1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



85 



but we are convincetl, noUvithstancling, tliat there is ;\ want of energy 

 on tlie part of the ofTicers, which throws the business into arrear, anil 

 paralyses the wliole operations. 



Tlio Long Gallery has now been closed nearly a year, and the pub- 

 lic thus shut out from the Portrait Gallery, the geological and niine- 

 r.ilogical collections. At the same time we know that Dr. Mantell's 

 collection of nearl}' thirty thousand specimens has been purchased, 

 and ought long since to have been arranged. The Etruscan collection 

 has remained in its present stale during the whole of the last year, 

 and thus has it been rendered totally useless. The Egyptian collection 

 is, on the lowest estimaleT two years in arrear, and the Vase Room 

 good for nothing. As to the mammalia, their condition has been a 

 subject of ridicule many years, and every month, by increasing the 

 collection, renders the absurdity but more manifest. The managers 

 of this department certainly deserve the highest praise for their com- 

 pressive power, in which, doubtless, they have hardly yet met with 

 a rival. An old bachelor's travelling portmanteau is nothing to it; 

 cats crouching under lions, deer striding over wolves, the cases, cram- 

 med even into the crevices with stuffed animals, show a crowd of im- 

 prisoned and confused creaturesj which even the ark of Noah could 

 not equal. 



With regard to what has been done, it has been little indeed. The 

 arrangement of the ^Egina marbles has been completed, the Fhidian 

 and Phigalian Saloons have been painted of a red granite colour, 

 which, it is to be wislied, may be continued throughout the whole 

 house. The collection of lish, saurians, and batrachians, has been ex- 

 tended, and the insects and corallines removed. At Paris, a much 

 greater number of entomological specimens is exhibited to the public, 

 and so far is the respect even for vulgar curiosity carried, that tlie 

 whole of the papilionaceous tribes are shown, forming a sight of natu- 

 ral beauty which is well calculated to strike the spectator with emo- 

 tion. It is a national disgrace, that, ruling over one hundred and forty 

 millions in India, we have no good collection of oriental objects, the 

 illustration of our own antiquities is equally defective, and nrany de- 

 partments flourishing in coimtries of less resources, are here totally 

 neglected. 



As to the catalogues of public collections in this country, with the 

 exception of a portion of that of the British Museum relating to 

 natural history, they are miserably defective, and inferior to what is 

 done abroad. The catalogue of the National Gallery is a gross im- 

 position, charging one shilling for a book which contains about one 

 jiennyvvorth of print and paper, and scarcely one farthing's worth of 

 information. The catalogue of the Louvre, although necessarily 

 restricted, gives much more detail, the name of the painter, of his 

 master, the period at which he lived, the school to which he belonged, 

 and a description of the subject. That of the National Gallery gives 

 tlie name of the painter, ancl the date of his birth, and only the name 

 of the picture, giving such references to the people as to a story in 

 Tasso, and limiting the descriptive matter to a history of the picture, 

 which, as many of the works are spurious or contemptible, is of no 

 value. The catalogue of the antiipulies in the Britisli Museum is of 

 no use, eilher to the artist or the public, giving the name of the st;due, 

 and barely that! No — a Mithraic sidijectl Who knows what that 

 means, or who can tell where to find out. The catalogue of the Paris 

 Museum of Antiquities, under the same circumstances, gives a page or 

 two of small type to an account of the Mithraic rites. That catalogue 

 gives, in every case, the name of the subject, extent of iruitilalions or 

 restorations, history, stone of which made, height and breadth, and a 

 fnl! antiquarian and artistical account, with reference to the authorities 

 of any peculiarity to be observed in the statue. To such an extent is 

 this carried, that the catalogue is a complete encyclopedia of Greek 

 and Roman costume, having the author's name attached to it, and in- 

 valuable to the student. 



THE PUBLIC WALKS OF LONDON. 



Much is said about the public gardens and walks of Paris, nothing is 

 said of those of London, except by foreigners whom they never fail to 

 strike with admiration. The Tuileries, the Champs Elysces, the 

 Luxemburg, the Jardin des Plantes, and the Quais have great and in- 

 contestable merits, they possess features which we cannot rival, but 

 those of London again are unexcelled in their own department. Each 

 style is suited to its respective nation, perhaps it is a consequence of 

 their several characters, perhaps a cause. We see at once the French- 

 man in the classic statues, in the ordonnanced foliage, the imprisoned 

 orange trees, and the straight walks. The Englishman seems to im- 

 press his own character in the grassy slopes, luxuriant timber, anti 

 placid waters of the scenes in which he epitomizes his beloved isle. 

 The Frenchman knows no paradise without artifice, the Englishman 

 none without nature, the American hates even the sight of a tree. 

 That of which we have to complain is neither the graiKie,ur nor extent 



of our public walks, but their unequal distribution. The parks were 

 truly named the lungs of the metropolis, they are so, to the over- 

 worked mechanic they are receivers from which he obtains fresh 

 breath to carry on his life-shortening labours. Yet as in the human 

 being if we had an unequal distribution of the respiratory organs, we 

 should find an atrophy of the body, so in the immense metropolis an 

 insufficient provision of these necessaries of life causes an immense 

 loss of human existence. The southern portions of the metropolis 

 between Greenwich and Kew are miserably unprovided, but it is 

 among the impoverished population of the east that the want is felt in 

 all its severity. So great indeed is the difference between the average 

 value of life in the east and the west of the metropolis, that whereas 

 in the latter it is 2-1 per cent., in the former it is 3-2, and in White- 

 chapel it is so low that one female in twenty- four dies in a year, an 

 awful mortality, scarcely perhaps equalled by Portugal or any other 

 misgoverned country. 



The walks of London may be divided into two classes, public and 

 corporate, antl the former again into special promenades and into 

 thoroughfares and micellaneo\is sites used for this purpose. 



Among the special promenades are to be reckoned .St. James's Park, 

 collection of curious birds, military monuments and music ; Green 

 Park ; Hyde Park, military exercises and Kensington Gardens, mili- 

 tary nuisic; Regent's Park ; Greenwich Park ; Kew Gardens; Draper's 

 Gardens, Throgmorton-street ; Artillery Ground, City Road, military 

 nuisic ; "Tower Hill, recently planted ; Lambeth Walk ; Cheyne Walk, 

 &c. 



Among the other ]daces used for walks are the old commons and 

 greens as Islington and Kennington; Chelsea Hospital ; the Cemeteries 

 at Kensall Green, Highgate and Norwood ; the Docks, &-. 



We have not a line of tjuais as at Paris, and we should be sorry in- 

 deed if we had, but we have points on the river allurding unrivalled 

 views : — the Dock Wharfs, Tower W liar I, Custom-house YVIiarf, Tem- 

 ple Gardens, Waterloo Bridge, the Adclphi Terrace, Huugerford 

 Stairs, Millbank, Cheyne Walk, the Bishop's Walk tLambcthj, and the 

 Terrace of Greenwich Palace. 



Coming to the second class walks belonging to and used by coui- 

 inunities, we have the unrivalled squares, the gardens of Lincoln's Inn, 

 Gray's Inn, the Temple, Charterhouse, i&c. 



These many establishments place London almost without a rival in 

 the provision for this departiiient of public health, and in the beauty 

 of many of the establishments and their accessaries, as well as in the 

 splendour of the views which they afford, — unique prospects of one 

 of the largest cities and ports in the world. 



GOVERNMENT MEASURES FOR STEAM VESSELS. 



It was with regret that we learned that on the first day of the 

 session the government gave notice of their intention to bring in a bill 

 for carrying out the recommendations of the Steam Vessel Inquiry 

 Commission. This report has now lieen long published, and so far 

 from attracting the support of those w ho have examined it, it has ex- 

 cited cither open hostility or silent contempt. We had occasion on 

 its appearance to call the attention of our readers to its provisions, we 

 jiointed oid the meanness and paltriness of the means by which it was 

 attempted to be supported, and the injurious results which must in- 

 fallibly ensue from the enactment of its provisions. A case of grosser 

 jobbery, or more iniquitous misrepresentation than is presented by the 

 report was never hardly brought before the public. Had indeed the 

 necessity of inquiry been so great as to require investigation only to 

 ascertain the extent of injury, a case would at once exist for the ap- 

 pointment of a commission, but when no such necessity existed, when 

 no evils prominently called for redress, it was but a gross mockery of 

 public credulity, and an arbitrary exercise of delegated power to in- 

 vest men of whatever standing with authority, which they received as 

 it were with permission to direct for their own personal advantage. 

 What was it but calling on the commissioners to make out a case not 

 only to justify their present employment, but to give them occupation 

 for the future, to do as they have done in this case, to use every 

 artifice of an accuser to overwhelm the object of pursuit? Has 

 even common respect been paid to the judgment of the public, com- 

 mon justice been shown to the victims of this perseculion ? facts of 

 trivial insignificance have been overrated and overstated, a judicial 

 investigation has resorted to absurdities to bolster up a false c.uise, 

 popular prejudices have been appealed to, insufficient and untried 

 examples have been enforced as of authority and example, in fine the 

 dignity of the government and the people has been outraged, the pros- 

 perity of the country threatened, and the vested interests of property 

 attacked. And for what purposes but the grossest.' To furnish new 



