Local Industries of Glasgow and the West of Scotland - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1901. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISES, BY The Hon. SAMUEL CHISHOLM, LL.D., 'Lord Provost of the City of Glasgow, and Lord-Lieutenant of the County of the City of Glasgow. MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISES. INTRODUCTION. The years that have elapsed since the last visit of the British Association to Glasgow have not been more distinguished for their commercial prosperity and for the advances they have witnessed in scientific discoveries than they have been for the striking growth in municipal government and the extension of municipal enterprises. The cities of the land have grown, actually and relatively. They are larger in themselves, and they bear an immensely larger proportion to the entire population of the country. Police burghs have sprung up in multitudes of "populous places," while even remote villages and hamlets have been brought under the control of the popularly elected County Council. There has been developed over all the land an increased spirit of municipal interest and activity. In all these respects Glasgow fully shares the characteristics of the time. When the British Association visited Glasgow in 1876 the population of the city was 510,000. To-day it stands at 760,000. If we include the population which clusters around its municipal boundaries, and which is but the surge of its advancing tide, the number is 910,000. But mere growth in size is a petty boast, and if that were all Glasgow had to show for herself during the last twenty-five years, it would be pitiful indeed. But the extension of her area; the growth of her population; the deepening and the broadening of the Clyde (her great highway to the sea); the marvellous extension of inter-city railway communication; all these things have been accompanied by a growth in civic spirit and an enlarged activity in what may b...