1811 .] Decay of Iron^work about St . PauVs and Somerset House, £17 
tljat in this part, “ les Pasteurs et Profes- 
seurs de i'Eglise de are not 
even tlie snpposed translators of the 
Icxte Gj'ed’ For the title of the New 
Testament in tlie Edition Sterdotype of 
Mr. T. llutt’s French Bible, is ths fol¬ 
lowing; Le Nouveau Testament de 
riotre Seigneur Jdsus Christ, Impriine sur 
Addition de Parisf del'annee, 1305. Edi¬ 
tion Stereotype revue et corrigee avec 
soin d’aprhs le texte Grec. A Loiuires: 
Imprimd avec permission. (Sur les Plan¬ 
ches Stereotypes de la Societe pour I’iin- 
pression de la Bible en langue Angloise, 
et en langues etrangere'.) Pour Gale 
& Curtis, Paternoster-row; et Dulau & 
Co. Soho-square ; Execute par A. Wilson, 
Camden Town, Sr. Pancras. 1811.” 
Knowing nothing of “ L’edition de 
Paris, de Vannee 1805,” nor of Mr. A. 
Wilson, it is not my province to speak of 
them. 
Th. Abauzit, 
Min. of the Church of Geneva, Past, 
of St. Martin Orgars\ and Chap¬ 
lain to the French Hospital. 
Kensington-square, August 30, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N page 401 of your Magazine for last 
June, Mr. Bakewell, in a very ela¬ 
borate inquiry into the causes of tfie 
rapid decay visilde in some of our public 
edifices, lauieats the negligence of our 
modern architects in selecting the ma¬ 
terials with which they are constructed j 
by w'hich those monuments of national 
taste and grandeur, thus rendered unfit 
to struggle, like those of Greece and 
Home, through ages and ages, with the 
subjugating power of time, become likely 
to perish long before fabrics erected in 
much earlier days. This inattention of 
our architects is certainly a lamentable 
thing; but, as a knowledge of mineralogy 
is requisite for the judicious selection of 
such materials, and as that is a veiy dis* 
tinct science from architecture, it is not 
improbable that a man may have a very 
perfect knowledge of the one science, 
wiihouL being in the least acquainted 
with the other. Such has probably been 
the case with some ofonr best architects, 
and therefore this ill selection of their 
materials may not be attributable to any 
culpable neglect on their part. But a 
cause of decay in those same edifices, to 
which 1 wish to call the attention of those 
.persons whose duty it is to attend to it, is 
the immediate result of gross carelessness 
and inattention. On passing by St, 
Paul’s yesterday, I was struck with the 
ravage which the elements had made on 
the massive iron-woik (particularly the 
iron doors) which surround tlie inclosure 
of that stately pile. On two of the iron 
duors which I particularly noticed, there 
vyas not the slightest trace of paint for 
several square feet, and the rust was 
rapidly spreading and conoeijng. A 
friend of mine, to whom I noticed the 
observation I had made, told me, that a 
few years back be had observed the same 
effect in the iron cramps at the top of 
the building. 
In the more recently erected structure 
of Somerset Bouse, tiie iron-work in 
front, next to the Strand, is beginning to 
rpst and decay from the same cause. 
Either the most culpable neglect, Oi the 
most shameful penunousness, must oc¬ 
casion this effect. Almost every child 
knows, that iron-work, when exposed to 
the action of the air and tain, requires to 
be painted at least every third year; this 
cause of decay cannot, tlierefore, pro¬ 
ceed from ignorance. 
As to Somerset Bous*, as that is a 
national edifice, I sliould have lliought 
a few pounds might occasionally have 
been spared, out of the millions our 
taxes annually produce, for this necessary 
and useful purpose; and, as to -St. Paul’s , 
the holy brethren who fatten on the am¬ 
ple revenues of that psotestant monas¬ 
tery might, I should think, be able, now 
aiul then, to clothe witli a coat or two of 
paint, tlie naked and perishing iron¬ 
work of their nuagnificent calliedral. 
August 23, 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
lEA^E often partlciDated in the ex¬ 
pressions of asloiiusbii’ent winch I 
have heard, bow it should hafipen, that 
in a country like ours, teeming with light 
and humane feeling, we should he so re¬ 
peatedly sliocked with accounts of per¬ 
sons in extreme old age, and in tlie lowest 
stale of indigence, prisoners fur debt. 
On seeking and obtaining information, 
iny astonistnnent increased, and was sne- 
ceeded by melancholy lelicctions on the 
uncertainty of ail liuinau endeavours, 
and the loo great certanuy, tliat even the 
most just, consideraie, and beneficent, 
designs, may be attendctl until the most 
unfortunate consequences. I was for 
4 the 
