The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-23 00:00:00

gentleman has laboured in developing the resources
of one of England's best colonies he should be
neglected to make way for those who may elect to
lounge out their days in comfort in this centre of
civilisation, a choice we do not dispute they have
well earned the right to make. But we do dispute
the right of any to throw into the shade the
services of this absent gentleman, now working
out a colonial career which will leave even
a more broad and lasting mark of his
presence in New Zealand than he has left
in India. We cannot close this notice with-
out alluding to the lady who shared so many of
Mr. Wilson's perils with a courage and endurance
which marked so grandly the character of English
women in that time of trial. Whatever may be Mr.
Wilson's popularity, a more popular person than
his wife will neither be found in India nor in
the colony she has made her home. They have
fought out this great fight together, and it would
surely be a consideration for the Government that
in bestowing on John Cracroft Wilson the well-
merited reward of the higher grade of the order of
the Bath, the title which accompanies it, would be
shared by his wife.

WESTMINSTER PALACE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " TIMES."

Sir,—Business engagements from home have prevented
my availing myself sooner of your invitation to assist in
"devising some plan which should make the Houses of
Parliament worth the money which the nation has spent."
Allow me now, therefore,to offer some explanations and
suggestions respecting them. While fully admitting that
you express no more than what is felt by four-fifths of
the House of Commons, it is but just that the grievances
you detail shoUld be traced to their proper quarter. I
always understood from my father, that Sir Charles Barry
did his utmost to persuade the Commissioners to make
the two Houses of equal size ; but he was overruled on
the consideration that, as the attendance in the House
of Commons seldom exceeded 200, it was thought better
to endure an occasional crush, than to be daily exposed
to the permanent annoyance of a comparatively vacant
House, with empty benches. In this respect it is unrea-
sonable to blame Sir Charles, than whom no man had a
more comprehensive idea of what was necessary for
uniting space with convenience. Had Sir Charles Barry
been absolute master of the position, rather than a shut-
tlecock tossed from post to pillar, the blame with which
you now charge him would have been justly merited, but
he may fairly be exonerated from much of the respon-
sibility hitherto attached to him. I have often heard my
father say that the perplexing annoyances to which Sir
Charles Barry was a victim would have killed him in a
twelvemonth. What, however, was considered at the
time Sir Charles's great merit was, in reality, his greatest
fault. The attempt to form a successful combination of
Grecian symmetry with mediaeval features, of uniformity
of plan with Gothic elevations, was the fatal mistake
which fascinated, but destroyed him. His ground plan,
I must maintain in opposition to yourself, displays a mar-
vellous amount of ingenuity and compactness of arrange-
ment. To bring together those huge chambers of audi-
ence in close proximity with numberless rooms and offices,
all within reach of eath other—to group that long suc-
cession of "spacious halls "with their connecting galleries
and approaches—to pack, as it were, with such orderly
method that vast multitude of apartments, was surely an
accomplishment involving no little thought and mental
application ; and is scarcely to be condemned in so unquali-
fied a manner on the score of inconvenience. But at the
same time it must be admitted, if not deplored, that what-
ever convenience may exist, it was obtained at the sacri-
fice of light, air, propriety, and many desirable if not
essential characteristics. The somewhat prison-like
aspect of a portion of the rooms, and the general air
of closeness, are to be attributed to the classical
exigences of the plan, and the idea that sash windows
and other modern requirements were inconsistent with
the principles of Gothic architecture. My father, however,
while fully admitting the great talent and ingenuity in
Sir Charles's general plan, always maintained, not merely
that the outline, disposition, and proportions of the various
parts of the building were Grecian, but that the ground
plan itself partook of the same character, and was fitted
only for a Southern climate. This was, after all, the fatal
mistake. The small enclosed courts, in winter little better
than wells, fronted by a long, lofty pile of building facing
south, which, though basking in the sun itself, effectually
excluded both sun and air from every portion of the vast
mass behind it, my father almost prophetically announced
was not the right and proper treatment for a climate where
sun is a luxury, and not a superfluity. In advance of his
time, and gifted with practical instincts, which saved
him from being led away by the fascinating idea upon
which Sir Charles Barry stumbled, he saw without an
effort that we required courts open to the south, and de-
tached buildings so placed as to receive each its due
share of sun, the more important marked by the greater
prominence, all rising one behind the other to the north,
and then backed by a sturdy barrier of the loftiest and
most massive character. Yet, strange to say, a design of
this very character was rejected by the judges. He who
wrought the elaborate coat of the accepted design origi-
nated at the same time a conception which was described
in the Morning Post of the period as "presenting combi-
nations of convenience and picturesque grouping in per-
fect keeping with the character of the style, which it is
delightful to contemplate." This treatment, embodied
by my father in his designs for Mr. Gillespie Graham,
is now found by experience to be the very treatment neces-
sary for our requirements in this country. But, unfortu-
nately, wo were not at that time sufficiently advanced to
appreciate it ; we were deceived by a phantom ; the plastic
nature of Gothic art was trammelled by the exacting
demands of classical propriety ; and we can now only
regret that the opportunity of thirty-five years back,
which was actually available, was lost through our own
ignorance. Is it not most lamentable, let me ask in passing,
that unless a sharp look-out be kept the very selfsame
false' treatment will render the new Law Courts as huge
a blunder in this respect as the Parliament Houses ? It
is to • the Quarterly Review that thanks are principally
due for calling attention to this particular danger.
We may, however, be grateful that at a time when little
was generally known of Gothic art, and nothing of Gothic
principles, the judges selected a design which was not
only far in advance of the others, but which, in course
of erection, was the means of forming a school of men by
whom the best works of the present day are executed.
The momentum then given to true principles has not yet
stopped, although I fear there are many signs that its force

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is weakening. Considerations like these make me hesitate
to accept your sweeping condemnation of the Houses as
"so ingeniously ill-adapted to every purpose for which
they were intended as to be the greatest architectural

failure of the age." Whatever may be men's judgment
on the particular period of architecture adopted, of its
kind it is perfect from base to cornerstone—from the
most important feature to the smallest detail. Its pro-
portions are true and elegant ; its forms are pleasing ; it
is not devoid of stateliness ; some of its parts are most
noble ; all have a delicate grace which charms and satisfies
the eye. Its fitness for its purpose as a royal palace of
debate, and the external manifestations of majesty few
will question ; its internal magnificence produces a whole-
some awe ; and so far from the ornamentation being a
" barren and wearisome repetition of one idea," I beg of
you to consider the vast space literally covered with
detail of marvellous variety, if not of great beauty. In
saying this, however, I am by no means inclined to dispute
with you the fact of its being excessive, and often mis-
placed, or that propriety is not sacrificed thereby, and I
am not blind, as must appear from what I have said, to the
faults and partial failure of the entire building, whether
in architecture or in plan. In turning my attention to
this, allow me to correct a mistake into which you seem
to have fallen with regard to the material described by
you as " decaying 500 years too soon." This estimate is
only partially true. The great mass of the material is as
sound to-day as it was when the stones were first placed
one upon the other. The stone chosen by the Commissioners
was the Balsover Rock, or Mansfield Woodhouse ; and of
this, in the great number of the courts, the work below
the plinth and a considerable portion of the south-east
section of the building are erected. Where the stone has
been properly selected the work remains as sharp as a
razor. This would have been uniformly the case through-
out, I imagine, had not the division of responsibilityproved
to the letter that "what was everybody's business was
nobody's business." But one of the chief causes of the
failure lay in the difficulty of obtaining blocks of sufficient
size. At this juncture recourse was had to the Austen.°
quarries, principally on account of their stone being very
similar in appearance to the Balsover, and I have no doubt
whatever that even this stone, although inferior to that
first used, would have been perfectly successful had care
been taken to select the blocks from proper beds. There
is no quarry in the world which in every part can boast of
a perfect uniformity of hard and durable material fit for
external work. In a gigantic building like that under con-
sideration it was of the first and most essential importance
to have appointed a Government inspector, whose posi-
tion and salary should have placed him beyond reach of
temptation; for, be it remembered, that the amount of
time—varying from a week to a fortnight—required for
working stones from the same quarry is regulated by tho
hardness or softness of the material, and in a large work
the profits increase or decrease in proportion. Soft stone
nets pounds ; hard, perhaps, not even shillings. Had one
of the Yorkshire sandstones been selected this danger
would have been far less imminent, and the present symp-
toms of decay considerably reduced, even had the decay
appeared at all. It is most erroneous, however, to infer
that this is the beginning of the end, and that the decay
is likely to increase. What stone has already gone is all
that will perish, and the remedy is within our reach at a
comparatively small cost. There is no necessity for re-
sorting to Portland for material. The quarries originally
selected will yield abundance of stone, on which time will
have a beneficial rather than an injurious effect ; and the