Our Architectural Chapter.

OUR ARCHITECTURAL CHAPTER .

MASONIC IIALU , AT SIUTICAIIT .

IN Freemasonry , with the exception of the attempt inakins for the erection of a now hall for the Lodge La Cesaree iii Jersey , and Avhich Ave trust will be soon carried out , we have scarcely anything to note for our Architectural Chapter , though Ave are now looking forward with some interest to the report of the Board of General Purposes regarding the remodelling of the property in Great -street to

Queen , so as make it more thoroughly Masonic than it has hitherto been , and more befitting the character and position of the Craft . The report , ive presume , will be brought before Grancl Lodge in September , though Ave can scarcely hope it will be then taken into consideration . Indeed , the importance of the subject will probably suggest some delay , if not the setting aside btho Most '

y Worshipful Grand Master of a special evening for tho report to be discussed , after due time has been given to the Craft to consider it in its various details . In our number of tho 2 : 1 th May , Bro . F . W ... Breitling briefly described the hall of the Lodge Wilhelm zur au £ gehenden Sonne ( William to the rising Sun ) at Stuttgartaud

, wc : now present our readers with an engraving of the hall , froin a drawing with ivhich AVC have been obligmgly favoured by Bro . Breitling . The engraving itself explains the position ot the hall or Lodge room , at the back of the building , the lower part being devoted to tho purpose of a banqueting hall , which communicates with the gardenIn the front part of

. the building , . m the ground floor , are on one side the apartments ofthe luuistt steward , Avith kitchen , and other domestic offices ; and , on the other side , the reception and preparation rooms , the upper story being devoted to rooms for committees and conversation .

Our Architectural Chapter.

The most interesting subject to our architectural readers , apart from Masonry , is the discussion ivhich has again arisen relative to the neAV government offices , the designs for which have just been placed in the reading rooms of the House of Commons , As long since as 1850 a committee of that house was appointed to consider the condition of the Foreign Office Avhich had long been in a dilapidated conditionancl

, whether it would be advisable to remove the " War Office from Pall Mall to Downing Street , so as to bring it in more immediate proximity to the other government offices . This committee was' presided over by the first commissioner of public works , Lord Hanover , ( then Sir Benjamin Hall ) , ancl reported in favour of a new Foreign Office Avith the War

Office in immediate proximity—adding a recommendation that the designs should be thrown open to public competition . The first commissioner having obtained the sanction of the government , issued a notification inviting designs , and in order to obtain them of sufficient merit , offering premiums to the amount of £ -1 , 000 . At the same time he Avished , in

conformity with the report of the committee , to be empowered lo purchase the ground lying between the Thames on tho east , the Park on the west , Downing-strcet and the back of Richmond-terrace on the north , and Great Georgestreet and Palace-yard on the south . But the government limited the scheme to the accpiisition of the property

between Downing-strcet and Charles-street , at tho same time empowering the first commissioner to obtain designs ( inlaying out the larger area for thu establishment of public offices . Then came the beautiful exhibition of designs of 1 S 37 , and the award of prizes which gave general , thouph not—as it never could be expected to do —universal satisfac-