The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-03 00:00:00

objects to which fat centuries they were en lancers-
Re hindrance. .

-- ---
Oust changes, it is true, must take place about
Smithfield and Gray's-inn, b-tore straight and opaci-
-01111 thoroughfares, suitable for vibe and omnibuses,
can be lormid. Meantime the bye-streets, shaking
hands across Viotoria-street in the manner which we

have indicated, might accommodate and aitrect to
themselves a large portion of the heavier business
traffie, if it were not for the perverseness of those to
whom the completes of the new line of street hes
been entrusted.
But to present, in briefest epitome. a lucid state-
ment of bow great that perverseness is, will require
a separate article ; pending the concoction of whicl,
those among oar readers who combine the double.
qoalificatioes of leisure and curiosity would do well
t., follow our example, and traverse the locality for
thenuives.
lo doing eo they may as well direct their attention
to another point, subordinate indeed to the great
questions of the dirarioo and level of new thorough-
fares, but involving considerations not lees of future
convenience than of beauty now and for ever. Ot
all the greet cities in the world there is none
that can afford less than ours to let slip
opportunities of addieg to its attractions in
this latter respect. Not that we were less
favoured in point of site than other metropolitans.
On the cootsery, it would be easy to show that there
are very few cities, even among the most favoured,
for which nature has done more. As a single instance
we might oak, where is the river is the world of th;
like volume that mares such a series of beautiful
Mtn'. as the Thames does from its mouth to its
sOUTOIP Three or lour of these curves are alrerdy
comprised within the limits of the metropolis, and as
vein more will probably be so before its regress
eastward is completely stopped.
Net so! Neither was nature wanting to us, nergenkie,
see destiny. As on the day on which we write, Own all
days in the year we are bead to retsembssoselog that
es
this day one hundred aad flee yaws mpr(iled dept.,
1686) Providenos took mazaamil mat only
paten end to the attacked ly
oar filth bad sae a cometent , bat =be
ground for a new city in so thisengh and satidastory
a manner as scarcely any other known con ion
offers an example of. And as if to qu this
signal instance of what a blessing God's •
runts may prove, He sent as at the same time a
man, not only of consummate sepias foe ushilsetare,
but of an energy of diameter soh as is very rarely
associated with artistic endowment, and pnediarly
qualified for this special work of laying out es* no
building a great city. The man and the brig
for once came together, but neither would our
pig-headed ancestors make me of. Wren, with
immense difficulty, and after contending for years
against such obstacles as almost any other man
would have succumbed to, bequeathed as St. Pant's,
in spite of ourselves. But nothing else great and
beautiful would we let him do for as. His plans for
laying oat the City were wonted. And if anyone
desires to estimate the hindrance Wren met with in
iodivideal works, let hint look at the 'midi= of St.
Stepheit's, Walbrook, now that the improvements
near the Musics House have opened the vista, which
we may be sure Wren foresaw and recommended
from the first.
On the anniversary of the Fire of London these
things are worth reflecting on. God knows thetas&
is large and obvious enough, if the corporates' and
oolumiesioosrs of the nineteenth cautery would but
take warming by the errors of these of the seventesstL
But that is the misery of the excessive obtseenees
which characterises that race of mea. They are se
little capable of Weight into the lessee of toe past,
as into the wants of the present, or the capabilities
of the future!

Bat to return. Every one, we are mire, who ever
gave a thought to the subject, took for granted that
when Victoria-street wee made it would correspond
perfectly in width and direction with Farringdoa•
street. Oar metropolis has so few thoroughfares
even of a decent width, and still fewer of a uniform
width from one end to the other, that it could not
be supposed that this opportunity could be neglected.
How great was our surprise. several years ago, when
the hoarding at the foot of Holbore.bill was removed,
to find that the total breadth of Victoria•street was

;;iiiii,;••7l iiiitil:lll.: dim tiiiii Yet
riorlon-strestl
Over and over again we hare asked others,
and asked seeselves till we cram weary, the reuses
--or more comedy speaking, the pretext—foe this,
and we never could elicit the Oat of a jeetii.
cation. Ordinarily the great wrest —we Gamut
admit that it is always a validate...kr the too great
°wows' of most of our new thoroughfares,
has been the expense. Whore, or near where, a main
thoroughfare before existed, the bosses sad sites
immediately adjoining the mainsheet were almost se
valuable as thaw actually io it. Where the line wee
of any length, and the erom streets nweerou, the
penises, money of these career lots amounted to an
=means sum, and the sinking of such a capital to
gain a few feet additional width was a sacrifice that
wee sato:ally recoiled from. If It•gest-etzest, and
New Oxford-strut, and Cannon-street, fall to come
op to any man's Dodoes of what maim hfues theraisair
made is the nineteenth century for a metro is like
London ought to be, this is the swot of a
which at present is hardly felt, but which probably
may begin to be so when our population reaches the
total of live million/.
But for the narrowing of Victoria-street from the
standard of Farringdoeretreet, there were absolutely
sone of than exams. There were few or no houses
in tbehmeediate line of the street. Such as did exist
wise at eery small vales; and in any case the Waal-
weleharaster of the population made it sessemey to
abet a wholesale elearanoe. Theo, as mini the
ohms hereafter to be built on, the line is seabeete the
INN streets so few, and (according to thalami/.
&men plan) so little likely ever to eta us& is
Willa estimation, that the sacrifice of building use
by making Victoria street as wide se F
street would have been very trifling. ;42,1=
destroy the uniformity of absolutely the set really
broad and handsome line of street that the City as
boast ? Why sacrifice north of Eileen the rare op
portuutty afforded by roofing over the simmeei of IMP
Fleet, when south of Holborn it imil antineed
so greatly to the health and asiumbese of
the City ? Those who are caroling Mott a*
sideratious of beauty' will at lust Ash that wits
streets are admirable ventilators, Wink are more
streislly nueseary in a neighbeembeed where
Prom do net exist, and where mks are tab-
prink.
seer is It manly se regards ventilation that the
dillealty is likely to bosoms@ a practical one. libesiff
it ever be determined to unite Blackfriare Bridges*
a high level with Holborn viaduct, it will be assy
enough to carry the raised line of communisation
through Bridge•trest and Farringdon-atrest,wishout
at all interlerieg with their availability he es emlle
on their present level. But should it be deetOU
sivestageona to cautious the raised level from
burn viaduct to Cierkenwell viaduct, sad so on is
restonvills-hill, it will be quite impraetleabie to Is
so with Viotoriaistreet at he present width. What
is to be dose then ? Is Victoria-Ansi le le boa
epos is its present form ; and the boom se sweat
finished than bought up and pulled ion agate
to facilitate the further insprovemeate that
will follow upon the rebuilding of Blackfrian
Bridge ? Would it not be wiser to take a little
thought for the future, and not tie up the heads of
posterity at the very time that we have, after twisty
years' labour sod the expenditure of half-authies,
eaconded in aneheeklieg our own P

Tun TREADURT.—Mr. Welby, of Trinity Collor,
Cambridge, Mr. Clestest, of Usiversity Colley, Oxford,
sad Mr. Q Twigs, of Christebareb, Oxford, have bees
selected frets muss also competitors by tho essalsere of
the Ctril Sergio Cesuilegoe, for clerkships et theTre.eary.
TIM liaw Fm TRADE HALL, RIANCIIESTER.—
The splesditt sow buddies .rated os the site of the old
Pre Trade Hall. at Mascreater. Is iv+ reran err to
eorpleties, sad will probably be spewed es the Ilth Ode-
bit, ty • dicer to be gives by the propetekre be their
brads. The proprietary WIWI/ several sessibees of the
I•et.letere, asses 5.% caber ere Herr Cobden, Beth
Kershaw, Cm*, Brews, sad Herrosd, sad it le hoped
test ell thee* pinkses will be able to ettesd es the sees-
Wes, thrill 'owe deer orate r to whorls• r the health of
Ott . Bright will be releiestly rrered. The bell be*
shred, brae 'swiped for revival mbar treat restless, two
of wine\ are to be !hold by the Bible Sorry. It is also
..peed ler Woodsy nester derhig the mister kr • oldie
p sands.