412 THE OPENING OF 



fcerested ; formed on a scale which permits the exhibition of 

 monuments of art in unbroken symmetry, and of the produc- 

 tions of nature in unthwarted growth, formed under the 

 auspices of science which can hardly err, and of wealth which 

 can hardly be exhausted ; and placed in the close neighbour- 

 hood of a metropolis overflowing with a population weary of 

 labour, jet thirsting for knowledge, where contemplation may 

 be consistent with rest, and instruction with enjoyment. It 

 is impossible, I repeat, to estimate the influence of such an 

 institution on the minds of the working-classes. How many 

 hours once wasted may now be profitably dedicated to pur- 

 suits in which interest was first awakened by some accidental 

 display in the Norwood palace ; how many constitutions, al- 

 most broken, may be restored by the healthy temptation into 

 the country air, how many intellects, once dormant, may be 

 roused into activity within the crystal walls, and how these 

 noble results may go on multiplying and increasing and bear- 

 ing fruit seventy times sevenfold, as the nation pursues its 

 career, are questions as full of hope as incapable of calcula- 

 tion. But with all these grounds for hope there are others 

 for despondency, giving rise to a group of melancholy thoughts, 

 of which I can neither repress the importunity nor forbear the 

 expression. 



For three hundred years, the art of architecture has been the 

 subject of the most curious investigation ; its principles have 

 been discussed with all earnestness and acuteness ; its models 

 in all countries and of all ages have been examined with scru- 

 pulous care, and imitated with unsparing expenditure. And 

 of all this refinement of enquiry, this lofty search after the 

 ideal, this subtlety of investigation and sumptuousness of 

 practice, the great result, the admirable and long-expected 

 conclusion is, that in the centre of the 19th century, we sup- 

 pose ourselves to have invented a new style of architecture, 

 when we have magnified a conservatory ! 



In Mr. Laing's speech, at the opening of the palace, he de- 

 clares that "an entirely novel order of architecture, producing, 

 by means of unrivalled mechanical ingenuity, the most mar- 

 vellous and beautiful effects, sprang into existence to provide 



