1825.] 
; Prusstan MEDAL. 
I ALSO am in possession of a medal, 
yery similar to that described in 
your, number (p. 327, for last month). 
On comparing my medal with Enort’s 
description, -I find it to agree in every 
respect, save that, in the various in- 
scriptions, mine run thus :—Frrpr- 
nicus Borussornum Rex. Underneath 
the figure of his majesty, is the follow- 
‘ing—Lissa. Dec. 5. Bresrau ReE- 
cepta. Dec. 20, 1757.—On the re- 
verse is inscribed : Quo. Niuin. Masus. 
Under the battle is Roszacu. Nov. 5, 
1757. In this medal the king’s sword 
is placed in his left-hand. D. 
——=Ti 5a 
Onthe Onic1n ofthe BrickLayer’s Hop. 
SHALL be glad to know, when that 
4 implement used by labourers for 
earrying bricks up buildings was first 
brought into use. I have been informed 
they were first introduced at the re- 
building of the City of London, after 
the great firein 1666 ; and, upon look- 
ing at the back-ground of the sculp- 
tured representation of the same, upon 
the front of the pedestal of the Monu- 
ment, there is the figure of a labourer 
ascending the top of a building with a 
hod. I was at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
a few years ago, and was much sur- 
prised at seeing women performing the 
coarse office of bricklayers’ labourers 
there,—carrying mortars, and bricks 
upon a flat square board, upon their 
heads, to the top of the highest build- 
ings: upon my remonstrating to a re- 
spectable magistrate of the place upon 
so improper employment for females, 
he fully coincided with me in opinion, 
but said it had always been the custom. 
E.S. 
In France, to this day, they have a still 
more clumsy way of getting bricks and 
stones up to the higher parts of their 
buildings. A number of men stand one 
above the other on the steps of a ladder ; 
and the lowermost lifts them up above his 
head to the one above him, who stoops 
down to receive them—then lifts them up 
in the same manner to the next, who re- 
peats the same process ; and so on, till at 
length the ponderous materials get to the 
height required—perhaps the chimney-top. 
To an unaccustomed eye, the process 
seems as dangerous as it is clumsy ; for, 
should any one of the series of lifters (the 
top one, for example) happen to lose his 
balance (and it seems extraordinary that 
it should not sometimes happen), down 
would come lifter and lift upon the heads 
of alf HelowW; and crush them, one would 
think, to atoms.—Epit, 
Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism. 
427 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONT EM 
PORARY CRITICISM. No. xurx. 
np duty of shewing what the philo- 
sophy, religious and political, .of 
these Quarterly Reviewers is, has led us 
into such length on the previous article, 
that we must hasten cursorily through 
some others, which are in reality much 
more to our taste. 5 
Art. I1.—1. Monumenti della Tos= , 
cana, 1 vol. folio.—2. Le Fabbriche pit 
cospicue di Venezia, misurate, ulustrate 
ed intagliate dai Membri della Veneta 
Reale Accademia di Belle Arti. Venezia, 
1815, 2 vols., large folio.—The subject 
of architecture is of no small impor- 
tance at this time. When such immense 
sums are expending in widening streets, 
building palaces, and improving the 
splendour of our metropolis, something, 
assuredly, ought to be done, towards 
improving the taste of our architects. 
The instances are but too many in 
which it has shewn itself palpably and 
disgracefully defective. The Reviewer, 
it will be seen, has gone, at least, far 
enough back for the, titles of two Ita- 
lian publications, that might give him 
a pretence for the display of his architee- 
tural erudition; though perhaps, after all, 
they have not given exactly the direction 
most adapted to our present neces- 
sities. Without pretending to much 
technical knowledge on this subject, or 
the advantage of much foreign travel, 
if we had space at our command, and 
were disposed to follow the example 
before us, of writing a disquisition 
upon the subject, instead of reviewing 
the article, we suspect that, by a walk 
through the new streets (which our pen, 
in all probability, will one day or other 
take,) we could write quite as long an 
Essay as this of the Quarterly Re- 
view (twenty-six pages) on the Palla- 
dian Architecture of Italy—and a little 
more to our present purpose. In this 
disquisition, as usual, the very names 
of the publications which stand as pre- 
tended texts, are soon forgotten, and 
not a word concerning them occurs, till 
we get into the last page, A great part 
of the article is taken up with criticisms 
upon Roman edifices; on the justice of 
which, as we have not seen the build- 
ings, we do not pretend to decide, Asa 
history, however, or a sketch, rather, 
of the progress and decline of what, is 
called Palladian Architecture, this Essay 
will be acceptable ; and we might quote, 
if we had room, pretty generally ‘with 
approbation, the principles of architec- 
tural taste, occasionally laid down or 
312 referred 
