370 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



parties. That was the last of their eiforts. They had promised that when 

 the would-be monopolists were defeated, they would propose a "relief" for 

 Broadway. All they ever proposed was that the omnibuses should carry 

 change-takers, as the cars do. I have little sympathy with men of wealth 

 who have so little liberality, and who, though claiming to be gentlemen, 

 seem to be unconscious that gentlemen have peculiar duties, and to 

 suppose that they can act merely for their own interest and pleasure, 

 and yet be honored more than other men. This class, like those who 

 profess to be the elect in the religious world, look for benefits and enjoy- 

 ments for themselves with the least exertion of their own. I understand 

 that true Christians are to bear the burden of reforming the world, for the 

 benefit of the world, being prompted thereto by the disposition which dis- 

 tinguishes them from sinners; so I understand that true gentlemen are to 

 bear the burden of prompting liberal improvements, for the public good, 

 being prompted thereto by the taste and liberality which distinguish 

 them from the commonalty. I regret that a sense of duty constrains me 

 to add, that I do not see in American gentlemen so vivid a sense of this 

 duty as I see in English gentlemen, and especially in the conduct of the 

 Broadway proprietors I do not see enough of this liberal spirit to entitle 

 them to higher esteem than is due to respectable tradesmen, 



I know nothing as to th(5 truth or falsehood of the charge that George 

 Law and others have bribed legislators to confer upon them a monopoly of 

 the passenger traffic on Broadwa}^ and other streets ; nor do I know what 

 prospect the proprietors have of defeating the scheme altogether, or getting 

 into the city treasury the value of the grant, or getting a low rate of fare 

 for the benefit of the people; but I see in some of the proprietors a despond- 

 ing air, which evinces anticipation of total defeat; and, from this appearance 

 in those who know the means applied on both sides, I expect that the grant 

 will be made to the applicants, without regard to the offers of the proprietors, 

 or their remonstrances and legal proceedings, and that the courts will 

 never annul or impair the grant. They are either sold or given away. 

 They may ascribe their discomfiture, and the depreciation of their property, 

 to their own lack of liberal enterprise. 



Yet there is a means by which they can retrieve their defeat, and over- 

 power the encroaching speculators. They can yet get possession of a 

 power that will underwork and render profitless all that the grantees can 

 oppose to them. But if they wait until the rails are laid, and steam is at 

 work upon them, and the talent is employed by their opponents, then it 

 will be too late for them to prevent the principle of cheapness from banish- 

 ing elegance, and even decency from their street. The crowding and 

 discomfort of the rail cars now in use, the presence of smoky and noisy 

 locomotives, the dirt that a sordid government will not prevent, all pre- 

 indicate that Broadway will assume a working character, and lose its 

 former character of elegance and fashion. And within thirty years the 

 Fifth avenue will be extended downward, and built in superior style, and 

 Broadway will be eclipsed as Pearl street has been eclipsed. If the 

 proprietors fail to avail themselves of the talents of civil and mechanical 

 engineers, architects and others who have applied their faculties to the 

 solution of this problem, and rely on their own crude notions, conceived 



