DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1213#0432
304 CLOSING OBSERVATIONS.
loped tastes very similar to those displayed by the Ojib-
beway Indians lately exhibited before the wondering eyes
of their polished fellow-creatures, and when, in the
absence of elegant apparel, they were well pleased to
paint their skin with rainbow hues, let us see what
London was eighteen hundred years ago. Tacitus, who
is the first Roman author by whom mention of London
is made, writing in the year 52, says that " London is
so called from its situation, and Augusta from its splen-
dour." He adds, that it was then famous for its mer-
chants ; but notwithstanding this fact, it occupied no
higher rank than a Roman colony. The Roman colony
of 52 has risen to be, in 1852, the empress city of the
world—the civic heart whence laws governing both
hemispheres are promulgated; and has achieved a fame,
compared with which that of Rome, in its mightiest
days, was insignificant and puny. Every year furnishes
new materials to the historian; and all relating to the
past, or present, or future prospects of the great city,
must possess a certain degree of interest. Franklin
asks—'"Who would be without a history of his own
country?" In a similar vein, may we not enquire—
" Who would willingly remain ignorant of the great
events, of the enterprising spirits, and of those mag-
nificent structures, which have rendered London not
only the centre of the world's commerce, but the chief
human temple of civilization?"
loped tastes very similar to those displayed by the Ojib-
beway Indians lately exhibited before the wondering eyes
of their polished fellow-creatures, and when, in the
absence of elegant apparel, they were well pleased to
paint their skin with rainbow hues, let us see what
London was eighteen hundred years ago. Tacitus, who
is the first Roman author by whom mention of London
is made, writing in the year 52, says that " London is
so called from its situation, and Augusta from its splen-
dour." He adds, that it was then famous for its mer-
chants ; but notwithstanding this fact, it occupied no
higher rank than a Roman colony. The Roman colony
of 52 has risen to be, in 1852, the empress city of the
world—the civic heart whence laws governing both
hemispheres are promulgated; and has achieved a fame,
compared with which that of Rome, in its mightiest
days, was insignificant and puny. Every year furnishes
new materials to the historian; and all relating to the
past, or present, or future prospects of the great city,
must possess a certain degree of interest. Franklin
asks—'"Who would be without a history of his own
country?" In a similar vein, may we not enquire—
" Who would willingly remain ignorant of the great
events, of the enterprising spirits, and of those mag-
nificent structures, which have rendered London not
only the centre of the world's commerce, but the chief
human temple of civilization?"