Current Topics.*

As to the first , one ' s mind naturally recurs to the personal or professional losses wc have to record . At the close of this paper I propose to refer to the deaths more specifically ; and therefore at present I proceed to notice topics of immediate interest ; and first , that which assumes the greatest importance at the present moment —the Great Exposition of ISG 2 . In some concluding remarks I made towards the close of last session , I referred to the position allotted in our modern society to our profession ; and this appears

to be marked , even in reference to the Exposition of 1 S 62 . On the occasion of the first Exposition , as you may remember , the design proposed by a committee of architects for the building was set aside , and a design happily suggested by Sir Joseph Paxton ivas adopted in its stead . The services ofthe members of this Institute were , however , but slightly resorted to ; and the superintendence of the ivorking details of the building was entrusted to a member of the newly recognised branch of our profession , a civil

engineer . On the present occasion , also , the claims of British architects , to co-operate in the design of a building which ought essentially to represent the state of the art amongst us at the present day , have been ignored ; and foreigners are thus likely to form their opinions as to the merits of English architects from the production of a military engineer . I do not propose to criticise the designs of either of the Exposition buildings , notwithstanding the numerous lessons of " what to avoid " they both furnish . But , in

the name of this Institution , I think it my duty to protest against the official exclusion of architects from the councils of those who assume to represent the taste of the nation in the various branches of art . Unfortunately it ivould seem that the public in general participates in the species of disfavour which this exclusion of recognised architects from the councils of the past and future Expositions maybe considered to indicate ; and the cheers with which vulgar

unreasoning abuse of our profession is almost always received ought to inspire us with serious anxiety . I believe , from the bottom of my heart , that the accusations brought against us as a body are essentially false , —that architects generally are honourable , conscientious men , hard students , earnest thinkers , and bringing to bear upon their professional duties such an amount of varied information , practised skill , educated talent , and high-minded integrity , as ivould in any other profession ensure a far greater share of wealth and distinction than ive usually attain . Feeling very strongly as I do on this question , it is to me the more painful to observe the

existence of an opinion precisely opposed to my own , in those who might be supposed to have known us intimately ; as when such men as the present Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs did not hesitate to state in Parliament , in the debate on the British Museum , that he advocated the plan proposed by JMr . Oldfield , because it ivas not prepared by a professional architect , and that the great success of the great reading-room ivas due to the fact that in that case " the trustees were not trammelled by an architect ; " and ,

further , when in a crowded House these opinions met with considerable applause . Again , look at Mr . Laynrd ' s remarks in the debate on the Foreign Office , in which we are spoken of most disparagingly . And this being so , I am forced to ask myself whether these things can be true . They say that " there can be no smoke without fire . " and it behoves us therefore to see that whatever fire may exist to cause the smoke now obscuring our lame , it is our duty trample it out .

Again , I cannot hut regret to observe the almost unanimous recognition ofthe distinction lately established between the pursuits of engineering and of architecture ; because I am convinced that both of them would gain by being studied and practised simultaneously . In former times , and , indeed , until the establishment of the " Corps Royal des Ingeiiieurs des Pcnts et Chaussees , " in the middle of last century , no such distinction was admitted . Sir C . Wren and Mansard were both architects and engineers . Perronet

called himself " Architecte du Roi . " Robert Mylne called himself architect and engineer . Telford began bis public career by building a church . Ifc was the development of the canal system which first led to the separation of engineers and architects amongst ourselves ; and to some extent this may he explained ; for the pursuits of the architect lead his studies rather towards the condition of statical than of dynamical forces , whilst the canal and dock engineer has to deal very frequently with the latter . But in

the execution of roads , railways , and such works , there are no conditions which ought to be beyond the sphere of the architect's knowledge ; and I very strongly suspect that , if architects had heen more frequently employed on railway works , our marvellous net-work of rails would have been constructed at less cost than it actually has involved , and that ive should not have heard of so many accidents from " striking centres too soon , " or from "the rain washing the mortar out of the arches . " It is true that the construction of railways does not afford many opportunities for the exercise of the artistic faculty , the noblest one the architect is called upon to employ . It is a kind of work which requires more

of science than of art . But our profession ought , above all others ,, to present the union of art and science ; and he is a bad architect , in the true sense of the word , who is incapable of becoming " thebest workman" in any of the branches of what I may be allowed to call statical construction . I dwell upon this subject because ifc seems to me that much of the favour ivith which civil and military engineers are now regarded , and that their employment to the exclusion of architects , in the cases of the exposition buildings , may

be explained by the mistaken opinions ivhieh prevail with respect to the pursuits and the abilities of the latter . JNot to travel beyond the names I have before noticed , I may be allowed to observe that the engineering works of Mr . Hosting , upon the West London Railway may well compare with the architectural achievements of Sir William Cnbitt in the first Crystal Palace . Be this as it may ,, it behoves us at least to render ourselves capable of discharging the ordinary duties of engineers and architects . Hdraulic i-

y eng neering may require a different mental training , and a course of " study of a different character , to that required for building in the open air ; but it is absurd to suppose that the man who can build a church could not build a bridge or a viaduct , or that he should be unable to conduct great earthworks or tunnels . Before leaving the subject of the Exposition buildings , I cannot , refrain from saying thafc the design , given in the Builder , of the

Florence Exposition , strikes me as containing far more artistic merit , and as presenting a more sp . tisfiietory architectural character than the published design of the proposed building of Soulh Kensington ; no doubt because in this insfcrnce , as in the instance of the construction of the Palais de Hndustrie of Paris , educated architects were consulted . Passing over this pai fc of the subject ,, however , I am sure that all my hearers will agree with me in the expression of the deep sympathy excited by the first Italian

Exposition . These industrial gatherings have assumed , of late years , a deeper moral significance that could possibly have entered into thephilosophy of their founders ; and they have become the occasions for eliciting the expression of the most recondite forms of national thought and feeling . An Italian Exposition , held in the city of Giotto , Dante , and Michaelangelo , and the Medici , becomes , therefore , the matter for serious reflection to those who wish that in truth Italy should cease to be " a geographical expression . " And . ive , whether admirers of the Broletti and of the town-halls of the Mediaeval republics , or of the palazzi , cassine , or churches of the resorgimentomust turn an anxious gaze on the first steps of the

, noble Italian race , in the political resorgimento ivhieh is at presenttaking place in that land , so long cursed ivith what all considered " the fatal gift of beauty . " Our sympathies may be of small import to the Italians in the struggle they have still to go through before they can establish a strong nationality , such as the " advanced civilization" of the age requires ; but I am sure than an assembly of architects will unanimously join iu the expression of good will towards the Italian cause . May the Exposition of Florence

prove the harbinger of the full glory of bright days for Italy . The artistic Congress of Antwerp , too , fussy and unpractical though ifc may seem to have been , contains the germs of an organization which may , perhaps , produce for art consequences as important as those produced by our " Association for the Advancement of Science" iu its particular sphere . In these days of architectural and artistic eclecticism , it would manifestly be advantageous for the student to he able to study with his own eyesevery local

manifes-, tation of msthetieal feeling ; for the subtle influences of climate ,, and political and municipal organization , can never be appreciated unless we have the means of watching their daily operation ; and feiv learned treatises on the Art-History of JN " ations enable us to . appreciate the nature and extent ) of the action and re-action of building , or of jilastic materials , on the visible expression of art .. The amount of good to "be effected by these gatherings must depend on the manner in which they are conducted . As an isolated

experiment , the Antwerp Congress was very successful , It were a marvellous pity that it should remain an isolated experiment . Whilst thus alluding to foreign operations , it may he as well to continue our attempts to derive lessons from them , before turningto more decidedly local considerations ; and I would therefore strive to point the moral of some other tales to be read in the proceedings of our more immediate neighbours . Thus , all travellers who return from Paris are , upon a superficial view of what is taking place

there , and it must he added in almost every important town of France , disposed to find fault with the comparatively slow rate at which improvements are effected in London . Within ten years Paris has been , in fact , remodelled throughout ; broad streets , open squares , and fine houses , have replaced the ancient , narrow , tortuous assemblages of dens of filth and impurity . It is to be feared , however , that the real sanitary improvement of Paris has gained little by these changes ; and , indeed , so long as the water-supply and the sewerage of that town are conducted on the present sys tems , little effect can be produced on that infaliahle test of the value of the sanitary , arrangements ofthe town—ike average death-