1 72 Domestic Notices : — England. 



■whole. Altogether, such an application of the orders, to say nothing of the 

 defects of detail, produces a dryness and littleness of manner, precisely the 

 reverse of the character of classical architecture. In this new club-house by 

 Mr. Barry, on the contrary, and the remark applies also to his former one, 

 instead of the composition being cut up into distinct divisions, finishing and 

 then commencing again, it is made to form one consistent ensemble, crowned 

 by a magnificent cornicione, proportioned, not to a part, but to the whole ; 

 while sufficient decoration, in other respects, is derived from essential features 

 and members, windows, string-courses, &c., which are allowed to display 

 themselves with a boldness and effect hardly attainable where windows are 

 introduced between straggling columns, the result generally being, that the 

 design looks rather confused and crowded up than rich. Here we perceive 

 both richness and simplicity : the windows are very properly treated as 

 indispensable features, not as indifferent ones, or what it would be desir- 

 able, if possible, to get rid of, but as important in the design, equally necessary 

 in themselves, and valuable as regards decoration. Neither do we here meet 

 with that very offensive disparity of character in regard to them, which is 

 frequently allowed to take place, where no consistency of style is kept up 

 between the windows on different floors, but the lower ones are positively 

 mean and poor, in comparison with the others ; not only without dressings or 

 architraves, but without that degree of finish they are susceptible of as aper- 

 tures in a basement, whether that part of the elevation be rusticated or 

 plain." (p. 7.) 



The remaining articles are : on Architectural Competitions ; Stove for the 

 new Houses of Parliament ; Pressure of Earth against sustaining Walls ; pro- 

 jected Tunnel through the Alps ; Branch Railroads ; Remarks on measuring 

 the Angle subtended between two Base Lines ; great Care necessary in building 

 Arches ; the Oscillating Steam-engine ; Mr. Telford's Scale of Proportions for 

 Bridges on the Highland Roads; Suspension Railway; Lock-Gates of the Thames 

 and Medway ; Canal at Rochester, by Mr. Collier ; the Coal Fields of Belgium ; 

 French Academy of Sciences ; Navigation of the Medina ; the Maidenhead 

 Bridge on the Great Western Railway ; Adam's Patent Railway Carriage ; New 

 Soldering Apparatus ; the recent Land Slip in Dorsetshire ; Railway Intelli- 

 gence ; Miscellaneous Facts and Remarks ; and List of Patents granted during 

 January. 



The tunnel through the Alps is projected by M. Volta, an engineer of talent 

 and experience. It is to pass through the Splugen, and the time estimated 

 for its completion is 30 years. Possibly an open cutting might be completed 

 in less time ; because the two sides of the mountain might be formed into two 

 inclined plains for a certain width, and thus thousands of men set to work 

 instead of hundreds ; but the expense would be greater, and the road would 

 require to be arched over after all, to prevent its being choked up by snow. 

 The Splugen once penetrated by a tunnel, the practice will, doubtless, be 

 imitated in other parts of the world, from which advantages in the way 

 of intercommunication will occur, the bare contemplation of which is sublime. 

 How much better for nations to incur immense debts in this way, than in wars 

 of aggrandisement ! " Half the expense of one of the great battles which 

 were fought during the late war, for objects of small importance, as compared 

 with the Splugen tunnel, would complete the works, and leave for those who 

 promoted them a far more noble monument, than ever was obtained by even 

 the most illustrious of warriors." (p. 13.) 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Domestic Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



Cebar of Lebanon, Us Varieties. — In walking through the park at Gam- 

 stone, a few days since, I was much struck with the great variety of character 



