102 Architecture in the United States. 



internal character ; and no question is answered sooner, and gener- 

 ally, with more correctness. Indeed I do not hesitate to say, that in 

 no country is a striking object sooner analyzed or its worth more cor- 

 rectly estimated. This feeling of the public is going to increase and 

 improve, and, before many years, he who will wish a town to flour- 

 ish, in choosing its position and forming its plan, will have to consult 

 not only health and convenience, but also beauty and good taste. 

 The former will in most cases allow a range of a few miles for the 

 latter, and the sooner these are consulted the better will it be for the 

 interests even of those whom no other considerations affect. 



But I wish to touch another string, and one to which every patri- 

 otic bosom will respond. We have a happy country : it may be 

 made as beautiful as it is happy. But there is some danger that this 

 will not be. Our forefathers set the example of looking to Europe, 

 and particularly to England, for every thing ; and in most cases we 

 follow the example. We draw even the plans of our towns and 

 cities from them. By this I do not mean that we form them street by 

 street, according to the model of any English city, but that we are 

 pleased or satisfied if their general character corresponds with those 

 abroad. Now there is not one of them, not even Rome, that would 

 not be glad to remodel itself, and change from the clumsiness of its 

 present form, into something of more symmetry and taste. And 

 they always do it, as far as possible, whenever there is opportunity. 

 Witness London, after the great fire, and Rome, after the sack by 

 Brennus and his Gauls. Both events have been a blessing to these 

 cities, though regarded as calamities at the time. We will confine 

 our remarks to England for the present. Her origin was in dark- 

 ness : her morning gloomy and obscure. The sites for her towns 

 were chosen, and their character determined, by men of rude habits 

 and unenlightened minds, governed in their judgment of such things 

 by the harsh dictates of necessity and nothing more : their succes- 

 sors, for centuries, were but little better, and thus have their cities 

 taken shape and form. Palaces it is true have been substituted for 

 the huts of the first inhabitants ; but, after all, it is only a savage in 

 brocade. I use harsh language about places we have been taught to 

 respect, and do justly respect : but still it is true, and they feel it j 

 for London is almost every day tearing down costly houses to widen 

 streets, or form new ones, or open public squares, for the health 

 or proper convenience of her inhabitants. And so will our posterity 

 have to do, if we go on as we have commenced : indeed we are 



