Niio Market of Covent Garden. 

 41 



273 



foundation in moral strength. In the dark ages which suc- 

 ceeded, the only magnificent buildings erected were churches, 

 convents, kings' palaces, and castles, or rather fortresses. 

 Almost all other structures were temporary hovels, till the 

 establishment, by degrees, of commercial towns; first in 

 Italy, and afterwards in Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, 

 and England. These towns constituted a new power in 

 society, and gave birth to that principle of modern commerce, 

 Vol. VII. — No. 32. t 



