Professor Donaldson On The Position Of Architecture.

poriums of trade ; and , however extended m all directions , have retained the original narrow high street , and thc ways and alleys opening thereunto ; so as to maintain and paralyse additions in the like stinted dimensions . They thus still present cramped tortuous lines of communication , without one grand avenue fron north to south , or from east to west , to open up thc way for the

teeming tides of living beings who swarm tho streets , hustling and impeding each other ; or for tho carriages , waggons , carts , and animals huddled into one mass of dead lock . If such contributions were once freely accorded in a certain proportion to any municipality , who would undertake the task and provide tlie main funds , we should soon find tbe spirit of improvement arise

, petty local jealousies put to flight , higher aims entertained , and hopelessness of improvement superseded by energetic efforts to ameliorate and correct , and to accomplish grand and useful projects . Oh ! for a ten years of the liberal aud tasteful spirit for improvement which now pervades the whole of Prance , and England would accomplish great things .

There is also required some immediate interference by Pai-liament for the purpose of securing to the labouring classes more fitting dwellings than those swept away to make room for the metropolitan railways . There is wanting a greater consciousness of parental care in the authorities , whether tlie Parliament or tho Government , to grapple with this difficult question . It is hedged iu

with difficulties ; it is no one ' s special business ; ib carries with it no profit , aud would have only the thankless reward which usually attends philanthropy . But it is a duty ; the health , the happiness or misery of tens of thousands is involved in it ; aud it is a crime that , as a principle of action no longer to be deferred , the proper housing of the ¦ svorking classes lies in abeyance , and Parliament is heedless of the sufferings of the poor , and of their duty to undertake the remedy . Mr . Hansard informs me that the Artificial Stone

Committee , appointed in Mai-ch last , have held eight meetings aud investigated several processes , and tested by crushing at different dates after their manufacture each series of samples . These proofs necessarily take considerable time at each meeting , and extend over many weeks ; this has prevented tho committee from being ready with their report at this the commencement of the

session . They think it likewise advisable , before' arriving at any conclusion , to submit several of the samples to the exposure of the weather during the winter season , and to note the effect , if any , of frost after wet , or sudden change of temperature upon them . During their investigation thc committee have taken the opportunity to test the strength of other materialsviz .: —bricks

, , cements , slate , stones , marble , and woods , the comparative results of which they hope , when finished , will prove interesting to the Institute . Some startling questions present themselves on this topic : —How is it that all at once wc find out that none of our natural stones in common use are fit for construction , but liable to rapid decay ? How is it that it should bo assumed to be more

economical to go through the process of manufacture , aud to transport the object to the work at a less cost than tho natural stone itself F Why is it that the best beds of Bath , tho most enduring of Portland , such as Sir Christopher Wren used at St . Paul's , cannot be extracted from the quarry and conveyed to London at less expense than tho artificial product ? Are we prepared

to put up with the dingy , opaque , and unartistic effect of the artificial stone , when the varied tints and the transparent tones give so great a charm to the natural material in buildings ? Are we sure of their permanence ? You are aware , gentlemen , that a considerable body of admirers of the late Mr . A . Welby Pugin , anxious to mark their respect for his memory , and for the eminent services he had rendered in the revival and just appreciation of Mediaeval art , entered into a subscription and raised a sum amounting to about £ 1000 . After much

deliberation and the due consideration of a variety of proposals , as to the best manner of carrying out this intention , it has been at length decided to realise a wish , expressed many years ago by Mr . Pugin , to found an endowment out of the annual dividends or proceeds arising from this principal sum , aud to apply them j'early to assist a well-qualified student to travel for not less

than eight weeks in the United Kingdom of England and Ireland , for the purpose of studying Mediasval architecture in Great Britain , whether in ancient or modern buildings ;—no person who has once held the studentship being eligible for re-election . In the first year the election is proposed to bo made by four certain members of the committee of subscribers and five Fellows of the

Institute . In subsequent years it will be by a committee of nine Fellows of tho Institute to bo named by the council . A declaration of trust is proposed to be made , placing tho control of tho said fund under certain regulations in the council of the Institute for ever . A draft declaration of trust has been prepared by the committee

of subscribers and submitted to the council , and will soon be brought before tho members for their consideration and adoption . In conclusion , gentlemen , I would observe , that art is a magic power . It is beyond the ken of human cunning . It is an instinct—an innate principle of fervid imagination ; bo its workings slow , laborious , like those of a

Rousseau or a Byron , or glowing and ready like those of a Michael Angelo or a Yanbrugh , still it is the same divine gift : with some ib is on the very surface , with others deeper seated , and only to be realised by immense toil . However powerful poetry , music , painting , or sculpture may be , as arresting the attention , fascinating one ' s faculties of thought or reasonspeaking with a thrill to

, every emotion , releasing , teaching , ennobling ; yet architecture , by other means and by instruments the most rude , is at onco more necessary to man , and still more absorbs his feelings and his admiration . Out of the crudest materials and mis-shapen masses she creates pile upon pile—gives them a grace not their o . wn—combines them with a skill at which the most scientific are lost in wonder .

Her monuments , under the accumulations of centuries or overgrown with creepers and lichens , employ the learned to explore their origin and destination . In them they discover unthought of secrets of past times—graces in their proportions , beauty in their ornaments , and hidden art in their paintings . They may reveal a nation long since forgotten or before Imoion only in name .

Architecture enriches the desert , as at Palmyra , with vistas of continuous colonnades and splendid palaces , and offers a halting-place of safety to the weary traveller , security to the wealth of commerce . On the bare rock she raises piles of vast magnificence and fanes of matchless beauty , in whose very fractured stones successive races seek for a hidden law of beauty , an inspiration to enable them to

revive the truest aim of art—nature ' s most exquisite transcript . Who is there that wanders among the stately ruins of the Athenian Acropolis or the sublime memorials of the Roman Forum , and does not envy the glory of those past ages of classic art ? Who can contemplate those traditions aud mysterious sublimities of the creation of the middle agesand does not feel his heart throb

, with powerful emotion ? Who does not dwell with , delight upon the works of that race of merchant princes who , upon the shifting sands of the watercovered lagunes , could rear up those stately piles which bear the names of the Grimani , Balbi , Yendramini , Foscari , and bid wood , stone , brick , and marble speak with stirring effect to those who have eyes to see and

taste to appreciate : men who with fierce republican pride might have challenged cardinals , princes , popes , and kings and emperors to produce nobler realities out of fiction ? The architect it is , who , with his pencil and compass , with a mind full of deep things , under God ' s providence and with his brave heart , creates all this and toils on unheeded , often misunderstood , frequently