1800.] THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. 149 



and for affording them easy entrance and exit, &c. I 

 have never " puffed " myself respecting it, as is very 

 common in similar cases, and hence, probably, my 

 name is scarcely known as connected with it. But I 

 may now say, " that it has been stated by Faraday, in his 

 late examination before a committee of the House of 

 Commons, to be ' almost perfect as a lecture room,' 

 and that ' although architects are continually measur- 

 ing and drawing it to copy from, and many other 

 rooms have been built in imitation of it in which he 

 has tried his voice, yet none of them proved equal to 

 that in question.'" 



c After my designs were quite finished, and after it 

 ivas resolved by the Institution that they should be 

 cawied into execution by me, Mr. Saunders, then 

 architect of the British Museum, offered his assistance 

 should any difficulties arise. I willingly accepted his 

 offer, as his name would be some sanction and security 

 in a case where I knew I had enemies as well as 

 friends, and I took care to show him everything I did 

 in the construction of the building ; but the whole of 

 the working drawings, even the details of the mould- 

 ings, &c., were made by my own hand. The estimate 

 and contract were made by me and not by Saunders, 

 and every person employed was under my immediate 

 direction. My designs were not in the smallest 

 degree altered by him. 



6 Soon after my designs were made they were taken 

 away by one of the managers (whose name I shall not 

 mention at present) and put into the hands of Mr. 

 Spiller, an architect, in order that he might make 



