After the great fire of September, 1666, London had the opportunity, so frequently offered in America, of rectifying those unfortunate results which occur in all cities that have grown up; and the sin of omission in the case of the British metropolis was the more unpardonable, inasmuch as plans for improvement were prepared by one of the great architects of the world, Sir Christopher Wren, only to be set aside by the perverse self-interest of the then citizens of London. Wren’s plans contemplated a city with streets radiating from central points, and the locations for public buildings were arranged so as to give pleasing objects of sight at the end of long vistas,—principles of civic arrangement which the English architect fixed on paper years before the French city-builders adopted the same principles for the development of Paris.[9] The failure of Wren’s scheme of 1666 has cost London millions upon millions of money to repair in part the errors which might have been avoided so easily, besides years of inconvenience and loss due to congestion of traffic. From 1855 to 1900 one project after another for bettering the conditions in London has been carried out, at a cost equal to nearly one hundred million dollars; and now the new Traffic Commission has reported a tentative plan for diminishing the congestion in street traffic by cutting two great thoroughfares: one traversing the town from north to south, the other linking Bayswater with Whitechapel, the estimated cost of the combined work being in the neighborhood of $125,000,000 for land damages alone.[10] Recently England has taken up in comprehensive manner the whole subject of housing the working classes and of town planning. In 1890 a limited act was passed for the housing of the working classes; and in 1907 this act was supplemented by “the small holdings and allottments act.” It is now proposed to extend the provisions of these acts to every urban and rural district. The powers conferred center in the Local Government Board, to which local authorities apply for approval of the plans proposed; and in case these local authorities fail to make application, the Board may order schemes to be prepared and carried out. There is also a Public Works Loan Commission which authorizes loans for the purpose of carrying out the approved plans.[11] [Illustration: XXIII. ORIGINAL PLAN OF WASHINGTON DESIGNED BY PETER CHARLES L’ENFANT, 1791.]