emphasis the graceful and elegant manner in which he has got up the Architecture Privée, or Domestic Architecture of the Nineteenth Century, under Napoleon III, being new houses of Paris and the suburbs, consisting of plans, elevations and sections, and details of doors, windows, staircases, painted decorations, chimneys, gardens, &c., the plates all executed on steel. The selection is made with peculiar care, and I feel that those, who are refined in taste, will always require in such illustrations the chaste rendering of such a work as this, which can alone worthily illustrate whatever there may be of graceful design in the original, and which a coarse execution will only debase and disfigure. We might wish less repetition in the examples of the same sentiment, taste and distribution, and which becomes to a degree irksome, and we may desire more practical details as to the structural combinations: but in point of execution these volumes are fine instances of care and finish, and offer a standard, to which it would be desirable for us not to be inferior. We were the first in our Stuart's Athens to give the highest tone of illustration for architectural works, which the French have been eager to equal and surpass.

You will recollect with what careful deliberation the Institute drew up a scale of charges for professional services. It was anticipated that this would prove an useful guide, producing uniformity of practice on this delicate and important point. And, at the same time that it justified the Architect in his fair claims, it should prevent an exaggerated charge for remuneration discreditable to the general body of the profession, and happily many cases have occurred in which such questions have been settled to the satisfaction of parties by mere reference to this scale, and legal intervention and misunderstandings avoided. But I am sorry to say, that instances have arisen in my own experience with regard to some practitioners, not members of our body and imperfectly acquainted with its scope and tendency, in which this scale of the Institute has been quoted to support unreasonable demands, and although worded with every care to avoid misinterpretation, it has been adduced to justify claims greater than intended or justifiable. It is to be remembered by us, that this scale was meant not merely for the protection of the employed, but also for the protection of the employer; and that any attempt to contravene that great principle, and to render it a pretext for an excessive recompense will be contrary to the spirit of integrity and high honor, which should distinguish such a body as ours. Wherever called upon to give an opinion as to its intent and bearing, any doubt which may arise, should be interpreted in the most liberal manner for the Employer, since it was our Body which drew up the scheme. Upon no other ground will this scale of charges be entitled to be considered as fair and impartial, or referred to as equitable, authoritative and conclusive upon such questions.

It is subject for satisfaction to notice, that the Metropolitan Board have with most creditable despatch, recently accepted a tender to the amount of more than half-a-million, for the execution of the portion of the Thames Embankment on the north side from Westminster to Waterloo bridge, and that particulars are preparing for the section from the Temple to Blackfriars. It is to be assumed that the like movement may take place in regard to the South side, and that thus our noble river may have its banks faced with a continuous line of quays, which will at the same time sweep away the mud deposits that poison the water and the air, and will give it that aspect of majesty suited to the metropolis of a great Empire. It is gratifying to observe that the leading features of these quays will display a certain artistic treatment and will not be like the railway bridges, which span the Thames in the same locality, hideous masses of utilitarian skill. We congratulate also the public in London and Dublin upon their being roused to the consideration of the frightful erections contemplated by railway companies, and of some which even now deform certain of our principal thoroughfares and threaten others. There has been too much indifference hitherto to the important influence of architectural taste on the convenience and enjoyment of the public. If proposed works embodied an useful purpose, the consideration of their

forming decorative objects was regarded as non-essential; and we have thus certainly allowed many disgraceful disfigurements in the metropolis. In France it is the reverse. As in Athens, the rude speaker however eloquent, who sinned in his grammar or his quantities, was hooted down, so in Paris public improvements are not tolerated unless treated as public embellishments. The consequence is, that Paris under the spirited and enlightened renovations of Napoleon III, seconded by the aesthetic tendencies of the public mind, has become the queen of European capitals. She leaves all others at an immeasurable distance by the noble disposition of the new thoroughfares, the amplitude of the streets and public areas, the nobility of the public edifices, and the tasteful decoration of the private dwellings. It has become the fitting and enjoyable residence of a highly-refined intelligent people, whose life is not wholely absorbed in the cares of business or the mere mania of amassing wealth.

Much of this conduct of ours arises, in part from the unwillingness of the Government authorities to incur responsibility, still more from the niggardly parsimony of Parliament to afford the requisite funds. Only the other day the Chief Commissioner was precluded from entertaining the proposal to make the newly-proposed and leading street from Blackfriars to the Mansion House, 80 ft. wide, instead of 70 ft., because he felt assured that Parliament would refuse the extra amount (some £100,000.) And this in the face of the increasing traffic in the City, and the inadequate width of any of its largest thoroughfares. My feeling is, that it would be wise in Parliament, as being of the highest benefit to the Empire, if public subventions, as in France, were given in order to promote a spirit of reformation in our towns. There are many which, by the tide of manufactures and commerce, have from insignificant villages become emporiums of trade, and, however extended in all directions, have retained the original narrow high street and the ways and alleys opening thereunto, so as to maintain and paralyse additions into the like stinted dimensions. They thus still present cramped tortuous lines of communication without one grand avenue from north to south or from east to west, to open up the way for the teeming tides of living beings, who swarm the streets, hustling and impeding each other, or for the carriages, waggons, carts and animals huddled into one mass of dead lock. If such contributions were once freely accorded in a certain proportion to any municipality, who would undertake the task and provide the main funds, we should soon find the spirit of improvement arise, petty local jealousies put to flight, higher aims entertained, and hopelessness of improvement superseded by energetic efforts to ameliorate and correct, and to accomplish grand and useful projects. Oh! for a ten years of the liberal and tasteful spirit for improvement, which now pervades the whole of France, and England would accomplish great things.

There is also required some immediate interference by Parliament for the purpose of securing to the labouring classes more fitting dwellings, than those swept away to make room for the metropolitan railways. There is wanting a greater consciousness of parental care in the authorities, whether the Parliament or the Government, to grapple with this difficult question. It is hedged in with difficulties; it is no one's special business; it carries with it no profit, and would have only the thankless reward which usually attends philanthropy. But it is a duty--the health, the happiness or misery of tens of thousands is involved in it; and it is a crime that, as a principle of action no longer to be deferred, the proper housing of the working classes lies in abeyance, and Parliament is heedless of the sufferings of the poor and of their duty to undertake the remedy.

Mr. Hansard informs me that the Artificial Stone Committee, appointed in March last, have held eight Meetings and investigated several processes, and tested by crushing at different dates after their manufacture each series of samples. These proofs necessarily take considerable time at each Meeting, and extend over many weeks; this has prevented the Committee from being ready with their Report at this the commencement of the Session. They think it likewise advisable, before arrriving at any conclusion, to submit several of the samples to the exposure of the weather during the winter season, and to note the

effect, if any, of frost after wet, or sudden change of temperature upon them. During their investigation the Committee have taken the opportunity to test the strength of other materials, viz:-Bricks, cements, slate, stones, marble, and woods, the comparative results of which, they hope when finished, will prove interesting to the Institute. Some startling questions present themselves on this topic:-How is it that all at once we find out, that none of our natural stones in common use are fit for construction, but liable to rapid decay? How is it that it should be assumed to be more economical to go through the process of manufacture, and to transport the object to the work at a less cost than the natural stone itself? Why is it that the best beds of Bath, the most enduring of Portland, such as Sir Christopher Wren used at St. Paul's, cannot be extracted from the quarry and conveyed to London at less expense than the artificial product? Are we prepared to put up with the dingy opaque and unartistic effect of the artificial stone, when the varied tints and the transparent tones give so great a charm to the natural material in buildings? Are we sure of their permanence?

You are aware, Gentlemen, that a considerable body of admirers of the late Mr. A. K. Welby Pugin, anxious to mark their respect for his memory, and for the eminent services he had rendered in the revival and just appreciation of Medieval art, entered into a subscription and raised a sum amounting to about £1000. After much deliberation and the due consideration of a variety of proposals, as to the best manner of carrying out this intention, it has been at length decided to realise a wish, expressed many years ago by Mr. W. Pugin, to found an endowment out of the annual dividends or proceeds arising from this principal sum, and to apply them yearly to assist a well qualified student to travel for not less than eight weeks in the United Kingdom of England and Ireland, for the purpose of studying Medieval architecture in Great Britain, whether in ancient or modern buildings: no person, who has once held the studentship being eligible for re-election. In the first year the election is proposed to be made by four certain members of the Committee of Subscribers and five Fellows of the Institute. In subsequent years it will be by a Committee of nine Fellows of the Institute to be named by the Council. A declaration of trust is proposed to be made, placing the control of the said fund under certain regulations in the Council of the Institute for ever. A draft declaration of trust has been prepared by the Committee of Subscribers and submitted to the Council, and will soon be brought before the Members for their consideration and adoption.

Since the closing meeting in June, the concluding part of the volume of Sessional Papers, termed the Transactions of the Institute for the year 1862-3, has been issued. I feel assured that the Members must be satisfied with the series of papers, both on account of the importance, variety, and treatment of the subjects, and the discussions to which they gave rise, and the illustrations which accompany them. It would be difficult to quote the publication of any scientific body with which this may not be favorably compared, the names of the authors, and the useful nature of the information contributed, are alike. favorable to the Institute, whether treating on matters of taste, discussing questions of science, or describing the buildings and monuments of ancient or modern times, the abstruse topics of archæological research, or the practical ones of structural appliances,-they have been carefully brought before the Institute, and as thoughtfully considered by the Members.

It will be our duty to contribute such papers for the Session, which opens on this Evening, as shall maintain the high standard of the last. There can be no excuse for any member, however immersed he may be in the duties of his profession, to neglect the claim which the Institute has on his active co-operation. When we see such men in high position as Lord Derby addressing the Collegiate body of Liverpool in an elaborate and eloquent speech on education; when we see the Bishop of Oxford, charged with the care of all the Churches of his Diocese, distributing in Brighton the prizes to the successful competitors in the Oxford examination, and closing the proceedings with an address, replete

with wisdom, brilliant in thoughts and language; when we see a Secretary of State and a Chancellor of the Exchequer producing elaborate works and making masterly speeches on general topics of art and science, even amidst the overwhelming duties of their arduous political life, is it too much, you will surely pardon me if I ask, to expect of our Members their contributions to the papers, which shall give interest to our meetings and add to the stock of our every-day experiences! I pray you therefore, Gentlemen, to give your names to the Secretaries as soon as possible, and the titles of the subjects you propose to consider.

Another circumstance for me to record, connected rather, perhaps, with the social than the scientific occurrences of our body, has been a banquet at Greenwich in August last, to which Mr. Tite, our late President, was invited. Its object was to mark the success with which he had discharged his duties in the chair, and the advantages derived by the Institute from his Presidency. The Lord Mayor, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board, and other eminent public men were present on the occasion to do honor to one, who has entitled himself in his public capacity to the esteem and respect of his colleagues. Whether in this room or in the senate-whether in public or in private-Mr. Tite has ever promoted the interests of our body, and conferred on it substantial favors. His name is intimately associated with the position we hold in the face of the country; and to his advocacy in Parliament we are indebted, that the Houses of Lords and Commons have recognised our status, and confided to us duties and functions, which it must be ever our pride faithfully to discharge.

On considering the varied operations of the Institute, to which I have ventured to direct your attention, it is fitting to call to mind that all these could not have been realised, without a great sacrifice of time, attention, thought, and devotion by those, who have had more immediately the charge of the official duties and business of the Institute, I mean our Honorary Secretaries. To their untiring zeal, to their intelligence and business habits, we owe much of the active vitality of our body; and to the courtesy with which they transact our affairs, the goodwill and respect with which the Institute is treated on all sides. To Mr. Hayward we are indebted for the perfect arrangements connected with the last rites paid to our late friend Professor Cockerell, and which elicited unequivocal approval. To Mr. Seddon, with Mr. Hayward and Mr. Nelson, we owe all the success of our other proceedings, and it is well we should remember that these arduous duties are not the mere pleasurable occupations of an idle life of men of leisure, but precious moments, hours and days stolen from absorbing professional avocations. They are sacrifices of self to the public good of the Institute and its Members. For they have to conduct. all our proceedings, provide papers for our meetings, carefully husband our finances, revise and publish our transactions, cherish in us a spirit of interest and devotion to the Institute, conciliate our co-operation in their efforts, maintain our correspondence with our Foreign Brethren, and keep us all in good humour from the President down to the youngest Student. It is for such services, I am sure you will concur with me, that our heartiest acknowledgments are due to those gentlemen.

In conclusion, Gentlemen, I would observe, that all Art is a magic power. It is beyond the ken of human cunning. It is an instinct-an innate principle of fervid imagination: be its workings slow, laborious, like those of a Rousseau or a Byron, or glowing and ready like those of a Michaelangelo or a Vanbrugh, still it is the same divine gift; with some it is on the very surface, with others deeper seated, and only to be realized by immense toil. However powerful Poetry, Music, Painting, or Sculpture may be, as arresting the attention, fascinating one's faculties of thought or reason, speaking with a thrill to every emotion, pleasing, teaching, ennobling, yet Architecture by other means and by instruments the most rude, is at once more necessary to man, and still more absorbs his feelings and his admiration. Out of the crudest materials and mis-shapen masses she creates pile upon pile-gives them a grace not their own-combines them with a skill at which the most scientific are lost in wonder. Her monuments, under

OPENING ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT.

the accumulations of centuries or overgrown with creepers and lichens, employ the learned to explore their origin and destination. In them they discover unthought of secrets of past times-graces in their proportions, beauty in their ornaments, and hidden art in their paintings. They may reveal a nation long since forgotten or before known only by name. Architecture enriches the desert, as at Palmyra, with vistas of continuous colonnades and splendid palaces, and offers a halting place of safety to the weary traveller, security to the wealth of commerce. On the bare rock she raises piles of vast magnificence and fanes of matchless beauty, in whose very fractured stones successive races seek for a hidden law of beauty, an inspiration to enable them to revive the truest aim of art-nature's most exquisite transcript. Who is there, that wanders among the stately ruins of the Athenian Acropolis or the sublime memorials of the Roman Forum, and does not envy the glory of those past ages of classic art? Who can contemplate those traditions and mysterious sublimities of the creation of the middle ages, and does not feel his heart throb with powerful emotion? Who does not dwell with delight upon the works of that race of Merchant Princes, who upon the shifting sands of the water-covered lagunes could rear up those stately piles, which bear the names of the Grimani, Balbi, Vendramini, Foscari, and bid wood, stone, brick and marble speak with stirring effect to those, who have eyes to see and taste to appreciate: men who with fierce republican pride might have challenged cardinals, princes, popes, and kings and emperors to produce nobler realities out of fiction? The Architect it is, who with his pencil and compass, with a mind full of deep things, under God's providence and with his brave heart, creates all this and toils on unheeded, often misunderstood, frequently blamed, rarely encouraged except by his own bright star of hope and faith. Let us then work on with the consciousness of something within us, which may sooner or later, before or when in the grave, be at length understood, admired, honored by our fellow man.

THOS. L. DONALDSON, PRESIDENT.

MR. GEORGE GILBERT SCOTT, Fellow, said before the business of the evening was formally closed the least they could do was to express their thanks to the President for the very eloquent, spirit-stirring and encouraging address which he had given them this evening, and was glad to think that the same would be published and circulated amongst the members in the Transactions. He would not attempt to follow the President in the different subjects he had adverted to, nor to dilute with his poor words the eloquence and perspicuity with which he had enumerated the many subjects which called for their attention at the commencement of this session. He would select, however, one subject which he thought was a peculiarly practical one, viz. the remarks of the President on the absolute dearth of Architectural Education in this country. It was true the system of practical education of the young architect followed in this country was on the whole the most healthful one, viz. the system of learning their profession by working with their masters. So far as that went they were in the right road; but they nevertheless knew that what was learnt in an architect's office was not the high art of his profession. He learnt the routine of business, the technical working out of the designs of his master, and a great many other things which it was necessary for him to know; and he learnt them better than could be done in any other way; but the high art of his profession he could only pick up accidentally, and in a very minor degree, in his master's office; and if he wanted to improve himself beyond what he learnt there, he could only do so by chance opportunities, which he had to look out for on his own account. He believed it to be the duty of this Institute to take this subject into its most serious consideration. He believed it was being taken into consideration by the junior society,—the Architectural Association but besides these and all the other Architectural Societies, there was one Institution in