it is a matter of no small surprise that he should have continued to be a respectable member of society for so long a time. But his new sphere of action had many attractions for him. In the first place, it had the charm of novelty; in the next, he was petted and made much of by the landlord and the parlour customers of the “Carved Lion;” and last, though not least, he had been greatly taken with the girl, Nelly. A sudden revulsion, however, took place, and our hero determined upon seeking “fresh fields and pastures new.” He was possessed of a considerable sum of money; for, in addition to the amount he realised by following the business of a frame-maker, and a dealer in works of art, he had the hundred pounds which the earl had sent by his lawyer as a bonus. He was bent upon seeing something of London life, and therefore hastened at once up to the metropolis. London has attractions for provincial and country people which perhaps no other city in the United Kingdom possesses, albeit its native population are in a measure heedless of its many attractions. It is a wonderful city nevertheless, as the following facts uncontestably prove:―― London (with all its suburbs) covers within the fifteen miles radius of Charing-cross nearly seven hundred square miles. It numbers within its boundaries four million inhabitants. It contains more country-bred persons than the counties of Devon and Gloucester combined, or 37 per cent. of its entire population. Every four minutes a birth takes place in the metropolis and every six minutes a death. Within the circle named there are added to the population two hundred and five persons every day and seventy-five thousand annually. London has seven thousand miles of streets, and on an average twenty-eight miles of new streets are opened and nine thousand new houses built every year. One thousand vessels and nine thousand sailors are in port every day. Its crime, unfortunately, is also in proportion to its extent. Seventy-three thousand persons are annually taken into custody by the police, and more than one-third of all the crime in the country is committed within its borders. Thirty-eight thousand persons are annually committed for drunkenness by its magistrates. The metropolis comprises considerably over one hundred thousand foreigners from every part of the habitable globe.