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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[October, 



means of steam eoinmunicatioti give cheap and commodious access to 

 our shores. We urge, therefore, that immediate steps be taken for 

 the formation of a National Exhibition of tlie Arts, Manufactures and 

 Productions of this country, its colonies and possessions, to be held in 

 the metropolis at stated periods. That London must be the seat uf 

 the exhibition is evident, being the greatest commercial port, a great 

 ni.inufacturing city, having the best accommodation, and the most con- 

 venient Liccess for the country at large, and visiters by steam boat from 

 every part of the continent, advantages which no other city unites, be- 

 sides which it has its natural claims as the centre of the national 

 transactions. 



The exhibition would include the raw and manufactured produce of 

 every part of the euipire, and would equally interest the landed pro- 

 prietor and the manufacturer in England and tl.e most distant co- 

 lonies. 



It would call on the landowner for specimens of grain, rice, straw 

 for plaiting; cotton, tobacco, opium, drugs, hemp, flax. New Zealand 

 flax, coir, hops, indigo, madder, wood, vegetable dyes, cocoa nut and 

 other fibres, sugar, tea, cocoa, preserved and other fruits, ginger, cin- 

 namon, spices, rapeseed, oils, seeds, cabinet and other timbers, galls, 

 staves, wool, cashmere and vicugna wool, goats' hair, silk, tallow, hides, 

 furs, horns, the productions of England, Canada, the East and West 

 Indies, Ceylon, and Australia. No doubt in such an exhibition notice 

 would be obtained for many productions of our distant possessions now 

 little known or neglected. 



The miner would exhibit gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, zinc, 

 antimony, bismuth, manganese, arsenic, diamonds, precious stones, 

 marble, granite, lime, slate, building stone, coal, salt, sand for glass, 

 porcelain clay, and the many other mineral objects with which our 

 empire abounds. 



The fishing interests would be able to send whalebone, tusks, oil, 

 seal and other skins, spermaceti, pearls, mother of pearl, tortoiseshell, 

 salt and pickled fish. 



The manufacturing interests would be represented by all the varied 

 productions of London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield, 

 Leeds, and other great producing towns, our metals, watches, mathe- 

 matical instruments, machinery, cudery, hardware, plate, jewellery, 

 fire arms, shipping, glass, pottery, colours, dyes, cottons, silks, woollens, 

 linens, leather, saddlery, hats, paper, books, stationery, clothing, milli- 

 nery, beer, cider, wine, soap, candles, and the many varieties of these 

 and minor productions. 



On all these grounds a title is made out for extensive support, but 

 local interests are also concerned. The influx of strangers to the me- 

 tropolis would be great, (in Paris a bed was scarcely to be had at the 

 time of the Exposition,) and the traffic of coach, railway, and steam- 

 boat proprietors considerable. 



We have said nothing yet about the government, but its co-opera- 

 tion, in a general point of view, could not be denied, while it is deeply 

 interested as a matter of revenue, both general and local. 



The objects to be exhibited would require a large locale, either one 

 of the great bazaars or some temporary erection on a waste space of 

 ground, and a considerable sum of money should be devoted in medals 

 and prizes to exhibitors worthy of praise. 



Now with regard to the means by which this can be carried out. 

 We are well aware that any immediate dependence on the govern- 

 ment, to carry out such an object by itself, would be vain, and that it 

 requires a great deal of preparation and ;i great deal of agitation be- 

 fore the requisite impression can be produced ; and it will require, 

 also, consideration whether such an object should be carried out by 

 government or by means of a society. It will also be necessary to de- 

 termine as to the means of carrying it out, by subscription, or by a 

 charge for admission. If possible, however, such an exhibition should 

 be gratuitous, certainly for a considerable portion of time, for the 

 object is to influence even the lowest mechanic, as in him resides the 

 national energy as much as in the greatest capitalist. The general 

 operation of such an institution must not be cramped by any short- 

 sighted and sordid measure. 



We therefoie recommend that a central committee of manufacturers 

 and public men be formed in London, with branch local committees, 

 for the purpose of promoting the formation of a National Exhibition 

 of Arts, Manufactures and Productions. 



*^* On this subject we shall be happy to receive any communica- 

 tions, addressed to the Office of the Civil Engineer and Architect's 

 Journal, 10, Fludyer Street, Westminster. 



LiTUOGKAPUY. — The Madrid papers announce that a discovery has been 

 made in Catalonia, on land belonging to the State, of a rich quarry of lithographic stones, 

 equal if not 8ui)erior in quaUty to those of Saxony. The government has granted the 

 working of the quarry to a Madrid merchant. | 



TO CANDIDUS. 



In the last extract from your " Notebook" you have favoured me by 

 making some remarks on the "Observations" which have also ap- 

 peared in this Journ;il. Before attempting to reply to the remarks, 

 permit me to state to our readers that the abrupt discontinuance of 

 the Observations was not caused by a want of s\ibject, nor yet by a 

 declining interest in the advancement of the art, but by circumstances 

 over which J have mi control. You seem, then, to think that I am so 

 short sighted as not to perceive that a missile " flung one way may 

 recoil and strike what it was not aimed at." If a missile be aimed at 

 one object and Candidus interposes his bat and directs it so that it 

 should' strike something else, who is to be answerable for that ? It 

 may be very well in the game of cricket, but it would not be candid 

 in criticism. 



However C indidus, in Fasciculus 58 of his Note-book, may disap- 

 prove of fault being found with the window pediments of the Vandals, 

 yet in Fasciculus 57 you would appear to agree with me, for coupled 

 with a very decided approval of a row of houses in Maddox Street, 

 " as the best specimen of street architecture any where in town," the 

 absence of the "cocked hats" is mentioned, without any suggestion of 

 the improvement this addition would eft'ect, we may, therefore, con- 

 clude, as you say in your motto, 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 

 that the wind does not always " hlom" in the same quarter, and that 

 the mariner who suft'ered bis s.ails to be filled by it might sometimes 

 be driven out of his course unless he steered by compass. 



You have adopted a line of argument as fallacious as it is plausible : 

 you hold that if the name of "cocked hat" be fairly applied as a term 

 of contempt to window pediments, it may justly also be applicable to 

 the pediments of porticos, &c. I do not wish to quarrel about a name, 

 it is the misapplication of the thing which is to be condemned; for 

 instance a cocked bat may be very suitable for the head of a soldier, 

 but if placed on the exuberance "of beauty which graces the dorsce! 

 elevation of a Hottentot Venus, are you prepared to say " that it does 

 not exactly follow that such after application is a misapplication ut- 

 terly indefensible," or that there was no absurdity in the naked savage 

 of Terra del Fuego, who found a pair of pantaloons which he threw 

 over his shoulders and tied the legs under his chin ? No, Candidus ! 

 there is a rule in Greek Architecture (and of course in its derivatives), 

 of more general application than the one you urge, namely, that there 

 in a place/or every thing, and every thing for its place, Does a love of 

 variety so far blind you as to make you tolerate the same thing re- 

 peated, in small in order that you may have variety in size and scite, 

 if not in figure ? Advocate first the same perfection to which the 

 ancients att.iined, and when we are masters of that, we shall then be 

 able to carry out the same principles in producing variety— but not 

 until then. 



I have to express my obligation for your kindness in warning me to 

 beware of the Goths, but I beg to assure you that I neither fear Goths 

 nor Vandals; as to the architecture of the latter (uf which a speci- 

 men may be seen in the plate of the Gravesend Pier, in the last num- 

 ber of this Journal,) it is so debased, that even thuse who live by it 

 are ashamed to come forward openly and defend it. As for the true 

 Gothic I love it as much as any one who does not esteem it to the ex- 

 clusion of the Greek. 



In stating in your remarks that "if the principle" (the application 

 of pediments to' windows,) "be an erroneous one in itself, it must be 

 as much so in one style as the other." Candidus is not himself. You 

 seem to forget altogether that the rules which are applicable to the 

 horizontal are not suitable to the perpendicular style ; in the former 

 the parts are, or ought to be, comparatively few, and their application 

 subject to other laws than those which direct the same or equivalent 

 members in the latter, and in it things which are monstrous, absurd, 

 and insignificmt in themselves, yet when arranged and placed in posi- 

 tion, by the master minds by whom the Gothic was invented and 

 brought to perfection, seem as if they were selected by good taste 

 itself to set off the composition to advantage. I fearlessly deny that 

 there exists any similarity, any analogy between the two classes, or 

 anything in common except the end, namely beauty, which in both can 

 be fully attained by pursuing far diflerent roads and observing very 

 different laws. As far, therefore, as 1 am concerned there is no ground 

 for your apprehension — 



Of Goth meeting Greek in the tug of war. 

 You have contended manfully and powerfully against some of the 

 errors over which, I believe we both desire to see the art rise superior, 



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