PREFACE. 



In a year in which the community generally has suffered so much from financial difficulties, and in which the government has been 

 occupied with party discussions and foreign wars, we may esteem it fortunate that both in architecture and engineering no retrogradation 

 has taken place. Although architecture has no great memorials of the present year to show us, yet its labours have been great, while its 

 prospects are most promising, and if neither remarkable for the completion nor the commencement of any gigantic design, it can scarcely 

 be denied that the present is a period of the brightest augury. The necessity for the New Courts of Law may be considered as acknow- 

 ledged, while the appointment of new judges makes their erection more urgent, the appointment of a commission to consider in what 

 way the Fine Arts can best be made available in the New Houses of Parliament, with the addition of the Victoria Record Tower to the 

 plan of that building, the recognized advantage to be derived from the embankment of the Thames — all these are circumstances which 

 are calculated to inspire the greatest satisfaction. 



While prospects of employment are being opened to the profession, its general advancement may be looked upon with equal pleasure; 

 the question of competition is one which has been much agitated during the present year, and good can scarcely fail to arise from the 

 mode in which the extra-professional press have entered into the discussion. The arts have for the firsttime been made a part of general 

 education by the appointment of Mr. Dyce, at King's College, to a professorship of this branch of instruction, and in the same institution 

 a school of architecture is also formed, so that architecture may henceforth be regarded as adopted into the universitary system. The 

 legislature in the late session took, upon a bold and comprehensive scale, a plan for the application of architectural police and hygiene, and 

 political difficulties alone retarded measures, the principle of which was generally admitted. In the sister country the late representative 

 of the crown followed up the bestowal of royal patronage on the Institute of Irish Architects by conferring on its president Sir Richard 

 Morrison, the honour of knighthood, and in the present Viceroy, the long honoured President of the Institute here, we hope to see a 

 generous encourager of all the liberal arts. The extension of museums, and the re-opening of Westminster Abbey are measures calculated 

 to promote the moral welfare of architecture, while its material interests have not been neglected. A general improvement and extension 

 of the royal parks has been commenced, the Green Park, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, and Windsor Park are undergoing extensive altera- 

 tions, a new Royal Kitchen Garden is to be formed, the Kitchen Garden in Kensington Gardens removed, the East of London to be im- 

 proved by the opening of Victoria Park, and other Parks are contemplated in the South. The new streets in the metropolis and the 

 improvements in Trafalgar Square have proceeded but slowly, but the difficulties with regard to them have now been overcome. The 

 new street to the Post Office has however been cleared, and the approaches to the Royal Exchange nearly completed. The strike of a 

 large body of masons caused considerable delay with the Houses of Parliament and the works in Trafalgar Square, otherwise the new 

 buildings have gone on well. The Royal Stables at Windsor and the Wesleyan Centenary Hall, have been completed ; St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital has been extended, the Lock Hospital commenced, and a Gresham Lecture Hall : restorations and decorations are proceeding in 

 the Cathedral of Hereford, Westminster Abbey, the Chapel of St. George Windsor, and King's College Cambridge ; and the Round 

 Churches in the Temple and at Cambridge ; many new Churches have been erected in various parts of the country. The demolition of 

 the old front of the British Museum has commenced, to make way for a new one, but we have this year lost the Great Armoury in the 

 Tower, Astley's Amphitheatre and Vauxhall. The greatest loss architecture has sustained has been by the death of the illustrious 

 Schinkel. 



Directing our attention to engineering we find the converse of what we have observed with regard to architecture, for many noble 

 works have been completed, while the continuance of legislative restrictions threatens to check the progress of every department of civil 

 engineering. It may be said, without any important exceptions, that neither for railways, canals or harbours has any act been passed and 

 mechanical engineering alone remains unscathed. The government instead of affording relief to engineering, brought forward measures 

 which must still further have depressed it, had they not been defeated in the attempt. 



In the Colonies we have to notice the increased employment of engineers, particularly in New Zealand. The Bengal Government 

 have at last published a report on the public works, executed by them, and it appears that the other Indian governments have of late been 

 stimulated to carry on extensive improvements of the canals and roads of India. 



With regard to the institutions we feel it our duty to point out as a deed worthy of the profession and of the man, the munificent 

 conduct of President Walker, who presented to the Institute one thousand pounds consols as a prize fund. The Institute has shown a 

 praiseworthy disposition to commemorate the great men of the profession, by calling for a series of memoirs. Dublin has been added 

 to the number of engineering universities, courses have been opened in University College, a school is proposed at Manchester, a junior 

 school has been opened at King's College, and a school for engine drivers at the Polytechnic Institution. The first benevolent institu- 

 tion connected with the profession has been founded for the relief of workmen, by the mechanical and marine engineers. 



It is with pleasure we chronicle among the events of the year, the knighthood of Sir Isambard Brunei, and the completion of the 

 great works of himself and his son, the Thames Tunnel and the Great Western Railway. The King of the Belgians has also conferred 

 the order of Leopold upon the younger Stephenson. 



