The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-09 00:00:00

THE SUN.
LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1861.

Gothic versus Palladian, or the Battle of the
Styles, was performed last night, in the midst of
considerable applause and laughter, before a tole-
rably crowded House down at Westminster. The
contest in its character was, from first to last, so
supremely ridiculous that it could only be com-
pared towards its close—by a sort of whimsical
" gag" from the lips of the chief performer
in this great Parliamentary extravaganza—it could
really alone be compared by Lord PALMERSTON to
the Battle of the Books, to the Battle of the
.Big
and Little Endeans, to the Battle of the green and
blue ribbons in the City of Constantinople. The
Premier's speech, with which this amusing discus-
sion was brought to a close, was quite as boisterous
in its mirth as that of the most suceessful Adelphi
Screamer—the noble lord being always, as Lord
Emir° well said last evening, gay and cheerful,
" quem jocus circumvolat et Cupido"—the
humorous speech with which Lord PALMER-
STON indulged the House of Commons brought
the House at length to a division that we may
presume has aided the contest definitively. A
clear majority, closely approximating to a good
round total of one hundred—a clear majority of
ninety-three altogether deciding the Question in
Dispute in favour of the Palladian and against
the Gothic. No more than 95 supporting Lord
ELCHO'S resolution, and as many as 188 going
dead against it. Of course, in this instance, as in
pretty well every other instance in which a mere
matter of taste is under discussion, there is mani-
festly a very great deal to be said upon both sides.
Precisely as much could be argued formally sato the
cracking, of the eggs of Lilliput at the big end
or at the little end, according to the epicure's whim
and pleasure. But here again, as in
all matters of taste, the squabble can
only be brought to a conclusion by a decision of the
majority—leaving the pros and cons still to the
last uninterfered with in their integrity by that
decision. With this reflection, and with this re- I
flection alone, the Goths, we bee: their pardOn, the
advocates of the Gothic crder of architecture as
applied to our public buildings generally, with
especial. reference, at this time, to the palatial homes
and haunts of our administrators, may console
themselves. They may exult in the thought that
their ari?uments may be allowed still to hold good
in the abstract. What though the day has been
carried triumphantly by the champions of the
rival or Palladian style of architecture.
It might certainly have been thought that the
lovers cif the Gothic would have found it possible to
rest contented during another generation or two
itself
is th e consideration that the Legislature
is hous( id in a gigantic structure commenced and
carried out in that style from the lowest level of
the foul Idations up to the topmost trefoils of the
parapet- —in a structure so gigantic in its dimensions
that the lofty Hall of Rufus and the grand old
Abbey hard by are both of them completely
dwarfed by comparison. But—no. The keenness
of their relish appears to have been only whetted
by that iintuense enjoyment—rappetit vient en
ma/Wet/V. 'They hunger for more—voraciously
insatiably. They close their eyes to the glaringly
obvious fact that the chief excellence of the Gothic
style of 'architecture is its applicability to eccle-
siastical purPo6t". Forgetting even here, however,
the Perfi indisputc-V,e fact, that notwithstand-
ing the magnificence of the uettiic cathedrals scat-
tered all over Europa, some of the most exquisite
tVelmeris in all Christendom adorning these islands
of Our 'own
noblest religious
that notwithstanding all this the
edifice in the whole world
is not it Gothic cathedral ! So that even as an
ecclesiastical style of architecture, we will say, even
as the ecclesiastical style of architecture, the Gothic
has failed to vindicate its title to pre-eminence by
producing the world's
masterpiece, in the form of
the grandest of all the cathedrals dedicated
to they worship of the Divine Author
of Chrititianity. Before St. Peter's at
Rome,
the stick lers for the Gothic would do well to yield
up their arrogant ,?rctensions for their favourite