273 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



fSEPTEUBEB, 



THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



That so important an pdifioe and national work as the " Houses" 

 should be a frequent sul>jeot of discussion, both in parHamentary 

 debate and out-of-door criticism, is onlynatural, especially as opin- 

 ion is divided, some speaking in terms of unijualified admiration, 

 while otliers see much cause for dissatisfaction, and express it accord- 

 intfly; and some of the rudest critics of all whom Mr. Harry and his 

 buihling' have had to encounter, are amongj tlie mendiers of the 

 " House" itself — to wit, Messrs. Urquhart, Osborne, and Hume, and 

 Sir D. Norreys, whose unfavourable opinions gain formidableness 

 because they go forth to every nook in the kingdom wliere a news- 

 paper finds its way. Last month we spoke of an articde on the 

 " Houses of Parliament," which had just before appeared in the 

 " Westminster Review" — and which, by-the-by, is now known to 

 proceed from the pen of Earl Lovelace; and in the interval another 

 has appeared in the '' Meclianic'.i Magazine" of similar tendency. 

 A\^hether this latter will call forth any remonstrance against it 

 from the " Builder" remains to be seen ; for at tlie present time 

 of our writing, opportunity for reply to it has not arrived. The 

 " Magazine" takes up the " Bailder" pretty sharply upon two 

 points. The first of them is the attempt on the part of tlie last- 

 mentioned publicati(ui to set aside Lord Lovelace's objections to 

 the position of the Victoria Tower at a corner, and the most remote 

 corner, of the building, by remarking that such position for it 

 was dictated by the plan adopted by Mr. Barry ; whereupon the 

 " Magazine" is somewhat sarcastic, and to say the truth, Mr. Barry 

 lias no cause to feel particularly grateful towards a defender M-ho 

 exculpates him, by removing the fault from him and throwing it 

 upon — his design : as if defects of arrangement were to be attri- 

 buted to the plan itself, and not to the architect. If the internal 

 arrangement which first presented itself to the architect occasioned 

 what is an incongruity in the exterior, the very natural question 

 is : Why did he not, instead of adopting it, deviate from it so as to 

 bring in the Royal entrance porch in some less o1)jectionable 

 situation ? — and objectionable it seems to be, for even his champion, 

 as the " Mechanic's Magazine" calls the '■^Builder" does not pre- 

 tend to say that it is not so, but merely that it is to be excused 

 by being attributed to — the plan ! 



The second point upon which the ^^ Mechanic's 3Iagazine" is 

 rather strong and severe with the " Builder" is the unguarded 

 . iissertion that, although it is so now, it does not follow that the 

 Victoria Tower will always be at the extreme corner of the edifice. 

 The actual possibility of extending the buildings and cariying them 

 on farther southward, by pulling down the houses on the east side 

 of Abingdon-street as far as might be required, is not to be disputed. 

 The probability is a very different matter, — more than can now be 

 foreseen, and is, besides, what Mr. Barry himself neither does nor 

 ever has contemplated ; tlie Victoria Tower being the conclusion 

 ^nd finis of his plan, southwards. As the ^^ Mechanic's Magazine" 

 remarks, the south-west is now finished, at least in its lower part, 

 so as to render it impossible to prolong the building, and thereby 

 remove that Tower from its position as an extreme point in it. 

 Done it could be, but only by undoing what is equallj' beautiful 

 and costly — namely, the south side of tlie Royal porch, which would 

 have to be blocked-up and built up against. 



The Royal entrance is now fixed beyond the possibility of change 

 for it. Yet, it is not even now too late to re-consider some other 

 points in the design. For instance, although tlie position of that 

 important enti-ance may be justified by necessities of internal 

 arrangement, and although it is very properly made a striking 

 feature in the design, the necessity for erecting over it a tower of 

 ^■ery unusual magnitude, and thereby proclaiming afar oif the 

 " eccentricity," as the " Mechanic's Magazine" terms it, of that 

 pordi, is not at all apparent ; more especially, as that lofty super- 

 structure will be more for sight than for any real ser\'ice. We 

 incline, therefore, to the opinion of the " Athenreum," that it would 

 he more adviseable now to abandon the idea of that ambitious 

 Tower, and terminate the Porch a little above its present heiglit. 

 Either some curtailment, we fancy, of Mr. Barry's plans must take 

 place, or the ultimate completion of them must not be looked for 

 by the jiresent generation. 



Could the Tower in question have been introduced in the centre 

 of the general plan, it would have given not only jiyraniidal group- 

 ing to the whole jiile, but liarmonious contrast in its lines to the 

 composition. Marked verticality of lines in such an imposing 

 feature, so placed, would have been opposed to horizontality of lines 

 in the principal front. The lofty upright mass and the liorizontally- 

 extended facade would liave balanced each other, and mutually set 

 each other off. Other towers there now will be, rising up behind 

 the river-front ; but how far they will agi-ee with it, and with the 



larger tower also, is doubtful. If we mistake not, they are intended 

 to be tapering and spiry in outline — consequently of quite a different 

 character from the cimipact solidity which marks the Victoria one; 

 tlierefore somewhat at variance with tlie character of the front 

 also. At least, there is reason for appreliending that the arrange- 

 ment of the several towers will appear very irregular, if not con- 

 fused, and occasion an unpleasant discord with the studied 

 regularity and uniformity of the principal front — principal at least 

 in extent, though both its situation and its aspect render it in 

 some degree a merely secondary one. If there must be a tower 

 that shall, by its superior bulk, greatly predominate over all the 

 others, it surely ought to show itself in some central situation, — 

 central as regards one of the fronts, if not central as regards the 

 entire plan ; otherwise, it will appear to have been left to chance 

 to determine and " dictate" tlie respective situations of those 

 features, instead of their being arranged with some regard to that 

 symmetry which is observed in the main, as far as it was possible 

 to do, and which at present stamps the whole of the east side of the 

 edifice. 



It will perhaps be said that the position of the A'^ictoria Tower 

 was known from the very first : it has been shown again and again 

 in the various engravings and cuts innumerable, copied or made up 

 from the view of the future building given by the architect himself ; 

 its grandeur has been admired, without exception being taken at its 

 situation. Yet, though no objection has been made all along, now 

 conies Earl Lovelace with a very strong protest against that Tower. 

 Wherefore was his Lordship so tardy with his remonstrances .'' or 

 how happens it that no one else could perceive, or perceiving, cared 

 to object to what is now alleged to be a most serious defect in the 

 general design ? The position of the Tower could hardly have 

 been overlooked by, or indeed have failed to strike, the most care- 

 less observer who glanced at any of the published views. Very 

 true; but merely seeing with the eyes, is quite a different matter 

 from seeing with artistic vision. It is not every one who can see, 

 in the latter sense of the word, what is actually before their eyes. 

 Many, again, don't care to see, ei'en if they can do so. Others, 

 though they may be somewhat dim-sighted, have very convenient 

 spectacles of criticism through which they gaze, and perceive either 

 only all beauty or all deformity — either transcendant excellence, 

 or ridiculous monstrosity. 



The many, who have no opinion of their own, are overawed by 

 this kind of dictatorial, one-sided stuff which calls itself criticism, 

 and is presented to them in the imposing form of type and printed 

 paper. While those who are capable of judging for themselves either 

 do not care to raise a dissentient voice amidst the general hubbub of 

 applause, or condemnation, as the case may be ; or else have not 

 the opportunity of doing so. With respect to the '■ Houses," both 

 the " Westminster Review" and the " Mechanic's Magazine" have 

 ventured to dissent from the acclamations of praise bestowed 

 upon them in other quarters. It must be allowed that both those 

 articles dwell almost exclusively upon defects, or what their writers 

 consider such : yet surely there is nothing jiarticularly strange in 

 that, the object of both being to open people's eyes to many cir- 

 cumstances that have all along been kept out of sight. If to point 

 out only faults and objections be invidious, by the same rule, to 

 pass them entirely over, and point out only merits and beauties 

 — would tliat all of them were \rhere they could be seen ! — may be 

 called sycophantic : so that between the two we may arrive at a 

 tolerably correct and sober judgment. 



BOROUGH OF LIVERPOOL. 



Report to the Health Committee of the Borough of Liverpool, on 

 the Sewerage and other works under the Sanitarg Act, by the Borough 

 Engineer, (James Newlands.) 



The facts detailed in the Report of the engineer of the Liverpool 

 corporation afford a strong commentary on the claims of the mili- 

 tary engineers. We have heard a great deal about the irresponsi- 

 bility of the Associated Surveyors, and the superior responsibility 

 and guarantee of the military engineers ; and Mr. Chadwick rests 

 the defence of his job on this plea. We have always held the 

 contrary view, from our experience of the two classes, and this 

 Liverpool affair comes in confirmation. The fact is, the military 

 engineers are virtually irresponsible — they cannot be made to per- 

 form their woi-k properly or punctually; while the civil engineer, 

 at Liverpool for instance, is responsible in his professional charac- 

 ter and capacity, and liable to be dismissed by his employer if he 



