place the utmost reliance upon,
as a time-keeper of unvarying correctness. During the month of April the
clock was completed, and the busy thousands who were daily wont to look
up to the silent monitor, above which the figure of Justice was
enthroned, hailed its appearance with the utmost satisfaction. It is
undoubtedly the finest specimen of a tower-clock on this side of the
Atlantic, and, as an accurate time-keeper, competent judges pronounce it
to be unsurpassed in the world. The main wheels are thirty inches in
diameter, the escapement is jewelled, and the pendulum, which is in
itself a curiosity, is over fourteen feet in length. It is a curious
fact that the pendulum bob weighs over three hundred pounds; but so
finely finished is every wheel, pinion, and pivot in the clock, and so
little power is required to drive them, that a weight of only one hundred
pounds is all that is necessary to keep this ponderous mass of metal
vibrating, and turn four pairs of hands on the dials of the cupola. The
clock does not stand, as many suppose, directly behind the dials, but in
the story below, and a perpendicular iron rod, twenty-five feet in
length, connects it with the dial-works above."

[Picture: THE CITY HALL.]

To the east of the City Hall, and within the limits of the Park, is the
Hall of Records, a stone building, covered with stucco. It was erected
in 1757, as a city prison. It is now occupied by the Registrar of the
city and his clerks.

In the rear of the City Hall, and fronting on Chambers street, is the New
County Court House, which, when completed, will be one of the finest
edifices in the New World. It was begun more than eight years ago, and
is constructed of "East Chester and Massachusetts white marble, with iron
beams and supports, iron staircases, outside iron doors, solid
black-walnut doors (on the inside), and marble tiling on every hall-floor
of the building, laid upon iron beams, concreted over, and bricked up.
With a basis of concrete, Georgia-pine, over yellow-pine, is used for the
flooring of the apartments. The iron supports and beams are of immense
strength--some of the girders crossing the rooms weighing over fifty
thousand pounds. The pervading order of architecture is Corinthian, but,
although excellent, the building cannot be said to be purely Corinthian.
An additional depth of, say, thirty feet, would have prevented a cramping
of the windows on the sides, which