The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 8 1867.

New Law Courts.

If the report which has just been spread should
prove true, with respect to the decision of the judges
upon the law courts, come to without any reference
whatever to competent professional advise upon the
question of art, our very worst fears will have been
realised. We were prepared to some extent for the
shelving of the highest art, but that work of this

.mportance should have been given into the hands

of an architect, perhaps the least competent to
grasp a large subject—the oue of all others
trammelled by all the least amiable qualities of

meditevalistn we did not expect. We do not hesitate
to say that of all the possible successful candidates
the one said to be chosen is absolutely the very
worst for the purposes required. Allowing to him
indomitable energy and perseverance—a good deal

of originality—we cannot shut our eyes to the
almost entire want of fine art displayed ,in his
works ; carving of the most vulgar and crude

description ; rough rubble walls for the interior
of buildings in close connection with the richest
materials, like a swine with a jewel of fine gold
and precious stones in his snout ; sculpture applied,
_ _.

as in the present instance, in the most ridiculous
fashion. So little, in the case of the Law Courts,

did this architect seem capable of realising his
design as a whole,",that there is evidence of the
most piecemeal construction—each storey being de-
signed without the slightest reference to what was
above or below it—queer littla two-light windows
squeezed in one atop of the other wherever they
could go, much of the work being not a whit better
than the ordinary villa Gothic style we see around
London.

If the present Government are unable to save us
from such a bathos, if they allow themselves to be
dictated to in this, the greatest of modern undertak-

ings of the kind, by Mr. Gladstone, with his High
Church tendencies, we think they will be much
to blame. It is a most unusual thing and quite
contrary to precedent, in choosing judges in such a
matter, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.
Gladstone, the Lord Chancellor, &c., with their
names attached, should have been appointed irre-
spective of any possible change in the Ministry.
When the Foreign Office competition was settled,
Lord Palmerston, coming in, upset all the plans,
and forced Mr. Scott to build them according
to his taste and fancy. We cannot help think-
ing that if the present Ministry allow so im-
portant a business as this to be settled without

any reference to them, and, in fact, without seeing
that simple justice is done by the appointment of
professional advisers upon the question of architec-
ture who will command the respect of the art world
and of the people of England, they cannot fail to
incur the greatest discredit. There is only one Con-
servative among the judges, and there is scarcely
one among them who professes any special know-
ledge of art. It is imperative upon the ➢linisters
to insist upon a voice iu the matter, and not
to submit to the dictation of the late Govern-
ment. It may be said that this competition
differs from others, inasmuch as the funds will not
have to be provided by Parliament ; but this is only
partially true. If the buildings are to be carried
out as projected, if the present or even an enlarged
site is to be covered, a portion—probably no small
one—of the funds required will have to be granted
by the house. In any case, Parliament will have
to sanction the expenditure of the. Suitors' Fund.
This being the case it is monstrous that the Govern-
ment and party now in power should have no voice
in so important an undertaking. If they will exert
their influence, it cannot be doubted that they will
prevent such a calamity as is threatened, such
a dead-lock or fool's mate as this. 'We can-
not imagine any possibility of the two gen-
tlemen said to be chosen working together
at all. Why, they are the very opposite of
each other. The one a practical, modern thinker,
butlittle imbued with any particular affection for the
style in which the courts are to be built ; who, in fact,
has been far inore successful in other styles : the other,
apparently ignorant of all art, except that connected
with the middle ages, and whose tastes and sympa-
thies appear to run only with the most withetic
and severe examples of those ages. Why, we should
like to know, do the judges propose choosing two
architects when their business was to choose one—
the one who had shown himself the best fitted to
carry out the work—except, perhaps, it has hap-
pened from sheer laziness and indecision, from ina-
bility possibly to appreciate the great excellence of
the art of Mr. Burges' design, which had not the
advantage of being illustrated by pretty picturesque
sketches, for which Mr. Street is so famous, and from
want of courage to decide the evenly-balanced
claims of Mr. Scott and Mr. Waterhouse ?—Morn-
ing Herald.