44 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



in putting her to death, was actuated more by a spirit of jealousy 

 than by a love of justice. It was cruel, after protecting her so 

 many years, to sign the fatal warrant at last. The charge brought 

 by Elizabeth was a grievous one, that of conspiring against her 

 life; but it would have been more generous to connive at 

 her escape into France, than to stain her hands with the 

 blood of her royal kinswoman. Here 1 presume not to defend 

 her, but I think it was the only action of her life wliich cannot 

 either be excused by the force of circumstances, or defended by 

 sober argument: and yet so many and transcendant were her 

 admirable qualities, so splended her political career, and so many 

 were tlie blessings which her reign secured to her grateful subjects, 

 that perhaps the name of no English sovereign lives cherished so 

 warmly in the best affections of our nature, as that of Queen 

 Elizabeth. Surely if .'Eneas, in addressing the obscure chieftainess 

 of an uncivilized horde, could promise her ^the guerdon of a 

 never-dying fame, how much more justly may we say of 

 Elizabeth — 



• " QuvB te tarn laita tulenint 



Sa^cula ? qui tanti talein gennerc parentes ? 

 In ticta ciiiin fluvii current, duni niontibus unibr<e 

 Lustrabiint convexa, polus dutn fidrra pascet ; 

 Semper honos, nonienquc tuuin, laadesqae manebunt." 



November 20tii. — Mr. Wichtwick's Lecture on Architectu- 

 ral Varieties. 



The paper commenced by stating that, in most elementary works 

 and small encyclopedias, the article "Architecture" comprised 

 little more than the history and particulars of the five orders, 

 touching but little on ^^ (iothic architecture" so called; less on 

 Egyptian, and being wholly silent on that of China, India, 

 Persia, Nubia, Mexico, &c. The lecturer considered this partly 

 accounted for by our not having, until lately, any works on 

 certain foreign architecture. He however proposed it as an 

 extraordinary fact that, whilst we had daily before us some splen-^ 

 did examples of pointed architecture, they had been neglected in 

 order to follow the proprieties of Palladio. No censure was 

 intended in stating this fact, it was merely meant to show that 

 any particular architectural mania was not necessarily the conse- 

 quence of contagion with any particular examples of art. 



That such vast and splended buildings as the old cathedrals 

 sliould cease to arise was accounted Tor, by the decay of Catholicism, 

 since the ministers of that faith resorted to means for raising the 

 supplies which are not adopted by their protestant successors. 



One of tiie leading causes for the almost exclusive cultivation 

 of Greek and Roman architecture during the last 200 years was, 

 that powerful but sober reflection took the ])lace of bold and 

 somewhat heedless invention; men turned from the glitter of 

 multifariousness to contemplate the substance of simplicity, and * 



