The Present Requirements Of Architecture In Order To A Successful Competition With Antiquity.*

secured , it is vam to look for equal originality and beauty in modern productions . Is it possible , then , we are tempted to ask , in any way to bring about a change in the present system ? To apportion in some degree , for instance , to leading architects what is more strictly design only : relieving them of much of the constructional responsibilitiesand iving such

com-, g pensation as would command their time more exclusively for the important part devolving upon them ? This is a question which , Ave are aAvare , the profession only are competent to grapple with ; but as those great attainments to which Ave aspire seem in some measure dependent upon itAve shall not be out of

, place in pressing it on public attention . We conceive such a change is not altogether impracticable . Progress has , iu the present century , completed a separation of the labours of the architect from those of

the builder . A diversion has been made , too , in favour of the civil engineer ; and Ave may suppose that a further subdivision of labour in the highest sphere is within the range of possibility . Or may we ask the question , — Can the labours of leading men in any other Avay be lessened ? At present anyone whose brilliant attainments have raised him to

eminence has his reward in a killing amount of work , whereby one great genius , at least , has already fallen a victim . Only the same per centage is paid as to the inexperienced . How much better Avould justice be done on both sides if , instead of advantage being obtained bthe ablest men in the extent of their

y employment , it Avere given in increased per centage ? This might secure the necessary limitation of labour , and , thei'eAvith , more satisfactory results . It must be evident that they Avhose works are to endure in a manner for all time ,- — -being ecclesiastical and national , or of the first class—can only receive and do justice

, when the opportunity of sufficient application is secured to them . Unlimited application carried the day formerly ; and without it equal success is not attainable . In a small way , France seems to be taking the lead in this matter . There " some architects ,

having private property of their own , only make use of their professional acquirements in the carrying out of the design of one or more tombs , either for their friends or for some great personage ; a tomb being regarded by French architects as the highest possible ideal of the art . " It is , we apprehend , mainly a question

of large and adequate compensation . If so , to obtain it , we must look to a greater appreciation of design . This will advance in proportion as a general taste is cultivated ; and whilst the effect of such cultivation will be also a corresponding improvement in the artsuccess in design will attract

, attention and reciprocally encourage the cultivation of taste . Then , if the movement be fairly commenced , such is the disposition of the various influences to run in the same current , that we need not despair of a revolution that will eventually advance architecture again to its supremacy in the school of arts ; and the

results Avill leave A estiges Avhich will command for us an honourable position in the estimate of succeeding generations . The munificent offer for designs for the Liverpool Exchange may be regarded as a good experiment , and encourages what Ave have ventured to advocate . 5 . Lastly , it has been intimated that in Mediaeval practice help was acceptable to the aichitect from

any quarter . There must have been encouragement to , and ingenuousness in receiving suggestions . At all events , the chief architect would accept them from his ecclesiastical employer , whether an associated Mason or not , in many cases ; and in others , Avhere the ecclesiastic might be chief , he would be on terms of candid partnershiwith his masons . In present

p circumstances , the amateur part of our question is difficult to be brought to bear , and delicate to broach j . but it is necessarily connected with the subject , for the part borne by the amateur in the old system is a leading feature . That formerly Wykeham and others , not professed architects ,,

had their fingers in woi'k which is now held iu such rapturous admiration can scarcely be denied . Alan de Walsingham , the sacrist at Ely , became architect of the cathedral ; and , after the fall of its centre ,, gave it its culminating grandeur . A bishop of Noyonwas oriinallan artisanand rose to that eminence

g y , from his skill as a goldsmith . Other examples might be referred to , but these are sufficient to show how in those days the interests of the Church , excludingconsiderations of personal fame , gave to skill and taste an open door . Assistance then was accepted Avherever merit recommended it . and taste was invited

in whatever brain it existed ; appetite for beauty ,., together with religious zeal , having sway over every other feeling . The bishop , Avith the clergy around him , and a troop of Freemasons , would form a college of artists ; eager , not only to devise , but to obtain from any source whatever Avhat would tend to the adornment and lendour of their cathedral . It is true

sp that circumstances are now very different ; we live not in a recluse , but in a mercantile age , and the trade element is perhaps unavoidably too preponderating to give free course to the practice of art . We shall venture to say , however , that the crudeness Avhicb attends the amateur need not make his

suggestionscontraband now any more than formerly ; and recovering past advantages , does it not enter into the question , what auxiliary service can he be useful for ?• Can this suggestive element , if Ave may call it so , any way re-enter , aud the amateur again take his part ? or , in other Avords , can Ave have a benefit by adopting

some plan for taking advantage of the drawings of non-professional persons , Avhen anything new and ' valuable occurs to them . If institutions for exhibiting and rewarding designs were candidly open to amateurs in competition with others , Avliilst every advantage Avould still remain with the educated architect , exceptionally an amateur might be brought forward , and , not

"Born to blush unseen , " quit his false position and join the profession . Tastehas its occasional inspirations in the rough , and sometimes of the richest quality , possibly without the pale of professional cultivation . Provided amateurs could , —not by botching on their own account , but in

somelegitimate Avay be made useful , it would moreover tend as much as anything to that general diffusion of taste , which is the only atmosphere in Avhich the profession can vitally prosper . As a polite accomplishment , architecture to some extent ( we refer to artistic desionl ) admits of private pursuit like other fine

gn y arts ; and it is important to remark , that the public , since they have the patronage , should be adequately educated that they may better exercise it . The mediaeval system , like the ocean , received the stream