driven on with redoubled force. The system of finance here suggested may be easily realized.

Let the constitution of Missouri be maintained, and the statute only amended, granting the privilege of individual banking with a certain safe proportion of public securities, private responsibilities and gold and silver. Let the capitalists of Missouri issue notes protected by this three-fold security, that by these notes the credit of the State and its gold and silver may come home to and co-operate with the credit of the people; and, together, with the establishment of such a system, let the absolute law of interest be repealed, and the cause of manufactures promoted; then credit, gold and silver will all be realized in more abundance by all the people of the State, and every germ of their prosperity grow with new impulses of life.

These are intended only as general suggestions of relief arising from the oppressive wants of the people. This subject will be discussed pro and con more thoroughly in some future number of the JOURNAL.

ARTICLE VI.

Manufacture of Stone.

BY LOUIS S. ROBBINS, ESQ., OF NEW YORK.

The preparation of stone for building houses and other elegant and substantial structures, has for ages been both a difficulty and a desideratum.

Stone is the most natural and the most endurable material for architecture.

The temples and the pyramids of Egypt are venerable witnesses of the superiority of this material over wood or clay, corroborating by their testimony, what the common sense of mankind freely acknowledges.

But the mechanic arts of the Egyptians were more mysterious than their hieroglyphics. Their writings have been deciphered,

but their science in architecture remains inscrutable.

The principles on which they prepared, and especially by which they raised the solid rock of obelisk, like a tower piercing the clouds, and by which they built the mountain like monuments of their splendor, were lost with the people who employed them, and

have not yet been re-discovered, even among the astonishing inventions of modern civilization.

The spirit of discovery in the present age has been directed to the invention of machinery to meet present wants. Thoughts of the distant future, of the erection of material monuments, which will tell throughout all ages with a single glance the condition of refinement in society at the present time— these thoughts are all overclouded by the passion for immediate gain and amusement.

But the time has come when more liberal and enlightened views should be taken, when at least future good should be considered in intimate connection with present gain, when firm stability should be appreciated as strongly as fair appearance, when the principles of solidity and grandeur should be exemplified in architecture as well as in intelligence, at the expense both of affectation and of

stucco.

Stucco in architecture and affectation in intelligence are both ephemeral; they cannot stand the test of time, and although they are tinsel ornaments, they are at the same time indications of a dawning taste for a more brilliant and substantial refinement, as the first faint rays of the morning give promise of the glorious day approaching.

The day has now dawned when stucco in architecture must fade away in the broad light of brilliant and substantial stone structures. In fact brick itself, with or without stucco, must yield the palm to

stone.

Within the fire limits of cities, wood is already superceded. Brick and stone are, by virtue of law, arising from the danger of wood, left as the sole rival building materials. On account of the primary cheapness of brick, and the passion for the highest immediate income from buildings, brick has heretofore been almost universally employed and stone neglected in architecture. But a greater foresight is now being awakened, a better feeling is now being cultivated, a stronger regard for ultimate profit, and a finer taste for elegant stability is now really entertained; and, with all these evidences of progress in the Fine Art of Architecture, cheapness of price in the preparation of stone for building purposes, which is now obtained by the aid of inventions in machinery, must give additional impulse to the public mind for the demand of stone as a building material. The good sense and the fine taste of the community must become a law unto itself, by virtue of which brick

as well as wood must be supplanted, within the elegant and substantial limits of cities, by varied stone, polished marble and indestructible granite.

The Pacific Railroad is now ready to bring the sand stone and marble from the Meramec, and soon the Iron Mountain Railroad will be ready to bring the sand stone and marble from along its route, and also granite and porphyry from the St. Francis to the doors of St. Louis, where marble buildings are already erected by private enterprise, which are ornaments of the city, and objects of admiration to both citizens and strangers.

Soon public buildings, a custom house, a city hall, additional churches, colleges, hotels, &c., will be in process of construction. These buildings will of course be made of the most elegant and substantial material, and they will be new incentives to the erection of private residences of a kindred order.

While thus the good sense and the fine taste of the people is turning to the importance of grand and beautiful buildings, while great varieties of excellent material abound around St. Louis, while the railroads will soon be bringing it to hand in profusion with reasonable prices, it is a source of gratification to learn that the difficulty of the preparation of the raw material for the finest use has been overcome, and the desideratum realized.

The Empire Stone Co. of St. Louis, lately organized, expect soon to furnish stone planed and prepared for use, by aid of machinery recently invented, at a price which will accommodate both the purse and the taste of the people, and which, while promoting the fortune and the refinement of the community, must return an extraordinary amount of profit to the company.

The people of St. Louis, and indeed the whole Mississippi valley, feel an interest in this enterprise. Its commencement gives encouragement to the spirit of manufacturing, the importance of which needs no discussion. Its operations necessarily result in adding those substantial and desirable improvements already established in most of the Atlantic cities where great private and public profit and reputation have been gained by architectural improvements furnished by this means. The minds of those who live at a distance will receive an impulse from this movement; they will be impressed with the character of this people for enterprise, taste and refinement, and will feel confidence in the promised greatness of this inland city of the West-the destiny of which may be seen in her rapid growth and prosperity within the last fourteen years, and in her present disposition to encourage those improvements that contribute to its ultimate realization.