In August, 1865, the OLD WARREN MANSION was torn down, its beautiful lawns covered with brick, and its massive locusts cut up and given to the winds.* This mansion, which stood near the intersection of 1865. Charles and Bleecker Streets, was built by Sir Peter Warren about 1740. Although, when demolished, in the heart of the city, yet at that time it stood in the open country with its lawns reaching down to the North River -long before even the first cottage had been built in the village of Greenwich. It is indeed safe to say that around no other house did there cluster so many associations which to New Yorkers should be especially dear. Admiral, afterward Sir Peter Warren, K. B., the hero of Lewisburg, is scarcely known to the present generation; and yet aside from his being so long identified with the naval glory of England, he was in our colonial history the great man of an era, and at one time, during the administration of Clinton, exercised more influence in the Colonial Government than even the Governor himself. At that time, when the extreme limit of our city was Wall Street, the house No. 1 Broadway, by the Bowling Green-now the Washington Hotel-was built by Sir Peter as his town house, in distinction from his country seat-the house of which we are now speaking. In 1748, when the smallpox was raging in this city, the Colonial Assembly, to get out of reach of the contagion, accepted Sir Peter's tender of his country seat and adjourned thither to escape the plague by being in the country! It indeed seemed

*Other landmarks, it is true, had previously been demolished. The OLD BRICK CHURCH, erected in 1768 on the triangular piece of ground between Park Row, Beekman, and Nassau Streets, and used in the Revolution, first as a prison and then as a hospital for prisoners, had given place, in 1856, to the "Times Building," and the ATLANTIC GARDEN, formerly "Burns' Coffee House," and the "Faneuil Hall" of New York, had been also purchased and destroyed by the Hudson River Railroad Company; but neither of these ever possessed the personal reminiscences of the Old Warren Mansion.

really cruel to cut down those ancient trees, planted by the Admiral's own hand. A tree, like a tooth, is very easily removed, but is a long time in growing; and it is thus that a Spanish peasant feels when, with religious

feeling, he stoops down by the wayside and plants the pit or seed of the fruit which he has been eating. It were to be wished that Americans had more veneration for the ancient traditions of their own country and for the ves

tiges of the past. A few individuals occasionally have this feeling, and in a large measure; but as a nation we have no love for the past, and hence old landmarks, pregnant with hallowed associations, are continually being removed to make room for "modern improvements," until it is to be feared that soon oral tradition will be all that will be left to inform the rising generation of what once was. It is true that more attention is now paid to our past history than formerly by historical societies; but they are powerless in very many instances to arrest the hand of vandalism. The practice of the old country in this respect is far different. An old abbey or castle, or even an old tavern, is guarded with zealous care; the government-if private liberality is in fault-pays out large sums to keep them intact; and the people, even the lowest, feel a personal interest in the preservation of some relic which their village may perchance boast of. Especially is this difference in feeling between the old world and the new seen in the care with which all the mementoes of a battle-field are preserved. In Germany, for example, while the most ignorant peasant residing in the vicinity of any of the battle-fields of the thirty years' war will tell you accurately and truthfully where this and that point of interest is; where the battle raged the hottest and where the turning point was reached; a well-todo farmer in America, residing on the battle-field itself, will be unable to point out a single place of interest—and he will do very well if he knows that there was a battle fought on his farm at all. Even at this very time two farmers, living in the vicinity of the scene of the famous battle of Saratoga, are busily advocating their claims to living upon the particular spot upon which the famous charge of the British Highlanders was made—and yet the farms lie a mile distant from each other! Chancing, moreover, to visit, a year or two since, the ruins of Fort

Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, the writer was pained to find that the farmers in the vicinity had for several years past been in the habit of pulling down the ruins and drawing them off for the purpose of building fences. But it is not too late to prevent the removal of the few old landmarks that yet remain among us. In the densely settled parts of the city where they stand there is great need of breathing-places, and why, therefore, cannot our city government buy the spots and let them remain as little parks? The public certainly would feel much better satisfied with this expenditure of the public funds by the City Council than voting silver services or costly badges.

In the same spirit of vandalism the crumbling remains of those who-some of them for nearly a century-had slept beneath the tower of the OLD NORTH DUTCH CHURCH,*

*This edifice, standing at the north-west corner of Fulton and William Streets, New York, is one of the antiquities of the city, being now over a century old. In 1:67 the two churches then used by the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church (since known as the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church) were found insufficient to accommodate the increasing congregations, and the Consistory decided to erect a third place of worship. They resolved that “the church should be erected on the grounds of Mr. Harpending; that it should be one hundred feet in length and seventy in breadth; that it should front Horse and Cart Lane, and be placed in the middle of the lot." The grounds thus referred to were given by John Harpending, an influential member of the church, who had died at an advanced age in 1722. His coat of arms can still be seen suspended over the pulpit; it has on it implements belonging to the currying business, his trade having been that of a tanner and currier. The motto which it bears, "Dando Conservat," is significant of the spirit which actuated the donor in the distribution of his wealth. The part of William Street on which this church stands was then called "Horse and Cart Lane," from a tavern near by, which had for a sign the picture of a horse and cart.

The corner-stone of the North Dutch Church was laid July 2d, 1767, by Isaac Roosevelt, one of its elders, and the dedication was preached by the Rev. Dr. Laidlie, on the 25th of May, 1769. The cost of the building was £12,000.

The main walls are constructed of uncut stone, stuccoed and painted. The door and window dressings and molding are of freestone, now badly damaged by the rough usage through which the building has passed. On the columns in the interior of the church can be seen the initials of the generous contributors toward the erection of the church. The original pulpit was removed during the Revolution by the British. Some time after the war an American gentleman, attending service in a country church in England, was astonished

were removed in 1866 to Greenwood Cemetery. In the majority of cases, however, the silver plates once attached to the coffins (mingled with fine dust) were the only remains. The dust was separated as carefully 1866. as possible, placed in boxes, and conveyed to Greenwood. Still, in the chaotic state in which the ashes of the dead lay complete accuracy was impossible; and perhaps the dust of persons who, while on earth, cherished bitter animosity toward each other, is destined hereafter to repose in the closest commingling in the same casket.

The Consistory at the time expressed the intention. (which has since been carried out) to dispose of only a part of the land upon which the building stands; and should that edifice be torn down, they wish the community to be assured that it is their present intention to erect on part of its site a spacious and elegant chapel, in which preaching will be continued each Sabbath, and the regular noon prayer-meeting upon every day of the week-so long as they have control.

Thus much to explain the intentions of the Consistory. We add our unqualified condemnation of the movement. It is a disgrace to the age and to the city that old churchyards are thus invaded by the demands of commerce, and the repose of the dead violated, because the city has grown. Old grave-yards ought to be venerated as holy ground. Men should no more consent to such changes than they would consent to sell the bones of their own fathers and mothers for knife-handles. If the church is deserted and congregations cannot be maintained, then let

to recognize in it the pulpit of the North Dutch Church. During the Revolution this church was used as a place for storage, and as a hospital by the English. It was also used by the latter as a prison, and at one time contained eight hundred American prisoners. The lower part was stripped of the pews, pulpit, etc., and the marks of ill-usage can still be seen on the pillars. The engraving shows the church as it appeared before its wooden steeple was destroyed by fire, which occurred about two years ago.