The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-10 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 10, 1828.

LAST WEEK.

Royal Academy, Somerset House.
OTICE is hereb}•.given, that the EMU-
BITION of the ROYAL ACADEMY will finally
Close on SATURDAY NEXT, the 12th instant, at
SEVEN o'CLOCK PRECISELY.
Admission (every day from Eight o'Clock till Seven)
One Stilling. Catalogue One Shilling.
• HENRY HOWARD, R.A., See..
Exhibitors are requested to send for their works on
Tuesday thp 15th, or Wednesday the 16th inst.

THE LONDON STOVE GRATE
BAZAAR, Fish-street-hill, near the Monument,
(on a very extensive scale) established for the Manufacture
and Sale of Superior STOVE GRATES, of new and
elegant designs, improved KITCHEN RANGES, with or
without STEAM APPARATUS; improved PATENT
WARM AIR STOVES with ascending or descending
Flues, adapted for offices, balls, shops, conservatories, or
churches ; FENDERS, FIRE IRONS, patent French and
English LAMPS for dinucs• tables and side boards, in
bronze, plated, or ormolu, on new and economical prin-
ciples; elegant bronze and ormolu CHANDELIERS (from
six to tilv guineas, and upwards) : Papier Mackie and other
TEA TRAYS; Teaand Cuffee URNS; superior PLATED
ARTICLES ; Town made KNIVES and FORKS ; Brass
CURTAIN POLES (requiring no drapery); Patent DISH
COVERS (635. per set); Culinary Utensils, &c. in Coppc;r,
Iron, and ftlosk Tin.

J. EVANS respectfay suggests to the Nobility and
Gentry who are refitting or furnishing, that the above
Establishment will be found peculiarly worthy tbeir atten-
tion, as every requisite for the fitting up a Cottage or
Mansion, is always ready (in the greatest variety) far im-
mediate delivery, and the Proprietor warrants every article
of the most superior kind, and the price front to 50 per
cent. under any retail house in the kingdom, selling goods
of equal quality. The lowest price is affixed to each
article, front which no abatement will be made.
BELLS and ALARMS, on Scientific and Economical
Principles; Plain and Ornamental IRON WORK, ex-
ecuted by estimate or otherwise, in town or country.
SMOKEY CHIMNIES effectually cured by experieneed
and careful workmen. There being a number of hands in
the various branches, constantly employed on the premises,
Architects and Surveyors have the opportunity of superin-
tending the executing of their own orders.
*,'" A variety of elegant Italian and other Marble
Chimney-pieces.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.

REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE

ON TITT
OITICE OF WORKS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The Select Committee appointed to inoinire into
the state of the Pmblic Buildings in the Department
of the Office of Works, under Statute 54 Geo. HI
c. 157; and into the application of part of the Land
Revenue of the Crown, under Statute 6 Geo. IV.
c. 77, and ander 7 and 8 Geo. W. c. 68, for the
management and improvement of the Land Re-
venues of the Crown in Ireland ; and into the
Works now in progress, under 7 Geo. IV. cap. 77,
for improving Charing-cross, and of granting Leases
of the site of Carlton Palace; and to report theame,
with their observations, to the House, began their
inquiry into the mode of conducting the business of
the Office of Works, by examining the Surveyor-
General ; who informed your Committee, that soon
after the passing of the Act 54
,Geo. 111., c. 147, a
code of instructions was drawn out by the Commis-
sioners of the Treasury, and laid before Parliament,
in conformity to the 9th section of that Statute ; and
that no alteration of any consequence has been made
since. This Code, dated 10th March, 1815, is
printed and preserved among the miscellaneous ac-
counts and papers of the Session 1815.
The regulations under which public works and
buildings were previously carried on form the sub-
ject of an elaborate Report from the Commissioners
of Inquiry into the conduct and business of that de-
partment, printed 3d June, 1813, (No. 258), and
preserved among
.the several Reports of Commis-
sioners in that year.
It was enacted in 1782, by the 22d Geo. 111.,
cap. 82, which suppressed the then existing Board
of Works, together with several other offices, that all
his Majesty's buildings hitherto under the manage-
ment of that Bond should be under the direction
of an architect or builder by profession, as surveyor
or controller of the works; which office was held
for many years by Sir William Chambers, and after
his death by Mr. Wyatt; but the want of punctuality
and exactness of the latter in kee'ing his accounts,
and the extreme disorder into which they had fallen,
gave occasion, in 1814, to new regulations, by the
introduction of the system under which that office is
now conducted.
The intention of the framers of that Act appears
to have been, to establish an efficient control and
superintendence in the Surveyor-General, attaching
to his office a council of three of the most eminent
architects, to assist and advise him by their united
talent, in all such matters, either of design or execu-
tion, as might require the knowledge and skill of
persons professionally educated.
A salary of 500/. was assigned to each of them,
and their commission upoti new buildings conducted
under their direction was settled at 31. per cent. in-
stead of Si., which is the usual charge of architects;
but they were relieved from the expense of clerks
of the works, and of making out the accounts and
bills of -fie workmen, which occur when they are
empiord in the usual course of their business.
Vpoti-teference to the evidence it will be seen,
that for conducting the works both at Buckingham
Palace and Windsor Castle, the commission to be
received is the full commission of 51. per cent., al-
though the business of measuring and settling the
accounts is conducted and paid by the office; the
grounds of which allowance are stated in the cor-
respondence, and the Treasury minutes contained
in the Appendix. Mr. Nash's salary of 500/. is not
paid during the progress of the works at the Palace.
The three attached architects are certainly not
excluded by the 6th section of the Act from under-
taking and conducting public works, but it does not
seem to have been designed or contemplated that
they should be exclusively employed; nor that
separate and distinct di visions of the metropolis should
be allotted to them, as in severalty, so that one only
of this Council (if it may be so denominated) should
be referred to, or consulted, within the limits of his
peculiar province, without any professional competi-
tion or concurrence.
Objections might undoubtedly he raised against
referring the designs and plans of one of these three
architects to the other two, for their examination
and criticism, on account of that difficulty and deli-
cacy which very properly exist among men of high
reputation in the same profession, and belonging to
the same department, who would naturally be un-
willing to give opinions or suggest corrections upon
the works of their colleagues; but the effect of this
system
has been, and must continue to be, the een ,
nar-
rowing and limiting the choice of those who are to
determine upon the general taste and character of
public buildings, whose judgment ought to be as-
sisted by some variety and diversity of design, and
some increase in the power of selection.
The faculty of originating and inventing what is
excellent in architecture, as in every thing else, is
undoubtedly confined to few; but many of those
who are at all conversant in works of art, particu-
larly if they have had opportunities of observing the
best examples of ancient and modern architecture,
aro capable of forming a correct judgment upon de-
signs or models which are placed before them, and
will seldom fail to prefer the best to the worst. The
inconvenience of this want of choice, supposing no
more essential change to be made in the constitution
of the office, may certainly be obviated by directing
each of the attached architects to give a general no-
tion or representation, or a slight sketch, of the style
and character in which he would propose any public
building to be treated, which is either to he newly
erected, or considerably enlarged or altered ; and
slight sketches might also be called for from other
architects of experience and reputation, so as to
afford some opportunity of competition, without in-
curring the inconveniences attending unlimited
tenders.

In all cases where any considerable work is to be
undertaken, as soon as any one general plan shall
have been preferred and selected, it is indispensable
that a model should be constructed, showing both
the elevation, and the internal accommodation and
distribution of the whole ; and that this model should
be reconsidered and settled (with alterations, if ne-
cessary) before the work is begun. A correct esti-
mate should then be formed ; and the commission
of the architect should not in any case be allowed
upon the amount of expenditure beyond the original
estimate ; for no mode of payment can be more ab-
surd or contrary to economy, than that of a per ten-
tage upon the ultimate charge, which makes it the
interest of those who conduct extensive works to ren-

der them as expensive as they can, and affords to them
a premium upon their own unrestrained inaccuracy
and extravagance.
A, considerable difference of opinion exists with
regard to the check and control over expellee which
the present system affords; and those parts of the
conflicting evidence of Mr. Nash and Mr. Smirke,
which relate to this specific point, exhibit the defects
and the advantages belonging to it. But it must be
confessed that the responsibility of the architect is
extremely diminished, when the examination of the
several charges is taken out of his hands, as well as
which is stated univer-
lstihanlegly,mateonadsblte a liroiPt unfrequently of Imposition and sourcegoftheof'-vg°rreka uncertainty and cavil-
't
over-
charge. Mr. Nash distinctly says, that nothing is
so unreasonable is to think that an,architect can be
answerable in any way for his es.timate .when he
himself does not control the prices and make out the
bills; and he avows his inability of judging how
nearly the expense of the Palace has come to his

PRICE 7D

estimate, becaase he has nothing to do with the
measuring or making out the accounts. A mode
of -proceeding which affords so plausible an excuse
or justification for excess and deviation (unless some
great counterpoise can be alleged in favour of its
utility in some other point of view), is. hardly to
be maintained or continued with advantage to the
public.
For the purpose of investigating this question, and
endeavouring to determine as to the present method
of conducting public works, your Committee entered
into further inquiries, and examined several persons
of respectability and high character, as architects
and builders, not connected with the Office of
Works ; among whom they found the same diver-
sity of opinion as between the two architects already
referred to.
The preponderance of opinion, however, among
those most capable of forming a correct judgment,
who have been examined upon this question, is cer-
tainly in favour of the present practice of contracts
for prices, as contrasted with contracts in gross.
Mr. Wyatville, Mr. Harrison, and Mr. Burton,
give it a decided preference; but the contracts in
gross are considered by Mr. Rowles and Mr. Cubitt
as more advantageous to the employer, and not ne-
cessarily liable to the objestions which are alleged
against them. In the evidence of Mr. Rowles are
also some detailed observations upon the Code of
Instructions of 1815 well deservin, of attention, and
suggesting some improvements in that system.
The certainty of a work being performed within
the sum allotted to it is unquestionably a powerful
recommendation to contracts in gross; but if, as it
is alleged, such works are more liable to be slighted
in the execution, and frauds are more frequently
practised in carrying on and conducting the several
parts; and if such frauds and evasions of the speci-
fications are less capable of being detected than when
the works are undertaken under contracts for prices
(which is the regulation in the Office of Works),
the latter mode would certainly be preferable, even
at an increased charge. But with the superintend-
ence of clerks of the works and other men bred to
the profession, belonging to and dependent upon the
office, and with such accuracy in the specifications
as the ability and experience of the attached archi-
tects cannot fail to ensure, your Committee consider
that the method which appears the most prudent
and economical for individuals to adopt could not
prove disadvantageous to the public ; and they are
therefore inclined to think that with precise specifi-
cation and careful superintendence, and where all
deviations from the original plan are avoided, the
system of contracts in gross might be found to be
the least expensive.
Within the last 15 or 20 years a larger field has
been opened for architectural talent and exertion
than at almost any other period of our modern an-
nals; a greater slumber of brides and churches, and
of both public and private works upon an extended
scale, have been conipletpd, than in an hundred
years before. The appearance and convenience of
the parts of this metvpolis 'to the north of Pall-
mall and Piccadilly have been much improved by
the grand line of Regent-street, and the buildings
leading to and connected with it ; of which the ge-
neral design and many of the details are excellent;
but on the other hand it may be observed, with re-
gret, that the taste and style of some of the public
edifices do not indicate such a state of improvement
as might have been desired and expected from the
increased opportunities which have been thus
afforded.
It would be an invidious and unpleasant task to
criticise the labours of living architects, who have
deservedly risen to a distinguished station in their
profession; and it is only with regard to such parts
of their productions as they profess themselves dis-
satisfied with and condemn, that your Committee
venture to express their full concurrence in these
unfavourable opinions; but in some of these it must
be observed, that much of the defect is to be attri-
buted to changes and alterations in their plans, even
during the execution of the buildings, and to the
want of due consideration and determination upon
the entire edifice, before any portion was begun.
The inconvenient line of the new Council Office,
both in Downing-street and Whitehall, discordant
from the lines of those streets, and encroaching most
awkwardly and incommodiously upon the foot pave-
ment of the latter (if it should be continued), could
hardly have been resolved upon, if all the conse-
quences attendant upon that design, in relation to
the line of street and the height of the adjoining and
neighbouring buildings, had been laid before the
Lords of the Treasury at one view, and the objec-
tions pointed out to them. The addition of the
Pavilion towards Downing-street, was entirely an
after thought, and it now seems to require a corre-
sponding and ornamented projection, which, if it be
placed before the office of the Secretary of State for
the Home Department, and kept in the same allign-
ment, will essentially disfigure the fine street of
Whitehall; or if returned upon an obtuse angle to-
wards Melbourne House, will excite in every ob-
serving passenger, a sentiment of regret that this in-
convenience was not foreseen in the beginning, and
obviated. It will be noticed in the evidence of Mr

Soane, that a second pavilion, towards the Home
Office, was never in his contemplation; but he pro-
duced to your Committee a design for erecting a
corresponding pavilion on the other bide of Down-

ing-street, at angle of King-street, with abiiltit.
Mg extending into King-street, similar to that it
Whitehall.

The Council Office should have been much
higher, if taste only were considered, as Mr. Soane
acknowledges in his evidence, and his first design for
a much less decorated building was made accord-
ingly; but a desire of restricting the expenee, which
must have been incurred by making the rooms nn-
necessarily high, was one of his reasons, as he al-
leges, for not carrying the building to a more digni-
fied elevation. A balustrade connecting the line of
eltimnies was, during a short time, placed upon the
roof of this dwarfish front; but the architect states
hat he had nothing to do either with the putting it

on or taking it off.-
Such is the unsatisfactory state in which this
large and costly structure stands, from being begun
without a plan which had been maturely considered,
from injudicious alterations and changes having been.
made during its progress, and contrary, as it appears
by his own statement, to the opinion of the archi-
tect; but under whatever direction this work may
have proceeded, there can be only one opinion of
the work itself; and although your Committee es.iels'-
not clearly ascertain to whom the blame attach
es,
the system cannot be good which has produced i
suchihow
a result. It therefore now remains
it can either be left as it is, or how I.t
for, as to the
com-
pleted on the end towards the north
and similar
project of balancing it by symmetricalao,ithe other side of
range of pavilion and building
with a decorated
Downing-street in King-street,
such an addition
arch connecting those two
streets,
for public utilit
-y,nor
will probably never be required't should be
does it seem desirable that ever carried
quenstioen,

Council office, your Committee
!into effect.
mentioned in Mt. Soane's evidence
The name of Lord Viscount Goderich having
rbeeleattlinfgregtouet
requested his Lordship to inform them as to kis re-
collection of the circumstances connected with that
blinding, which is given at length in his evidvlce.
In this place it may be sufficient to observe, that with
the exception of the line so inadvertently taken, the
other defects could not have occurred, if the sugges-
tion made by Lord Goderich in one of his confe-
telynew

Another larger and much more expensive build-
ing, which is in progress for his Majesty's palace in
Sr. James's-park, is now undergoing very consider-
able alterations, not originally contemplated, for the
' purpose of rectifying a defect, which scarcely •could
have occurred, if a model of the entire edifice had
previously been made and duly examined. Mr. Nash
says, in answer to a question relating to the two de-
tached three-windowed houses at the extreme angles
of the wings, I was not at first aware that. the ef-
feet would have been so bad ; and I am sorry to say
v
that I was disappointed myself in the effect of them."
The consequence of this alteration, thus occasioned,
will increase the interior accommodation by adding
27 new apartments to the present numbers, hut it is
tkaarsdh
deems to
it unfortunate dome above
oe
estireated at no less a sum than 50,000/. With re-
.the
thraoto ift of
fs
the
visiblela afte•oe!'n the
park side, which was not intended by him, nor was
he aware that it would have been seen except as be-
longing exclusively to the garden front.
It was proposed when this great work was first
undertaken in 1825, under the title of repai-ring and
i mproving Buckingham House (6 Geo. IV. c. '77),
that the expenses, then estimated at 252,69 W.,
should be defrayed out of the land revenue of the
Crown, in the department of the Woods and Forests:
but in consequence of extraordinary charges upoN
that revenue to a very considerable amount, some of
which had not been foreseen or ascertained at the
time of passing that Act, and also from the unex-
pected rapidity with which the alterations had pro-
ceeded at the Palace, the work must soon have been
suspended for want of funds to continue it, if a sup-
ply from a source wholly unlooked fur and unex-
pected had not been advanced by orders from the
Commissioners of the Treasury in aid of this defi-
ciency. Your Committee conceive that it does not
come within their province to do more than to no-
tice this transaction, as having enabled the Office cf
Woods and Forests to meet the heavy charge by
other resources than those which were by law ap-
propriated to it. This supply amounted to 954,000/.
What has hitherto been actually paid from the land
revenue is 27,760/. in addition to that sum ; and
there is a probability that the surplus of that revenue
will in this year be capable of affording about
60,000/., and in 1829 about 100,000/. The land
revenue varies from year to year, in consequence of
tines upon renewals ; but the whole, including that
of the woods and forests, may be taken at about
200,000/. a year.

The estimated charge for completing the whole
palace is 432,9264, including the above sum of
277,767/., which has been already paid.

Upon the site of Carlton House, the several honsves
which are erecting for individuals must be conf.ortn_
able to a general design for the exterior, but the pro-
prietors are at liberty to select their own nrchitectc
or builders; and the annual rents which win accrue
to the Crown from these new houses are ealeulated
at 6,4521., the particulars of which will be found
exactly detailed in the evidence of Mr. Arbuthnot.
It was imagined by Mr. Nash, that a large sum
would at once be raised by a sale of the greater part
of these annual ground-rents to the proprietors of tht,
houses at 20 years' purchase (the freehold being stiff
retained by the Crown), but that expectation bavinie
not hitherto been realised, no present pecuniary ad-
vantage of that sort having accrued to the Ccown in
aid of this undertaking, but on the contrary, a con,i-
derable and immediate charge having been incurred
in forming the around, making a large sewer, poi-.
chasing the land-tax, and other incidental outgoings,
before any part of the annual rents has been received.
It is, however, stated in Mr. Arbuthnot's evidence,
that although the proprietors themselves may not
choose to buy up their rents, it would be in the
power of the Government to sell to any other indi.
viduals such a proportion of them as might be thought
fit to dispose of. By the Act 7 Geo. IV., e. 77,
the Crown is authorised to take fines from the lesseQ.o
for any portion of their rent, which is a deviatim
from the usual practice, with regard to other ziev,'
buildings; nor is it the practice to alienate new
buildings in fee, to which rule it appears expedient
to adhere.

The expenditure upon the alterations in F.,.
James's-park, which are in some measure con-cet-
ed with these new houses, amounts to 16,0;,3/:, in-
cluding the iron railing; but exclusive of the plant-
ing within the railing.
It is proposed to erect a fountain, estimated to
cost 8,000/., with the addition of a large annual
charge for a constant supply of water, in the centre
of the continuation of Waterloo-place, towards Lie
which as will be seen in the evidence of Mr "Ne
ash ;
which being the first instance of a founta'n surround-.
ed by columns, with a dome or covering over it, gave occasion to some questions from ycnr- Commit-
tee, which appear in the evidence of Air. Nash, toge-
ther with his answers; and they cannot but here
observe, that this fountain, if it is to be encireled by
a peristyle, and covered by a cip or dome, is not
likely in itself to be an ornamental object, and that
it would obstruct the opening, and the view of tie-
Park from Regent-street and Waterloo-place.
A spacious and hamlsome flight cf steps in the
centre of that terrace, leading into the Mall, would
form an ornamental and commodious communication
between Regent-street and the park, and 'could
afford to the public a very general accommodation,
and an appropriate termination of that fine opening.
Your Committee are informed that the central diN i-
sion of St. James's-park, newly enclosed by iron
rails, is intended to be open to the public yin the
same way with the other parts of that park.
u %18 7p2a7l'a ce ; and toward;;Your Committee find, upon inquiry, that no Sam',
tion has hitherto been given by the Commissioners
of the Treasury to the extension of the plan en-
-1411,IrnebdorionngtlhA-eitloGusdernaainsdofS7t..thim .Tune,
they cannot consider such an extension, nor any fur-
ther encroachments upon tilt, par_ k as fit
to
re-
commended.

lanheid. finsCanerwWlBo,o(:lo/., in
(oos tninner in which.
the
Cuatoni-house was laid,
addition to
Tfhoeunfdraatuidonuleonf
occasioned, by its total failure. in 1825, a charge of
the original expenditure of 255,000 t
: bu
of this blame affects Office of 'Workso part
t n
nor the
architects attached to it.
no less than 170,
000 t
This great structure was
unfortunately placed under the conduct of Mr. Lainv.
the person who happened, in the
surveyor of buildings in that de
artment,—a course
which your Committee p year 1813, to be
conceive to be exceedingly
objectionable, being of opinion that
description should be e - ' 1
and management of
the execution of
more strongly such
not informed that all works this
of
h arnec on under the direction
the office specially appointed fur
works; and they would ani-
madvert on this point if they Were
the Treasury have already put a
stop to thei practice, and have now under their con-
sideration some new regulations upon the subject.
It is also to be observed, that no estimate was laid
before the House; nor any sanction given by a vote,
either before the undertaking or during the progress,
the expense having been defrayed out of the revenue
of the Customs. This mode of proceding, although
in conformity with the practice which has hitherto
existed with respect to buildings occupied by the
Revenue Departments, appears to be at variance
with the general principles by which, the public ex-
penditure is governed, and to be open to much ob-
jection. They recommend, therefore, that in future
no' new buildings for any of these department•;
should be undertaken except under the authority o,
a grant of Parliament, upon an estimate to be laid
before the House for that purpose, as in the case of
any other subject of miscellaneous expenditure.
No department should be allowed to ord. r any
!fling beyond mere incidental repairs, without re.