surmounts the pointed Decorated one. It is shewn by the arch in the interior of the church immediately over the south door, that the porch was originally constructed with a room over it; but, as first built, this room was no doubt partly in the highpitched Decorated roof. "The upper part of the buttresses are simple and plain, but the lower stages contain very elaborate canopied niches, clearly shewing where the new work is engrafted into the old. The buttress at the south east angle of the porch was raised at the late restoration to its former height: it is hoped that the opposite buttress will soon receive its appropriate addition. The upper parts of the buttress pinnacles were probably cut down in 1663, when new battlements were erected to the porch. The rious architecture, than is to be found in any of the English cathedrals. Before the building of the tower, the four great angles were adorned with turrets, as at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The tower, the roofs, and some minor details, are of the Perpendicular period, and the rest of the church is of remarkably fine Decorated work. "The nave, and the north and south walls of the aisles, are Decorated Gothic, the prevailing style when the foundations were laid. As the body of the church gradually progressed towards completion, Perpendicular Gothic was introduced in several places, until its predecessor being laid aside, the tower was raised in this style alone; however, in part of the parapet of the north aisle another change is perceptible, for here the rich Tudor Gothic of the time of Henry VII. and VIII. is engrafted.'"-(p. 180.) "Entering by the porch, we find an object of attraction in the elaborate oak carving of the south door, of two different designs, in the Decorated style, where the beautiful forms and ramifications of this era of Gothic architecture are displayed to unusual advantage. Passing this excellent specimen of ancient workmanship, we come to the font, the gift, in 1853, of A. J. Beresford Hope, Esq. It is capacious in size, and of elegant Decorated work; the wreath of vine-leaves round the bowl being a beautiful specimen of carving. "It stands on a basement of four courses, exactly between the north and south entrance-doors, and in the centre of the west end of the nave, "A situation originally selected by the fathers of the Church, for the administration of the first Sacrament of Christianity, as emblematical of the spiritual warfare on which the young aspirant for a celestial inheritance had then entered, who was required, in his progress through this life towards an everlasting habitation, to fight his way like a good soldier of Jesus Christ against the three great adversaries which were continually opposed to his successthe world, the flesh, and the devil. Thus, in pursuance of the same metaphorical GENT. MAG. VOL. XLVII. imagery, the nave was termed the Church militant, and the choir or chancel the Church triumphant.' "Over the font hangs a beautiful 'corona,' a choice specimen of modern metalwork. "The tower is roofed with a magnificent stone vaulting, at the height of 156 feet above the floor of the church, so that many spires would stand beneath the sculptured bosses of this, in some respects, unequalled vaulting. The centre boss, before it was carved, weighed six tons, and bears the Agnus Dei; the four other principal ones, the emblems of the holy Evangelists; the next four exhibit angels bearing the words, O Lamb of God.' It has been observed, that this roof must be seen before it can be appreciated. Certainly, considering it as a work of bold construction in its ele Ꭰ Some idea may be formed by these extracts of the immense research which has been bestowed upon this work, and the mass of materials collected and digested. It is quite a mine of information, and we hope shortly to return to it. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 1857. THE present parliament has not been barren of great events. It has solemnly put its seal to the great principle of freedom of exchange. It has conducted a war, and concluded a peace. It has witnessed a development of individuality, and a manifestation of personal independence in the rank and file of party, which will probably characterize our political contests for many years to come. It has proclaimed to successive Prime Ministers that they who hold the reins of power in this country must expect defeat upon many unimportant, and on some great questions; and it has superadded to the ordinary perplexities and anxieties of the First Minister, the difficult. duty of deciding how many hostile votes are inevitable in the present temper and constitution of parties, and which of them ought to be resented by a resignation. Further, the present parliament has seen the growth of a strong religious affinity between two sections of politicians, who have merged the most obstinate party differences and sectarian prejudices in a course of action which has caused great embarrassment to the leaders of parties. This quasi-religious party, with Mr. Spooner and Mr. George Hadfield for its chiefs, may not promise us a new political combination, but is not without its moral. It is beside our present purpose to inquire whether the anti-Maynooth agitation asserts a great principle which will one day be incorporated in our legislation; or whether, on the contrary, it is a mischievous polemical manifestation disavowed by every statesman, and calculated to perpetuate feelings of religious animosity. But it illustrates the independence of party ties, and the vindication of individual freedom of action, which have distinguished the present parliament. Nor has this tendency to segregation been confined to Dissenters and the party of Exeterhall. Men who have served in the same cabinet have differed from each other almost as often as from the party sitting on the opposite side of the Speaker's chair. Upon more than one class of subjects, if you wanted to know how Mr. Henley voted, you had only to watch the lobby into which Sir John Pakington walked, and solve the problem by the "rule of contraries." If a coolness existed between Mr. Beresford and Mr. D'Israeli, the taunt of disunion could not come with a very good grace from the ministerial benches. The opposition to Mr. Lowe's Local Dues Bill, if it commenced with Sir F. Thesiger, was enforced by the ex-Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir F. T. Baring, and one of the great government defeats of the session was sustained upon Lord Elcho's motion relative to the site of the National Gallery. The bickerings between one of the lawofficers of the Crown and the Lord-Chancellor were not very studiously conceded; and twenty years hence, upon the publication of the life and correspondence of some deceased statesman, we may discover that considerable difference of opinion prevailed in Lord Palmerston's cabinet upon the Appellate Jurisdiction Billl and the subject of Life Peerages. It would be easy to multiply these instances. The process of disintegration, which commenced at the repeal of the Corn-laws, is going on with new intensity. Whether the House of Commons, like the far-famed Koh-i-noor, will be improved in brilliancy by increasing the number of its facets, may be doubted. But it is clear that constituencies tolerate, and indeed expect, a higher conscientiousness on the part of their representatives. When party feeling ran high, and Whigs and Tories were nearly balanced in numbers, electors were impatient of angularities and eccentricities, and would rather see their member vote wrong with his leader, than right with the other side. With the change have come a more lofty self-respect and greater independence of judgment among the mass of members, with some attendant inconveniences, in a more largely developed self-consciousness, and a desire to explain and defend their several differences and idiosyncracies, which consumes valuable time. While the leaders have suffered some eclipse, the nebula of our parliamentary system have become more distinctly visible, and stars of the smallest magnitude have shone with unwonted brilliancy. If, as some pretend, party ties cannot be so lightly worn without bringing legislation to a dead lock, and hampering the action of the executive, the practical good sense of our countrymen will not fail to apply a remedy for evils so grave. But the tendency of this independence of action is to invest the personnel of parliament with an increased interest, which we hope to turn to impartial profit in our Parliamentary Portrait Gallery. The moment is not inopportune. The present will probably be the last session of the present parliament, and if the House of Commons is to sit for its daguerréotype, the artist cannot be too prompt with his lens and nitrates. Sir Charles Barry's æsthetic tastes must be greatly shocked when he enters the present House of Commons, and remembers the elegant, lofty, and well-proportioned hall which he originally designed and built for the representatives of the people, and contrasts it with the patched, shrunken, odd-looking chamber in which the Commons now meet, with its panelled roof of wood and glass, not exactly resembling either an inverted barge, or the cabin of a ship, but partaking as little of the architectural edifice which a Palladio or a Wren would have planned for upwards of six hundred gentlemen to meet and debate in. Sir Charles Barry's first chamber was a model of lightness, grace, and solidity; its acoustic capabilities were condemned, perhaps too hastily. For several years previously the House had assembled in a small chamber built of wood, and with such properties of resonance that members had slid into a conversational tone, and debate not unfrequently resembled talk and chat, rather than oratory. When they found themselves translated into a spacious and nobly-proportioned hall, worthy of their numbers and dignity, they expected that the old slip-shod style of utterance would be as audible in the new House as in the temporary wooden building they had just left. One speaker attempted to retain an elegant lisp, or a mincing utterance; another continued to finish his sentences in the hissing whisper which had been considered so effective in the little room over the way. The result was a chorus of complaint against the architect. The new hall would have been a splendid arena for the great Lord Chatham, or the younger Pitt, or Fox, or Brougham in his best days; or, indeed, for any debater who spoke in a manly, oratorical tone. But modern debaters could not rise to the greatness of the architect's conception of a hall of oratory; and so the stone roof was removed, and the building botched, and tinkered, and dwarfed into its present shape and dimensions. Everything had to be sacrificed to make the walls vocal and resonant. How much of the credit of the present edifice is due to commissioners of works and parliamentary committees of taste, and how much to the architect, the public have not been informed. But the object to be attained has unquestionably been realized. In every part of the house, a speaker with a moderately good voice may be heard in every other part, if his articulation and utterance are not viciously defective. |