THE ENGLISH PARKS. 27 



river of pure water into her city, and dispensing, with an unre 

 strained munificence, to those who cannot purchase it, this most 

 important element, next to vital air, of human existence ; let her 

 go on and make the other provision, to which I have referred, 

 for the health and comfort of a population already great, and 

 destined to increase with an unexampled rapidity beyond any 

 bounds which the imagination would now even dare to prescribe. 



Philadelphia has set a better example than most other cities in 

 this respect, in having laid out her streets of a capacious width. 

 in having given to most of her houses yards or gardens of a good 

 size, and in having formed, in different parts of the city, public 

 squares of some extent, which are equally ornamental and useful. 

 Bat she has done little compared with what she might have 

 done ; and it is to be hoped that she will be prompted to add to 

 a city, the most convenient and beautiful in the Union, some 

 public gardens and pleasure-grounds, admission to which shall be 

 freely offered to her inhabitants ; and more especially for the 

 benefit of that class of them who can have no such indulgences 

 but as the offerings of public beneficence. Baltimore has noth 

 ing that deserves the name of a square or a pleasure-ground, 

 unless we are to rank under that designation the beautiful enclo 

 sure which she has recently purchased for a cemetery ; a place, 

 indeed, for a melancholy and instructive pleasure, but more 

 properly devoted to silence and seclusion, and not at all of the 

 character to which I refer. Lowell destined to contain a large 

 and laborious population, and of a character particularly demand 

 ing such places of recreation, with an unlimited extent of land 

 at her disposal costing scarcely any thing, and with an invest 

 ment in her manufacturing establishments of ten or eleven mil 

 lions of dollars has not a public square so large as a pocket- 

 handkerchief. This omission has always impressed me with 

 painful surprise. Knowing, as I do, the high character of the 

 gentleman who founded and built this flourishing city, now 

 grown to manhood almost in a day, I can ascribe such an omis 

 sion only to a want of consideration, and to the fact that the 

 population has already extended far beyond any calculations 

 which they could, with sobriety, have formed at its commence 

 ment. It is not too late to supply this omission, which interest, 

 as well as philanthropy, most strongly dictates. 



Cleanliness, fresh air, and pure water, and the opportunity and 

 the means of relaxation and innocent recreation, are almost as 



