Miss Theodora arrived this evening to our pleasure, after a rather more than usually fatiguing journey from Boston, (the train being nearly an hour behind time), but apparently unfatigued & in good spirits.

I am very warmly engaged in the fight upon the Capitol just now, having been most of the time during the last two weeks in Albany. The question of tearing down what we have done and returning to the old plan is before a Joint Committee and we have been for several hours daily attending its sessions but have not yet had a chance to say one word for ourselves. Fuller is present with a sharp and brassy lawyer who opened with a very violent and extravagant attack upon us, accusing us of falsehood & knavery; Two or three members of the Committee also took active part against us. The Commissioners replied and so effectively in the end that it became ludicrous & the Committee retreated into Executive Session. It was then agreed, as we are told, to send for Renwick and Hunt, and a country architect who has built a block of stores for one of the members of the Committee & who, as this member said, assured him that our work was barbarous.

Every charge will be abandoned except that of passing from Roman to Romanesque in the exterior and that of "making a dungeon” of the Assembly Chamber. As there is something new in this I will tell you of it. The Assembly Chamber is a hall nearly 150 feet long, 100 wide & 50 high, with two tiers of windows on each of its longer sides—very light. Fuller narrows it at the bottom, shuts out half the light by partitions, hangs a cast iron ceiling over it and covers its walls with Parian marble—viz. a form of "hard finish” with that name, and large plaster "decorations.” In our plan the walls are of three tints of sand stone, (ashlar of the lightest Ohio quarry) with polished red [285] granite columns supporting a grand vaulted ceiling. It is admitted to be a much more conveniently arranged room for its purposes as far as floor and galleries are concerned. But one questions if such a ceiling can be made safe?—Think of sitting right under a great piece of stone without a strap or bolt to hold it up! Then it would be so gloomy with stone walls all around. Moreover, we are told, that some of the Committee think that the sand stone would absorb the air that had been breathed in the room and retain so much of the poisonous exhalations from the lungs of the Assembly that it would soon become dangerous to sit near the walls. Finally Mr Renwick has already told the Chairman of the House Committee that a vaulted ceiling would render the room wholly useless for its purposes on account of its echoes. It would be impossible to speak intelligibly in it.

This chairman of the House Committee, when it was first stated against us that we intended to make a ceiling of stone, interrupted the speaker, with an exclamation of incredulity and when again and again assured that it was so, threw up his hands with a great groan, then sank back, closed his eyes and said "That is enough for me!” Actually, the possibility of such a construction seems to be doubted.

The Committee is strongly against us but so far we have gained in the debate and in the canvass. Apparently the majority of the Democrats are disposed to sustain the Commissioners who are now all state officers of their own party. The reform republicans, the soberer country members, are also at least disposed to give us a hearing, being jealous of the men who are leading against us who are notoriously corrupt & who are after the patronage. How it will be when the authority of the profession is brought against us and the rural member has been sufficiently educated in the cant of schools and styles I don’t know. We are now chiefly anxious that when Hunt & Renwick are examined, we may be present and allowed to question them.

I am glad to hear that you like Richardson’s church.

Let me call your attention to the fact that a bill has been favorably reported in the legislature for occasionally occupying a part of the Central park as a parade ground.

Bills for this purpose have often been introduced but have been [287] strongly resisted and I believe that never before has one appeared equally likely to pass.

If it is desirable to maintain a rural character in the park and to prevent its degenerating from a sylvan retreat into a place for boisterous fun and rough sports—a sort of Metropolitan Common or Fair Ground, the most energetic protest should be made against this bill.

The ordinary rules for the protection of the characteristic elements of the park must be practically suspended when the troops enter. Inter arma silent leges would apply with peculiar significance. For you know very well that the characteristic spirit and tone of manners of a crowd attending any great muster of militia is always one peculiarly antagonistic to that which has hitherto been in a large degree preserved in the park.

To a certain extent the scenes of the park have hitherto impressed the rough element of the city as with something of sacredness and to this fact the park owes all that has hitherto made it peculiarly enjoyable (among parks) to the more refined and delicate of the community. All of its domestic character.

I do not believe that for a single occasion measures could be taken which would be effectual against actual damage to the park of a most serious character (from the point of view of a lover of nature), but even if with special exertions this might be accomplished, nothing is more probable than that such precautions would be soon neglected and the park at times become subject to the humor of a multitude as uncontrollable and as dangerous to all that is peculiarly valuable in it as a street mob is found to be when it has broken into a private house.