The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 30, 1852.

Englishmen, with all their boasted activity, cer-
tainly appear upon some matters more disposed to
talk of improvements than to adopt them with the
energy and promptitude of their neighbours. It is
only necessary, in illustration of this, to look at all
that has been said, contrasted with the little that has
been done of late years in the way of metropolitan
changes proposed either with a regard to beauty or
with an eye to convenience. Whether we consider
the arrangements of our public thoroughfares, or the
character of our public monuments, we must allow
that London occupies a position of very decided in-
feriority when compared with almost any other of the
capitals of Christendom. People, never-
principal
theless, accnstomsd to brag about the pre-eminence
of the chief city of Great Britain, not merely in
reference to is extraordinary magnitude and the ex•
tent of its population—which is of course reasonable
enough, because altogether undeniable—but actually
in regard to the symmetry of its construction and to
the splendour of its decorations! They talk of
Trafalgar-square being " the finest site in Europe"_e
ala
its s
though there was no such spot as the Place d
Concorde, with its venerable obelisk, and gorgeous
fountains, and its magnificent sculptural adornments
•--and, above all, its unrivalled display of national
edifices, revealing to the spectator in the north the
palace of religion, in the south the palace of the
Legislature, in the east the palace of the Government,
and in the west, at the extremity of the glorious
Champs Elysees, the famous Arc de l'Etoile,
commemorative at once of the peaceful
and warlike achievements of the Great NA-
POLEON. Opposed to this Place de la Concorde,
however, we must needs, in the stupidity of our
national egotism, vaunt the superior merits of Tra-
falgar-square—rendering ourselves ridiculous to every
Parisian, by calling it, forsooth it, of all the places
that could be selected, " the finest site in Europe !"
Whereas, contrasting it with the Place de la Concorde,
as the spot already pointed out for a jadicious corn •
parison—Trafalgar-square reveals to the admiring
gaze of the stranger, instead of an Egyptian obelisk,
the unfinished NELSON Testimonial, to defray the
expense of which England was mean enough to accept
a bounty of 5001, from the Emperor of RUSSIA ;
instead of the sumptuous fountains before mentioned
a couple of ginger-beer bottlesa on a pair of dumb-
waiters ; instead of a picturesque edifice like the
Tuileries, seen through the perspective of an avenue
the squat dome and pepper-castors of the National
Gallery; instead of a classical structure, resembling
what was once called the Chamber
of Deputies,
Northumberland House, surmounted by the effigy of
a lion with a tale extended like an insane caricature
of a finger-pest ; instead of the superb
Madeleine, a shop informing her Maaesee's lieges
in somewhat obtrusive characters that " cOLEes
Tauss is BEST ;" and instead of some colossal tro-
phy, such as the matchless Arc de l'Etoile, an eques-
trian statue of CRARLES the FIRST, which is falling
rapidly into decay from neglect, as was pointed out
only the other day by an observant correspondent.
So much for the finest site in Europe"—a site all
dust and glare in fine weather, and in wet weather,
all puddles ! Justice would compel us to speak in
somewhat similar terms of the rest of the public places
and monuments of London, had we the patience to
run through the whole melancholy catalogue. There
is the marble arch, for example—that costly specimen
of princely extravagance, which ought by rights to be
's Folly—ituck up at the
elliirefieorese the Fourth
*,•,014.
41.;

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