view to the future advancement of taste, can be accomplished only at this time and in this city; the animation of the war having given an excitation to the public feeling on national subjects, which, if suffered to subside, will probably never be revived; and our metropolis presenting the only city in the empire, where a situation fitted for the restoration of so sublime a structure can be obtained; where the vicinity of freestone quarries admits of its being raised at a tenth part of the expence of what would elsewhere be incurred; and where moral feeling, most likely to realise its advantages, is to be found.

Of every other species of architecture, great and splendid examples are to be found in this island: of the Doric temple alone, no model yet exists to form the taste of our people or rouse the emulation of our architects. This, therefore, renders it the more desirable that the present occasion, never likely to recur, should not be lost, of realizing in the metropolis of this kingdom the most perfect model of that style which the world has yet seen; and of spreading over our whole people that warm perception of its beauties which has hitherto been confined to artists who have studied its proportions, or travellers who have explored its remains.

By raising this noble edifice on the Calton Hill, we shall confer the most important benefit upon the prosperity of our own city; experience having shown that its picturesque beauty, and the splendour of its public edifices, is one of the main pillars of its prosperity, of its celebrity among fo reign nations, and of the influx of inhabitants from our own; and no other measures being equally calculated to prevent it from sinking into a provincial town, to counterbalance the strong disposition of our nobility to flock to the southern metropolis, and to render it, as it should be, the northern metropolis of science and art.

These considerations are so obvious, that they must have forced them selves on the observation of all who have turned their attention for a moment to the subject; and they are, in fact, so well understood, and generally felt by all persons of taste or judgment, that any illustration of them would be worse than useless.

Holding it, however, as clear, that the National Monument will eventually be fixed on this situation, and framed after this model, there are two points which we wish to impress upon the Committee, without a due attention to which, the plan, in so fair a train, may eventually miscarry, or, at least, its beneficial effects will be very much impaired.

The first is, that the determination of the Committee to select the Parthenon as the model of the edifice, and to place it on the Calton Hill, already formed by most of them in private, should forthwith be adopted by them in their collective capacity, and subscriptions invited on that assurance. It may be depended upon that, till this is done, a very large and important class of subscribers will not come forward.

The people of this country are by no means deficient in public spirit, or a desire to contribute towards any measure which may maintain the na tional character, or contribute to the embellishment of its metropolis. No one can have lived in Edinburgh last winter, and mingled in its society, without perceiving that the subject of the restoration of the Parthenon engaged a very large share of public attention, and more particularly was espoused by those whose rank, talents, or acquirements qualified them to take a lead in forming the public opinion. The subscription, we understand, already amounts to above L. 15,000, without any of the expected aid from the colonies having been received. Much, therefore, has already been done towards the attainment of this object. But still a very large, and opulent, and intelligent part of the community have not come forward; and this body comprises many of the most celebrated public characters of which the country can boast. We have made it an object to inquire into the feelings of these persons towards this undertaking, and we find that party spirit has no share in their backwardness; on the contrary, they comprise fully as many persons of ministerial as opposition principles, and among the latter a very general feeling exists to support the proposed measure, and render it the result of a cordial co-operation of all ranks. It arises entirely from un

certainty as to the plan and situation of the proposed edifice; and till this uncertainty is removed, their support will certainly not be received.

Nor is this distrust and caution unnatural or unreasonable. We are by nature a cautious people, and though capable of great acts of public spirit, when the proper direction of the funds subscribed is secured, yet we will not subscribe till we are assured that our money will not be misapplied. The erection of the two episcopal chapels, by voluntary subscription, among a limited class of society, would never have succeeded, notwithstanding the indefatigable zeal and public spirit of those who promoted them, had the subscription papers not been accompanied by an engraved plan of the buildings which were to be erected, and an assurance that they were to be adopted. Indeed, it is the universal practice when money is solicited for any public purpose, that an accurate statement of the proposed work is first prepared, and the subscriptions of individuals are then requested, when they have had an opportunity of judging to what purpose their money is to be applied.

It is a clear indication of the strong public feeling which exists in favour of the National Monument, that so large a sum as L. 15,000 has been obtained before any place was fixed for it, and when the subscribers, in consequence, were entirely in the dark as to the application of their funds. We should, a priori, have thought it impossible to raise any thing like this sum in Edinburgh, on such terms, But we know that this uncertainty keeps back a large and most respectable body of contributors, whose names would draw after them not only a strong public feeling, but a great additional number of subscribers.

It is in vain, however, to expect that this body of men will come forward, till this uncertainty is removed, and the Parthenon is definitively fixed as the model of the Monument. One distinguished nobleman, eminent alike for his influence in society, and his personal taste and acquirements, has declared that he will triple his present subscription of L. 100 the moment the Parthenon is fixed on; but that, till that is done, he must decline taking any farther charge of the matter. Many other individuals, eminent

alike for the splendour of their talents, the celebrity of their names, and their influence in society, who have not yet appeared as subscribers, have declared that the moment the Parthenon is fixed on, they will subscribe largely to the undertaking; but that, till this is done, they will give nothing, Many travellers who visited this city during the last summer have declared their willingness to subscribe if the Parthenon is adopted, from their anxiety to have that celebrated building restored within the empire; but from them nothing is to be ex-, pected till it is definitively fixed on. Within the limited range of our own acquaintance, we know upwards of L. 1000 which may be relied on the moment the public are assured that this plan is to be adopted; but which will never be heard of till it is fixed. Our readers, we are confident, will find the same feeling to prevail among their own acquaintances.

Nor is this caution surprising, when the edifices, to which some former subscriptions have been applied, is considered. Taste is but of recent growth in this city; and every one must recollect the period when, in place of feeling a pride, as at present, in the public spirit of its inhabitants, and the taste and judgment with which they are guided, it was matter of universal regret amongst ourselves, and of continual reproach from strangers, that the unparalleled natural advan tages of stone and situation were lost, from the indifference of the inhabitants to public undertakings, and the want of taste in those who formed them. Our habits have been formed by this period; and we cannot forget that many buildings exist in this city, intended for public ornament, which are a lasting blot on the taste and judgment of the age which formed them. And lest any one should have imagined that these times are gone by, and that the very respectable gentlemen who compose the Committee may be safely entrusted with the selection of a design for the proposed edifice, the deplorable shipwreck of the hopes and expectations of the friends of Lord Melville, and the subscribers to his column, which has lately taken place in the selection of a site for his Monument, prove, beyond a doubt, that the only security for a good design, is to be found in having

the place and situation fixed before the subscriptions are given: that, like our old English ancestors, security for the application of money must precede the granting of supplies: and that, if either the design or situation be left in the dark, the talents, the respectability, or the public spirit of a Committee form no adequate security that a place will not be adopted, infatuated in itself, and which they themselves, when executed, will be the first to regret.

But it is not only amongst ourselves that the most beneficial consequences will be felt towards increasing the subscription, by fixing on the Parthenon as the design of the Monument. The same effect will be still more apparent among strangers, and in the colonies. The inhabitants of England cannot be supposed to enter very warmly into the new desire of embellishing our metropolis; nor will they even subscribe to any extent to the proposed undertaking, as long as it is not known what the design is to be, and when the only inducement held out to them to come forward, is the desire which the Scotch feel to record their national glories. But if it be publicly announced that the Parthenon is to be adopted, and that it is to be placed on the Calton Hill, the public spirit and classical enthusiasm of that generous people will at once be excited in favour of an undertaking in which not Scotland merely, but the whole inhabitants of the empire, are interested. The numerous and enterprising travellers into all the classical regions of the South whom that country is continually sending forth; the efforts that are daily making by individuals to bring home some of the remains of Grecian sculpture; the great numbers of the most distinguished youth of the kingdom who are yearly returning from a pilgrimage to the Acropolis, and bringing with them the warmest admiration for its beauties; the vast increase and rapid sale of engravings of the ruins which there present themselves, all demonstrate in the clearest manner the strong interest which the English take in these subjects, and the efforts which they are willing to make, in order to realize in this country the delight and the advantages which they have experienced from their remains. But all the Grecian travellers feel that the

restoration of the Parthenon, so ear nestly desired by all men of taste in England, is hopeless in that country, from the want of any situation in the metropolis wherein to place it, and the enormous expence with which all ornamental works in freestone is there attended; and numbers of them have already turned their eyes to the Calton Hill, as the only spot in the island where such an undertaking is likely to be successful. This, therefore, renders it the more desirable, that an immediate resolution to select this design for the National Monument should be adopted, in order to give to the undertaking the impulse which the wealth, the public spirit, and the classical habits of England cannot fail to communicate, but which never will be exerted in its behalf, till such a resolution is made publicly known.

The same consideration applies with equal force to our Indian colonies, where, as has been observed by one whose extensive knowledge of society in the East renders his authority peculiarly valuable, a taste for ornamental architecture has much outstripped what prevails in this country; and where the wealth of a vast empire has been guided by a very refined taste in the embellishment of the capital in the purest style of the Grecian orders. Not only will the certainty that the Parthenon is to be adopted greatly contribute to extend the subscription among the numerous Scotchmen who hold important stations in our Eastern empire, but it will remove the dread which those acquainted with our metropolis must otherwise feel, that the work, when finished, will be a disgrace rather than an ornament to their country. These individuals, it is to be recollected, left this country during the war, when the national taste was at a very low ebb, and when the public buildings of Edinburgh in particular were as remarkable for their clumsiness, as those since erected are for their elegance and beauty. The rapid progress which a taste for architecture has made amongst us since that period, could not a priori have been anticipated, and certainly in India is almost wholly unknown. It is much to be feared, therefore, that our countrymen in the East, retaining even in that region of profuse expen

"Captain Basil Hall.

diture some of their original cautious habits, and judging of the present chance of a fine edifice being erected in Edinburgh, by what existed when they left it, will be deterred from subscribing largely to an undertaking from which they can imagine so little prospect of any material benefit being derived. Such fears, natural to man in all situations, but quite unavoid able at such a distance as they are from the place where the edifice is to be erected, and entirely ignorant of the persons to whom the choice of its design is to be entrusted, it is hardly necessary to observe, the resolution to adopt the Parthenon would entirely obviate.

II. The second point to which it is desirable that the attention of the Committee should be directed, is the propriety of rescinding or modifying the resolutions passed at an early period of the undertaking, in regard to making the Monument a church.

It need not be observed, that this measure is entirely independent of the selection of the Parthenon as a model for the edifice. No form is better adopted for a church than the interior of such a temple, as must be obvious from the consideration, that it presents a room 180 feet long, 90 feet broad, and 45 high. In fact, the earliest Christian churches now extant were all made out of such temples; and the Basilicae of Rome, formed on such a model, are still visited by travellers, not only on account of their great antiquity, but the simplicity and elegance of their interior appearance. It is not, therefore, because such an object is inconsistent with the Parthe non, that it is thought objectionable, for in fact it is not so in the smallest degree, but for very different and more serious considerations.

The reason, it is believed, of its being originally proposed to make the National Monument a church, was, because it was hoped, that in that way a large sum might be obtained for the undertaking, from the L. 100,000 voted in Parliament, for the erection of churches in Scotland. But this reason has entirely failed; for when application was made to the Treasury on the subject, it was ascertained that no part of that money could ever be obtained for this purpose, the act authorizing it containing an express provision, that no part of the sum should be

granted to a church to which any ornament was to be applied.

Nor does there seem to be any sufficient reason for an opinion which is entertained by some individuals eminent alike for their talents and their station in society, that the Committee having invited subscriptions on the footing of the Monument being a church, are barred from going back on that resolution, the more especially as application has been made to the General Assembly on the same assurance, and they have recommended to every parish in Scotland to subscribe to the undertaking, some of whom have already done so. For it is to be recollected,

1. In the first place, that the greater part of the present subscriptions, certainly those from almost all the persons of rank and eminence which the list contains, were obtained before any resolution as to its being a church was formed; and many of these subscribers have declared their strong dissatisfaction, at the plan of diverting any part of the funds for the endowing of clergymen, which the plan of making it a church necessarily involves.

2. None, or at least very few, of the subscriptions from individuals, so far as can be ascertained at present, was given because the edifice was to be a church. It was as the National Monument of Scotland, not as a convenient church for Edinburgh, that our noblemen and landed proprietors came forward so handsomely in support of the measure. A few individuals expecting to be promoted to the proposed church, may possibly be dissatisfied if this part of the plan be changed, but there cannot be the smallest doubt that ninety-nine hundredths of the subscribers had no view to its being a church, when they put down their names to its support. There is no reason, therefore, to fear, that either any names of respectability, or subscriptions to any amount, will be withdrawn, if the destination of the edifice be altered.

3. In the third place, with respect to the parishes, it is to be observed, that although the recommendation of the General Assembly was past nearly a year ago, and circulated within a very short time afterwards to every parish in the kingdom, yet a very few indeed, only three or four, have yet

subscribed; and it is believed the aggregate of their subscriptions has not yet reached L. 100. It may reasonably be doubted, therefore, whether this measure will ever be generally adopted. In fact, it is quite certain that it will not; and of this the best proof is, that in Edinburgh itself, where the church is to be erected, and where the inhabitants are immediately to profit by the undertaking, no attempt to make a general collection has yet been made. If such be the feeling of the metropolis, where the surplus wealth of the whole country is collected, and where most ardour in support of the cause may reasonably be expected, it is quite hopeless to expect that it will be adopted in remote countries far removed from the place to be benefited, and already suffering under sufficient distress and poverty of their own.

swer,

But in fact, even if every parish in Scotland might reasonably be expected to subscribe, it is quite evident that this disposition would not, in the slightest degree, be checked by the destination of the edifice for a church being altered. The inhabitants of the Highlands, and of other cities in the kingdom, cannot be expected to subscribe for the erection of a church in Edinburgh, or for the accommodation of its inhabitants. If any one were to propose to the parishes of Scotland to subscribe for such a measure, universal derision, and utter failure of success, would certainly attend the proposal. They would unanimously anLet the metropolis take care of itself; we have enough to do with our own poor, to think of diverting any of our scanty funds to the furtherance of an object in which its citizens are alone concerned." If, therefore, the parishes shall yet subscribe to the undertaking, it is not because the proposed edifice is to be a church for Edinburgh, but because it is to be a Monument for Scotland, because it is to record the valour, and bear testimony to the gratitude of a people, in which every parish justly considers itself as bearing a part. This consideration, therefore, may serve to show, that no defalcation of the subscriptions, which may reasonably be calculated upon from this source, is to be apprehended from changing the resolution, that the Monument is to be a church; and that the Committee

should offer to return the subscrip tions to any parish, which asserts that it subscribed to the undertaking, on the footing of its being an Edinburgh church.

In regard to the subscriptions which are expected from India, still less difficulty prevails. No one will assert, that the subscribers in that country have come forward, chiefly because the building is to be a church, or that any one there cares that it is applied to any other purpose than an edifice, which may be worthy of the great purposes to which it is destined, as the National Monument of Scotland.

In every point of view, therefore, it seems perfectly clear, that the Committee may, with perfect safety, rescind the resolution that a church is to be the destination of the subscriptions; and, as a measure of justice to those who have subscribed on a different understanding, offer to relinquish all claim for such sums as have been obtained on this footing, and could not have been obtained had a different understanding prevailed.

But if it be once established that the Committee have it still in their power, and may with safety to the undertaking rescind the resolution already passed on this subject, then many reasons occur why it should as soon as possible be done.

In the first place, this would relieve the undertaking of the principal, properly speaking, the only difficulty which exists with regard to its funds. That such a sum as L. 30,000 or I.. 40,000 will be obtained when the Parthenon is announced as the model, and the subscriptions which may confidently be looked for from the colonies are received, cannot be doubted. But this sum, though amply sufficient for building the Parthenon, will be insufficient to do it and endow two clergymen besides. For this latter object, L. 15,000 or L. 20,000 will in all probability be required. To de vote so large a proportion of the funds to this purpose, therefore, amounts, in fact, to an entire abandonment of the objects for which it was undertaken. We shall neither then erect a noble Monument, nor even a respectble church; but in endeavouring to grasp at two objects, which, taken together, are beyond our reach, entirely fail in accomplishing either. The utmost that could then be hoped for,