102 Architecture in the United States. 
internal character ; and no question is answered sooner, and gener- 
ally, with more correctness. _ Indeed I do not hesitate to say, that in 
no country is a striking object sooner analyzed or its worth more cor- 
rectly estimated. ‘This feeling of the public is going to increase and 
improve, and, before many years, he who will wish a town to flour- 
ish, in choosing its position and forming its plan, will have to consult 
not only health and convenience, but also beauty and good taste. 
he former will in most cases allow a range of a few miles for the 
latter, and the sooner these are consulted the better will it be for the 
interests even of those whom no other considerations affect. 
But I wish to touch another string, and one to which every patri- 
otic bosom. will respond. We have a happy country: it may be 
made as beautiful as it is happy. But there is some danger that this 
will not be. Our forefathers set the example of looking to Europe, 
and particularly to England, for every thing; and in most cases we 
follow the example. e draw even the plans of our towns and 
cities from them. By this I do not mean that we form them street by 
street, according to the model of any English city, but that we are 
pleased or satisfied if their general character corresponds with those 
abroad. Now there is not one of them, not even Rome, that would 
not be glad to remodel itself, and change from the clumsiness of its 
present form, into something of more symmetry and taste. And 
they always do it, as far as possible, whenever there is opportunity. 
Witness London, after the great fire, and Rome, after the sack by 
Brennus and his Gauls. Both events have been a blessing to these 
cities, though regarded as calamities at the time. We will confine 
our remarks to England for the present. Her origin was in dark- 
ness: her morning gloomy and obscure. The sites for her towns 
were chosen, and their character determined, by men of rude habits 
and unenlightened minds, governed in their judgment of such things 
by the harsh dictates of necessity and nothing more: their succes- 
sors, for centuries, were but little better, and thus have their cities 
taken shape and form. Palaces it is true have been substituted for 
the huts of the first inhabitants; but, after all, it is only a savage in 
brocade. I use harsh langage about places we have been taught to 
respect, and do justly respect: but still it is true, and they feel it; 
for London is almost every day tearing down costly houses to widen 
streets, or form new ones, or open public squares, for the health 
‘proper convenience of her inhabitants. And so will our posterity 
‘to do, if we go on as we have commenced : indeed we are 
