190 NEWFOUNDLAND.

the streets and lanes are still irregular, and, in wet weather, extremely dirty. Without some form of municipal corporate government, having the power of making by—laws for the management of all matters connected with the town, little improvement of any consequence can be expected.*

The situation of St John’s, its excellent harbour, combining safety of access, and the means of being easily defended, its most convenient position for the chief town of a great fishing colony, and its being the seat of the government and the supreme court, are sufficient considerations to grant it a charter for its government and improvement. In this opinion, most of those Whom I know, either residing in the colony or in connexion with it, concur.

The public and government buildings are of con- siderable importance; but have 'little elegance to recommend them to notice, unless the immense house now in the course of finishing, intended as a residence for the governor, be an exception. It is considered a most extravagant building, and cer- tainly too large for any establishment that is likely to be necessary at Newfoundland.

The custom-house, the Episcopal church, and

if It is utterly impossible, in acts of parliament, to provide for the local improvements necessary in a town situated in a distant colony. In the provisions of an act passed in 1820, for regulating the rebuild- ing of St John’s after the fires, there is a clause, which directs that, where wooden buildings are erected, the streets must be fifty feet wide, and forty feet where stone houses are built. The consequence is, that one house is pitched ten feet farther forward than another.