William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[293] far below her numbers. She has left behind her the four capitals of United Italy-Rome, Florence, Naples, and Turin. She claims to have at the present hour a population somewhat exceeding eleven hundred thousand souls.

The growth of modern Rome, the splendour of Berlin, are not so singular as the growth and splendour of Philadelphia. No city in our time has thriven so much as Rome has done since she became the capital of Italy ; yet in point of population Rome is but a sixth-rate town. In three years London adds to her numbers more people than cluster on the Seven Hills. In four years Philadelphia does the same. No one supposes that Rome will grow for ever as she is growing now. A Government, a Court, an army, and a Parliament, cannot enter her gates every year. Berlin has grown with an amazing swiftness, and the capital of Imperial Germany may feel the impulse of events longer than Rome; for Germany is a bigger country than Italy, her state system is less parochial, and more of her chief citizens, both civil and military, find their interest in living near the Emperor's court. Yet in Berlin, as in Washington, Madrid, and other artificial capitals,