And now, having concluded the narrative and descriptive parts of the Memoir, it will not be deemed an unreasonable indulgence of patriotism civic or pride, to present a brief and flattering comparison between this New York Aqueduct, and the most magnificent of those constructed in ancient or in modern times, the relative population and wealth of the

respective countries or communities by which such undertakings have been accomplished, the cost so far as it is ascertainable, and the sort of labor employed.

Rome claims the first place, both of ancient and modern days, for the abundance of her supplies of water through aqueducts. The grandest of her gigantic works was executed by an imperial master and servile hands but even under her ;

consuls, the people had no share either in the labor or the burden, of the two grandest aqueducts ever constructed. The Anio Vetus, in the year of Rome 480, was paid for from the spoils taken from Pyrrhus, overthrown by the Consul, M. Curius Dentatus, in the preceding year and the Aqua Marcia, a yet more magnificent work, was commenced in the year of Rome, 608, the same year in which the great rival of Rome, Carthage, surrrendered, and in which the Consul Mummius destroyed Corinth, carrying off a prodigious plunder. From means thus acquired, was this aqueduct probably provided for.

These were the two great works of republican Rome, but they were cemented by the blood of slavery, and defrayed by the spoils robbed from the conquered and the