the Germanic empire, between the fruits of intellectual exertion and the amount of population, national wealth, and political power.

To Italy, after having dwelt with satisfaction on the days of her former greatness, it is painful to revert in the nineteenth century; however, she has not yet lost all her original brightness,' and the Italians may still illustrate and confirm the truth of our preceding observations, as forcibly perhaps as their ancestors in the age of the Medici. The political debility of this fair portion of Europe, arising from its subdivision into numerous states, has reduced a large part of the inhabitants to a condition no less unnatural than degrading; for the conquered are superior in genius and the highest intellectual acquirements to their conquerors. Such was the fate of Greece soon after the period of her history before alluded to.. The Greeks and Italians were the victims of causes precisely similar in their nature. Both were incapable, from corresponding defects in their political organization, of forming firm confederations, and therefore of resisting the aggression of powerful foreigners. Both retained a high state of civilization after the loss of their independence, thus exemplifying the energy of that impulse from whence their rapid improvement had been derived. The Italians are still entitled to consideration amongst the people of Europe both in polite literature and in art; and with respect to the physical and mathematical sciences, we have the testimony of Professor Playfair, who travelled there at the commencement of the present century and examined minutely into the state and the productions of the principal academies, * that there were a greater number of scientific institutions in Italy, important from the regularity and value of their_publications, than existed in any equal portion of territory in Europe.'* The emulation of the Italian states, though enfeebled by their subjection to foreign rulers, has never been utterly extinguished. This, and many other sources of intellectual excitement have been kept alive in a great degree by the numerous institutions for promoting science and the fine arts in all the principal and many of the inferior towns-advantages that originated in the former subdivision of the country.

But to pursue this subject farther would lead us into a lengthened digression, and we trust we have said enough to illustrate the position with which we started, that provincial feelings, if properly directed, are capable of exerting a constant and powerful influence over the public mind, disposing it to afford protection to merit. We have no wish to indulge sanguine

Edinb. Rev. vol. vi. p. 171.

speculations

speculations on the future success of the English counties in the career of honourable competition now opening to them, nor to exaggerate the present importance of the new provincial institutions. But we will not shrink from declaring our conviction; that under the genius of our free constitution and in a country where wealth and intelligence are so widely diffused, the causes before-mentioned, if ever permitted to operate with full energy, would lead at once to splendid success in every department of Science and Art, and would carry our excellence in all those subjects for which we are at present distinguished to a much higher degree of perfection. The English counties present a field for the developement of rivalry without parallel in the internal organization of other European kingdoms. They have never been wanting in a due sense of their own importance, having from time immemorial exercised independent civil and political rights. They have been accustomed to the resi dence of an hereditary aristocracy warm with feelings of local attachment, and deriving their power and influence from family connections, from the possession of property, or public services, and not merely from the favour of the crown. The Capital has never in England assumed an ascendancy over public opinion; it has never, as in France, drained the deserted provinces of native talent, and presented the only theatre where genius could aspire to distinction and hope to meet with due encouragement. In population no less than in the extension of education many of our English counties surpass at present, what is ascribed to the most considerable of the ancient independent states of Greece and Italy, to Attica, for instance, or Tuscany, the parents of so many illustrious citizens. If it be impossible to excite in the provinces of the same country quite so animated a competition in the noblest subjects of contention, as between different independent powers, it should also be remembered that in the former case evils and calamities most repugnant to the free growth of knowledge, yet inseparably incident to minute political subdivision, are happily avoided.

We shall take an early opportunity of attending more particularly to the Scientific Institutions of Scotland and Ireland.

ART. IX.-1. A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool, proposing to finish the East Wing of Somerset House for National Galleries. By J. W. Croker, Esq. 1823.

2. Observations on the Buildings, Improvements, and Extension of the Metropolis, of late Years; with some Suggestions, &c. Svo. pp. 150. 1825.

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3. Sketch

3. Sketch of the North Bank of the Thames, showing the proposed Quay, and some other Improvements, suggested by LieutenantColonel Trench. Folio. 1825.

4. Considerations upon the Expediency of Building a Metropolitan Palace. By a Member of Parliament. Svo. pp. 68. 1825. 5. A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir Charles Long, on the Improvements proposed and now carrying on in the Western Part of London. 8vo. pp. 37. 1825.

6. Short Remarks and Suggestions upon the Improvements now carrying on or under Consideration. 8vo. pp. 48. 1826.

THE

HE architectural growth and improvement of our capital may well engage a few of our pages at this time, when not only every lounger through our streets speculates upon their embellishment, but the public attention in higher quarters is seriously directed to this object. Most of the pamphlets which we have now before us were printed for private distribution, and on that account we are not perhaps entitled to treat them like more regular productions; but though not published, they were printed to be read, and as they have already been largely circulated, their authors cannot, we think, be much offended by some notice of them here.

The capability of London for the display of architectural magnificence will not be disputed. The positions of other great cities may indeed exhibit more striking features; we cannot, for instance, command an Acropolis; but the situation of this Metropolis happily combines all which may contribute to its wealth and convenience. Seated on a gentle slope descending to the margin of a noble river, its plain is bounded on the north and south by two beautiful ranges of hills, affording at once easy access, facilities to cleanliness and ventilation, and that in which its rival Paris is so deficient, abundant springs of the purest water.

We have high authority for believing that ancient London (Lyn-din, the Čity on the Lake) overlooked an extensive basin, whose waters washed the bases of the Surrey hills, though the Thames, now confined by embankments, flows within his proper channel. London was not occupied as a Roman station so early as Colchester and Verulam. It has been doubted if Julius Cæsar ever saw it. The walls were erected by Theodosius, governor of Britain, in the year 369. They were bounded on the east and west by the Fleet and the Wallbrook, on the south by the Thames, and on the north by a morass, beyond which lay an extensive forest, stretching also towards the eastern side of the city. Fitzstephen, who wrote in the time of Henry II. describes it as then filled with beasts of chase. The first bridge was thrown across the Thames about the year 1.000, by the monks

of

of St. Mary Over-Eye (over the water), who till then had maintained a ferry which gave name to their convent. Even this frail wooden fabric is recorded to have been deemed an im-' pregnable barrier by the invader Canute, who cut a channel from Rotherhithe into the Thames above the bridge, and dragged his vessels through it to blockade the city. This old bridge having been destroyed by fire, that which is now about to be pulled down was erected in 1176. Within the memory of persons yet living this second bridge was laden with an irregular pile of crazy buildings, chiefly occupied by pin-makers, (the first of whom was a Spanish negro,) overhanging the huge starlings on either side, and bound together by cross-beams of timber, beneath which the passengers groped along a narrow and dismal way. The remains of the drawbridge in the middle were guarded by an antique tower, and another bulwark protected the entrance from the suburb thence called Southwark. These singular appendages, which are represented in Hollar's curious print, were removed, together with most of the city-gates, by authority of Parliament in the year 1760. No demand for additional means of communication across the river was made till 1738, when Labelye, a Swiss architect, was employed to build the bridge of Westminster. That of Blackfriars, by Milne, was added in 1761.

The most ancient relic in the city is London Stone,' which may still be seen inserted in the wall of St. Swithin's church, Cannonstreet. It seems to have been regarded with a superstitious reverence as the Palladium of the city. When Jack Cade, at the head of his rebel army, entered London, he struck his sword on this stone, saying, now is Mortimer lord of this citie.'

The fine old gothic cathedral of St. Paul, anciently called ' Eastminster, which fell in the Great Fire of 1666, covered three acres with its walls. The beautiful spire rose high above the city, and one of its aisles (Paul's Walk) was the daily resort of traders, newsmongers, and sharpers. In front stood Paul's Cross, a pulpit of wood, noted for political sermons, and for the nobler exertions of Latimer and others of our distinguished reformers. This Cross was demolished in 1641, by order of the Long Parliament, who issued a commission for the destruction of pictures and other monuments and relics of idolatry.' The beautiful cross of Queen Eleanor in West Chepe (Cheapside) shared the same fate; and the ancient May Pole which stood on the site of the New Church in the Strand was removed by Sir Isaac Newton to Wanstead park, as a support to his great telescope."

In Aggas's map of London, as it was in 1560, Finsbury and, Holborn, St. Giles and St. Martin's, appear as scattered villages, Westminster was not only a distinct but a distant city. A long

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dreary

dreary road led through Lud-gate to the village of Charing, where another of Eleanor's crosses (now supplanted by Le Soeur's fine statue of Charles I.) pointed the way to the palaces of Whitehall and Westminster. Beyond this cross all was open field and garden. Hedge-lane (now Witcombe-street) and the Haymarket are marked as the roads to Oxenforde and Redynge. On the top of Hay-hill stood the gibbet of Sir Thomas Wyat. In Marybone (now the Regent's) Park, Queen Elizabeth sent her Russian ambassadors to hunt. At a noted Bowling-green and House of Entertainment, (set up on the suppression of Spring Gardens,) were sold a sort of Cakes called Piccadillas, which gave title to the fine. street of which this resort was the origin. A little east of this stood the country-house of Lord Keeper Coventry; and, further on, the mansion of Sydney-Earl of Leicester, upon the sites now occupied by the Street, Passage, and Square, which retain these names. North of this arose King's square, on one side of which stood the house of the Duke of Monmouth, after whose execution his friends changed this royal name to Soho,' the watchword with which he advanced to the fatal battle of Sedgemoor. Hanover and Cavendish squares first appeared in the maps about the year 1720; Oxford-street at that time extended no farther. than Princes-street, and Bond-street reached only to Conduitmead. Trinity Chapel, which stands in that quarter of the town, has a curious history. It was originally a Popish chapel of wood mounted on wheels, and followed the camp of James II. to Hounslow Heath, where it remained neglected long after the Revolution, till Archbishop Tennison, then rector of St. Martin's, brought it back to its present position, and rebuilt it of more durable materials.

The venerable Abbey of Westminster, on Thorney Island, was surrounded on three sides by a creek, which opening near Manchester Buildings crossed King's-street and College-street, supplying the Canal in St. James's Park, and thence rejoined the Thames. The adjacent palace of Edward the Confessor, of which the noble Hall of Rufus and a few fragments only remain, covered both the palace-yards, and extended as far as Whitehall, where it joined to the precincts of York House. On the disgrace of Wolsey, the latter was seized for the use of the king, who from that time kept his court there. St. James's Hospital, till then under the jurisdiction of Eton College, was also seized by Henry VIII. who converted it to a palace, and inclosed the Park, which was afterwards planted by Charles II.

The magnificent palace of Whitehall, designed by Inigo Jones, for James I., was to have comprised six distinct courts; but the beautiful Banqueting-room alone was completed. At that period

the