The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-24 00:00:00

TO. 001RFliPONDEN73.

Advertteemente Intended ter Qs* Leaden livening
Paper, must be at the Mace, 10, BativertilMinet, b 7 Two
o'clock on the day of ptiblieetioll.

COVENT 11ARD124.
THIS EVlLnilto, THE ARMOUR= OF NANTIER Mews.
Wets/. Santley, H. Corti, sad W. Harrigan ; MIMS L
A. Bar. And BEAUTY AND Till BLOT. Coach' with
the lranatorsatlas flemas.—Cwoometiott at T.

HAYMARKET.
'Pus Mnn. OUR AMILBICAN COUSIN. Mews.
Bothell, and Meadow ; Mrs. E. rtorlinans..—RASSELAß
PRINCK OF ABYSSINIA. Mr. Compton and Mr 1.. Keeley.
—And MRS. WHITS. Mr. Coniston and Mill Harfieur.

PRINCESS'S.
Tins Eviction, THE WINNING SUIT. Mears H. Maratha.
Viola, and Cathcart MI Amy Sedavlck and lira IL Marlton.
And HIQUIT WITH THE TUFT . or, Harlequin and Mother
Obtpkat. Mauro, Mllaoo. Poww, and Mallard, Mu Collthaon.

LYCEUM.
TRm IMMO, A SUDDEN ATTACK. Meah ilhore
mad Vilddlromb . Emma& sad Mrs. Loa—And TILE
DUICWS MOTTO. Marra Tochtar, G. ng Brougham, sad
Saimaa , Mama C. Leclerc% I. Term sod Iliworthg.

BRITANNIA.
tvrinsa, WOMAN'S DEVOTION. Yea Z Yarnold
wad Mr Sophie Wm—And ABON HASSAN. Dn. S. Lane :
Drank Wale. Newham, and NM*. C. Stephen; Tom
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HIGH WATS". AT LONDON =DEM
TWA DAT Mardi& M. 611%.....Ansnassa. 0.. 170.
roatosaow—lfaralis. ea. Pia....Aerahrais. O. 17m.

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24.

THI citizens of Dublin, who take a natural
pride in the traditional beauty of their capital,
are just now united in a vigorous and determined
effort to preserve it from invasion, and save it, if
possible, from the rude hands of the spoiler. It
need scarcely be said that the Goths and Vandals
who menace the Irish Metropolis, and threaten to
destroy the fair vistas and stately avenues of stone
that have delighted successive generations of its
citizens, are the agents and representatives of that
iron monster with the fiery breath that in our day
wages such relentless war against architectural
beauty in every shape. This ruthless conspiracy
against the visual enjoyment and aesthetic peace of
our fellow-subjects across the Channel has as-
sumed the familiar but ominous form of a
"Metropolitan Railway Bill." This Bill coolly
proposes to brake imposing lines of masonry
with unsightly gaps, to cross the fairest
vistas with black and massive beams,
to cut the thoroughfares at distracting angles,
and, in short, to run long lines of iron
traffic right through the city, irrespective alto-
gether of its architectural beauty, its civic
pride, and its domestic peace. Fortunately, the
scheme is at present only " projected," but the
project has already roused the citizens to active
measures of self-defence. A large and highly
influential meeting was held at the Mansion-house
on Saturday last, to protest against the proposed
disfigurement of the city, and to organize an
effective resistance to the projected bill. The
Loan Mazos, as chairman, stated that although
the proposed scheme, if carried out, might to some
extent injuriously affect the trade of the city, that
was not the objection felt to it by himself and the
citizens. " The main objection to the scheme was,
" that it would seriously deface and partially de-
" stroy this beautiful city, of which they all felt
"so proud." And he pledged himself that if
any well-considered scheme were brought forward

foieffecting the object in vieworithout "irretrievably
" spoiling the city," it should have their hearty
rapport. This was the tone of all the speeches, and
resolutions strongly condemning the scheme were
unanimously passed. In a word, the citizens pro-
test with hearty unanimity against the disfigure-
ment of their city.
This we take to be a very natural and proper
sentiment, and one which, so far from being at all
peculiar to the metropolis of the sister island, is
largely shared by the inhabitants of London.
The citizens of the English metropolis have at least
eunuch looal pride in the appearance of their city, as
keen &desire to promote its architectural comeliness,
and as strong an aversion to its needless disfigure-
ment, as the citizens of:Dublin. But unfortunately
London is such a busy and such an unwieldy place,
that it is sometimes difficult to secure any appro-
priate and concentrated expression even of a
sentiment that is acutely felt, or an opinion that
is universally shared. But for this, we surely
should have had before this some organized
and effective resistance to the further and per-
fectly gratuitous disfigurement of our prominent
thoroughfares and public ways. Many of these
have been already invaded, and injuries of a more
or less serious and permanent character inflicted
upon them. We do not now refer to the house
telegraphs, although their lines flying
across the roofs of the metropolis can hardly
be considered ornamental. At most, however,
they simply suggest a clothe►drying company of
large proportions and elevated views, waiting for
permission to use their extensive plant, and roof
the city some fine morning with a gigantic punkah
of fluttering cloth and calico. These wires, it is
true, catch the eye and cut the prospect, but they
do not shock the visual sense, break the vista, and
blot out the open view. This is effectually done, how-
ever, by the railway bridges now erecting in various
parts of the metropolis. The architectural calamity
which the citizens of Dublin no justly dread, and are
resolved at any cost to prevent, has in part at least
already befallen this less fortunate metropolis. The
young Princess? Airwrnsa, for example, when she
makes her grand entry into London next week, will
pass under the ugliest gibbet that could well be con-
ceived or erected, in the shape of a railway bridge,
recently thrown across the High-street of the
Borough. This is a mere black mass, an unsightly
block, without ornament or relief of any kind.
Such a gigantic and obtrusively ugly bar across
one of the chief entrances to the metropolis
is a shock to the visual sense of every stranger,
and a permanent eyesore to the myriads who pass
in and out of London through that great central
thoroughfare. This intense and utter disregard of
the natural feelings and architectural requirements
of the public is of course more extreme and obtru-
sive from the prominent and commanding situation
thus ruthlessly sacrificed to the destructive genius
of the barest utility. But offences of the same
kind are committed at a number of other
points with impunity, while far more serious
and fatal inroads on the slender architectural
pretensions of the metropolis are threatened. On
both sides of the river the streets are being
darkened by horizontal madras of iron, and dis-
figured by vertical mounds of masonry. It is high
time to protest against this destructive process
being carried any further; high time that some
active and organized effort should be made to stay
this desolating plague which is gradually extend-
ing ov& the City, its fatal ravages being
marked by fresh eruptions of blackened metal

Yd new tumours of shapeless stone. It is the
Sore necessary to insist on this, as all that has
yet been done is merely the thin end of the invad-
ing wedge, that threatens to destroy the last
remnants of form and comeliness of which the me-
tropolis
can boast. Instead of one, we have up-
wards of a score of Metropolitan Railway Bills pro-
jected, all taking their own line, coming in
at different angles, and on different levels, and
"taking the country" as though it were a waste
howling wilderness, instead of a populous city
crowded with beings endowed with the sense of
vision and gifted with a nervous system. We do
not pretend to my that many of these proposed
lines may not be very useful and very necessary.
But if they are to be made, we do venture to
plead for the rights of the public in the matter.
With regard to any scheme of railway extension or
general utility that affects the more important
thoroughfares, the interests of the public at large are
imperative, and ought not only to be carefully con-
sidered, but respected to the uttermost. It is the
interest of the inhabitants at large that the City
should not be disfigured by unsightly masses of
brick or metal. If bridges or viaducts are neces-
sary at any point, their architectural beauty is •
matter of the very first importance. Whether light
or solid, let them at least have some preten-
sions to grace and ornament. There is no reason
whatever why such structures should be a cruel
infliction or the sight and nerves of a whole city.
They can easily be made sightly, and even hand-
some—positive additions to the architectural beauty
of the metropolis ; and if they are allowed to be
erected at all this ought in every cue to be in-
sisted on. There is the projected viaduct over the
Holborn Valley, for example. That will be either
a great beauty or • great deformity, and it is the
business of every citizen to insist that in such
works as this, while utility is considered, the form,
proportions and general appearance of what is to
meet the eye of myriads every day should not
be overlooked. If we are not fully alive to this,
Mr. Tines deplorable anticipation will be realised,
and the bigger the metropolis gets the uglier it
will become.