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penditure of money which will attend the execution of the Plans made subsequent to the Contract Plan. Where the funds are to come from, the Corporation may be able to disclose. For our parts we see no possible means raising money by millions for so useless a purpose; we say useless, because had the Bridge been built on the site of the present one, the approaches on both sides might have been gradually improved, at a comparatively trifling expenditure; and which the income of the large estates held in trust by the Corporation, would have been nearly adequate to bear.

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Mr. George Allen, an architect by profession, has been led to the contemplation of the subject by his professional engagements on behalf of the proprietors of some wharfs in Southwark, which it was expected would be required for the purposes of the improvement. He has recently published a pamphlet, entitled, Plan and Designs for the future Approaches to the New London Bridge; with a Memorial submitted to the Court of Common Council, comprising Suggestions for the formation of a Quay for the reception of Steam Vessels, the opening of new Streets and Avenues, and the improvement of existing Thoroughfares in the City of London, and the Borough of Southwark."

In the year 1826, Mr. Allen prepared a plan for a new line of approach, which might leave the wharfs and premises in Tooley-street undisturbed. The Author delayed the publication of his ideas at that time, by reason of a professional friend having published a similar plan in May 1827;

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Up to which period," adds the Author, "Messrs. Rennie, the engineers appointed for the erection of the new Bridge, appear to have had no idea of departing from the old line of Tooleystreet, upon which, according to the Contract Plan, the ascent to the new Bridge was to be formed; but, after the publication in May of the plan above mentioned, they prepared and submitted to the New Bridge Committee an entirely new series of plans, in which three different modes of attaining the new Bridge, from the City side, were suggested; but for the approaches from Southwark, though the engravings were also three in number, yet the designs are one: the plans not only being all alike, but so far as re

[July,

lated to the new approach from Tooleystreet, are precisely the counterparts of my plan, and that of my friend before alluded to, which was published in the May preceding. This coincidence is too remarkable to be considered acci

dental, as it comprises another very important feature of the plan published in May, namely, the suggestion of a new street, to extend from London Bridge to the Bricklayers' Arms; yet without even a hint being given in the Report which accompanies it, of the idea having originated with another party."

Now, as every man has a right to the undisturbed possession of the productions of his genius, Mr. Allen very properly determined on bringing his plans before the public; a course he was compelled in some measure to adopt, by the " delay and difficulty" he met with in getting them submitted to that at least self-important tribunal, the Court of Common Council. Being referred to the New Bridge Committee, Mr. Allen says, "I consequently waited on the Chairman, when he informed me, that Messrs. Rennie being about to submit another Plan for the approaches from Southwark, my designs could not be received until after theirs had been presented."

This partial and narrow-minded proceeding of the civic "Committee of Taste," induced Mr. Allen to persevere in bringing his Plans before the notice of the Court of Common Council, as well as appealing to a higher and more enlightened court, the public.

We will now proceed to an examination of the plans which accompany the pamphlet before, us; and first, the opening of a street from the new Bridge to the Bank. This street proceeds from the northern foot of the

Bridge, in a right line, until it reaches a site nearly opposite the Monument, whence it is carried in a diagonal direction, but without any second angle or curve, until it enters Cornhill, exactly facing the central portico of the Bank of England. This plan destroys no public building, it avoids all the numerous churches in its line, and does not cut up an entire lane or street in the whole of its course; the only public building which it at all interferes with being the old Postoffice. A cross street unites this with Fish-street-hill, forming a fine vista in the front of the Monument; the pre

1829.]

Approaches to the New London Bridge.

servation of which noble column, the
largest in the world, is no longer ques-
tionable, although it ought never to
be forgotten that an idea was once
entertained, by the memorable Cor-
poration, of destroying this fine spe-
cimen of architecture, the beauties of
which they had not taste enough to
appreciate. The eastern portion of
the bank of the river, between the
Bridge and St. Magnus' Church, Mr.
Allen proposes to be formed into a
quay and pier for the reception of
steam vessels, whereby they might un-
ship their passengers with less danger
and trouble than is now the case.
well-drawn perspective view of this
new street shows a handsome design
for the new Fishmongers' Hall, with
an octostyle portico on the one side,
and a subordinate, but correspondent
building, on the other; the houses in
the street decorated with architectural
embellishments, well calculated to set
off the magnificent steeples, and the
proud column of the immortal Wren,
which laugh to shame the petty erec-
tions patronised by the Corporation.

A

We have given the City plans priority over the others; but the Southwark improvements are the main features of Mr. Allen's work. The splendid cathedral-like church of St. Saviour, he purposes to insulate in a circus; at the east end a square to be formed, from which a broad. street is to be carried in

a right line, until it unites with Tooleystreet. The elevation of the square, as given by Mr. Allen, would be grand and impressive; on one side the magnificent church, fronted by a fountain and statue; and in the fore ground, and forming the angle between the Borough High-street and the new street, a handsome building, with a tetrastyle Doric portico, for the Town-hall, would occupy one side, on the opposite one handsome and lofty houses, in an appropriate style of decoration, the whole forming a coup d'ail not witnessed in any approach to the metropolis.

Mr. Allen says, Only four houses will be required to be taken down in Tooley-street, and, throughout the remaining portion of the line suggested, the property will be found to be of the most inferior description, consisting of ancient and dilapidated wooden buildings, and small tenements occupied by weekly tenants, with two extensive spaces of vacant ground, being the court-yard in front of St. Olave's Gram

27

mar School, and a small part of the parish burial-ground: beyond which, this street would require the removal, in the Borough High-street, of no property other than such as must, of necessity, be taken down, whether this line of street be adopted or not, in consequence of the proposed raising of the ascending road from near the entrance gateway of St. Thomas's Hospital, on to the new London Bridge."

Without anticipating our readers in any more of Mr. Allen's pamphlet, we have quoted enough to bring the matter fairly before them; for ourselves, we have no hesitation in adding our testimony to the merit of the designs: how far the accomplishment of them is practicable, must be a subject of consideration elsewhere. The Southwark improvements, from the nature of the property affected, are the most likely to be completed. As to those on the London side, we again ask, where is the money to come from?

Besides the grand improvements, there are plans for two secondary streets given by Mr. Allen. The first is, the continuation of a street from the west front of St. Saviour's church to the Blackfriars-road, which at present can only be approached from the Borough by winding and narrow streets. As this street would only require a very partial destruction of property, a considerable extent of its line being composed of existing streets, requiring none or little alteration, we should pronounce its formation to be a decided improvement.

We cannot, however, speak in equal terms of the contemplated road from the Bricklayers' Arms to the new Bridge; that such a road would have the effect of driving out a number of poor inhabitants from their dwellings; and that it would afford employment to speculative builders is certain; but that it would be a public improvement, or productive of the least benefit to the inhabitants of Southwark, or elsewhere, we most positively deny. The road from the Bricklayers' Arms to St. George's Church affords every facility which can be required; and we feel certain that, if the new road was formed, the traffic, from various causes, would still keep the old track.

Viewing, however, the plans for this road, one observation alone will show the superiority of Mr. Allen's over that of the Messrs. Rennie; the

25

Monument for the Martyrs in Smithfield.

latter actually makes the line of road to intersect in a diagonal direction, and consequently destroy two out of three of the courts of St. Thomas's Hospital, and the whole of the front, and a portion of the back court of Guy's; while Mr. Allen, aided by his superior local knowledge, by carrying his line of street a few hundred yards further down Tooley-street, avoids the destruction or mutilation of both these public Institutions.

We had intended here to have closed this subject, but recollecting, after shutting up the pamphlet, that

some

"Hints on the consequences which will probably result from the removal of the ancient dam at London

Bridge," had been given in the prefatory remarks, we opened the book again, for the purpose of noticing the serious evil which it seems is likely to result from the removal of the old Bridge.

"Upon this question," says Mr. Allen, "I have ever been of opinion, that immediately the ancient dam shall have been taken away, either the bed of the river must be cleared out, as far up as Teddington Lock, or a new lock must be formed at the western extremity of the metropolis, towards Vauxhall Bridge or Chelsea; hetween which and the new London Bridge the bottom will require to be ballasted to a depth, nearly equal to the ancient fall at the old Bridge; and if this be done, what will then become of the foundations of some of our bridges, and of most of our wharf-walls along the banks of the river? Hereafter, when a

[July,

will become so nearly dry, as to be unfit for the purposes of navigation." P. 16.

Mr. Allen is not singular in this opinion. The late eminent John Smeaton, in 1767, says, "If London Bridge were to be taken away, the river would become so shallow above bridge at low water, that the navigation would be greatly impeded for hours each tide."

This is a question which deserves more serious consideration than it has ever met with. In this age of sillyimprovement, consequences are never considered until the effects of any projected innovation are too severely felt to be remedied. The "march of intellect" has so far outstripped reason and common sense, that it is now but of little use to oppose ancient securities against modern improvement. London Bridge must therefore fall with every other remnant of past ages; and when innovation has attained its triumph, let us hope we shall not have to look back with pain on the results of the restless spirit of alteration which unhappily marks the present day; or that we shall then view in the new London Bridge one of the monuments of conceited ignorance, disguised under the specious name of intellect, which, to our sorrow, will one day be as nuas the cause which creates them is now apparent. E. I. C.

merous

Mr. URBAN,

north-east wind prevails, the tide not being PERM

stopped as at present in its progress upward by the old Bridge, must lay under water the whole of Lambeth-marsh, Battersea, and a considerable extent of property in the upper parts of the river. Since the removal of the watercourses and the dams, which, after the opening of the great centre arch in 1760, were placed in the locks to accelerate the motion of the water-wheels, and more particularly since the opening of two wide arches; the tide-water in the river not only subsides more rapidly, and ebbs much lower out than formerly, but the lands on the banks of the river are more than ever exposed to be suddenly flooded at high water. Presuming from these facts, which are known to every waterman and resident on the banks of the river above Chelsea, I have no doubt that the removal of the bar rier at the old London Bridge will occasion frequent inundation when easterly winds prevail, and that some hours before the returning flood, the upper part of the river

July 25. me through the medium of your highly interesting Magazine to suggest, should the present nuisance of Smithfield market be abolished, and a handsome square erected on its site," the placing of an obelisk, or statue, "where the centre gas-lamp now stands," to commemorate the sufferings of those noble martyrs, who sealed their faith with their blood.

No monumental marble as yet records the names of those who were not afraid, in times of hot persecutions, to confess the Protestant faith, handed down by them to posterity.

Every Protestant, on beholding such a Memorial, would thank God that persecution and bigotry had ceased, and that every man was allowed to follow the religion his conscience dictates. Yours, &c.

A CONSTANT READER.

1828.]

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REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Works of Samuel Parr, LL. D. Prebendary of St. Paul's, Curate of Hatton, &c. with Memoirs of his Life and Writ ings, and a Selection from his Correspond ence. By John Johnstone, M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Royal College of Physicians of London, &c. In Eight Volumes. Longman and Co.

Trarer on happy in their bio HE great ones of the earth have

graphers, and we shall cease to be surprised at the numerous failures in this respect, when we reflect on the various qualifications which are necessary to be combined in one who undertakes the important office. The partiality of friendship may kindle iuto impassioned eulogy; various antipathies, political or literary, may conspire to cloud the moral perception, and obscure the truth; hence the portrait presented to our view may dazzle with excess of light, or be so disfigured by the dark shadows of prejudice, as to be a caricature, and not a likeness. It is therefore with no ordinary gratification that we congratulate the friends of Dr. Parr, and announce to the public, that the life of this eminent scholar and, with all his infirmities, this really good man, has been written by Dr. Johnstone of Birmingham, in a style which reflects equal honour on the author and his subject,-in a style of dignified and manly candour, indicating at the same time the healthiest state of morals, and exhibiting the discrimination of the critic, the elegance of the scholar, and the polish of the gentleman. We are quite sure that, as the real character of Dr. Parr was never understood during his long and somewhat stormy life, the volumes of Dr. J. will secure for him that place among the good and great which is due to his learning, his piety, and his talents. That they who have been accustomed only to view him through the misrepresentations that assail all political men, as the champion of Jacobinism, and the favourer of heterodoxy, will feel some compunction for their want of charity, and recognise him as in truth he was,-in piety deep and devoted, of a mind unsullied in the in

tegrity of its purpose,-a lover of liberty civil and religious, yet the enemy of all licentiousness,-a firm supporter of that church of which he was an ornament, yet tolerating with the meekness of a Christian every conscientious difference of opinion, without a germ of that latitudinarianism of which maaffection for Dr. Parr, and with all the lignity accused him. Yet with all his

veneration which an intimate acquaintance with him was sure to engender, Dr. Johnstone is no fulsome flatterer. He has brought to his task a deep sense of what was due both to the living and the dead. He has not been insen sible to the conviction that, where there was much to praise, there might be something to condemn,-where prejudice has fastened an unjust accusation, the justification has been ardent and complete,-where the love of disputation, and we fear this was Dr. Parr's besetting sin, has betrayed him. into unbecoming violence, and where his great powers were employed on unworthy subjects, wherever, in fact, the infirmity of his nature, or the warmth of his temper, have led to a departure from the sacred profession to which he was called, or from the Christian charity of which he should have been the exemplar,-we have a candid admission of his errors, and an affectionate regret for the misapplication of his acquirements. Dr. J. is the friend of Parr, but he is the greater friend of truth; and we have read these pages, in which the history of the life and times of a great scholar are recorded, with the highest admiration of the excellent arrangement of the materials, and with the warmest approbation of the fidelity and the candour, the taste and the talent, of the historian.

The volume of the Life could only have been written by one possessing, as Parr observed of Twining, the best energies of the understanding and the finest emotions of the heart; by a scholar, uniting the acumen and the strength necessary for the investigation of him who was a master of scholars, and that moral intrepidity which could both

30

REVIEW.-Dr. Parr's Works.

vindicate and condemn; -vindicate from misrepresentations which may have long passed current among the majority for truths, and condemn with fearlessness, where the influence of a great example might have seduced inferior spirits into unprofitable imitation. Such a Biographer is the author of the volumes we are about to consider, and to which without further preface we call the attention of the reader; and we will begin by quoting the very sensible observations by which the subject is introduced.

"Whatsoever (says Dr. J.) may be my ability for executing the task which I have undertaken, I may be permitted at least to declare that I feel none of the deficiencies which the ardour of friendship can in any way supply. Although I yield to many of my learned friends in the power of recording and delineating his supremacy in classical accomplishments, in diving with him into the depths of metaphysical subtlety, or soaring to the heights of theological sublimity, yet I can appeal to my own recollection, and my own personal knowledge, for such an account as shall best display him in those different points of view in which it is most useful to contemplate character-in the full vigour of manhood, and in the hoary holiness of age, at home and abroad, in public and in private, in the hours of business and of conviviality, in the bosom of his family and employed with his pupils, or when he was showing the force of his understanding in public instruction, or in some of the freaks of his humour, among his familiars."

The principal events of Dr. Parr's life are well known to most of our readers. We will therefore pass them over with brevity and dispatch. He was born at Harrow on the Hill, Jan. 15, O.S. 1747. His father was there in good practice as a surgeon and apothecary, distinguished for great professional knowledge, by a correct taste in the English and Latin languages, by the rectitude of his principles, and the independence of his spirit. At the very early age of five years Samuel Parr was admitted on the foundation of the Free School of his native place; and in his fourteenth year became the head boy. His contemporaries were Dr. Bennett, late Bishop of Cloyne; Sir William Jones, Dr. Combe, and some others, who with inferior attainments lived to pass him in the road of honours and prefer

ment.

With Dr. Bennett and Sir William Jones he maintained a strict intimacy; and these volumes are en

[July,

riched with their correspondence, which is highly honourable to all parties concerned. On leaving school Parr was placed by his father in the shop; here he remained from the summer of 1761 to that of 1765, when he entered at Emanuel College, Cambridge; here his application was incessant, and his obedience exemplary. "The force of his mind was chiefly directed to classical and philological reading, yet he had at the same time formed the most serious determination to prepare himself for his degree; and he secretly aspired to a high place in those academical honours which are bestowed on great proficiency in mathematical knowledge." In January 1766, his father died suddenly, and Parr pursued with straightened circumstances his academical studies at Cambridge, until he was induced to accept the offer of Dr. Sumner, who appointed him one of the assistants at Harrow, an office which he held for five years with credit to himself and advantage to the school. In 1769 he was ordained deacon, and diligently attended the duties of his school and his curacies. About this period his happiness experienced a very sensible interruption by the loss of Francis Parr, fellow of King's College, Cambridge, a cousin, and a friend to whom he appears to have been most ardently attached, and his friendship for whom was of the most exalted kind. The letters of Parr introduced at this period, it is truly said, will be lasting monuments of his zealous affection, his "devout spirit, and of his unbounded confidence in the mercy of God."

At the death of Dr. Sumner, Parr became candidate for the mastership of the School at Harrow; and his disappointment is known very seriously to have affected him. It was (says Dr. J.) the crisis of "his fate. Had he gone on regularly at the head of that great School, it is impossible to say where his own improvement and elevation would have ended; and how greatly the interest of letters might have been promoted. At ease and in peace, many of his excrescences of character would have had no room for growth—many of his eccentricities would have been limited-full scope would have been given to his love of learning, to his diligence, to his great intellectual powers, and his vast accumulations of knowledge. Forced down and trampled

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