LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



available or desirable localities have been se- 

 cured for other purposes. But, whatever the 

 alternative of cost, I cannot learn that such an 

 enterprise, when thoroughly matured and in 

 complete operation, has ever proved a disap- 

 pointment. I have never heard of a disposi- 

 tion on the part of voters to rescind any ap- 

 propriation for such a purpose, and to con- 

 vert a public garden or park to economic uses. 

 I never heard of an instance where pride did 

 not speedily attach to the public grounds, if 

 accessible and well cared for, and where the 

 people of such a town did not make a boast 

 and a glory of the endowment. 



Even in countries where such far-sighted im- 

 provements are effected by the force majeure 

 of an Imperial edict, popular resentments or 

 revolutions never find their leverage in such 

 tokens of extravagance. There are not a 

 thousand men in Paris, rich or poor, who 

 would make quarrel with Louis Napoleon for 

 the millions lavished upon the Bois de Bou- 

 logne, or the appointments of the Park Mon- 

 ceau. But there were tens of thousands of 

 malcontents, in Louis Philippe's time, with the 

 fortification bill, and the inclosure for private 

 uses, of a terrace of the garden of the Tuil- 

 eries. The people may not, indeed, have a 



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