The Sun.
London, England, 1824-05-20 00:00:00

BOOKS.

Before the admirable invention of printing,
books were scarcer and dearer than jewels.
The Arabs alone had them, from the Bth to the
13th century of our era. China was full of
them, when we could neither read nor write.
Copiers were much employed in the Roman
Empire. This was a very ungracious em-
ployment—the dealers always paid authors
and copiers very ill. It required two years
of assiduous labour for a copier to transcribe
the whole Bible well on vellum. The complaint
now is of the too great abundance of books. But
it is not for readers to complain ; the remedy is
in their own hands ; nothing forces them to read.
Nor for authors ; they who make the multitude
of hooks have not to complain of being pressed.
Notwithstanding this enormous quantity, how
few people read ! But if they read, and with ad-
vantage, should we have to witness the deplorable
infatuations to which the vulgar are still every
clay a prey ?
The reason that books are multiplied in spite of
the general law that beings shall not be multiplied
without necessity, is that, books are made from
books. A new history of France or Spain is manu-
factured from several volumes already printed,
without adding any thing new. All dictionaries
are made from dictionaries ; almost all new geo-
graphical books are made from other books of
geography; Sir Thomas's Dream has brought forth
2,000 large volumes of divi►►ity ; and the same
race of little worms that have devoured the pa-
rent are now gnawing the children.

Ecrive qui •oudra chacun 1 sou metier
Peut perdre impunement de lencre et du papier.
IVrite, write away ! each writer at his pleasure
May squander ink and paper without measure.

O ye who, like myself; lay black on white, and
make clean paper dirty ! call to mind the follow-
ing verses, which I remember to have read, and
by which we ought to have been corrected :
This miscellaneous rubbish once was flax,
Till made soft linen by the honest weaver ;
But when at length it dropped from people's backs,
'Twas turned to paper, and became receiver
Of all that fifty motley brains could fashion ;
So now 'tis burned without.the least compassion :
It now, like glory, terminates in smoke;
Thus all our toils are nothing but a joke—
All ends in smoke ; each' nothing that we follow
Tells of the nothing that must all things swallow.
philosophical Dictionary.)

ing received by Mr. 11. A DRINS, the principal
COINER'.—In
and prison
consequence of information be-
-keeper of Birmingham,
he, accompanied
by the constables, headborough,
&c., proceeded on Friday last to the house of
George Pitchford, in Wayborough_lane, in the
parish of Solihull, in Warwickshire, where, in a
small room adjoining the kitchen, they found an
iron press ready for working, having dies for
striking half-crowns ; near to the press Mr. Ad-
kins found a box, containing betweeu five and
six hundred counterfeit half-crowns, apparently
just struck off. In the chambers and other parts
of the house and premises, they discovered se-
veral pair of dies for sovereigns and shillings.
The man, his wife, and the whole of the appa-
ratus, were conveyed to the prison in Birming-
ham for examination. They were examined on
Monday, and remanded till Monday next.

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

BY It. BANKS.

PHILosOPHICAL, INSTRUMENT MAKER.

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0 I 0 Inches
May 9 55 64 48 30.40 Fair Fait
10 54 66 f',o .10 Do. Do.
11 52 54 45 .04 Cloudy Clondy
12 150 53 421 29.98 .03 Rain Do.
13 45 48 42 .92 .16 Do. Rain
14 46 49 44 .3.1 .41 Do. Do.
15 44 47 42 .60 Do.
2.44 Do.
16 47 153 37 .90 I S I Cloudy Fair

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in the alloy/ eight days, an enoicnoui

of Rain have fallen
titity. it. B.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS in WESTMtNSTBR•

The REPORT Of the SELECT COMMITTNI 6°
whom the Account of the Expence incurred, and an Estimate,
of the Expence remaining to be incurred, in the building 0'
the Courts of Justice in St. Margaret's-street and New Palace'
yard, together with a Plan thereof, were referred, has just bees
printed. After some observations on the new buildings is
Palace-yard, the Committee gave the following document,
which presents at one vie* the proposed alteration :
An Estimate of the probable Expence of the alteration pro'
posed to be made by the Select Committee, May 6, 1624•
agreeably to the accompanying drawings.
I. To prepare the foundations, and rebuild the wall connect-
ing with the North-West tower of Westminster Hall, to thg
height of 34 feet above the level of the Yorkshire landing'
forming the foundation, setting it back to a line with the south
side of the octagon turret ; the :exterior to be faced with Bath
stone, and decorated agreeably to the drawing with moulded
plinth, cornice, and battlemented parapet.
2. To prepare the foundations, and build new front and se'
turn walls, next New Palace-yard, as far as the proposed oci
tagon tower, of the several thicknesses and heights shewn ire
the drawing ;—the exterior to be faced with Bath stone, all'
decorated in the Gothic style with moulded plinths, fasciegf
and cornices, and terminated with battlemented parapets
the aperture to correspond with the windows of Westminster
Hall.

3. To prepare the foundations and erect an octagon tower 64
the north-west angle of the building, 18 feet diameter and 70'
feet high, containing four stories, faced with Bath stone, to cor•
respond with the rest of the front ; the upper ornamented cor,'
nice and battlement to correspond with those of the towers 0'
Westminster Hall.

4. To prepare the foundations, and rebuild the front next S'
Margaret's-street, from the proposed octagon tower as far as the
north tower of the stone building; the exterior to be faced with
Bath stone, and to be decorated in the same style as the front
next New Palace yard; the windows, &c. to be ornamented At
those in the towers of 'Westminster Hall.
5. To raise the walls of the Bail-court, and form rooms oat
the same, in lieu of some of those next New Palace-yard pro'
posed to be removed. _

6. To lower the roof of the Court of King's Bench, and the
staircase adjoining, and put new lead flats over the rooms .a.
joining the North tower of the stone building, and over the po-
sage forming the approach to the Court of King's Bench fro'
'Westminster Hall. -
7. Incidental expences in shoring up the different parts of
the building to make the proposed alterations, and in connect'
ing the new works with the present building.
The estimated amount of the various Works are as follow :--.
Bricklayer's Work - - - - £lBOO.
Masons work - - - - . 4700
Carpenter's work, including the value of work pre-
pared which will be rendered useless by the altera-
tion - - - - - 1080
Plumber's work . - - - 900
Smith's work - - - - - 250
X8736'

The Architect's commission on the above works, at
3/. per cent. - - - - - 262
For attending on the Committee, and making dif-
ferent designs agreeably to the directions of the
Committee, with estimates of the same - 80
-
Clerk of the Works - - . 40 361.

Total probable cost of the alterations proposed
to be made by the Committee - 9115
Deducting No. 5, estimated by Mr. Soane at about slla
Further deduction of value of materials uncertain*
A List of the Rooms provided in the Original Plan, and
for which no preparation is made in the Altered Plan
Room for the Solicitors attending the Courts ; Law Library •
Record Rooms for the Court of Common Pleas ; Coffee Roan;
Room for Barristers to robe in, &c.
JOHN SOANE, Architect.
Lincoln's Inn-fields, May 13, 1824.
" Upon inquiring whether any room was appropriated in tile
former state of the Courts to solicitors attending them, it aP;
peared that no such room formerly existed, that there neve:,
was any law library-, and that the upper floors of the per,.
octagon turret may be made use of for containing the records 0'
the Court of Common Pleas; and your Committee do not deer!
it necessary to raise the walls of the Bail Court, and form wo;
over the same (as specified under No. 5), by which the expend
above-mentioned may be saved."
The Committee conclude their Report with the followilif;
re-
marks :
" In the interior fitting up• of' the two unfinished Cours,o.
it will be proper to abstain from ornaments and decoratt
which do not appear to suit the grave and unadorned f.75_
racter of a tribunal for the administration of justice, vi.'l„
in fact requires nothing beyond its
_proportion and eYI, ,5
.""
fitness for its purpose, combined with the most perfect wile'
plicity and plainness. The passages leading to and froo2
those Court should also partake of the same unassunli"
qualities.

" With regard to public buildings in general, this vast Ulf:
tropolis presents a much smaller number of those which can
,e""
denominated grand or ornamental, than its extent and opulen—,
would induce a stranger to expect ; for it must be confessed the
with the exception of the two, cathedrals' of three of the st(irls
bridges over the Thames, and some very few other structures ,1
offers but little that deserves admiration ; and it is further toeb
regretted, that this deficiency arises not so much from cost hal'.
ing been spored as from good taste having been wanting. Larl
works have, in some instances, been undertaken hastily arL,
withostt due consideration - others have been committed to ty;
persocs who accidentally happened at the time to be attached *4'
surveyors•to the several departments; but a general and suPeljd
intending eye has always been wanting to pervade, direct, an
contron.l the whole.

" If a superintending and controulling power of this tleserN'
tion should at any time be fortunate enough to meet with soe'l
a rare combination of talent as might exhibit marks of origine.,
invention, united to a thorough knowledge of the principles DJ
which the great masters of ancient art conducted their worts'
we might expect to see symmetry, proportion, and die!
given to our public buildings, and an honourable compeudP"
successfully maintained, with all that is admirable and Pre-
eminent, either in ancient or modern architecture.
" It would be an unnecessary, and possibly an invidious tae,
even if it were within the province of your Committee, to Put'
sue this subject further, by entering into any detailed WWll-
nation of recent instances • but they may be allowed to obseryo
that the Banquetting douse at Whitehall, which stars
,„
so eminent among all the buildings in this part of Westo';
ster, owes more of its imposing effect to the scale and grande.n
of its proportions, and to the relative correspondence of all 1,
parts, than to its highly enriched and well chosen orders an`l
decorations. A space is now open for modern ability to shelf
whether it can produce, on the other side of that fine street+
something which may be worthy to stand nearly opposite PI
this splendid relict of the ancient palace.
" Your Committee cannot dismiss the matter referred t°
them without endeavouring to impress upon the House the itn'
portance, in a national point of view, of paying more attention
to the public edifices which may hereafter be required, than /In;
been given to those already erected. In a period distinguish&
by its progress in improvements of so many kinds, fertile in in'
ventions of such various descriptions, eminent in the encourage'
ment of all the arts which are denominated liberal, and actl!et
in the diffusion of knowledge and the extension of science, !
becomes a matter of wonder no less than of regret, that arch':
tecture has not kept pace with other advances towards pqrfeg,_
tion, and that we are still obliged to look for examples of e.",
cellence in this art, either to times that are passed, or to °the
countries rather than to our own.'

COAL-MARKET,

MAY 19.

Ships at Market. sold Price.
42i Newcastle - - 26 -30 s 04.1 to 394
10 Sunderland - - 8i - 30s Ott to

BIRTHS.
On the 18th inst., in Highbury-place, Mrs. John More
of a son.
At Stratfield Turgis, on the 17th inst., the lady of J4jeu".
Col. Sir Guy Campbell, Bart., of a son.
On the 18th inst., in 31anchester-square, the lady of 1113%•
well Close, Esq., of Elm Park, Armagh, of a son, still bores

MARRIED.
On Tuesday last, at Clapham Church, Samuel Wilson, 130".'
of the City, and of 'White hall, Essex, to Mrs. Devis,
of the late eminent artist of that name.

lE.
On Monday evening, afterD a lingering illness, Wilmot, ''"„
wife of Mr. Philip Jacob, of the Crescent, Cripplegate, 5"/
cc rely lamented by her family and friends. iti
On the 13th inst., at Weymouth, in her 20th year, of 3 "V,
consumption, Laura Maria, eltlest daughter of Bayles NV'l".
dell, Esq.
On Wednesday morning, the 19th inst., at Chatham-14344
West, Hackney, Mr. Jeffries, aged 65.
On Wednesday, the 19th inst., from a joint attack of Pa;3'
lysis and apoplexy, greatly lamented by his numerous farm
Mr. Samuel Grierson, of Basingliall-street, in the 51st year
his age.
lAletr, 4, s
Edinburgh, on
aged
teloth 7
inst.,
years., lllr
.John Guthrie, boo
seller, t"

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