The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-25 00:00:00

SKLTCHES OF OUR C,..)NTRO-

YERSIALISTS.

Mr. Burnet is not more strikingly fitted for the
championship of an uncompromising non-conformity,
than is Mr. M'Neile for the advocacy of Episcopalian-
ism, in the great controversy between voluntaryism
and the Church. He possesses in perfection all those
qualities which are best calculate:l for such defence—
the ardour of devotedness which nerves and inspires in
a cause ; the lofty tone of moral feeling which invests it
with the dignity of principle; the skill in intellectual
warfare, which gives power to an advocate ; the en-
lightened liberality of candour which conciliatesfors ;
the manly firmnesss of determination which inspires
friends, blended with all the fascinating attributes of
oratory, which throw attraction round an argument.
Mr. M'Neile is a fine specimen of a finished ecclesi-
astical orator. Nature has highly gifted him, and all
her endowments, whether phys cal or intellectual, have
been heightened, and enhanced by every aid which
science can supply, and every finish which refinement •
can suggest. He is, so to speak, a complete Church
Knight-errant ; every weapon of his controversial corn-
batantship keen, bright, and ready for the Episcopa-
lian chivalry. • He breathes the very spirit of that
high-toned fervour and resolve, which we deem appro-
priate in the defender of what may be called our an-
cient ecclesiastical feudalism. With all the gallantry
and all the skill of the olden knighthood, he wields the
weapons of his intellectual warfare, and burns with an
ardour, if not so inertial, fully as heroic.
There is everything winning and prepossessing about
Mr. M'Neile. Dignity and amiability are alike ex-
pressed in the finely chiselled features of his open florid
countenance. His demeanour and appearance are in
no ordinary degree imposing and prepossessing ; there
is, indeed, a somewhat aristocratic tone in his manner,
subdued and tempered, however, by native kindliness of
disposition.

He is evidently a man of high culture and refine-
ment. In all he utters, whether in the matter or the
Manner, is evinced the most careful polish of which
either is susceptible. Yet his style is most simple—nay
severe—strictly argumentative—and, indeed, almost
always exhibits close, connected, chains of reasoning.
His sentences, however, though unadorned, and even
sometimes rigidly condensed, arc neat, lucid, often elegant
is their construction, are powerfully expressive and admi-
rable in the selection of the words employed, and their ap-
propriation and harmonious arrangement. His delivery
perfectly corresponds with his style. It is distinct,
clear, emphatic, and somewhat. slow—an impressive
adaptation of modulation to the sense of the language
used, the sentences being usually formed on one chaste,
careful model, and the periods marked (at all events
fora time) by measured pauses, giving to each more
weight and emphasis, as if every one of them waited
for its impression ere another followed, anti giving a
kind of studied completeness to them all. There is
something strikingly--almost startingly impressive—in
the first tones of his voice—short, stern, trots. in their
sound, each period falling separately, with sen-
tentious brevity, from his lips. But it is a voice of
great compass and variety of tone, and, as he proceeds,
becomes susceptible of every change and modulation
—all exquisite in their harmony—and sounding most
expressively the appropriate music of every flow of feel-
ing and every character of sentiment. The style, how-
ever, in the very heart of a subject, never loses its some-
what severe simplicity. It amplifies as the discourse
advances, but never or rarely becomes imaginative,
ornamental, figurative. He seems to aim at power
more than splendour, anti clearness rather than bril-
liancy ; yet he is always polished, finished, and refined.
His simplicity is elegant—his beauty is chastened. In
a word, we might compare his style to a plain yet po-
lished silver chain—the links gradually enlarging, all
shining unadorned, and exhibiting no break or flaw in
their entire series.

This idea of a chain, indeed, not inaptly indicates the
character of Mr. M'Neile's argumentation. It is in-
ductive—closely connected—continuously progressive
reasoning ; proposition after proposition linked toge-
ther and leading onwards, step by step, along the line
of demonstration. This mode of argument is most
pleasing and interesting to the mind, especially
when, as in Mr. M‘Neile's case, it is joined to a spirit of
sincerity, a fervour of conviction, which throws an
air of truthfulness over the whole, and gives the rea-
soning the immense advantage of appearing the process
by which the reasoner himself had really arrived at belief,
and not the mere fabrication of a prepossessed and pre-
determined hypothesis. To change the language, it is
like taking the audience through a series of mental
experiments, instead of drawing only on intellectual
abstractions.
The spirit of frankness and sincerity—of earnestness
and honesty—which appears in Mr. M'Neile, affords
him a great and triumphant power over an audience,
with whom nothing is more influential—that is, with
those who comprehend it—even in a mixed audience of
friends and opponents, than the resort of a sincere and
ardent mind to all the patient research of an inductive
investigation, accompanied by a confidence challenging
scrutiny, and a manliness honourably avowing every
opinion, and frankly confessing every fault.

THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIA-

BENT.

It appears that the commencement of the undertaking
was attended with considerable difficulties. The forma-
tion of a dam of sufficient strength to resist the pressure
of the high tide and keep dry a large space in the bed of
the river, was a work requiring nn ordinary skill arid
ingenuity for its aceemphslunent• After this had been
successfully effeetcd preparations were made for laying the
foundation of the river front. As the wings am r the ter-
race which occupies the space between them ri-e directly
from the water, this al=e was a work of no ordinary dif-
&Laity. The upper strata of the river's bed upoti which
it must necessarily rest had to he entirely removed, and
to render the foundation as secure as possible, a bed of
concrete, from five to fifteen feet in thickness, 'was laid
down along the entire line, upwards of 1,200 feet in
length. The brickwork was then commenced and
c irried forward with great rapidity, and the whole of the
foundations of the river are now, and have been
for some time, brought up to one level, namely
two feet three inches above Trinity high-water
mark. This part of the design includes the northern
wing adjoining Westminster-bridge, intended for the
official residence of the Speaker of the House of Corn.
inons—the terrace front, which comprises the libraries
and Committee rooms of both Houses—and the southern
wing, in which are the apartments of black rod, the
librarian, the housekeeper, Sze• ; also a portion of the
north flank, beginning at the clock tower in Palace-
yard. containing the house of the sergeant-at arms ; and
another portion of the south flank, extending nearly to
the grand tower rising above the Royal entrance, which
contains accommodation for the Lord Great Chamber-
lain on state occasions, and the great public staircase
and waiting halls of communication, with the Commit-
tee rooms and libraries in the centre, immediately ad-
joining the rear of the river front. The contractors
have undertaken to complete this part of the building in
three years from its commencement. Much time was
spent in deciding upon the sort of stone most iuitable to
be employed in the superstructure ; the quality of much
of that lately brought to London from Portland, and used
in metropolitan structures of recent date, was strongly
objected to, as being very inferior in quality. The gates
at Hyde. park-corner, and other buildings of recent date,
where symptoms of decomposition are already apparent,
were adduced as instances of the truth of this asser-
tion. The colour, also, which becomes on exposure to
the atmosphere a chalky white, was thought to be par-
ticularly unsuitable to a building of a Gothic character.
After a protracted examination of the principal veins of
stone in different parts of the kingdom, a kind of mag-
nesian limestone, approaching very nearly to what geo-
logists call dolomite, was selected, and recommended
for use in the new Houses of Parliament. The cause of
the slow progress of late has arisen from a difficulty of
procuring this material in sufficient abundance ; several
veins, upon a more minute examination, having been
found wholly inadequate for that purpose. But this
unexpected obstacle is now happily removed, and four
sources of supply have been fixed upon. The first is
Bolsover, about a mile and a quarter from Mansfield,
belonging to Mr. Lindley. 'Fhe next is Anstan, about
six miles from Worksop, on the propert). of Mr. Sykes.
This latter is to be used chiefly in the plinth, and those
portions'of the structure where great strength is required.
The third is Steetly, in the same neighbourhood,
belonging to the Duke of Newcastle, which
will be used exclusively for the internal work and other
parts of the edifice not exposed to the influence of the
weather. The last is at Norfall, in Yorkshire, the pro-
perty of the Duke of Leeds. Tne stone will be con-
veyed from the several quarries by the Chesterfield
Canal to Gainsborou.!.h, and thence by water to i•s
destination ia town. A large quantity has arrived, and
a good deal of masonry is prepared to commence the
superstructure. The propriety of laying a foundation-
stone, and of having a public ceremniaal on the occa-
sion, has been taken into consideration ; but, inasmuch
could with propriety per orm
as no one but the Queen
the ceremony, awl ms a In-at expense wnt:l,l necess
be incurred, without being productic of any propor-

[lt may recollected that in our paper of the 19th
March we published the fist of a Series of Sketches of
those great ecclesiastical controversialists who have
been awakening public attention to the great question
of Church and State versus the Voluntary Principle,
and in whose oratorical styles and mental characteris-
tics we thought many of our readers might be inte-
rested. Three papers appeared—beginning with Mr.
Binney, and followed by two papers on Mr. Burnet.
The heavy debates in Parliament induced the postpone-
ment of further numbers till the present opportunity
of the Easter recess. We now continue them—just
repeating what we stated at the outset, that we wish
to produce sketches of intellectual character, and to
describe styles of eloquence, without at all ewe ing on
the debateable and controversial ground of the question
discussed ; and, further, that these Sketches will include
Dr. Chalmers, the Rev. Howard Hinton, M.A., and
Dr. \'Varrllaw•
No. lII.—THE REV. HUGH M'NEILE.