84 TlMEHRI, 
the ship for a half-penny's worth of tar" — and 
just here it may be well, to remember that 
where costliness of design, or richness of detail 
are not required, or on account of expense must 
be done away with, then, the next best thing should 
be had and, in many cases even the better thing, 
viz., artistic characler ; and this, only a true archi- 
tect is capable of imparting, for it cannot be copied? 
though sometimes, we must own, it seems to come by 
chance — an artistic fluke we may call it; — but amateurs 
should not dream of attempting it. 
Again if we are to spend public money for public 
building (and we are forced to do so, for no public spirit 
has induced men as yet to leave any money for such local 
purposes*), we must be careful not to be influenced too 
much by what is called public taste — but rather 
make use of it in the inverse ratio to the money 
spent, for as WALPOLE has somewhere tritely put it-- 
" Public taste is the taste of the public, which is a 
prodigious quantity of no taste, generally governed by 
some exceeding bad taste." The remark is severe enough 
* It certainly seems an unenviable reflection on a flourishing colony 
such as British Guiana, that of the many men who have made their money 
here and laid their bones elsewhere, none have ever shown any gratitude 
for their gains by benefiting the land of their adoption. Not a single 
11 institution" of charity, or any building to promote commerce, art or 
anything else — has been raised by a single one of those who owe so 
much to the colony — not a public bath, or wash house, not a drinking 
fountain, not an iron trough for thirsty dogs to drink from, has been 
bequeathed to our worthy town : hence the total absence of all marble or 
metal monuments, or statues among us, for there are no daring deeds 
or deeds of money, or any works of public interest commemorated — with 
perhaps the exception of one to be commemorated. 
