292 Statistical Notices. 



mines, canals, and all the other appendages of a great com- 

 mercial and manufacturing nation* It was there, according 

 to Whitfield, that the ** Arch Enemy" raised his triumphant 

 standard; it was there that the harvest of lost souls was ripe 

 and abundant. But the, most decisive proof of the compara- 

 tive purity of the rural population above that of the manufac- 

 turing districts, is the fact that the single town of Manchester 

 will furnish ten times more criminal prosecutions th^n.tw® 

 Welch counties which contain an equal number of inhabitants. 

 On the whole, I think we cannot escape the conclusion, 

 that, though a certain degree of commercial and manufacturing 

 property is necessary to stimulate the agriculture of a nation, 

 and to call forth its utmost powers of production, yet that it 

 is not desirable that this country should proceed much further 

 in that dangerous career, or increase still further the dispropor- 

 tion between its urban and rural population. The late increase 

 in our numbers is so rapid and alarming, that I am afraid some 

 positive checks (to use Mr. Malthus's language) of very terri- 

 ble potency must soon be brought into action. The forcible 

 lines of Goldsmith, though that great poet knew little enough 

 of political economy, are applicable l^oith^ wise and benevo* 

 lent statesmen of all times — ' i . - s : 



'Tis theirs to judge, how wide the limits stand • ' 



, jpetjween^a.splendid and a happy land, -rv^ /? Kir; : 



-/J) LU:j .'M.- JdmiyYiY' 



On the Modern Ornaments of Architecture, ^c. 



In no age since the Augustan era of Rome, perhaps, has 

 decoration of the interior of dwellings been carried to greater 

 excess than at present ; nor, since the days of the florid style of 

 Gothic architecture, has the exterior received more embellish- 

 ment. Architectural ornaments have generally been copied 

 from the antique, those especially which belong to the orders. 

 Indeed there is a kind of classical standard, which governs 

 the architect in the execution of publfc edifices, from which 

 he cannot with propriety depart. National, and regal em- 

 blems, wherever suitable, should always be introduced in 

 public buildings, and in those of a private or mixed character 



