Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/489

 io- s. iv. NOT. is, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 403 Office in Fetter Lane, comes in for a severe castigation :— "Describe the building we really cannot; for our architectural vocabulary does not contain terms to define its monstrosities. The general effect com- bines the workhouse, the jail, and the Manchester mill. The style is meant to be Tudor, with every larger feature and every detail of that style mis- applied and distorted." On the 22nd of December we have an extract from the prospectus of "The Victorian Way; or Sir Joseph Paxton's splendid designs for a Girdle Railway and Arcade Boulevard, with shops and houses attached, all under a ah IK roof, similar to the Crystal Palace, with a roadway in the centre, and double railways on the drawing-room and attic floors—trains every two minutes and a half — forming a salubrious enclosed circle of pure country air through ten miles of the densest part of the metropolis, crossing the river three times on magnificent bridges, with a Branch from the New Cut to Regent s Circus, affording instantaneous communi- cation from the West End to the Bank, and render- ing foreign climates unnecessary to invalids. Capital only 34 millions, which is decidedly in excess of the probable cost." The writer treating on this is "puzzled "to account for the strange infatuation that has made this Knight of the Crystal Palace an object of so much popular worship. " He has carried out his ideas at the expense of the shareholders of the Crystal Palace, by placing them in possession of the most gorgeous and the least remunerative exhibition in the world. His estimates grew from •HlO.OtX.V. to upwards of 1,400.(XXX Yet the Crystal Palace outlay is thrift itself compared with the cost of the projected Girdle." The journalism of the period forms the subject of many pungent articles. Present readers of The Globe will be amused at this description (February 2nd, 1856):— "Rich in its vein of solemn respectability, it dis- courses on everything with judicious gravity, and in a spirit of unimpeachable Whiggism. It can, how- ever, condescend to the assumed tastes of its readers ; and it handles little matters as an evening journal must do, though always with great serious- ness and dignity. Only a few days ago it examined and settled, with the most patient impartiality, an interesting discussion between a parson and his curate, as to who should have the hat-bands presented at a funeral. These are just the kind of problems which one has strength to enter on in the hungry hour before dinner, and we may be glad to have them handled so soberly and dis- creetly." On the 22nd of March the founding of The Morning Star forms the subject for the following comments:— " Certain conditions of success may be wanting to The Morning Star; but whether it succeeds or fails, we are convinced that a cheap press will ultimately be the means of fastening an effectual responsibility on The Times." The writer then renders to The Times this- well-deserved tribute :— "It is needless for us to accompany our censures of The Times with compliments to its ability, which are implied in the censures It would be sove- reign injustice not to add that we owe to The Times the high standard which must be proposed to itself by every newspaper, dear or cheap, that aims at a very extensive circulation. From the penny journalism of America The Times has saved us The Times, in truth, was the first English newspaper which secured the services of writers possessing the skill, the tastes, the sympathies, and the information of thoroughly educated gentlemen." A great scheme of metropolitan improve- ment is also commented upon in the number for March 22nd, comprising "the rebuilding in Pall Mall of the War Department offices in all its branches, and of the- other public offices along a reconstituted Parlia- ment btreet the opening up of Si. James's Park by the widening of some existing passages, together with the removal of the York column and steps." ' The Education Difficulty' formed a subject for discussion in 1856, as it does in 1905. In an article on April 19th the opinion is expressed that "a sensible instructor will never be seriously embarrassed, within the walls of his own schoolroom, by the fact that his pupils may belong to different sectarian denomina- tions " ; and it is stated that the Bishop of Manchester " conducted at Birmingham, with facility and success, a great school which was open to the children of Dissenters- and of Jews." Among other home subjects treated in these first two volumes are ' Chemistry and Agriculture,' ' Crime and Punishment,' 'Law Eeform,' 'The Sale of Commissions,' and 'Sabbath Observance.' The last ques- tion gave rise to much heated discussion, and Lord Palmerston had to yield to the Scotch- members, and withdraw the bands from the parks on Sundays. Although the proprietors made no effort to secure advertisements, "A Man of Kent," in his ' Eambling Remarks' in The British* Weekly oi the 9th inst.,is mistaken in stating that no advertisements appeared until the fourth number. All the numbers contain advertisements, No. 1 having six pages, in- cluding a column from Mudie, who announces that he has a thousand copies of Sydney Smith's 'Memoirs.' Other books recently added to the library comprise ' Westward- Ho !' 600 copies, and ' Heartsease,' 900 copies. There are also columns from Smith «fe Elder and Blackwood. Bradbury <fe Evans advertise- a new serial work by Mr. Charles Dickensy 'Little Dorrit.' And our old friend Mr. Thorns- advertises Notes and Queries. JOHN C. FRANCIS. (To be continued.)