214 Notes of the Month on FEB. 



their fifty thousand pounds, expressly for the " restoration" of the 

 Cathedral, they would be swindled by any attempt to change instead 

 of restoring it ; and to have to pay for this change too, not less than 

 twenty thousand pounds. Mr. Etty, the artist, who has more taste 

 than all the combatants, has written a pamphlet to put this point in a 

 clear view, and he has completely succeeded. The champions for the 

 removal say, that the Cathedral will be much more sublime, roman- 

 tic, and so forth, by transferring it to another corner of the 

 building, where, of course, the original designer of this singularly fine 

 piece of workmanship, would have seen all the canons hanged, before 

 he would have suffered his work to have been put up. It strongly argues 

 too, against the architectural removers, that by the removal twenty 

 thousand pounds are to be set in motion too, while, by letting the screen 

 stand where it is, nobody is to be the richer. With all our deference 

 for the delicacy of the leading architects of our time, we can think 

 them no more dignified than their predecessors, and we know that 

 there was not an architect of the last century, who would not look on 

 the quietude of twenty thousand pounds with a dissatisfied eye. But 

 the fact is, that no architect living is entitled for a moment to put 

 himself in competition with the erector of the York screen, nor with 

 any, even the humblest of the builders of that edifice, or of any of our 

 cathedrals. Of all the mediocrities of England, in our day, our archi- 

 tectural mediocrity is the most undeniable. Our new churches, unless 

 where they have directly followed the Gothic model, or have servilely 

 copied some Greek temple, are actual scandals, our palaces are eye- 

 sores ; the whole science seems to be reduced to the art of laying one 

 brick upon another, and charging five per cent, upon the outlay. And 

 is it in this dry, dull, and heavy sera, that we are to presume to meddle 

 with works of the most unequivocal genius ; this day of builders, 

 whose proudest art should never have ventured beyond the fabrication 

 of a coal-cellar, or a public sewer ; this race of genuine Boeotianism, 

 when on seeing a church, palace, or street, of their workmanship, our 

 only consolation for its architectural monstrosity, is in the flimsiriess of 

 its construction, and we congratulate English taste on the certainty that 

 it will never offend the eyes of a second generation? And are the fine 

 labours of antiquity and talent to be pulled down or dragged about accord- 

 ing to the blundering of those personages ? We hope that the subscri- 

 bers will steadily and indignantly repulse this tampering with things 

 almost sacred, will disdain to be counteracted by pocketfulls of proxies, 

 or by any of the contrivances of men whose zeal is but another name 

 for the obstinacy of absurdity, and that they will not allow an honour 

 to their city, and one of the finest ornaments of England, to be defaced 

 by any Hun of an architect or Vandal of a canon. 



There has been a great deal of ill-blood lately, about the state of the 

 Peerage, which is described to be degenerating as fast as possible ; and 

 certainly the late exposures of the Pension-list are not qualified to make 

 us wonder at the vehemence of the grumbling. Some noble lords, 

 notoriously supported solely by the government five hundred a year, 

 and a multitude of them living on sinecures, pensions, and offices, 

 afford but a disheartening sketch of the proud peerage. But it is going 

 to have a powerful reinforcement. A contemporary tells us 



