The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-17 00:00:00

THURSDA V

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

There is a fate against the public buildings of this
country. The spell is not in our architects, it isenot
in our quarries, it is not in our resources, but some-
where or other in the chapter of accidents and in
the mind of the people. " Tell it not in Gath," we
are almost afraid that constitutional monarchy is
rather republican in its tastes. Since the fall of
Wolsey the history of our national architecture has
been one series of shortcomings and reverses. Harry
the Eighth was more given to pull down than to
build. His three children trod in his steps. Queen
Elizabeth loved to see her favourites ruin themselves
with magnificent mansions, and lived on their
splendour. Charles the First was a man of taste
and employed Inigo Jones to build a palace worthy
of this empire ; its numerous quadrangles would
have filled the whole space between Northumberland
House, Parliament-street, and the river. One bit
was finished—namely, that out of which the royal
founder stepped to the block. The fire of London
and Sir Christopher Wren almost redeemed the
credit of the nation. But that great man thwarted,
stinted, insulted in every possible way, spent a long
life of architectural martyrdom. For the sufferings
he endured with patience he might almost be
canonized. His plan for the metropolis was shelved,
and his original design for St. Paul's was cut into
two stories, divided into aisles and otherwise mal-
treated till little but the architect's marvellous power
of construction survives. Gibbs was a great man,
but only built a few churches. Of the civil edifices
raised since that date the tale is soon told. Somerset-
house is a splendid exception, but still unfinished.
The Post-office and the British Muieum are gloomy
and grand, or severe and stupid, as people may hap-
pen to take it. It already turns out that neither of
them is large enough for its purpose. The Bank
scarcely rises to the elevation of a very handsome mews.
The Exchange is the finest civil structure in the
city, but it is what Euclid calls a trapezium, having
a gigantic portico at the little end, and a dwarf tower
at the big end ; it is externally a nest of shops, and in-
ternally a very narrow quadrangle, containing a very
large statue. The National Gallery we leave at pre-
sent in the hands of its numerous and implacable foes.
Buckingham Palace is sent back to the architect to
be disguised in a new title-page and frontispiece, like
an unsaleable book. These are some of our failures.
Time would fail to tell of all. How is this ? Me-
diocrity of talent may have something to do with
it, for the genius of a Palladio, a Michael Angelo, or
a Bramante, nay, even of our own Wren, would
have broken out through any obstacles ; but the
chief reasen is economy and interference. Yet, we
must say, that if liberality is anywhere expedient, it
is in the public buildings of a great constitutional
country. Those buildings are the outward expressions
of a political unity which should be loved and admired.
The greater the nation the greater also is the tendency
of private wealth and display to throw the state into the
shade. We need not go beyond our own country
and metropolis to witness this result. The mansions
of the nobility, not only in their imposing aggregate,
but even in some particular instances, give an air of
meanness to the public edifices. There is little of
which the people can be proud to call it their own.
There is little to improve their taste, to raise their
aspirations, and impress the image of the common-
wealth on their minds. When they hate stood upon
Waterloo-bridge—a private speculation—and seen
the river front and private terrace of Somerset-house,
when they have walked through the Royal Exchange
looked into the Long room of the Custom-house, paid
twopence for a prep into St. Paul's, been hur-
ried at sixpence a-head through the Tower,
ascended the really magnificent staircase of
the Museum, if they are fortunate enough to hit
the right day,—examined the strange medley
of pictures in the National Gallery, and felt a mo-
mentary awe in Westminster Abbey, the people hate
seen about as much as they are likely to see in this
metropolis for many a long year. Hardly is there
one public place, ore portico, one exhibition, one
sacred aisle, one place consecrated by the recollections,
or the trophies, or the productions of genius and
worth; into which the wearied commonalty can escape
from their dingy homes and noisy thoroughfares.
Hardly is there one pile which they can contemplate
with pride as faithfully representing the institutions,
the genius, and the patriotism of their country. The
new houses of Parliament are a great, and in our
humble opinion, a successful attempt to supply this
deficiency; and it is with a degree of indignation
that we see them exposed to a storm of paltry
cavil and sneer. After so safe a deliverance as they
met with through the fiery ordeal of last night's
debate, we can hardly regret that occasion. But
they who are moderately acquainted with the his-
tory of great buildings, and the lives of the most
distinguished architects, will only recognize the
repetition of a hacknied vulgarism in the attacks upon
all that Mr. Barry has or has not done. In those
attacks we see nothing but a sentiment which, in
spite of its economic pretences, flippant critieism,
and turbulent impatience, displays the want of a high
and generous patriotism. The new palace of West-
minster is the palace not merely of a great monarch
but of the first and noblest constitutional Govern-
ment in the world. As St. Peter's to the Roman
Catholic communion, as our own St. Paul's to the
churches of the Reformation, so are the Halls of West-
minster to the cause of constitutional liberty all over
the world. Such is the spot now covered, such
the idea now embodied, by the august pile
slowly rising on the bunks of our Thames. The

design and -style of the building were hardly
brought into question last night. As, therefore,
every month's progress has further developed its
merits, and it has already outlived many hasty criti-
cisms to which it seemed obnoxious in its earlier
sta2es, perniips it is unnecessary to express any strong
opinion on this subject. There is no great edifice in
the world which is entirely successfulor, still more,
:vhich is altogether fortunate in its situation and sur-
rounding objects. With its site and the circumstances
provided for him, with some troublesome conditions
imposed, with many purposes, both peculiar and com-
plex, to be answered, with the genuipe architecture
of the fifteenth century to be adapted to the uses of
the nineteenth, with the Council Halls of a vast
empire to be erected round the throne of the Planta-
genets, and all to be done usefully, worthily, and last-
ingly, Mr. Barry has so far achieved as much as might
have been expected from any architect of ancient or
modern times. On this point we will only appeal
to Lord Morpeth's and Sir Robert Inglis's eloquent
description of his &most overpowering task, and the
successful devotion with which the architect has given
himself to it. In such undertakings, which are un-
avoidably progressive in their scale, their purposes,
and their decoration, it is eminently unfair to revert
too rigorously to the original estimate either of time
or expense. The stringent rule of using one quarry,
the addition of a vast embankment to the. original
plan, the increased accommodation for private busi-
ness, the fire-proof construction, the growing de-
mand for internal and external decoration in every
possible form, and the new and most elaborate plans
of ventilation, have all created a delay, which, after
all, is nothing compared with the tedious progress
of other great buildings. The edifice, or rather the
vast collection of ed►fices, ought to be regarded
rather as it is than as it was to be. If it can be shown
to be actually excessive in any point, to be extrava-
gant either in style or dimensions, let it be so stated ;
but it is evident that the Legislature was under no
obligation to adhere to an insufficient or naked design.
The excess on the original eStimate has not, indeed,
been so formidable as Mr. Osborne and his supporters
would have us suppose ; but, be it small or great, it
is not the question. What we have to ask is whether
the building be proportioned to the wants-orthe Le-
gislature, to the dignity of its purpose, and to the
glory of this empire. If it does not exceed this pro-
portion—if it does not transgress that standard of
splendour which is fixed by the town and country
residences of our wealthy nubility, and if it only gives
the British Constitution a palace and a home that can
vie with the Hotels de Ville of the German burgher,
or the gorgeous halls of despotism, then we have no
reason to grudge the expense, to chide the delay, or
to censure au architect who has only shown himself
equal to the occasion.—Tinzes.

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