sorts are talked-they might easily, beneficially, by the directest means and in conformity to the soundest rules, reduce their expenditure, and so virtually increase their wages by THIRTY PER CENT.* And they might do this of their own mere motion by a simple act of intelligent, resolute, persistent volition, without upsetting society, without demanding an additional shilling from their employers, without asking any aid from the Legislature, without traversing one principle of the most rigid political economy, without any political action whatever. And if they would only do this, every social problem that now harasses them and gravels the statesinan and philanthropist alike would, ipso facto, be solved, or be placed in the way of speedy and certain solution. And if the Legislative and Administrative authorities respectively did their part likewise, simply in the way of facilitation and encouragement, ere a generation passed away the artisan classes would be sober, they would be educated, they would be well housed, they would be happy; and, to sum up all, they would be capitalists, and might determine the great controversy between capital and labour (which now menaces social peace and order) in their own way; or, more probably, might discover that it had melted away in the healthier conditions of a satisfied and prosperous community.

But, because they can do all these things for themselves, there is no reason why legislative and administrative aid should not be afforded them with all possible promptitude and zeal, wherever a legitimate opening for such aid can be pointed out. We have already intimated two or three of the modes in which they can be materially helped in their efforts to bring about better days. A wise and equitable regulation of the liquor trade is one of these, and this surely cannot much longer be refused to vast masses of men painfully conscious of their weakness and their dangers, and whose prayer, after all, is only that touching one, long ages ago hallowed by the most sacred of authorities, -Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' The granting of liberal facilities for providing decent and comfortable dwellings for the poor, and for the sanification of existing ones, is another mode. Such a firm and just execution of the law as will effectually protect both masters and workmen from the tyranny and violence of Trades Unions is a third. And, finally, such an education beyond mere elementary teaching as shall spread a competent acquaintance with the simplest principles of political and domestic economy, and really enable

Messrs. Chambers, in their tract on Mis-expenditure,' estimate these details at a still higher figure.

the

the artisan classes, to help themselves and to protect themselves, would amply repay, both to them and to society, all the trouble and outlay that could be spent upon it. To such matters as these the most earnest attention of Parliament and of Government ought to be directed without delay and without interruption. No mere political or party question should be suffered to divert us from this urgent work. The Ballot, Irish Education, Church Disestablishment, may be topics well worth discussing in their turn; but they do not press and they do not directly affect the well-being of the masses in comparison. For the next three or four sessions, at least, social questions must take precedence of all others. No doubt, such a programme of proceedings will render the Parliamentary arena somewhat dull to militant politicians: to unregenerate humanity fighting is naturally far more interesting and exciting than working. But the labouring classes have a right to demand that the questions which most vitally and immediately concern them shall, at length, engross the attention of those assemblies which assume to represent them, and which assuredly do rule their destiny. Nay, more: this right it lies in their power to enforce as well as to assert; for we are too apt to forget amid the strife of faction, and we may yet be rudely reminded, that into the hands of these classes a deplorable combination of party ambition, party rivalry, party recklessness, has given over the potential, if not yet the actual, command of the electoral body. At present they only insist that their affairs shall be attended to. Before long, they may insist that their schemes and crotchets shall be carried out. Much ridicule has been cast, and not without justice, upon the late pompous announcement of a 'New Social Alliance' between the aristocracy and the working classes. But this much we may take to be undeniable, that whichever political party shall first grapple, in a courageous and generous spirit, with those great topics which, beyond all others, stir the hearts and come home to the daily life of the proletariat, and shall show a determination to deal with them in the interest of the country at large, and especially of the more helpless part of the community, will reap a well-merited popularity which, if it does not confer office, will at least be power. Only the task must be undertaken in all singleness of mind, without arrière pensée, and with no party aim.

ART.

THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.-1. The New Courts of Justice. Notes in Reply to Criticisms. By George Edmund Street, R.A.

1872.

London,

2. The New Law Courts and the National Gallery. Facts relating to the late Competitions. By Edward M. Barry, R.A. London, 1872.

3. A History of the Gothic Revival in England. By C. L. Eastlake. London, 1872.

4. Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain. By George Edmund Street. London, 1865.

5. The Choice of a Dwelling. A Practical Handbook of Useful Information on all points connected with Hiring, Buying, or Building a House, &c. By Gervase Wheeler, Architect. London, 1871.

FOR

OR several years past the public mind has been prepared for an earnest endeavour to obtain a decent building for our courts of law. The attempt has been strenuously made. Time, money, abundant zeal, and superabundant counsel have been lavishly expended. Never, perhaps, in the history of art has so much general intelligence been brought to the preparation for a single work. Never has there been a more unanimous desire that the best thing possible, or even impossible, should be discovered and achieved; and yet the result has been failure and universal dissatisfaction. Our most conspicuous Gothic architects sent in designs, and their exhibition was a severe but salutary lesson to the art-loving public. The old faith in names of familiar notoriety was rudely shaken. It became evident that this notoriety had its foundation in anything rather than good work, and that a dozen architects could not only make the competition one of mere extravagance but had openly assumed the incapacity of their judges. The exhibition was melancholy and hopeless, almost without exception,—an artistic inferno and a national disgrace.

The whole affair had by general consent sunk into obliVol. 132.-No. 264.

X

vion,

vion, out of all sight or willing memory, when one of the competitors raises his head and mutters that his plan had forty marks' or more. The effect is like a ghastly resurrection. The plan in question had become offensive by its connection with the corpse-like elevations. If it did meet the requirements of the judges, so much the worse for the plan. These requirements were extremely complicated, and their practical result would have been that fidgeting cleverness which becomes a constant nuisance. Mr. Street's plan is quite clever enough, to say the least of it; and our present relief from the apprehension of another building by the designer of the South-Eastern Hotels and the Westminster Palace Arcade, should make us thankful even for the small mercy of Mr. Street's weak-minded elevations. We have only to revive our readers' recollection of the fact, that Mr. Street's design just reached a painful mediocrity, and that all the rest were positively bad.

Before leaving this question of competitions, the reference in two of the Law Courts' pamphlets to the late competition for the National Gallery should not be overlooked. For that competition ten selected architects, or architectural firms, sent designs; several of them in duplicate; all bad, and most of them egregiously absurd. The design that was said to be the best was fairly on a level with those which articled clerks prepare for their admission to the questionable benefits of a Royal Academy studentship. Perhaps it was in fact the praiseworthy effort of one of these young gentlemen. In other drawings were a few patches of more graceful work; and these, it appeared, were just those parts of the present façade that one of the competitors had cleverly incorporated in his own design. Of the rest no words can tell the melancholy tale; and we would not attempt it. Yet the author of the successful design' quite gravely assures the world of the surpassing merit of his own work, very unkindly gives the names of his competitors, and with amusing unconsciousness makes us note, with something of sympathetic pity, the vain endeavour of 'My Lords' to get themselves well rid of their successful man. Poor Mr. Wilkins was not considered very 'successful' when he built the National Gallery, and the public have waited in patient expectation that, when the Gallery had to be re-designed, our supposed advance in architectural taste and skill would be gloriously manifest. But this vain hope the competition quickly changed to anxious fear, lest the successful architect might be allowed to carry out his plan. And now we all give thanks that Mr. Wilkins's old façade remains to screen us from whatever the new architect may threaten in the rear. We cannot yet afford to exchange

exchange the National Gallery elevation for the Charing Cross Hotel.

The competitions for the Foreign Office, the National Gallery, and the Courts of Law, have caused a great expenditure of money and of time, without apparently one good practical result. As exhibitions of wild studentship, they made a great impression on the public mind, and doubt and discontent thus took the place of confidence and hope. Everything about them was delusive and absurd. The judges were ignorant (of course), or even worse, by dilettante inexperience. The competing draughtsmen were certainly shrewd speculators in this judicial incapacity and want of skill; and the wondering public were ignorant, inexperienced, and inartistic altogether. Thus we have had our times of tribulation. And now to have got well rid of all our vain expectations from this Law Courts' competition, is, perhaps, the greatest satisfaction that the present state of the business can afford. Let us, then, consider the design that has been accepted by the authorities, and of which the architectural and illustrated newspapers give us very detailed plans

and views.

The frontage towards the Strand is some five hundred feet long, which is about the length of St. Paul's, and of others of our larger cathedrals. In the design of the elevation there was, consequently, no difficulty on the score of dimensions. The rooms are not of any special importance, and there is no apparent reason why the front should not have been treated in a simple and dignified manner. The roof, however, is broken into fourteen distinct compartments, and there are, moreover, just as many angles in the line of wall. This infirmity of outline naturally gives the elevation a very feeble, dislocated look; and, unfortunately, it has no positive redeeming merit. The windows are ugly and mean, the pinnacles absurd, and the tower not worth the cost of its foundations.

This will never do. Simplicity must not be diligently lost, nor dignity and power be frittered all away. These necessary characteristics would be at once attained if the lines of roof and walling were made continuous and straight, interrupted only by the gable of the hall, which might be brought forward to the front, and by the projecting tower, which must be re-designed. The octagon staircases can be changed in form with no loss of convenience, a range of dormer windows might decorate the roof, and an arcade of shops would enliven the ground-floor frontage abutting on the Strand. The pinnacles and carved bands would be omitted with advantage in every way; and if Mr. Street is unable to design windows and tracery in the graceful manner of