The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-22 00:00:00

the House of York, Edward V. was murdered—
and Richard 111. was killed fighting for his
Crown. ‘Ve have entered into these calculations
because it is well to meet a Jesuit on his facts,
and it sounds plausibly to assert that the reigns
are shorter in England "since the Reformation."
We have noticed this tract at such length be-
cause we may soon have occasion to criticize the
works of De Maistre, whose writings are to mo-
dem intellectual Romanists what the essays of
David Hume were to esprit forts and philosopher
in the last century. Although we are aware of
what Count Krasmski has written of the Jesuits
in his " Religious History of the Sclavonic
Nations," yet we have derived fresh views of
their policy in Russia from M. Lutteroth's curious
and valuable publication. We almost despair of
ever seeing a complete history of the Jesuits, but
to those who are interested in studying that con-
fraternity we recommend this tract, which has
the additional value of giving additional light for
studying the real motives of De Maistre in his
works. The tran4lator has exect ted his task with
neatness and precision, but we could desire that a
few notes were added in a second edition.

Some Observations upon the Recent Addition of a
Reading-room to the British Museum. By
William basking, Professor of Architecture
at King's College. London : Stanford.
llosiciNo is an architect with two grievances,
one of which he sets forth on public grounds,
the other on his own behalf. In the first place,
he charges the Trustees of the British Museum
with having misappropriated the space at their
disposal in the interior court by applying it to
the erection of a reading-room. Islo new read-
ing-room, he says, was necessary, because the
already-existing King's Library was perfectly
well adapted for the purpose. Further, he says,
the edifice now built is objectionable—first, from
its circular shape, which will accommodate only
300 readers, while an oblong room of the same
area would have admitted 400; next, from its
occupying a site which might have been applied
in a better way. For some structure, he main-
tains, was required, calculated to serve as a
central hall to the whole building, and afford
commodious access to its various parts ; and he
had himself; in 1848, submitted to the Trustees
certain architectural proposals with a view of
supplying this deficiency. His plan was to erect
a smaller, but in other respects exact, copy of the
Pantheon at Rome, in the centre of the quad-
rangle, and unite it to the four sides by other
masses of building containing staircases and halls
of communication, and to move the grand stair-
case from its present position to one immediately
opposite the chief entrance. At this point Mr.
Hosking's complaint against the Trustees (who,
it is unnecessary to eay, altogether disregarded
these plans) merges in his own special grievance.
It may possibly have passed through the mind of
a reader of the last two or three sentences, that
the plan we have described is very much like the
one which has been actually carried out. We
have (it may be said) the Pantheon, or some-
thing very like it, built in the middle of the
quadrangle, only it is not a central hall, but. a
reading-room. And this is exactly the idea that
Mr. Hosking would desire to suggest. He
charges Mr. Panizzi—to whom the credit of
having designed the present building is usually
attributed—with having plagiarized the idea from
the plans which Mr. Hosking had, though with
a somewhat different object, previously published.
This charge is illustrated by drawings, in which
the first design which Mr. Panizzi laid before the
Trustees is disadvantageously contrasted with the
present beautiful building, conceived (it is
alleged) after he had had an opportunity of see-
ing Mr. Hosking's project.
So much for the scope and purpose of Mr.
llosking's pamphlet. llis charge against the
Trustees need not, we think, detain us. It is no
doubt very aggravating that when we have
dreamed for thirty-five years of seeing the
Pantheon naturalized in England, a public body
which has the power will not consent to gratify
us (and at the same time benefit the nation)
by erecting it. But seriously, we do not see that
the necessity of this central hall has been at all
made out ; or that it has been proved that the
King's Library would make a good reading-
room : at any rate, as we may say of the matter,
solcitur ccdificando, the point is now of no