The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-02 00:00:00

THE NEW FOREIGN OFFICE.

The following letter has been addressed to a con•
temporary:—

Sir,—Will the " Archaeologist" who complains of
Mr. Scott's design being adopted, and " the noble-
men and professional gentlemen, of whose compe-
tency (to award the prizes) there could be no doubt
being so cavalierly treated," by their selection being
overruled, be so good as to inform us why any
human being should have the smallest confidence
in the architectural judgment of that commission ?
He does not appear to know that the only " pro-
fessional" architect on the commission, Mr. Burn,
one of the most eminent professors of domestic ar-
chitecture, and the two other architectural " asses-
sors," whose opinions Lord Stanhope and the non-
professional gentlemen refused to record or receive,
all agreed, and agreed independently, in giving
only the sixth place to the design which the his-
torian, the painting gentlemen, and they engineer
put first.
He apparently thinks also, that it ought to go for
nothing that Mr. Scott was only precluded by a
ridiculous and arbitrary rule of these judges, dis-
approved also by Mr. Burn, from being placed
second in the prize lists for both buildings. They
seem to have thought their business was to distri-
bute the £5,000 of prize money as widely as pos-
sible, instead of enabling the public to judge as ac-
curately as possible of the capacity of the several
.1 architects ; and as- the Elttarde,Arciete says, the
candidate who is second in two competitions is ob-
viously superior to him who is only first in one,
unless he is facillime princeps, which was not con-
tended in favour of either of the first prizemen.
If the " Archwologist" can find any bit of evidence
before Mr. Hope's committee in support of the
Westminster-hall judgment, except the fact that it
was given by. exactly the non-professional majority
of the acting judges and assessors, by all means let
him make the most of it. But it is a little too late,
after Mr. Hope and Sir B. Hall have extracted all
the secret history of the adjudication, to attempt to
settle the question by saying that three or four
noblemen and gentlemen, who know no more
about the matter than anybody else, have taken a
great deal .of trouble in awarding the premiums,
and that nobody ought now to question their
judgment.
As to the relative merits of the competing styles,
I think we may take for granted that the _Renais-
sance style had everything
.said and done for,it that
could be done in the committee, both by the archi-
tects who advOcated it and by tke architect of one
of the most successful buildings in that style, who
was a member of the committee, and put some very
clever questions
.in support of it, which were not
less cleverly answered. I can hardly think you
mean to open your columns to that interminable
controversy, which always leaves the matter just
where it began, viz., that some persons prefer
Italian and others Gothic as a mere question of
taste, and therefore the arguments by which they
defend either never convince anybody who has a
preference of his own to start with.
It is, however, important to bear in mind that
the committee reported that, in all the practical
points, on Which superiority had been claimed for
the Renaissance style, such as convenience of
arrangement, lighting, ventilation, and expense.
neither style appeared to have any real advantage
over the other. I should go further in opposition
to the common prejudice. After having had the
principal management of the building of Mr.
Scott's two new churches at Doncaster, the smaller
of which has a length and an available area equal
to the longest and the largest of the Marylebone
churches, and the other is, of course, far larger, I
am convinced that a greater architectural effect
can be obtained at less cost in a Gothic building,
of the most real and massive construction, than in
any Italian one.

As to the particular design, nobody supposes, or
ever supposed, that it is to be executed without
alteration. Nothing could be more absurd (and so
it was admitted in the committee) than to pre-
clude the architect of the best design in a competi-
tion from_ making it better if he can. I confess
I think the recent rage for the mongrel Gothic of
the south, in preference to the English and French
Gothic, a very mischievous delusion, for which I
suppose Mr. Ruskin is mainly responsible, as he is
for that still more mischievous one, that architec-
ture consists in ornamentation—a doctrine sure to
be in high favour with the architects, to whom it
is a good deal easier to lay on ornament wholesale
than to design buildings of which the whole and
the parts are in such proportions as to be satisfac-
tory and beautiful, as most old ones arc, either with
or without such ornamentation. If this is what
the " Archaeologist" means by condemning the
" Lombardie" character of Mr; Scott's design (for
the proper meaning of which word, however, I re-
commend him to consult some rudimentary book on
architecture), I agree with him. But that is a
small matter ; and though I should lop off both
that and some other extravagances (as I think
them) of the exhibited design, I should have con-
sidered it a lasting calamity to the architecture of
England if any other had bean selected by the
architectural judges and the Government.—Yours
obediently,

E. B. DENISON.

42, Queen Anne•street, Dec. 1.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

The Manchester Guardian gives the following as
the principal points of the settlement between the
London and North-Western, the Great Northern,
and the Sheffield Companies, and adds that pro-
vision has been made for referring to arbitration
any case of doubt that may arise in working it out.
It would be interesting to know how much might
have been saved to the shareholders of each line if
such an agreement had been adopted in the first
instance instead of after many months of reckless
and discreditable warfare :

" Through booking arrangements for goods and
passengers to be established between the three
companies, with amicable arrangements as to
agencies, &c., in the principal towns.
" The fare between Manchester and London to
be (as announced at London-road Station yesterday)
335. first-class, and 245. second ; the third-class
being 15s, Bd., as previously. Speaking generally,
we believe that these through fares will apply to
most of the other towns involved in the late dis-
pute ; but from Liverpool they will be about 3s.
higher. Goods rates will be generally increased
to a slight extent.
" The agreement known as the triple agreement,'
which did not affect, so far as the late dispute was
concerned, the Great Northern Company, and
which mainly had for its object the establishment
of rates between Liverpool snd Manchester and
the Midland and Eastern Counties districts, to be
re-established as from the date of the dispute,—viz.,
the Ist of August, 1857.
The Sheffield Company to be restored to their
original position at the London-road Station, in-
volving the employment of their own clerks and
servants for the conduct of their business in the
booking and other offices ; the latter portion taking
effect, we believe, this (Wednesday) morning.
A new passenger station to be built at London-
road—or, as we hear from various sources, the ex-
isting
settled to bbe
essentially
plans
e necessary r
said reconstructed nstructed and
Atoctboef already
Parlia-
ment
preliminarily
enlarged—accordingto be applied for to vest'such station in such
a way and upon suer terms as it is believed will
avoid all possibility of future unpleasantness.
" The companies to retire from
suit arising out of the dispute; and thefr o
from
all Chancerylegal
proceedings between the parties ; each paying their
own costs.

• .
" A joint committee to be appointed for carrying
out and conducting all the arrangements."

THE INUNDATION OF THE CAE COLLIERT.—Our
readers have been informed that a dreadfal accident oc-
curred in the Cae Pit, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, on the
3d inst., whereby ten poor fellows lost their lives. After
nearly three weeks' pumping, the bodies have all been re.-
e9vered, and the inquest was held on Tuesday. The ev:-
dence having been gone into, the jury consulted and -
tuned the following verdict : "We find a verdict of Ac-
cidental Death,' caused by the ignorance of Thmic 1 Francis,
ono of the deceased, in not using the pree tutionary means
of boring, and not keeping plans of the workings of the
colliery." The jury gave their fees to the foal for the
relief of the widows and children, the corom and other
gentlemen aLso contributing to the same object.
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