1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



261 



river range and the range noxt the Abbey, and is in its purposes the 

 most important part of the structure. Reckoning from the north, this 

 middle rango contains tlie following— residences of Librarian and Clerk 

 of the House (these apartments are visible from New Palace Yard), 

 House of Commons, Commons Lnbbv and Corridor, Central Hall, Peers 

 Corridor, Peers' Lobbv, House of Lords, Victoria Gallery. Of these 

 the House of Lords is 'by far the most advanced, the roof is on, the 

 masonry wholly finished, and the painters at work at the interior de- 

 corations. A stranger would bi- struck probably at the small size of 

 the two houses compared with the wliole building. The House of 

 Lords is but 93 feet long, and (he House of Commons 83 feet. The 

 interior decorations of both will be very splendid, gilding and colour 

 being freely employed, especiixllv in the former. In the House of 

 Lords there will be statues also, but the fittings for accommodation 

 for the business of the houses will preclude paintings from forming a 

 part of their decorations. 



r/JeZ/oKseo/CommoKS is comparatively little advanced, the walls 

 are up as high as the top of the windows. 



The ricloria Gallery is up to the level of the Lords, though the 

 masonry is not nearly completed. Tliis Gallery will be 130 feet long, 

 and wil'l be most gorgeously decorated with statues and paintings. 



The Central Hall forms the interior of the Central Tvwer, the form 

 of both being octagonal. The support is from eight clustered pillars 

 in the angles of the octagon, which in the interior meet and form the 

 pointed roof of the Hall. This structure is raised to the level of the 

 House of Lords, but the masonry is in a very incomplete state. 



SI. Slephen's Hall is behind the Central H ill : and is raised on the 

 old groining which formed part of the original St. Stephen's Chapel. 

 This relic has been carefully preserved ; it consists of alow fan groined 

 roof, supported within by clustered pillars. On the exterior, new but- 

 tresses of massive proportions have been built. The solidity and 

 depth of these buttresses form a most gratifying contrast to the rest 

 of the new building. They accord completely with the ecclesiastical 

 character of this portion, and afford a convincing proof of the archi- 

 tect's appreciation of the spirit of pointed architecture. 



Before concluding this paper, we wish to say a few word?, respect- 

 ing the general character of the architecture throughout. It has been 

 brought, as a serious objection to the building, that, notwithstanding 

 its accuracy of detail, it wants the boldness, the play of light and 

 shadow, the vast buttresses, the long drawn aisles, the dim religious 

 light, of olden buildings. We could say much in reply, but our notice 

 has already outran its proper limits : the substance of our answer is 

 this, that the massive is not the characteristic of civil mediaeval 

 architecture. The plain deep buttresses of Westminster Abbey have 

 a stern majestic simplicity in a cathedral ; in a legislative palace they 

 would be naked colossal deformities. Did not the old architects 

 understand the spirit and very poetry of their own architecture as 

 well as we? Ami they uniformly confined the display of strong con- 

 trasts of light and shadow to ecclesiastical structures. Look at those 

 most perfect specimens of civil raedifeval architecture, the Hotels de 

 Ville of Belgium and the ducal palaces of Normandy and Picardy. 

 In them the facades of the building are made up of elaborate panel- 

 ing, foliations and parapet work. The buttresses, where they exist, 

 are uniformly small. The Hotel de Ville of Brussels, already referred 

 to, is a rectangular building, supported on an open colonnade, the piers 

 of which are continued upward in slender lines between the windows; 

 at the four corners of the building are four lofty turrets, and in the 

 centre rises the magnificent spire— the design exhibiting an almost 

 magical appearance of lightness. The town-hall of Louvain is an 

 almost unbroken facade, decorated with sculpture of extraordinary 

 minuteness throughout. The facade of the Palais de Justice of Rouen 

 is decorated with the richest and most delicate architecture; the 

 windows are surrounded with multiplied ornaments, statues, and 

 niches; and above is a perforated parapet, ornamented by a light and 

 elegant tower; but there is nothing in the whole building which gives 

 the idea of stern massiveness; though in its ecclesiastical edifices 

 Rouen is full of wonderful specimens of that kind of architeclure. 

 Of the new houses of Parliament, to say that they will be the most 

 magnificent public building in London, is but feeble praise. In size 

 they have of course no parallel ; but, irrespectively of their vastncss, 

 their beauty is beyond comparison. The reviving taste, and the 

 better knowledge of the true principles of architecture are beginning 

 to lead the people to look with dissatisfaction on Sir Christopher 

 Wren's principles of design; and of Westminster Abbey, the original 

 beauty has been so marred, that little remains on which the eye can 

 look with unmingled satisfaction. But tills is instituting a comparison 

 of the new and old buildings, merely as to their general relative merit 

 as works of genius ; the more accurate method, however, is to con- 

 sider the new building, in comparison with others of a civil character 



only ; and then indeed there can be little doubt of the rank which it 

 will occupy in the architecture of Europe. 



In conclusion, we venture to make a strong and earnest appeal to 

 the architect, to give every facility to the recording the history of the 

 building as it advances. It is a duly which he owes to himself, to 

 architecture, to the English people, He has already elevated the 

 national taste: This exhibition of his genius, although as yet incom- 

 plete, has renilered public criticism severer; and buildings which ten 

 years backs had been admired now obtain nothing but contempt. 

 Strange and almost incredible as it may appear, the present building 

 is the only one of modern structures which has not provoked more or 

 less dissatisfaction. Every detail of its progress ought then to be 

 carefully chronicled for the benefit of posterity. All the difliculties 

 overcome, all the contrivances to save labour, plans, working draw- 

 ings, measurements, and even the alterations— we ought to have 

 them all. In the very deviations from the original plans there would 

 be some instruction to be gleaned. 



One remark, and only one more; and that is, to notice the admir- 

 able regularity and system with which the work is apportioned to the 

 artificers. Though nine hundred men are employed on the works, 

 each one goes through his appointed task with as much method and 

 precision us if the eye of the master were on him alone. 



PATENT LAW CASE. 



BUNNETT & CORPE V. SmITH, 



This was an action for an alleged infringement of the plaintiff's 

 patent for i evolving iron safety shutters, and was tried before the 

 Lord Chief Baron and a special jury, in the Court of Exchequer. 

 The trial lasted two whole days; and the jury deliberated for two 

 hours without giving their verdict, which was ultimately returned for 

 the plaintiffs. 



The Lord Chief Baron laid down the following points of law, 

 which for their importance we extract from the short hand copy of 

 his summing-up. 



" Where a patent is running for anything, if you improve it, when 

 the patent is out, you may have a patent for your improvement. If 

 the improvement be such that you could not use it independent of 

 the patent, you could not have a patent till the expiration of the 

 original patent." 



".d patent cannot he taken out for a principle, A patent must be 

 taken out according to the statute for a new manufacture. If a man 

 make an important discovery, he can take out a patent for the result 

 as a new manufacture for the process as a mode of attaining it. But 

 if anybody else can do the same thing another way, it is not an in- 

 fringement of that patent. A man cannot have a patent for a result 

 a part from the mode in which it is produced." 



" If the person who calls himself the inventor go to the shop of 

 another man, and there see his model, the result, as far as he is con- 

 cerned, is just the same as if the matter had come into use in the 

 most public manner in the world." 



"A partial disclosure to the public, if followed by an abandonment 

 has been treated, under the verdict of a jury, as no publication at all." 

 Some of these points will probably prove new to our readers. 



THE PAVILION AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 

 From the 'Times.' 



A very curious and striking exhibition in now afforded by the decorations 

 just completed in the inleiior of (lie Pavilion, erected on a mount, in the gar- 

 dens of Buckingham Palace. The favour of a private admission, granted a 

 few days ago, enables us to give a brief description of it. It is known (hat 

 within the last few years the attention of artists has been directed to the 

 combination of decorative painting with architecture, after the examples of 

 the great Italian masters of the "cinque-cento" school, whilst the introduc- 

 tion of fresco painting, towards the accomplishment of that end, was certainly 

 talked of. Her Majesty and the Prince Consort resolved to try the experi- 

 ment on a small scale, so as to adorn a summer-house in the gardens of Ihe 

 Palace, and at the same time to offer to British artists a high motive and a. 

 fair opportunity for the display, or rather trial, of their powers in llie old 

 method. 



The '• Garden Pavilion" (to speak technically) is a small Swiss-looking 

 edifice, on the summit of an artificial eminence, overlooking the spacious Ia«n 

 and piece of water in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, which is seen in 



35 



