4'28 Foreign Notices : — North America. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Philadelphia, May \9. 1841. — I have the pleasure to acknowledge the 

 receipt of your interesting description of the Derby Arboretum. This gift of 

 Mr. Strutt is, indeed, a splendid one, and the inhabitants of Derby will ever 

 have reason to hold the munificent donor in grateful remembrance. I have 

 made a brief notice of it in the Journal of tJie Franldln Institute, a cop}' of 

 which I herewith send you. 



You would probably be disappointed to receive a letter from an architect 

 on this side of " the water," in these disastrous times, without some allusion 

 to the effect of the recent convulsions in money matters on architecture ; 

 allow me then to tell you briefly how the matter stands with us. The de- 

 rangement of the currency of the country, the depreciation in the value of 

 securities, resulting mainly from the suspension of public works before they 

 could be made productive by completion, and a thousand other ills consequent 

 on a general loss of confidence, have produced a panic throughout the land 

 which seems to have led every body to repudiate (for the present at least) all 

 ideas of luxury, and to confine their expenditures to the absolute necessaries 

 of life ; the consequence is, that architects have now but little to do, beyond 

 what the mere utile dictates. Most of the public edifices which were begun 

 before the storm set in are, however, still advancing towards completion, 

 though in most instances their progress is much retarded by the narrow limits 

 to which appropriations are necessarily confined. 



These troubles seem to have been felt more severely in Philadelphia than 

 any where else. The location of the unfortunate United States Bank among 

 us, and the implicit confidence our citizens had in that Institution, led so 

 many to invest their funds in it, that the shock is now felt, either directly or 

 indirectly, by every man in the community. The temporary embarrassment of 

 our state has also imposed an onerous weight on Philadelphia ; the focus of 

 the financial concerns of Pennsylvania is in fact in this city, notwithstanding 

 the seat of government is at Harrisburg, 100 miles west of us. Our state 

 debts amount now to about forty milUons of dollars, and, in consequence of so 

 many of our public works being arrested in an unfinished state by the scarcity 

 of money, the proceeds that now arise from them fall short of the annual ex- 

 penditures about half a million of dollars, to say nothing of the interest. In 

 view of these circumstances you will not think it wonderful that so great a 

 change has come over the spirit of our dreams, and that the people have fallen 

 en masse into such a dreadful fit of economy. But these things are not to 

 last long. Pennsylvania will come out of the alembic of misfortune, refined 

 and purified. Already has she provided by direct taxation for an amount far 

 beyond her interest and other expenditures ; the whole forty millions, prin- 

 cipal and interest, must and will be paid, every cent of it, and that too by the 

 people. Every one of our public works, extensive as they are, will assuredly 

 be finished, and that before a great while. Even the peaceful arts will soon 

 be found to make head once more against all adverse influences : they have 

 heretofore taken a strong, a lasting hold on the community ; and minds 

 once trained to a perception of the chaste and beautiful, once imbued with a 

 relish for intellectual enjoyment, can never again be satisfied with coarseness 

 and vulgarity. A thousand such minds we have now around us, and there 

 can be no doubt that in a little while we shall all be once more prosperous 

 and happy. Many of our best states are, even now, wholly out of debt; and 

 could the present situation of our own Pennsylvania be calmly looked at, 

 without bringing it into contrast with the wonderful and overwrought pros- 

 perity of the last few years, all the consternation and dismay which seems 

 now to cloud our horizon with impenetrable gloom would at once be dis- 

 sipated. 



