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of knowledge in the fine arts amongst all men of liberal educa→ tion has excited a concurrent feeling on the part of the legislature, and funds will not be wanting to promote this interesting object. Since the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's collection, indeed, only four pictures have been bought for the National Gallery: they are the productions of Correggio, of Titian, of Annibal Carracci, and of Nicholas Poussin, and they are (as all pictures thus acquired for the use of the public ought to be) of the first class. The number of pictures offered for sale for this purpose is innumerable; but we think that none but the purest works of the most eminent painters should be added to the collection by purchase. The opportunities of making such acquisitions are now but seldom presented, and we believe that those, under whose recommendation they are likely to be made, are fully sensible of the necessity of proceeding cautiously and slowly in offering their advice. No entire collections should be purchased hereafter; but whenever the 'élite' of any such can be obtained, a liberal price ought to be given for works of established celebrity. The two pictures of Correggio, (one of which was in the collection of Charles I.) brought to England by the Marquess of Londonderry, and two of those by Murillo, in the collection of Marshal Soult, now offered for sale at Paris, are well worthy the attention of our government. But, while in search of the finest specimens of the most celebrated foreign masters, we trust those to whom these purchases are confided will neglect no opportunity of acquiring some of the choicest productions of such as are truly British. The works of Gainsborough, Wilson, Hogarth, and Reynolds, should hold a conspicuous place in the National Gallery of England.

The pamphlet of Sir Charles Long closes with a just tribute to the liberality which his present Majesty has shown to the Arts, specifying, among other instances, the recent gift of a large and valuable series of naval portraits to the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital. The King's desire to gratify the public taste has been often shown by the liberal contribution of his pictures to the Exhibition in Pall Mall; and we understand that, as Carlton House is to be pulled down immediately, his Majesty has graciously signified his permission that the whole of his private collection should be removed for the same purpose to the British Gallery until the new palace is ready to receive them.

It is now probable that a splendid building, designed for the use of the National Gallery of Paintings and Sculpture, will be erected on the north side of the new square at Charing Cross, to supplant the Mews, and to extend from Pall Mall East to St.

Martin's

Martin's church. We trust the idea of placing a Parthenon in the centre of that area for the service of the Royal Academy finally abandoned. We always thought it would be highly inconvenient, as well as impolitic, to accumulate all our public treasures under one roof, especially in a situation so remote as Great Russell-street. But we learn that the proposal for separating the sculptures from the Museum has created much discussion among its trustees. Certain difficulties are indeed presented by the conditions under which some of the donations have been made; but these, we think, might easily be arranged with the Government.

In directing the public attention to the improvement of London, two distinct objects are to be kept in view. The first (much outweighing the other in importance) is to provide the most complete and uninterrupted communication throughout this extensive metropolis. The second is the increase of its architectural splendour.

With respect to the first, we would especially notice the very defective means of intercourse from west to east. The immense crowds constantly swarming along the Strand, Fleet-street, Cheapside, and Cornhill, whether in carriages or on foot, are miserably eramped in their progress. Several hundred thousand persons daily traverse this principal thoroughfare, and have to struggle almost for each step, as they hasten to their destinations. We are rejoiced to see that the attention of the legislature is now directed towards this important object, and that the plans they have adopted for the improvement of Charing Cross provide for the opening of the Strand as far as Exeter Change, which, though deserving respect as a remnant of Burleigh House, has long been an obstacle to this great thoroughfare. We trust that the liberal co-operation of Lord Exeter and the Duke of Bedford in the further improvements contemplated in that quarter, will be followed by that of Lord Salisbury, so as to give a free access through his property also. The removal of all the houses on the west side of St. Martin's-lane, as far as the church, including the Golden Cross Inn, and the whole of the contiguous buildings, will form a noble square facing Whitehall, and will rescue the noble palace of the Percys (once the hospital of St. Mary Rouuceval) from the Strand.

If, after the removal of the commercial embarrassments, which have lately agitated the country, parliament should consent to make an annual grant, under the administration of commissioners, for improving the principal avenues of the metropolis, (not for the criticism of architectural elevations,) the widening of the whole line

*The barracks will be erected in the rear.

from

from Charing Cross to the Royal Exchange to a breadth of at least fifty feet, appears to be the object for most immediate attention. For this purpose all the buildings to be pulled down should be taken from the north side. After those already decided on as far as Exeter Change, the houses forming Holywell-street, and from Picket-place to St. Dunstan's, including at least the south aisle of that church, must be taken away; and lastly, those from the Old Bailey to Cheapside; the church of St. Martin Ludgate being removed, and all Paternoster-row thrown into the area of St. Paul's. The expenditure necessary to accomplish all this would doubtless be very large, but it would be gradual;-and it is, we think, indispensable. Other facilities of intercourse from west to east will still be required; Oxford-street should be carried in a straight line to Holborn, instead of deviating, as at present, to St. Giles's church. The breadth of this great street continues ample till it reaches Newgate-street, the north side of which ought to be pulled down before the new Post-office is opened. A middle line of communication is further wanted; for a population of 1,200,000 souls is entitled to several thoroughfares. Coventry-street, prolonged through Leicester-square, and thence into Covent-garden, should proceed through Wych-street to Temple-bar, which is indeed a public nuisance, and in more senses than one a barrier to the city. It must be taken down; and should the municipality still demand some such security to their civic privileges, let an ornamental structure be erected in its place, at least a hundred feet wide, with a noble arch of very ample space for carriages, and others of smaller width on each side for foot-passengers. Farther east, we should propose a broad handsome street from Cornhill leading east to the Commercialroad; and another from Holborn, through Smithfield and Finsbury-square, to Bethnal-green. In making this important opening, the cattle-market should be placed (as this very spot once was) quite out of town; and, by converting Smithfield into a handsome square, we would, if possible, blot out the memory of the sacrifices formerly offered on that dreadful quemadero.'

In regard to the formation of adequate communications between the north and south sides of London, we have but a few suggestions to make. A splendid beginning has been made in Regent-street, which, with all its architectural freaks, is unquestionably the finest street in Europe. We sincerely hope the indefatigable efforts of Mr.Nash will not fail in carrying into execution his other beautiful plan for a new street from St. Martin's church to the Museum. If ever Waterloo-bridge is to be profitable to its owners, or serviceable to the public, these objects must be attained by opening a street northward to Lincoln's Inn Fields, crossing Holborn

into Russell-square, and thence into the great North-road. We venture to consider another equally important improvement as already secured;—which is, the extension of the great street from Blackfriars-bridge to Clerkenwell, sweeping away Fleet-market and all that hive of infamy which has swarmed for centuries on Saffron-hill. It is hoped that a similar effort will be made by the shareholders of Southwark-bridge to conduct a street thence across Cheapside into Finsbury-square. Many of the most valuable improvements in the metropolis have been achieved by the ruin of the projectors. But it is no consolation to the Joint Stock Companies who built the bridges of Southwark and Waterloo, to know that the great road of the Simplon was completed at half the expense of the latter; that Sir Hugh Middleton sunk his whole fortune in the New River; and that the unfortunate who first drew upon himself the mockery of his fellow-citizens, by lighting their streets with gas, has been driven from the blaze of his own illumination to hide his head in obscurity.

In the lower part of Westminster, the opening of suitable approaches to the venerable Abbey, the houses of parliament, and the courts of law, is quite indispensable. We have already adverted to the proposal for removing one side of Bridge-street and of Parliament-street; and if a great street were carried from Lower Grosvenor-place to the western front of the Abbey, it would not only open a direct communication between Brompton and Westminster, but would cleanse away in its course some of the very worst nuisances of that neglected quarter.

Here we close our suggestions as to the avenues of this great capital, which, considering its population, its wealth, its enterprize, and intellectual distinction, is as yet most inadequately provided with accommodation. When we contemplate its multitudinous population, in all their restless activity, requiring greater facilities of locomotion than any citizens in the world, we are amazed that they should have so long submitted to all the inconveniences with which they are surrounded.

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The first aspect of our vast city produces a most unfavourable effect on the eye of a foreigner. The interminable rows of: wall, merely pierced with apertures for doors and windows, with scarcely an attempt at ornament, has drawn upon it the designation of a province of bricks.' The want of elevation in most of our public buildings presents another striking defect. After visiting France, or Italy, or Spain, we have always felt this contrast with peculiar force on our return. London has no quarries which supply to other capitals the great means for architectural magnificence. Roman cement indeed, of late years, has come to our aid, to conceal the humble materials with which we have

been

been hitherto constrained to build. Of this expedient the pro jector of Regent-street fully availed himself, and has been re warded with the following epigram:—

Augustus at Rome was for building renown'd,

And of marble he left what of brick he had found; But is not our Nash, too, a very great master?— He finds us all brick and he leaves us all plaster.' But in national structures it is to be hoped we shall not again employ this perishable material. For our part we never pass the House of Lords without a sense of shame on beholding the metamorphosed appearance of that time-honoured' edifice, now covered with a tawdry veil, the design, it is said, of a female hand. Though London has no quarries of her own, she has a command of shipping, capable, at moderate cost, of transporting inexhausti ble supplies of the finest granite from Cornwall or from Scotland, and freestone from Portland and Bath. These are the only legitimate materials for an ornamental edifice, and we cannot but view with some feelings of jealousy even the noble bridge of iron crossing the Thames at Southwark in three gigantic strides, as a construction far inferior in beauty to a work of masonry.

But it must be confessed that the metropolis is exposed to an evil highly prejudicial to the splendour of its public buildings. The fatal union of fog and smoke has encrusted our finest structures (St. Paul's for example) with a lacquer which deprives the exterior of all those delicate effects of light and shadow, that give so much lustre to the architecture of purer skies. Many years ago Count Rumford endeavoured to play upon the ignorance of our citizens by calculating the myriads of chaldrons of coal which are permitted to float above our heads. Few availed themselves of his precepts and contrivances.-Evelyn's Fumifugium had been published above a century before, under the approbation of King Charles II. and produced nothing except a conference with the attorney-general; nor has the subsequent appeal of Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor been attended with better

success.

To speak the truth, we do not think that until very lately the genius of our fellow countrymen has been much directed towards architectural science. London is singularly deficient in all those ornaments which in foreign cities produce the most striking effects at first sight. Our only arch is at Temple Bar, our only fountain in the Middle Temple. And until the contractors sent an order to the Carron Foundry for 200 iron columns to adorn the Opera House and the Quadrant, and Lord George Cavendish invited the toymen to sojourn in the Burlington Arcade, we had few such ornaments to show, except the porticos of our churches and the

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Arcades

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