The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-18 00:00:00

IMPROVEMENTS IN NEW YORK.

New York can be made and ought to be made the most
beautiful city in the world. Its situation and topography
are unsurpassed, and perhaps not equalled. Manhattan
Island, with a splendid river on each side and the finest
water front, with a magnificent bay at its southern ex-
tremity and a few miles only from the broad Atlantic
Ocean, seems to have been designed by nature for this
destiny. It is the outlet of the trade of a vast continent
and the commercial emporium of amighty nation. Nature
has done everything possible to make this city well
drained, well supplied with water, healthful, and
beautiful. Nor is there wanting wealth, public spirit and
ambition enough to accomplish all this. We only need
ability and taste in the men who are in power. The
Legislature has given under the new Charter ample
authority to the city government to make New York what
it ought to be. Will those having control of the matter
understand the work before them and that is expected
from them ? That is the question. That has to be seen.
The action of the French government, in negotiating a
loan to complete the improvements in Paris commenced
by Baron Haussmann, has suggested thoughts applicable
to this city. No doubt an enormous sum of money was
spent by Baron Haussmann, under the direction of the Em-
peror Napoleon, in beautifying Paris. Some complaints
were made of this, too, and there was a temporary
suspension of the grand improvements projected in
consequence. But now, we learn, the work of beautify-
ing the great capital is to be continued. The Parisians
have learned, no doubt, that every dollar spent in this
way brings five or more to their pockets. The more
attractive Paris is made the more will people from all
parts of the world be drawn to that city. The increased
business, enhanced value of property, and the millions of
money spent by visitors pay over and over again the ex-
penditures for improvements. So it would be with New
York if our city government should shew similar taste
and sagacity. But, as was said, we must have men of
comprehensive views, culture and taste to accomplish this
object. Ward and grogshop politicians are not the men.
The curse of New York in this respect has been
in having such grovelling and narrow-minded men in
power. To be a smart politician or a pretty good stump_
speaker has been regarded as the chief or only qualifica-
tion for office. Now, however, we have a new regime in
the city, and among those in authority many gentlemen
of refinement, large views, and taste. The first step is
to lay a good foundation for a comprehensive plan of im-
provements, and to avoid the jobs of rings and pretenders
which spoil everything. Let the ablest scientific men and
men of artistic culture and taste be consulted and em-
ployed. Let not either the plans or the execution of
public work be left to pretenders or the ignorant. The
people of this country have been too careless about this,
and the consequence has been that New York, Waahing-
ton, and many other of our cities have been
defaced by • the most wretched abortions of
art. Still, there is no lack of talent and
taste in the community to plan and execute the finest
works if those in power will employ the men who possess
these qualifications. We mean here public buildings or
other architectural works, the docks and solid elevated
railroads, as well as the ornamentation of the parks,
works of fine art and opening of streets and avenues. A.
great deal depends, too, upon the taste displayed in plac-
ing works of art and public structures and in opening
broad avenues from one point to another. Any one who
, has been in Paris knows how tastefully the monuments
and fine public buildings are placed and how magnifi-
cently they loom up to view from every point. We
have heretofore followed, the bad taste of the
English in the location of works of art, monu-
ments and public buildings, by placing them in
some corner or destroying the view by other structures.
There have been some improvements made in the streets,
and some are now going on which indicate more taste and
give us hope in the future. The grand Boulevard, which
commences at the corner of Fifty-ninth-street and Eighth
avenue, and which is to go round the upper part of the
island, begins to assume shape. Judging from the work
already accomplished, and from the manner in which it is
done just above Fifty-ninth-street, this will be one of the
most magnificent thoroughfares and drives in the world.
be as smooth as the roads in the Park, having a
den and solid foundation and a hard pressed concrete
surface. It has two wide carriage ways, with a space
between for promenading, and a row of shade trees
and a wide sidewalk on each side. There are
a large number of men at work on different sec-
tions, which shews that the city authorities are doing
their duty here. Then,-'there is the upper portion of
Sixth Avenue, as far as Fifty-ninth-street, which is a
credit to this great city. It is delightful to ride over the
smooth and clean wood pavement, and very many of
those driving to and from the Central Park go round
some distance for the pleasure of riding over this part of
Sixth Avenue. The improvement of property on this
avenue, as is seen by the rows of handsome stores and
houses built and going up, pays over and over again the
cost of paving. We are passing out of the cobble stone
age. Some years hence we shall look back upon this
rough and destructive pavement with surprise that it
existed so long. We shall regard it as belonging to
a former rude period, as we do the fossil remains
of the Megalosaurus. Why do' not the city authorities
discard, the cobble stone on our beautiful Fifth Avenue,
as they did that wretched composition put down a short
time since, and take the best wood pavement known? The
ablest scientific men among us say that the wooden pave-
ment recently put down in Maiden-lane is more durable
than the hardest stone. It is laid upon a principle that
makes it solid and immovable, while it admits of the most
perfect drainage, and is easily removed when necessary for
laying gas and water pipes, or for making sewers. The
merchants and property holders there are delighted
with it. In San Francisco and other places where it
has been well tested the people will not have any other
laid. It is unnecessary to mention the saving in the wear
and tear of horseflesh and vehicles, for every one will
comprehend this. Why should we not have on all
our streets, or at least on all the principal
thoroughfares, this pavement, or one equally as good, if
that can be found? But for the convenience of travel for
the mass of our business men and the people up and down
town, we want solid elevated railroads, with steam power.
The horse cars and omnibuses are altogether too slow and
inconvenient. The crowds seeking passage by them at
certain times of the day are so great that it is a positive
torture to ride in them. No amount of horse car accom-
modation can supply the want, which is increasing from
day to day. Besides, the time consumed in going from
ane part of the city to the other is far too
much and exhausting to the active community.
of New York. Then the want of this accom-
modation is driving a large population over
the rivers to New Jersey and Long Island, which is a
great loss and damage to the city. Such solid elevated
railroads, on arches, could be made ornamental, and
would add to the beauty of the city. With magnificent
stone piers, wharves and docks, with spleddid markets in
the places, with improved paved streets, with broad
avenues cut through the lower portion of the city where
needed, with our grand Boulevard round the upper
portion of the island, with our beautiful Central-Park,
with superb elevated railroads and other improvements,
what city in the world, in a few years, could be compared
with New York ? Let us hope that the new municipal
authorities will have the sense, taste, and public spirit to
carry out these much needed and grand works. The city,
business, property holders, and the whole community
would gain by it, and the men in power would acquire
lasting fame.—New York Herald.

A. Connecticut legislator has recently remarked
that, "with the waiters they have at the Newhaven House
for a sample of the average black vote, it was not strange
that negro suffrage should be defeated.. The Goveropr!s
term would expire before those fellows could get, to the
polls."

THE " HERALD" ON CANADIAN INDE-
PENDENCE.

From the tone of the royal press it is plain that this
independence project springS from no temporary or ephe-
meral imputse of the people. The earnest cries for " hide-
pence " uttered at the late meeting in Montreal—a,
meeting called for another, if not an entirely opposite
purpose—affords evidence of that fact ; and the nervous
attempts of the royal press to belittle or ridicule the affair
only display their own weakness and give more strength
and confidence to the men who shout for " independence."
The fact is, the people of Canada are every day growing more
and more disgusted with the home Government, in conse-
quence of the manner in which their appeals for assis-
tance have been treated. Even one of the little
provinces away up on the Atlantic coast, it appears, was
not too insignificant to receive an admonition such as a,
gouty old father would give to a lusty young son, from
Lord Granville, just because it wanted a few soldiers to
protect public property. If these appeals continue it
would not be surprising if stingy and irascible old John
Bull should finally resolve to tell these persistent and
poverty-stricken offsprings to begone from his household
forever and cut them off without a shilling. Seriously,
the clouds that begin to surround the experiment of
carrying on a government for the Dominion of Canada
look portentous. They will continue to " gather, gather,"
until they overwhelm the entire firmament, and then the
glorious rays of "independence" will come like a sun-
burst amid the darkness and afford to the people of
Canada, with the new light, the blessings of liberty,
peace and prosperity.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH SOUTH

AMERICA.
The United States Government appears at last waken-
ing up as to the advantage and importance of encouraging
more intimate relations with South and Central America.
All the English steam trading companies, besides offering
facilities for passengers and goods traffic all along the
East and West Coasts of South America, have ferreted
out and caused their steamers to touch at every small port
which is backed by a productive interior. The advantage
to the whole country soon showed itself ; increasing trade
and production kept pace with each other. The Govern-
ments, if they did not take the initiative, felt compelled
by the example of other nations, but much more by the
increasing resources of the country—the facility for
official communication and postal arrangements to aid and
even subsidize the enterprise. The love of industry, the
due appreciation of material comfort and the self-respect
engendered by the possession of something to lose, have
lessened the tendency to revolutions, and commercially as
well as amicably established intimate relations between
both countries. Such has been pretty much the his-
tory and beginning of nearly all the steam navigation
companies between Europe and the South American
States. No where has this been more evident than in
Central and South America. Since the first
steamer of Panama Railroad Company went to the
former to solicit freight and offer commercial facilities,
the productions of those States began to increase, and
have gone on yearly at a satisfactory ratio. So con-
vinced are all those countries that isolation is retrogres-
sion and dependence on their own resources alone, a
species of suicide, that Honduras is pushing ahead her
inter-oceanic railroad, and Salvador her electric telegraphs.
The United States in general, if we except the Isthmus of
Colombia, has paid hitherto but little attention, at least
of a neighbourly kind, to the condition and prospects of
these countries. Absorbed in the gigantic development
of California, the lands of coffee and indigo have been
little thought of, politically as well as commercially. Man
cannot live on gold alone, but must seek for its equiva-
lent in the necessities and luxuries of life which its pos-
session represents. Our merchants are beginning to turn
their attention to those countries whose climate produces
the articles wanted. Statistics tell us that tea, sugar,
coffee, and tobacco go on increasing with the world's popu-
lation, and so, founded on some mysterious instinct of
our nature, draws from the poorest man his last shilling
to obtain one or other of them. The peculiar geo-
graphical situation of the Isthmus and its relation to
the rest of the world, even from the time of Pizarro
till now, has always been such as to discourage the in-
vestment of capital in agricultural pursuits. In respect
of exportable products she is far behind -almost all the
other portions of tropical America. She has not even a
single article due to human industry that is demanded
abroad, except perhaps an occasional cargo of pearl shell
or Indian rubber ; so that in a purely commercial estimate
of South America the Isthmus has to be left out. Like
the bell in the church tower which calls people to church,
but does not go itself, the Isthmus lives by the transmis-
sion of the exchange products of other nations, but pro-
duces nothing within itself. The following extract, which
has given rise to the above reflections, we take from the
New York Herald of the 3d instant. It is headed, among
the doings of Congress, " Commercial Relations with
South America," and says as follows :—" The President,
in accordance with a resolution, has communicated to the
Senate a despatch from Minister Blow, at Brazil, in
relation to the commercial interests of the United States
with South America, Central America, and the West
Indies. He regards the question settled. The sugar
we are to consume beyond that raised by ourselves
will be grown principally in the West Indies and South
America, and the coffee almost entirely in South and
Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies.
He speaks of the necessity of establishing close,
regular, and rapid communications with every portion of
these countries by liberal subsidies, and states as the
advantages :—First, the increased and active development
in the production of coffee and sugar in all those countries
growing the same ; second, an immensely increased
demand for our flour, grain, lard, pork, and manufactured
goods, many of which are now needed at remunerative
prices, but which are kept back for want of regular and
fair transportation, and that enlightened understanding
of trade which our dealers fail to grasp for want of facili-
ties enjoyed by those of other nations." If the scheme is
favourably entertained and subsidized by Congress, an
effort will doubtless be made to carry President Grant's
suggestions into effect, in which case we may hope the
Isthmus to recover somewhat of her special and functional.
prosperity. In the meantime it is for the authorities con-
sidering upon what the rentistic possibilities Of the State
depend to adjust their necessities according to time and
circumstances. As to encouraging commerce the New
York Post of the Ist instant says about anything Congress
could do, that " commerce is not the product of legisla •
tion, and asks no favour of any government. The only
request it has to make is that thepovernment shall cease
to annoy, impede, and plunder it."—Panama Star and
Herald.

Cincinnati claims to be the fourth mannfacturing
city in the United States, only New York, Philadelphia,
and Boston excelling it. Last year the total manufactures
in the city was 119,140 dols. 89 cents, employing 59,354
mechanics.

General Robert E. Lee has refused on behalf of
Mrs. Lee, to accept the annuity of $3,000 settled upon
her by the Trustees of Washington College. The Board,
however, has, as delicately as possible, intimated to him
that they must adhere to their original plan.
THE NEW FRENCH MINISTER AT WASHINGTON.
A New York paper says :—The French papers consider
the mission to Washington as " a post apart " in diplo-
macy. The new Minister, M. Prevost Paradol, will, they
believe, find himself, in our national capital, surrounded
by manners, ideas, and anodes of thinking in which he is
already well versed. It is added by the Constitutzonnel :
"He will see the Americans with the same eyes as M.
de Tocqueville ; he will love and esteem them for
those manly and democratic virtues with which the'latter
was so greatly struck, and whose absence among ourselves
he so greatly regretted." "On the other hand, the
citizens of the United States will have a natural sympathy
for a writer who valiantly defended in the public press,
at the hour of its greatest peril the cause of union. It
will be eminently pleasing to them to see France repre-
sented by a man who has made his way, as is customary
in America, independently of official hierarchies, by the
force of labour, talent, and character.
How TO STAND THE HOT WEATHER.—There
are a great many ways of enduring the hot weather.
The most helpless victims of the dog-days are your gentle-
men of leisure, who have nothing under the burning
heavens to do save to watch the thermometer, seek cool
places, and dwell, mentally or morally, on the tribulations
of " the heated term." These are the most pitiable of all
the sufferings, outside of the reeking tenement-house
quarters, that we know anything about. Men who have
much to do manage in some way to get through the day
without lapsing into the utter and vacant despondency
which settles over the unemployed and makes the day
seem a week in its tedious duration. If a man's heart is
really in his work—no matter . what it may be—
he will become at least partially forgetful of the intense
bodily discomforts of hot weather. And, besides, he will
not really suffer as much as the idlers, for the perspira-
tion that comes from healthy toil is the indication of a
natural reaction against the effect of heat and of a
vigorous throwing off of everything that impedes the free
circulation through the skin.. We know a couple of
gentlemen who get themselves into the best possible con-
dition by playing a few games of ten-pins after their six
o'clock dinner has had time to adjust itself. They get
into a lively perspiration and into a condition of bodily
vigour, and when a bountiful supply of cool water has
cleansed the surface of their skins, and when they have
enjoyed in quiet the refreshment of their cigars, they
endure the warmth of the rest of the evening with a
composure, good nature and philosophy, which are the
envy of their less heroic companions.—Evening Mail.