The St. Katherine’s Docks, recently formed near the Tower, will increase this species of accommodation, and be a great improvement to a district where reform and alteration are much required.  By a statement published by the Committee in October, 1828, it appears that “the first stone was laid 3rd of May, 1827,” and that a grand ceremony was exhibited on the 25th of October, 1828, of opening the Docks.  On that occasion, nine vessels, of from 516 to 343 tons burden, entered the docks to load and discharge their freights.  Above 1,200 houses, warehouses, &c. were purchased and taken down, to make room for the new works.  Accommodation is provided for the stowage of 210,000 tons of merchandize; and, from the improved construction of the warehouses, these goods will be always housed under cover.  The fixed capital for completing this great commercial undertaking is 1,352,752_l_.

A Collier Dock, on a large scale, has been projected to be excavated and formed in the Isle of Dogs, near Blackwall for which Mr. George Rennie has made plans and estimates.

The New London Bridge, now nearly completed, is a work of great magnitude, science, and novelty.  Its erection, in our times, and following the recent finishing of the bridges of Waterloo and Southwark, is a memorable event in the annals of London.

The projected Tunnel under the Thames is not only a novel object in this part of London, but, should it ever be accomplished, it will be a wonderful triumph of human talents over seeming impossibilities.

Although so many useful and even important improvements have been recently effected in the metropolis, there are yet many things left undone that ought to be done, and others proceeding in a manner that will neither be creditable nor beneficial.  The widening and opening of New Streets from Pall Mall to the British Museum; from that national repository to Waterloo Bridge, skirting the two theatres;—­from the Strand to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and thence to Holborn; and again to Covent Garden;—­from Charing Cross to Somerset House;—­from Oxford Road to Bloomsbury Square and Holborn;—­from Blackfriars’ Bridge to Clerkenwell, removing and clearing away that nuisance in a public thoroughfare, Fleet Market;—­from Moorfields to the Bank, and thence obliquely to Southwark Bridge;—­widening and opening the area around St. Paul’s Cathedral,—­are all calculated to be very beneficial to the public.  Other essential alterations are still required; and the legislature, as well as all public-spirited individuals, should co-operate to promote them.  The formation of open, respectable quays, terraces, and streets, on the banks of our fine river, is an event greatly to be desired.

The vastly-increasing population of London, has occasioned a great augmentation of Churches and Chapels, both for congregations of the establishment, and for dissenters.  In consequence of urgent, and argumentative appeals by some truly pious and benevolent Christians, the legislature has granted a large sum for the purpose of aiding parochial committees, to build new churches or enlarge their old ones.