The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-13 00:00:00

Cardinal Wiseman on London Architecture.

Yesterday evening an elaborate lecture was de-
livered by his Eminence Cardin al Wiseman to a very

numerous audience in the Architectural Museum,

South Kensington Museum, on the follbwing sub-
ject, "Judging from the past and the present, what

are the prospects for good architecture in London ?"

After referring to an architectural tour in which he
and other students took part under the leadership
of a learned archaeologist very many years ago in
the Campagna of Italy in quest of monuments of the
past, the cardinal proceeded to say that a national
style of architecture should be born, bred, matured,
and consolidated by the people of the land. Was
there, then, anything in the public architecture of

England at the present time to show future ages
what type the present generation preferred ?
_ . ..

Would it not -be said that they were
divided between the medixval, the renais-
sance, and the classical ? (Laughter.) He
could not, indeed, shut his eyes to the
results of private enterprise directed by private
taste. It was where they would least expect to see
it—in the chief business parts of London—that they
had lately seen substituted for a class of buildings,
deserving only the name of" warehouse," structures,
elegant, beautiful, and solid, which had transformed
public streets into places of study and con-
gratulation. (Cheers.) As to the mansions of the aris-
tocracy generally, they consisted, as Canova re-

marked, of long lines of brick walls with open slits.
(Laughter.) The wealth created by commerce, how-
ever, had flowed back upon art, and manifested itself
in splendid architecture. A foreigner standing at a
point commanding a view of the Bank, the Man-
sion-house, the Exchange, Goldsmiths' Hall, and
the Electrio Telegraph-office, would grasp with his
eyes the keys of England's greatness. The lecturer,
after remarking on the harmony which existed in
Belgium and other countries between past architec-
ture and the peculiarities of the people, and observ-

ing that all private dwellings were essentially ephe-
meral, contended that trade itself—a name often
uttered with contempt—might and ought in this
country to be made subservient to the development
of grand and durable architecture. Although Lon-
don possessed architects equal to any work, there
was no general rule or design in building. Here
was the Tudor, there the classical—here the renais-
sance, there perhaps the Turkish. (Laughter.) In
religious architecture the public taste seemed now
to be gravitating towards what was great and good ;
although in numerous cases solidity was found
without a sufficient admixture of grace, an inclina-
tion to sacrifice beauty to mass. Sometimes vast
lines appeared to be grimly disposed, and symmetry
a little too conspicuously despised. (Laughter.) By
degrees, he thought, genius would purge archi-
tecture of its glaring defects, and a style be

struck out which would be thoroughly rhyth-
mical. A kind of bricks often entered into our i
modern public buildings which marred the general
effect. The brick of Nero's age was much more
durable and attractive. Terra cotta, of which he
had recently seen some beautiful specimens in
buildings, promised to aid the work of improvement.
It might be objected that he had been speaking as
if London would be destroyed. He certainly did
not articipate that as a result of fire, now that every
parish had its engine; and diplomacy had now
clearly taken the place of ploughing up cities and
sowing the ground with salt. (Laughter.) As to
the future, he did not believe any city could go on
advancing in prosperity for ever, and architectural
as well as other changes must come in the course of
time. The feeling which ought to be cultivated in
reference to public architecture was one of reve-
rence—a respect for everything that was great or
good, everything that was beautiful in itself or its
associations, everything that was national or his-
torical—a feeling that there was in all this a value
not to be balanced by passing advantages or pecu-
niary gains. (Cheers.) His eminence then alluded
at considerable length to the disturbance of public
and other buildings, and even public burial grounds,
inflicted or threatened by railway and other enter-
prises, strongly condemning the last-mentioned, and
contrasting it with the reverence for the dead mani-
fested by the heathen people of Rome. After de •
scribing very fully the Capitol and acqueducts of
Rome, the latter still supplying, he said, 321
gallons of water for each inhabitant, he concluded
by saying that he should be very glad if what he
had said should contribute in any way to the im-
, provement of the architecture of London, and by
expressing a hope that art and science would unite
for that purpose, and endeavouring to excite in our
people reverence for the sacred and taste for the
' beautiful. (Great cheering.)
On the motion of Mr. Baresford Hope, thanks
were voted by acclamation to the Cardinal for his

lecture.
The lecture, which occupied upwards of two hours,
was listened to throughout with well-sustained in-
terest. At the request of the assembly, his Eminence
consented to publish his lecture.