The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8, 1849.

been fulfilled. Among the fancy manufacturers there
are more complaints, but in the Holmfirth district the
mills continue to be well employed.
HALIFAX, SATURDAY.—In our Piece Hall, to-
day, there was decidedly more inquiry for goods, and
a greater quantity changed hands, but without any
improvement in price. Yarns continue in good de-
mand, both fur export and for home consumption, and
late rates are fully sustained. Long wools are
steady, at the late quotations, and a moderate amount
of business doing. Short wools are rather easier to
buy, as the demand does not keep pace with the in-
creased supply.

LEEDS, TUESDAY.—We have had a flat market
both to-day and on Saturday. Prices steady, and
stocks low. Business in the warehouses is also quiet,
the principal part of the wholesale buyers having laid
in their stocks.

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH
ARCHITECTS.
_ _

The first meeting of the session for 1849 50 of this
admirable and popular institution was held at the
society's rooms, No. 16, Lower Grosvenor-street.
The chair was occupied by Lord de Grey, and the
attendance of fellows and associates was exceedingly
numerous. Among the architects of eminence present
were Messrs. Cockerill, Tite, Donaldson, Angell,
Britton, Mocatta, Kendell, sen., J. J. Stoles, &c.
The minutes of the last meeting were read by Mr.
Scoles, hon. secretary, and confirmed. They men-
tioned the award of a prize medal to Signor Calanino,
an Italian architect of celebrity.
Lord DE GREY remarked that as it was impossible
in the then disturbed state of the Continent to say
where the Signor was to be found, the medal had
been intrusted to Mr. T. S. Donaldson, one of the
hon. secretaries, and after some communication with
the French Embassy it was discovered that Signor
Calanino was in Rome. A gentleman named Hard-
wick (a brother of one of the associates of the insti-
tute), going to Rome, undertook to deliver it perso-
nally, and the secretaries had since received a letter
acknowledging the reception. At the last meeting an
expectation had been held out that the University of
London, which had announced its intention of issuing
certificates of a certain degree of efficiency and talent
in different branches of art, would grant similar
certificates to architects. Tho council had placed
themselves in communication with the authorities of
King's College, and found that, according to the present
design, certificates would only be given in respect to the
sciences of chemistry, navigation, and hydrography.
Should any extension of this system take place, the
council would not neglect the interests of the mem-
bers of the institute.—(Cheers.) At the last general
meeting a revision of the bye-laws had been recom-
mended, and that subject, during the vacation, had
had much of the attention of the council. A report
had been prepared, which was now in the hands ofthe
printer, and would soon be ready for distribution. The
whole question could be discussed on the 16th inst. D ur-
ing the recess the council had also been anxiously en-
gaged in providing for the instruction and amusement
of the members during the ensuing session, and several
gentlemen of distinction in the walks of science had
promised papers. He (Lord de Grey), however, must
remind the members that they ought to depend upon
themselves in some degree. He himself, at the last
meeting, had read a paper—(on the excavations made
at Fountain Abbey, Yorkshire)—not because he
thought it was of any value, but to enforce, by his
example, the doctrine that every member ought to
contribute his quota to the amusement and instruc-
tion of the institute. If he might, as a non •profes-
sional man, do so without presumption, he should wish
to urge upon those present, and especially the
younger members, the necessity of paying more atten-
tion than was now commonly paid by architects to
interior decorations. There was a vast deal con-
nected with art in a minor degree, which contributed
to the comfort, decoration, and splendour of the
house, now thrown into the hands of the paper-
hanger and decorator, who always took care to
throw his own failure upon the architect, and
to appropriate, when he could, the credit due to the
latter. He had had the honour, as President of the
society, lately to be invited to a magnificent enter-
tainment at the Mansion-house to the members of the
Royal Society and of the Royal Association. Looking
upon the one as the representative of the science,
and the other of the art, of the country, it occurred
to him, on being called on to respond to the health of
the Royal Institute of British Architects, that that
institute was the connecting link between them. The
man of abstruse science need not, indispensably, have
any knowledge of art ; neither must the painter or
engraver be deeply versed in the abstruse researches
and reasonings of science; but the architect, to a
degree, must of necessity have some knowledge
of art and of science. He must have science sufficient
to construct a building safely and securely, and
he must have the eye of the artist in order to
dispose its parts tastefully and to place it har-
moniously with surrounding objects.—(Cheers.)
In conclusion, his Lordship impressed upon them the
necessity of keeping in sight the maxim of " bear and
forbear." Their institute had latterly increased very
much in numbers, and—" many men, many minds"—
it was not to be wondered at that there should be dif-
ferences of opinion.
Mr. TITE, in reference to some of his Lordship's
valuable remarks, quoted a verse from Cowper—
"lt is not timber, wood, and stone
The architect requires alone,
To finish a fine building:
The work will not be half complete
If architect should chance forget
The carving and the gilding."
—(Loud Laughter.)
The other routine business of the institute having
been disposed of, Lord De Grey introduced Professor
Whewell to the meeting, and that gentleman pro-
ceeded to read a most elaborate paper, illustrated
by drawings, upon the causes which led to
the disuse of the Gothic style of church•build-
ing in Germany, in which he sought to carry further
doctrines he had already promulgated with respect
to the formation of the Gothic style—doctrines which
had been received generally with approval, both in
this country and on the Continent. There were in
Gothic three principles, arising in a great degree
from each other; these he would designate by the
words—framework, tracery, and wallwork. Grecian
architecture presented nothing but solid and inert
masses, which, however richly decorated and
chiseled, had all their parts independent and definite.
He had formerly described how, in his opinion, the
notion had gradually arisen of discarding inert
masses, and making the building according to the
notion of a framework. This view of the subject
gave an analogy and a meaning to all the parts
of a Gothic church, which otherwise could not
be discovered. He then described at some length
how the necessities of vaulting originated diversi-
ties, which were beauties or blemishes as they
kept in view or departed from the original principle.
In a framework it was obviously essential that every
part should have a connexion with the whole.
Tracery, on the contrary, the next strong principle,
was not essential; and it doubtless arose from piercing
the blank lights of windows into trefoils and quatre-
foils. Wallwork, or lateral continuity, was the
third principle; and that was essential, as there
must be something to bind the framework together
and support it. It was the management of this
wallwork which formed the distinguishing charac-
teristic of English church architecture. Of course it
could not be dispensed with in Germany, but they
had nothing there analogous to our early English Or
decorative styles. This principle led to parallelism,
or making one side like the other; and the English eye
was so habituated to this craving for symmetry that at
first sight the flamboyant tracery of France, and the
stump tracery of Germany, produced a disagreeable
impression. The lecturer then showed, by a refer-
ence to drawings of Friburg, Cologne, and other
cathedrals on the Rhine, that the German archi-
tecture seemed to be a struggle between the frame-
work and the wallwork principles ; and pointed
out the extraordinary ability with which the archi-
tects of those edifices introduced the system of placing
octagonal spires upon quadrangular towers, in such a
m,.nner as to make the latter appear from the very
, ground a preparation from the former. The prin-
ciples then introduced into spire growth brought
with them the practice of interpenetration, by
which the mouldings became so interwoven
as to require the nicest geometrical skill in their
design. This destroyed the connexion, so essential
in framework, between the different parts of the
building; and by bringing back the horizontal lines
and inert masses of the Romanesque, effected the
downfall of the Gothic. The paper was interspersed
with critical dissertations upon the Cathedral of
Cologne and others of the most admired German
specimens of ecclesiastical architecture.
At the request of the Noble Chairman, Professor
Whewell placed his paper at the disposal of the insti-
tute, its suggestive character being deemed likely to
tend much to the advantage of the members.
A vote of thanks having been enthusiastically
given to the professor, a somewhat amusing discussion
se as originated on an inroad made by red ants into
the metropolis about six years ago. According to
Mr. Tite, they approached the metropolis from Hamp-
stead, and invaded every house within their course,
which appeared about a quarter of a mile broad. Many
persons had been compelled to leave their houses ;
and nothing could be devised for their destruction.
The Entomological Society had been applied to
in vain, and one gentleman, in despair, thought of
sending to the Zoological Society for an army of
ant eaters. Mr. 'Cite, however, thought that some-
thing would now be done to get rid of this worse
than Egyptian plague, since the other day, when
dining at his club in Pall•mall, he discovered one of
his red acquaintances upon his plate.—(Laughter.)
Dr. BCCKLAND was much grieved to say that they
had reached the Athenaeum, and were there continu-
ally found in the teapots.—(Great laughter.) Nothing,
he feared, would be found available for their destruc-
tion but poison.