Securities against Fire, &c. 303 
But I leave the subject of conflagration by lend, to say secondly, 
a parting word as to the dreadful destruction of life and property, 
consequent upon the use of badly managed Steam boats; in which 
species of calamity, we seem to surpass all nations in the world. 
Mr. Webster’s motion on this subject, it is hoped, will produce 
some effect before the present session of Congress shall expire; and 
that something may be done to save the public from these disas- 
ters, but yet not all (I am sure,) that Mr. Webster would wish. As 
regards myself, 1 may be allowed here to take my leave of these 
topics. 
By way of return, however, to those who have followed the wan- 
derings of the writer of these pages, his piece will conclude with an 
interesting and authentic anecdote, respecting a conflagration, which 
was the origin of the present Cathedral of St. Paul’s in London; 
which is certainly the most splendid building, not in a Gothic style, 
known in the christian world among the seceders from the church of 
Rome. The anecdote which I have to furnish, is extracted from 
Mr. Evelyn’s dedication to Sir Christopher Wren, of his account of 
architects and architecture; and is as follows; being prefaced by a 
well known and not unmerited compliment. “If the whole art of 
building (in the Greek and Roman style,) were lost, (says Mr. Eve- 
lyn,) it might be recovered and found again in St. Paul’s, the Histor- 
ical Pillar,* and other monuments of your happy talent and extraor- 
dinary genius. J have named St. Paul’s, and truly not without ad- 
miration, as oft [recalto mind * * * the sad and deplorable 
situation it was in, when (after it had been made a stable for horses 
consult his amusing epigram; (Epig. 60, book 7,) the concluding line of his last 
couplet being 
JVune Roma est: nuper magna taberna fuit. 
Even Nero, however, is said to have issued proper orders for the construction of 
the new buildings, expected to appear in the restoration of Rome. 
Evelyn, in his dedication of his translation of Freart’s parallel of ancient and 
modern architecture, to Sir John Denham, (the poet and a knight of the Bath,) when 
Denham was superintendent and surveyor of buildings and works, to Charles II, re- 
lates, that the first orders for paving the streets of London, were issued by Sir John 
Denham, only two years before the great fire of London in 1666. 
Boston is an American city, in which the most resolute and fundamental changes 
have lately been made, on principles introduced by its late spirited Mayor, Mr. Quin- 
cy, now President of Harvard College; but still the great rule of Dr Franklin, bor- 
rowed from what the Dr. observed in France, is probably to this moment, unknown 
even in Boston. 
* The “ Monument,” so called, on Fish street Hill, London. 
