If such be a true representation of the views which ought to guide the architect iu the 

 performance of his duties, it will not be difficult to determine the position in the conside- 

 ration of any contemplated work which ought to be assigned to the question — What will 

 it cost? 



Thus to preface all our inquiries, and to make the question of cost paramount to every 

 other consideration, is to lay an instant arrest on design. The architect, thus fettered, is 

 precluded from all sj'mpathy with the good and the true — the only source of the beautiful. 

 The imagination must be schooled down to the views of the utilitarian, who values every- 

 thing by a money standard; and thus images of nothing but what is cheap present them- 

 selves — ever meagre and starved in their forms. All aspirations after those forms of beau- 

 ty which art can supply, are quenched. The imagination thus enthralled, refuses her of- 

 fice, and the advancement of art becomes impossible: its very existence is altogether peril- 

 led. The aichitect, thus ti'ammelled, must be content to descend from the high platform 

 of his profession, and occupy the more humble position of the handicraftsman. The ef- 

 fect of this system, so injurious to the mind of the designer, is alike fatal to the result of 

 his labors. A building reared under such circumstances, forever afterwards betrays its 

 sordid origin in the meanness of its features, and the leanness of its forms, which, in spite 

 of all future efforts, can rarely be effaced. Nothing short of the direst urgency should 

 induce the architect to give way to the system — nothing short of physical necessity can 

 excuse it. Begun with the one object of economy alone before the mind, the meagre star- 

 ved design, in the course of being developed, seldom comes up to the expectation of its 

 proprietor; and during its progress, is not unfrequently made to undergo a varietj' of 

 transmutations, in the vain hope of rendering its ungainly aspect somewhat more attrac- 

 tive. The result in most such cases is, that the cost in the end is greater than if a proper 

 system had been at first adopted. The unhapp}' architect loses his credit, and the disap- 

 pointed proprietor loses his money without attaining his object. It were easy to il- 

 lustrate these remarks, by reference to examples around us, and these not everyday works, 

 but such as are of considerable pretension to architectural effect, occupying a prominent 

 position, and bulking largely on the public eye. 



But without referring to recent works, the parish churches of the last century may be 

 safely quoted as illustrating the miserable result of giving pre-eminence to the question of 

 cost. What huge monstrosities do we see scattered all over the country. How often do 

 we find some miserable fabric, stamped in its every feature with sordid parsimony, mar- 

 ring one of Nature's loveliest landscapes, in which she has scattered her richest stores in 

 boundless profusion. And how sadly do these contrast with the parish churches of Eng- 

 land of the fourteenth and tifteenLh centuries, or with those of the same period still exist- 

 ing in our own country, so beautiful, even though in ruins, and adding fresh charms to 

 the fairest scenes. These fine fragments of by-gone ages, have done more to revive the 

 dark superstitions of their times, than the world care to admit. But why should good 

 taste, or a true and noble architecture, be confined to the unreformed creed of the middle 

 ages? Let heritors and proprietors abandon the miserable system of starved economy, 

 and follow the more genei'ous system of by-gone times, already so auspiciously revived in 

 various quarters. 



The banking establishments of our cities, and other public institutions, have shown in 

 their recent architectural works, a fine example of wise and judicious liberality, which, it 

 in to be hoped, will not be lost sight of by other public bodies throughout the country, so 

 that the question, what will it cost? will no longer be allowed to lord it over every 

 consideration. 



