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remarkably adapted to this purpose. The market could thus be con-
veniently extended on the same plan, from time to time, as the increase
of buildings towards the west required, without any necessary
ry encroach
ment on the original design. This plan has not received any improve-
ment since the foundation of the city, and does not seem susceptible of
any. It began at Second street, and since has been successively ex-
tended to Front street on one side, and Fourth street on the other,
forming three detached parts in one line, the breaks or openings taking
place at the intersections of the transverse streets with the main one.

Notwithstanding the vast progress of the city in population since the Revolution, only one of three parts, all of which are nearly equal in extent to each other, has been added in the last thirty years. This has been occasioned by the advance of buildings chiefly north and south adjacent to the Delaware, the great theatre of commerce. The demand for additional market room has occasioned a new market to be built on the borders of Southwark, in which the original fashion has been scrupulously followed. A very wide street forming a continuation of Second street, between Pine and Cedar streets, has been intersected by a market place, the extent of which has been about doubled since the Revolution, of the same form and materials with the old one. A new market of the same structure, but disposed in two sides of a small square, has likewise started up in the Northern Liberties. North New Market street is thus already fully occupied. Besides these streets, and High street, there is but one other street of great width, which is Great Dock street, but that, being of small extent, intermediate between the Old and New Markets, and adjacent to the Delaware, will never be in any particular demand as a market place. New markets must be formed in public squares, if formed at all; but the continuation of the ancient market will probably supply the new demand for half a century to come.

Since the visits of the Yellow Fever, the building tide has flowed westward with new and wonderful force, and the completion of the market between the two rivers will probably take place in the present generation. The original choice of a scite will deprive this edifice of many pretensions to magnificence: but a uniform open arcade mathematically straight, two miles in length, perfect in its symmetry, gracefully broken by the water building in its centre, which will naturally constitute a member of it, and by the intersecting streets, and openings wrod on a noble bridge, lying in the same line, at Schuylkill, will never be a contemptible object. It is to be hoped, no pragmatical architect will destroy this symmetry, by adopting new dimensions as to height or breadth, and taking a different curve for his arch. Different materials might perhaps, be advantageously employed, if the whole were to be

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built anew, and at one time piers and pavements might be made of stone instead of brick, and the wooden roof supplied with one of stone. This will be done, when the fathers of the city shall have learned that true taste will always bestow the greatest magnificence on structures of the highest utility, and that the most solid and durable are always in the long run, the cheapest edifices. The design needs no alteration, the piers are square, massive, simple in their mouldings, and short, all which are highly proper. The roof could not be higher without des forming the street, t, and incommoding the inhabitants, and the arch below and pediment above, are pleasing and graceful. When the whole is completed as to length, very few cities in Europe, and certainly none in America, can show any thing of this kind equal to it in real usefulness and dignity.

Brick, is a most wretched material for any edifice. The friction of carriages, and the violence of rude hands, make speedy havoc among its curvatures and mouldings. The mortar soon crumbles away, in the numberless minute junctures, and leaves unseemly gaps, and the wrinkles of premature old age. The air corrodes and discolours it with the most gloomy and dismal shades. Part of these evils may be remedied by the occasional use of paint, and even of lime, in white and yellow washes; and the great zeal there is in our city of late years for cleanliness and purity, makes it very surprising to me, that the plan of painting or whitewashing the market places has not been adopted. It would give an air of freshness to the building, and of neatness and gayety to the street, in which they have hitherto been miserably de

ficient.

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This building was originally carried up another story, at the corner of Second street, and a small room, with a balcony and stair-case toward the street, was for many years, the public or legislative hall, not only for the city, but for the province. From this balcony proclamations were originally made of the Independence of Ame rica, but the little, old, low building with its antiquated sharp roofs though sufficiently in unison with the narrowness of the space at the opening of two streets, bore very little proportion to the grandeur and importance of the ceremony. It was soon deserted by legislative bo dies. It was used for a time as a minor court of justice, but has for a long time been no more than a watch house, the rendezvous of the night watch.

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A finishing pediment has been erected at the Delaware end of this market, and either end of the southern market, where local business is transacted. Close rooms over open arcades employed as thoroughfares or markets, are common throughout Europe. They are ered found in Italy, where the Roman times afforded them no patterns of

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this sort. They seem to be recommended by nothing but economy of room and money.

To complete the harmony of this plan, and supply the extremes, as well as the middle of the city, with so useful an appendage, there is an opening or widening of the street in the Northen Liberties similar to that towards the south. This widening in the street is hardly less spa cious, but not so long. The buildings however, are judiciously con structed after the same fashion of convenience and simplicity.

A pretty lantern surmounts the termination of each of the northern and southern markets. This does not conform to the ancient plan, but is an elegant and judicious improvement.

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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

THE ensuing essay, written without the slightest tincture of party or prejudice, ís the production of the celebrated M. Dutens. It is the most terse and concise sketch of the history of a celebrated epoch which we have ever perused, and is entitled to equal respect and attention when it is remembered that it is the unbiassed testimony of an eyewitness, who by an intimate acquaintance with the world, had long cured himself of all prejudices derived from his birth, and who was wholly unconnected with the affairs of his country-Editor.

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With the dreadful revolution in France there is nothing to be compared in all that we have read in ancient and modern history. The first cause, and unhappily the most efficient, was, without doubt, the annihilation of all sense of religion. Voltaire was the grand mechanist of this change.! He worked at it constantly during sixty years: his associates, D'Alembert. the Baron de Holbach, Condorcet, Diderot, Helvetius, &c. seconded hitn with an inconceivable ardour, of which I have often been witness. They had followers among the nobility, the magistracy, the clergy in France, and out of France, and friends even among the crowned heads, who flattered them in order to be praised by them. Men so misled by false philosophy, could not fail of acting as the French did act.

This licentiousness of mind was followed by licentiousness of manners, It was the corrupt fruit of the same diabolical seed. History does not furnish examples of so great a number of crimes, of so general a perversity.

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of such frightful attrocities as that unfortunate kingdom experienced during fifteen years.

The last thirty years of Louis XVth were a succession of shameful excesses, which gave a large scope to the avidity of courtiers, to the corrupt influence of mistresses, and inspired the people with a contempt for the court. Louis XVI, at his accession to the throne, found the finances in a state of dilapidation; it was not in his power to renovate them. Against his advice and inclination, his ministers and the public cry engaged in the alliance with America. I was then at Paris; I remarked the effect that the word Liberty produced in every mind. They sent up their prayers for the Americans: they rejoiced in their successes. The French, in wishing them liberty, by a natural recurrence of thought, wished it also for themselves.

That alliance cost France prodigious sums, and greatly augmented her debt. To remedy these evils, the Notables were assembled. The next step was the convocation of the States-General. Necker, aiming at popularity, doubled the Tiers-Etat. Feeling its strength, the Tiers-Etat constituted itself a National Assembly, inviting the nobility and clergy to unite with it: and it is from this moment that the ruin of the monarchy may be dated.

Another cause, which led to the ruin of the kingdom, was the jealousy that the inferior nobility had of the higher ranks, who treated them with as little respect as the gentlemen themselves treated the citizens. Thus the desire that the inferior nobility had to lessen the great, joined to the hope that the citizens, tradesmen, attornies, and scriveners had to being on a level with themselves, the nobility in general formed altogether a union of public opinion, which nothing could withstand, and which soon discovered itself by the abolition of the nobility, produced the fatal principle of equality and sacrificed the king.

To these causes may be added, the goodness of Louis XVI, the affa bility of the Queen, the facility with which they allowed themselves to be approached, the suppers, at court, in short, all that served to familiarise society with the throne served to degrade the Royal Majesty, which never had more need of adding to its dignity, than at the moment when every thing conspired to abase it.

Such were the causes that produced the French revolution. The conse. quences are to be found in history: they are written in letters of blood; and so well engraved on the memories of our contemporaries, that it is useless to repeat them.

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We see by ee by this picture of the causes of the revolution, how necessary a State highly to respect religion; how much the example of princes is necessary to the support of good morals; and how much a wise administration of the finances influences the happiness of a country. We may see also how pernicious is the principle of equality, and consequently how necessary is the distinction of the different classes in society, and lastly we may perceive of what importance to the safety of the monarchical State is the dignity of the throne, and a veneration for the monarch who fills it.

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MEMOIRS OF HUTCHINSON.

THE relict of colonel Hutchinson, who was governor of Nottingham Castle during the rebellion, and the usurpation by the long parliament of the fanatics in the reign of Charles I, wrote the memoirs of her husband in a style of elegant simplicity, and in the spirit of romantic affection. The Edinburg reviewers thus beautifully portray the character of this lady, and contrast the fine yet modest features of her mind with the licentious audacity of Madam Roland.

MAKING a slight deduction for a few traits of austerity, borrowed from the bigotry of the age, we do not know where to look for a more noble and engaging character, than that under which this lady presents herself to her readers; nor do we believe that any age of the world has produced so worthy a counterpart to the Valerias and Portias of antiquity. With a highminded feeling of patriotism and public honour, she seems to have been possessed by the most dutiful and devoted attachment to her husband; and to have combined a taste for learning and the arts, with the most active kindness and munificent hospitality to all who came within the sphere of her bounty. To a quick perception of character, she appears to have united a masculine force of understanding, and a singular capacity for affairs; and to have possessed and excercised all those talents, without affecting any superiority over the rest of her sex, or abandoning, for a single instant, the delicacy and reserve, which were then its most indispensable ornaments. Education, certainly, is far more generally diffused in our days, and accomplishments infinitely more common; but the perusal of this volume has taught us to doubt whether the better sort of women were not fashioned of old by a better and more exalted standard, and whether the most eminent female of the present day would not appear to a disadvantage by the side of Mrs. Hutchinson. There is, for the most part, something intriguing, profligate, and theatrical in the clever women of this generation; and we are dazzled by their brilliancy and delighted with their talent, we can scarcely ever guard against some distrust of their judgment, or some suspicion of their purity. There is something in the domestic virtue and the calm and commanding mind of Mrs. H. that makes the Corinnas and Heloises appear very small and insignificant.

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The admirers of modern talent will not accuse us of choosing an ignoble competitor, if we desire them to weigh the merits of Mrs. H. against those of Madam Roland. The English revolutionist did not indeed compose weekly pamphlets and addresses to the municipalities-because it was not the fashion in her days to print every thing that entered into the heads of politicians. But she shut herself up with her husband, in the garrison with which he was entrusted, and shared his counsels as well as his hazards. 3 N

VOL. II.

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