The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

MR. FERGUSON AND MR. WELBY PUGIN

The following letter has been addressed to
the editor of the Westminster Gazette
so,—Mr. Ferguson .should have been a
bishop. He could then have pronounced dog-
matic decisions, which, if not privately undis-
puted, would at all events have been publicly
received in solemn silence. He must not,
sopmunie tpyr,otest was made
and it seems to
how-
ever, be permitted to rate a whole institute
mofearhicliightecttims
against his self assumed authority. He always
speaks and wishes to be recognized as hav-
ing spoken ea; cathedra'. Hence, when another
man would reason, he takes -upon himself to
judge, and decides categorically, as though
every one were hanging on his lips for a
decree ; noticing
j
time thha t impunity,
just so much of the matter
under his consideration as is convenient for his
own immediate purpose, whether of personal
deprecation or general abuse. Passing by
other instances of this spirit, let me remark,
in regard to that more immediately interest-
ing to myself, that he assumed the office of
a judge—so Dr. A. Barry protests—before hav-
ing heard the pleadings of both sides, because
this afforded him an opportunity of mounting
his favourite hobby for general observation,
and of abusing my father in particular. Ut-
terly regardless of justice, he is taken to task
on one hand for summing up without evidence
—regardless of logic on the other hand, for
summing up against evidence ; for I am sure
that if one half of my evidence proves to Mr.
Ferguson's mind that my father spoilt the ori-
ginal designs for the Houses of Parliament, it
Qui scarcely be disputed that the other half

- Without taking any particular credit to
myself for the faculty, I claim to be' com-
petent to distinguish between arcluoology and
architecture, and, at the same time, I do not
acquiesce in Mr. Ferguson's teaching or defi-
nitions. In opposition to him, I define an
archmologist—i.e., a mere architectural archw-
ologist—to be one who, in making designs,
not only studies the works of antiquity, as
a book whereby he may learn the principles
of the art which produced them, and see how
these principles were variously developed by
successive architects, in what forms they re-
sulted, what ideas sprang from them, how
they were influenced by, and in what outward
expressions they satisfied and symbolized the
wants of the then existing generation, but
actually reproduces them, irrespective of all
considerations of appropriateness and modern
wants, convenience, and requirements, thus
making the present subservient to the past,
and expressing, not the thought and character
of his own mind or of the age we live in, but
those of men and ages long since, departed.
-A good architect, however, must be_ALsound
archaeologist. In designing a building, whilst
considering solely " the purpose and age for
and in which it is to be erected," he will work
it out from his own thought and brain-power,
without reference to books and examples ; but
so far from "not thinking of the past or of any
other clime," or of unreservedly rejecting the
forms and developments of bygone ages, he
will bring to bear on his work the wisdom,
genius, and power of the great men by whom
they were produced. Far, moreover, from
fostering a supercilious disdain for them, he
will avail himself of their experience, and re-
verence their works, even to the extent of de-
signing the self-same features and using the
self-same forms for the same wants. It is a
shallow philosophy which, from a morbid de-
sire of being novel, or a slavish fear of being
a copyist, shrinks from a loyal avowal of the
obligations a man is under to those from whom
he has learnt the very alphabet and grammar
of, his art. In saying this, lam not likely to
be misunderstood. No man has more roundly
abused archa3ological whims and old-world
copyisms than myself, and none have been
more roundly abused for doing so ; but I
denounce quite as strongly a principle such
as that enunciated by Mr. Ferguson, which,
followed out without qualifications, leads to
nothing but extravagance and eccentricities.
The partial truth it contains requires carefully
guarding by the principle of authority, and a
reverence for the past is the best guarantee for
success in the present. This seems to me to
be the great safeguard against a spurious ori-
ginality, which, if sought for apart from the
restraints I have mentioned, only results in
the weakening, crazy, and fantastic develop-
ments of modern Paris and London. To
"throw archaeology overboard" in order to get
at " a real and true architecture," is very much
like discarding grammar in order to write with
a real and and true elegance.
All that is true in Mr. Ferguson's definition
of an architect has been the burden of my
song for many a day, but what he really means
is to be found in his article in the Builder,
on the Law Courts, which, although contain-
ing much that is both true and admirable, is so
disfigured by his usual extravagance, that it
loges half its value. 111 Q ideal architect, it
seems, is to cut himself off from " the past and
, from every clime " under the sun, except his
I own. He is to free himself from " the tram-
mels of archaeology," and to " invent a new
style," with no principles but " common sense"
and " progress to guide him. He is to en-
gage on every fresh work with the amusing
conviction that " Gothic (English) spires and
Grecian porticos are equally absurdities " in
England ;—that all modern architecture is a
falsehood"—classical, one falsehood G thi o c,
another ; that a love of Gothic art is a mania
to be classed with crinolines and chignons, and
consigned with them to the limbo of absurd
fashions ;—that veneration for the middle ages
is " sentimental," and (if I rightly understand
Mr. Ferguson) that neither " pointed arches
nor classical pillars" should be tolerated. With
such convictions and in such a spirit a man
is to be successful in producing an original
and entirely satisfactory style of architecture
"in harmony with the feelings and advance-
ment of the age." Will Mr. Ferguson for
once be a little less visionary and a little
more practical, and give us some idea of the
original common-sense architecture about
which he discourses so dogmatically ? There
are several newly-erected buildings in Lon-
don which seem to be at least efforts in the
right direction. The Charing Cross Hotel is
wildly original, details and all—does that please
him ? The Strand Music Hall has certainly no
parentage—come, this cannot be far wrong.
Better still the new University Buildings in
Burlington Gardens, which were pulled down
last summer and bodily carried off, when but
half erected ; this, surely, should have passed
Mr. Ferguson's muster, for it was totally un-
like anything ever yet seen—not only in design,
but even in its general construction.
In these buildings we certainly see few
"crotchets" such as those Mr. Ferguson so flip-
pantly attributes to my father, but a mass of
childish fancies, ludicrous, abnormal conceits,
fantastic originalities, and hideous, degraded
forms. My father's " crotchets," at all events,
had authority on their side ; but these are the
coinage of the most depraved taste opposed
alike to all " true and real architecture "
as to every rule of art. These, then, are the
results of a principle such as that we, archi-
tects, are called upon to adopt. These ai'e the
will-o'-the-wisps we are to follow in our search
after a " new style neither Gothic nor Greek,"
until we are lost in a quagmire of incompe-
tence and conceit.

Space forbids me to follow Mr. Ferguson
any further. Perhaps another opportunity may
be afforded me of noticing the " syllabus of
errors " with which he has favoured us ;
but I do think, since we are all such benighted
creatures, that we cannot even " appreciate
the difference between archaeology and archi-
tecture," and that all architecture, since the
year 1,500, is more or less a failure, Mr. Fer-
guson, in addition to his darling occupation of
finding fault, might take the trouble to build
up, as well as pull down, and substitute some-
thing " true and real " for the " strange aber-
rations" of the present age. We might, then,
place a higher value on his crusade against all
modern architecture and architects. From his
remarks in his "Modern Architecture " re-
specting my father I am convinced either that
Mr. Ferguson wants judgment extremely, or
that he is blinded by his resentment.—I am,
sir, your obedient servant,
E. WELBY PITGIN.

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There appears to be no symptoms of abate-
ment in the terrible distress in the East End
of London. The large resources which public
benevolence and the official guardians of the
poor have brought to bear on the helpless
mass of misery and starvation seem to have
but small effect in stemmine, the tide of pau-
perism. The very fact that relief is given
abundantly-, and, as must needs be the case,
in dealing with such a wide-spread distress,
too often indiscriminately, attracts a continu-
ous stream of paupers from every district.
We have not only to deal with men thrown
out of work by the stagnation of trade and
by the sudden collapse of innumerable small
industries dependent for support on the earn-
ings of artizans and workmen, but we are
once more brought face to face with that
gaunt spectre which haunts our large cities—
chronic pauperism. Paupers who, in the best
of times, are hovering on the verge of star-
vation, who are incapacitated from helping,
themselves by physical weakness or mental im-
becility, or by vice, intemperance, or, again,
from the fact that they are known to belong
to the criminal classes, now rise up in their
utter destitution and helplessness, and throw
themselves in unmanageable masses on relief
committees, on poor-law officials, and on public
charity. They are loud-voiced and importu-
nate, and skilled in exciting sympathy and
absorbing relief. _ _

They need relief, indeed, for they are the
first victims of starvata t these,,chronie
paupers who in prospeii fitire comparatively-
poor and destitute, and unwilling, or morally
or mentally unable, to earn a sufficient
liv-
lihood, stand. now between the decent artizan
and hard-working labourer, and public bene-
volence. Relief-committees, had they but to
deal with an accidental and passing pauperism,
would not be reduced to the miserable neces-
sity of knowing that distress which they can-
not reach is bringing the labourer out of work
down to the level of the chronic pauper. Every
sudden outburst of distress like the present in
the East End of London throws into one in-
distinguishable mass of pauperism artizans,
hard-working labourers, petty street traders and
those itinerant workers who, in spring, and
summer, and harvest-time, manage to pick up
a precarious livelihood, but who, when winter
sets in, gravitate towards the East End, and
finally the helpless chronic pauper. An in-
quiry into the trades and professions of a
number of applicants for relief made the other
day at one of the East End unions gave the
following results :-7 dock labourers, 3 street
hawkers, 1 blacksmith, 1 tinman, 1 cooper, 3
chairmakers, 4 shoemakers, 1 gas-fitter, 2
weavers, 6-carpenters, 1 tailor, 8 needlewomen,
1 printer, 1 gardener, 1 baker, 2 stay-
makers, 1 sewing-machinist, 1 hatter, 2 ship-
wrights, 1 varnish-maker, 1 schoolmaster, 1
box-maker, 2 paviers, 1 carman, and 3 paper-
stainers: Several of the men were repre-
sented by their wives. Various other trades
also furnished candidates for relief. Besides
these, a large number of applicants were
far advanced in years. Inquiry into the history
of these, says the Daily News, showed that
in many instances the bread-winner of a family
took upon himself the support of his parents,
or those of his wife, so long as he was enabled
to do so, but the moment that the family funds
began to fail he was compelled to let them
have recoutse to parochial relief. There is
no help for it now but to redouble every exer-
tion, to unite the various relief committees,
as has now been done in the east end of Lon-
don, so as to form a central committee and
a central executive capable of dealing in a
more systematical method, not only with the
applicants for relief, but with the more retiring,
but not less deserving, objects of public be-
nevolence.

When the present distress is at end, it will
be incumbent on our social reformers to ex-
amine the question of chronic pauperism seri-
ously in all its bearings, social, political, and
religious, and see whether some means befit-
ting u Christian community cannot be dis-
covered to grapple successfully with the gigan-
tic and growing evil.—Westminster Gazette.

The Rouen journals are filled with praises of the
manner in which Mdlle. Adelina Patti, a few even-
ings back, played Lucia in the theatre of that town.
Nothing, they declare, could be finer than her per-
formance both for acting and singing.
A DISPUTED PIGEON-FLYING TRANSACTION.—
John Gallagher v. Edward Whittaker.—This was an ac-
tion tried in the Blackburn County Court, on Monday, to
recover the sum of £l4, money deposited with the defen-
dant, a referee in a pigeon-flying match, which did not
come off. Mr. Dean was for tho plaintiff, and Mr. Rat-
cliffe for the defendant. After briefly opening the case,
Mr. Dean examined the plaintiff, who said he was a beer-
house keeper, at Church, and the owner of a celebrated
carrier pigeon, and ho agreed to fly his pigeon against the
pigeon of a man named Pilkington. Tho agreement was
signed on the 9th December. A copy of the agreement was
produced. Pilkington was a beer-house keeper, and Ed-
ward Whittaker was a stakeholder and referee. One of the
conditions was that each party to the match was to show
his pigeon every fortnight. He showed his pigeon at the
proper period, and deposited £1 per week into the hands
of Whittaker. Everything went on pleasantly until
Saturday, Dec. 28. On that day the lqt deposit to make
the money to £l4 was paid, and the remaining £6 was to
be paid on the 31st. On Dec. 28 he produced his pigeon as
usual. That was before 9 o'clock at night, as per the terms
of the agreement. No objection was then raised to his
pigeon, but later on at night the stakeholder and a lot of
people came down to his house, and asked to look at the
pigeon again. That would be about twenty minutes
past eleven o'clock. He said he had shown it once that
eight to the referee, and he should not show it again.
Defendant then said he must take the pigeon to Samuel
Lee before twelve o'clock that night, or else he
would turn the money up to the other parties.
He said if he did so (witness) should try to make him
turn it back again. On the 31st of December he went
to Pilkington's house at Accrington, where the last in-
stalment was to be paid. lie produced two watches to
time the flying with, and £6, the balance of the money, and
he placed those on the table and called the landlord in
to witness it. The defendant was not there to receive the
stakes, although he had had notice to be there at nine
o'clock. He (witness) was there at a quarter before nine,
and remained there until a quarter past, but the defendant
never came near. He then said that as the defendant was
not there, he should declare the fly off. Twenty or thirty
persons were there when he declared the fly off. The
defendant came to his (witness's) house last Tuesday night,
and he said he had done wrcng in giving up the money
to the other man, and he was afraid he would have to
go to prison for it. Cross-examined—The match was
made in the first instance on the 21st of September, but
the starting-point was altered because, the gHateuewkaesepers
Gate.
objected to its taking place at Hapton
.
cer-
tain that he always showed the same pigeon grecde dniAfter
hearing some further evidence, his that
and he was entitled to recover. Verdict for the amount
there had been no broach of articlesn by the plaintiff,
claimed.
.
The value of glycerine as a rem remedy for
admittedvarious;
skin affections is now generally known
it
was therefore shouldbothtnbaetusio-auldainfideddeasnadabtlbeerethfaotreitmost
eobn-
e
presented to us in
yo
'ent form of a soap. So numerous
plroaupsaierd,especially
are the uses and
in
cPuemnlrP°blaneaBtitoonwwhiitchhogthlyecreed
erimnemiaalY b
substances, that glycerine
compounds abound. Unfortunately, many of these so-
called mixtures of glycerine are so in little more than
name ; they are either destitute of that substance,r
present in
it only in minute quantities, or, when even p
larger amount, the quality is often by no means good. This
observation applies with more or less force to many of the
so-called glycerine soaps, perfumes, and cosmetics. In
Price's s didified glycerine, however, we possess an article
of teally definite composition and of superior quality, and
one on which we believe that the profession and the public
may fully rely. It is stated of this glycerine compound
that it wears well, gives a rich lather, and that it contains
over half its weight of Price's distilled glycerine, the ac-
curacy of which statement we verified by the following
per tentage analysis :

Water
Fatty acids.....
Soda ...
Glycorino ...

... ... 21-5
... ... 29.5
~. .., 45.3

1000-2 M Lancet.