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

et TO 11 bra
_ Int

LONDON, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 30, 1852.

Englahmen, with an their boasted activity, cer-
L
4 ainlY appear upon some matters more disposed to
taijk 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
,banges 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 y other of the
principal capitals of Christendom. people, never-
theless, accustomed to brag about the pre-eminence
of the chief city of Great Britian,
magnitude
. not merely in
reference to its extraordinary 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"—as
though there was no such spot as the Place de la
Concovde with its venerable obelisk, and its gorgeous
fountains, and its magnificent sculptural adornments
—and, above all, its unrivalled display of national
,klifices, 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
Chumps Elysees, the famous Arc de I'Etoile,

eo mmernorative at once of the peaceful
Wand 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-
fi'lgt-tlquitre—rendering ourselves ridiculous to every
Parisian, by calling it, forsooth it, of all the places
that could be selected, " the finest site in Europe
•Whdr,eas, contrasting it with the Place de la Concorde,
Lis the spot already pointed out for a judicious corn-
Virk.oc*—Trafalgar-square reveals to the admiring
gazs 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 SOO/. from the Emperor of RUSSIA ;
instead of the sumptuous fountains before mentioned
a couple of ginger-beer bottles, on a
pair of dumb-
; instead of a picturesque edifice like the
I:fineries, seen through the perspective of an avenue
the squat dome and pepper-castora of the National
Gallery; instead of a classical structure, resembling
what was once called the Chamber of Deputies,
Northumberland Rouse, surmounted by the effigy of
a lion with a tale extended like an insane caricature
of a finger-post ; instead of the superb
liticleleine, a shop informing. her MAJESTY'S lieges
in somewhat obtrustive characters that " CoLas's
Tatiss is REST ;" and instead of some colossal tro-
phy, such Us the matchless Arc de l'Etoile, an eques-
trNl statue of CUARLES the FIRST, which is falling
raptdly into decay from neglect, as was pointed out
orAy the other day by an observant correspondent.
Itio 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
called Georg.* the Fourth's Folly tuck up at the