But whatever the unhappy citizens of London might then suffer; it is evident, that this was one of the greatest blessings that could have happened for the good of posterity; for, instead of very narrow and incommodious streets; instead of dark, irregular, and ill contrived wooden houses, with their several stories projecting over, obstructing the circulation of the air, and harbouring those noxious particles that occasioned the frequent return of the plague, and often fires of the most dreadful kind; by the modern way of building, and the enlarging of many of the streets, offensive vapours are expelled; and this, added to the cleanliness produced by the great quantities of the water brought into London by the New River, has freed this city from all pestilential symptoms for above ninety years together. The reduction of this great and opulent city to a heap of rubbish, greatly affected the whole nation; and the King desiring it should be now erected with greater magnificence, uniformity, and safety than before, prohibited for some time the rebuilding of the houses; and the Judges were ordered by Parliament to hear and determine all disputes between landlords, tenants, and lessees, concerning the rebuilding and repairing of houses, &c. without fee or reward. London indeed might now have been rebuilt in such a manner, as to have exceeded in beauty all the cities upon earth; and this would have been the case, had either of the following plans been followed. The first was formed by Sir Christopher Wren, who, pursuant to the royal commands, traced over the great plain of ashes and ruins, and thence formed his plan of a new city, free from all the deformities and inconveniencies of the old one; by enlarging the streets and lanes, and rendering them as nearly parallel to each other as possible; by seating all the parish churches in a conspicuous manner; by forming the most public places into large piazzas, the centers of eight ways; by uniting the halls of the twelve Companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall; by making a spacious and commodious key along the whole bank of the river, without any interruptions, from Black Friars to the Tower, with some large docks for barges deep laden. The streets were to be of three magnitudes; the three principal leading straight through the city, and one or two cross streets to be at least ninety feet wide; others sixty feet, and the lanes about thirty feet, excluding all narrow dark alleys, thoroughfairs, and courts. The Exchange to stand free in the middle of a piazza, and to be the center of the town, from whence the streets should proceed to all the principal parts of the city; the building to be after the form of a Roman forum, with double porticos. Many streets were also to radiate upon the bridge. Those of the first and second magnitude to be carried on as straight as possible, and to center in four or five areas surrounded with piazzas.