Chapter III: Part 3

“Then you will shake hands, sir?” cried Westlock, advancing a step or two, and bespeaking Mr. Pinch’s close attention by a glance.

“Umph!” said Mr. Pecksniff, in his most winning tone.

“You will shake hands, sir?”

“No, John,” said Mr. Pecksniff, with a calmness quite ethereal; “no, I will not shake hands, John. I have forgiven you. I had already forgiven you, even before you ceased to reproach and taunt me. I have embraced you in the spirit, John, which is better than shaking hands.”

“Pinch,” said the youth, turning towards him, with a hearty disgust of his late master, “what did I tell you?”

Poor Pinch looked down uneasily at Mr. Pecksniff, whose eye was fixed upon him as it had been from the first: and looking up at the ceiling again, made no reply.

“As to your forgiveness, Mr. Pecksniff,” said the youth, “I’ll not have it upon such terms. I won’t be forgiven.”

“Won’t you, John?” retorted Mr. Pecksniff with a smile. “You must. You can’t help it. Forgiveness is a high quality; an exalted virtue far above _your_ control or influence, John. I _will_ forgive you. You cannot move me to remember any wrong you have ever done me, John.”

“Wrong!” said the other, with all the heat and impetuosity of his age. “Here’s a pretty fellow! Wrong! Wrong I have done him! He’ll not even remember the five hundred pounds he had with me under false pretences; or the seventy pounds a-year for board and lodgings that would have been dear at seventeen! Here’s a martyr!”

“Money, John,” said Mr. Pecksniff, “is the root of all evil. I grieve to see that it is already bearing evil fruit in you. But I will not remember its existence. I will not even remember the conduct of that misguided person”—and here, although he spoke like one at peace with all the world, he used an emphasis that plainly said ‘I have my eye upon the rascal now’—“that misguided person who has brought you here to-night, seeking to disturb (it is a happiness to say in vain) the heart’s repose and peace of one who would have shed his dearest blood to serve him.”

The voice of Mr. Pecksniff trembled as he spoke, and sobs were heard from his daughters. Sounds floated on the air, moreover, as if two spirit voices had exclaimed: one, “Beast!” the other, “Savage!”

“Forgiveness,” said Mr. Pecksniff, “entire and pure forgiveness is not incompatible with a wounded heart; perchance when the heart is wounded, it becomes a greater virtue. With my breast still wrung and grieved to its inmost core by the ingratitude of that person, I am proud and glad to say, that I forgive him. Nay! I beg,” cried Mr. Pecksniff, raising his voice as Pinch appeared about to speak, “I beg that individual not to offer a remark; he will truly oblige me by not uttering one word: just now. I am not sure that I am equal to the trial. In a very short space of time I shall have sufficient fortitude, I trust, to converse with him as if these events had never happened. But not,” said Mr. Pecksniff, turning round again towards the fire, and waving his hand in the direction of the door, “not now.”

“Bah!” cried John Westlock, with the utmost disgust and disdain the monosyllable is capable of expressing. “Ladies, good evening. Come, Pinch, it’s not worth thinking of. I was right and you were wrong. That’s a small matter; you’ll be wiser another time.”

So saying, he clapped that dejected companion on the shoulder, turned upon his heel, and walked out into the passage, whither poor Mr. Pinch, after lingering irresolutely in the parlour for a few seconds, expressing in his countenance the deepest mental misery and gloom, followed him. They then took up the box between them, and sallied out to meet the mail.

That fleet conveyance passed, every night, the corner of a lane at some distance; towards which point they bent their steps. For some minutes they walked along in silence, until at length young Westlock burst into a loud laugh, and at intervals into another and another. Still there was no response from his companion.

“I’ll tell you what Pinch!” he said abruptly, after another lengthened silence—“You haven’t half enough of the devil in you. Half enough! You haven’t any.”

“Well!” said Pinch with a sigh, “I don’t know, I’m sure. It’s a compliment to say so. If I haven’t, I suppose I’m all the better for it.”

“All the better!” repeated his companion tartly: “All the worse, you mean to say.”

“And yet,” said Pinch, pursuing his own thoughts and not the last remark on the part of his friend, “I must have a good deal of what you call the devil in me, too, or how could I make Pecksniff so uncomfortable? I wouldn’t have occasioned him so much distress—don’t laugh, please—for a mine of money: and Heaven knows I could find good use for it, too, John. How grieved he was!”

“_He_ grieved!” returned the other.

“Why didn’t you observe that the tears were almost starting out of his eyes!” cried Pinch. “Bless my soul, John, is it nothing to see a man moved to that extent and know one’s self to be the cause! And did you hear him say that he could have shed his blood for me?”

“Do you _want_ any blood shed for you?” returned his friend, with considerable irritation. “Does he shed any thing for you that you _do_ want? Does he shed employment for you, instruction for you, pocket-money for you? Does he shed even legs of mutton for you in a decent proportion to potatoes and garden stuff?”

“I am afraid,” said Pinch, sighing again, “that I’m a great eater: I can’t disguise from myself that I’m a great eater. Now you know that, John.”

“_You_ a great eater!” retorted his companion, with no less indignation than before. “How do you know you are?”

There appeared to be forcible matter in this inquiry, for Mr. Pinch only repeated in an under-tone that he had a strong misgiving on the subject, and that he greatly feared he was.

“Besides, whether I am or no,” he added “that has little or nothing to do with his thinking me ungrateful. John, there is scarcely a sin in the world that is in my eyes such a crying one as ingratitude; and when he taxes me with that, and believes me to be guilty of it, he makes me miserable and wretched.”

“Do you think he don’t know that?” returned the other scornfully. “But come, Pinch, before I say any more to you, just run over the reasons you have for being grateful to him at all, will you? change hands first, for the box is heavy. That’ll do. Now, go on.”

“In the first place,” said Pinch, “he took me as his pupil for much less than he asked.”

“Well,” rejoined his friend, perfectly unmoved by this instance of generosity. “What in the second place?”

“What in the second place!” cried Pinch, in a sort of desperation, “why, every thing in the second place. My poor old grandmother died happy to think she had put me with such an excellent man. I have grown up in his house, I am in his confidence, I am his assistant, he allows me a salary: when his business improves, my prospects are to improve too. All this, and a great deal more, is in the second place. And in the very prologue and preface to the first place, John, you must consider this, which nobody knows better than I: that I was born for much plainer and poorer things, that I am not a good hand at his kind of business, and have no talent for it, or indeed for any thing else but odds and ends that are of no use or service to anybody.”

He said this with so much earnestness, and in a tone so full of feeling, that his companion instinctively changed his manner as he sat down on the box (they had by this time reached the finger-post at the end of the lane); motioned him to sit down beside him; and laid his hand upon his shoulder.

“I believe you are one of the best fellows in the world,” he said, “Tom Pinch.”

“Not at all,” rejoined Tom. “If you only knew Pecksniff as well as I do, you might say it of him, indeed, and say it truly.”

“I’ll say any thing of him you like,” returned the other, “and not another word to his disparagement.”

“It’s for my sake then; not his, I am afraid,” said Pinch, shaking his head gravely.

“For whose you please, Tom, so that it does please you. Oh! He’s a famous fellow! _He_ never scraped and clawed into his pouch all your poor grandmother’s hard savings—she was a housekeeper, wasn’t she, Tom?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Pinch, nursing one of his large knees, and nodding his head: “a gentleman’s housekeeper.”

“_He_ never scraped and clawed into his pouch all her hard savings; dazzling her with prospects of your happiness and advancement, which he knew (and no man better) never would be realized! _He_ never speculated and traded on her pride in you, and her having educated you, and on her desire that you at least should live to be a gentleman. Not he, Tom!”

“No,” said Tom, looking into his friend’s face, as if he were a little doubtful of his meaning; “of course not.”

“So say I,” returned the youth, “of course he never did. _He_ didn’t take less than he had asked, because that less was all she had, and more than he expected: not he, Tom! he doesn’t keep you as his assistant because you are of any use to him; because your wonderful faith in his pretensions is of inestimable service in all his mean disputes; because your honesty reflects honesty on him; because your wandering about this little place all your spare hours, reading in ancient books and foreign tongues, gets noised abroad, even as far as Salisbury, making of him, Pecksniff, the master, a man of learning and of vast importance. _He_ gets no credit from you, Tom, not he.”

“Why, of course he don’t,” said Pinch, gazing at his friend with a more troubled aspect than before. “Pecksniff get credit from _me_! Well!”

“Don’t I say that it’s ridiculous,” rejoined the other, “even to think of such a thing?”

“Why, its madness,” said Tom.

“Madness!” returned young Westlock. “Certainly, it’s madness. Who but a madman would suppose he cares to hear it said on Sundays, that the volunteer who plays the organ in the church, and practises on summer evenings in the dark, is Mr. Pecksniff’s young man, eh, Tom? Who but a madman would suppose that it is the game of such a man as he, to have his name in everybody’s mouth, connected with the thousand useless odds and ends you do (and which, of course, he taught you), eh, Tom? Who but a madman would suppose you advertise him hereabouts, much cheaper and much better than a chalker on the walls could, eh, Tom? As well might one suppose that he doesn’t on all occasions pour out his whole heart and soul to you; that he doesn’t make you a very liberal and indeed rather extravagant allowance; or, to be more wild and monstrous still, if that be possible, as well might one suppose,” and here, at every word, he struck him lightly on the breast, “that Pecksniff traded in your nature, and that your nature was, to be timid and distrustful of yourself, and trustful of all other men, but most of all of him who least deserves it. There would be madness, Tom!”

Mr. Pinch had listened to all this with looks of bewilderment, which seemed to be in part occasioned by the matter of his companion’s speech, and in part by his rapid and vehement manner. Now that he had come to a close, he drew a very long breath: and gazing wistfully in his face as if he were unable to settle in his own mind what expression it wore, and were desirous to draw from it as good a clue to his real meaning as it was possible to obtain in the dark, was about to answer, when the sound of the mail-guard’s horn came cheerily upon their ears, putting an immediate end to the conference: greatly as it seemed to the satisfaction of the younger man, who jumped up briskly, and gave his hand to his companion.

“Both hands, Tom. I shall write to you from London, mind!”

“Yes,” said Pinch. “Yes. Do, please. Good bye. Good bye. I can hardly believe you’re going. It seems now but yesterday that you came. Good bye! my dear old fellow!”

John Westlock returned his parting words with no less heartiness of manner, and sprung up to his seat upon the roof. Off went the mail at a canter down the dark road: the lamps gleaming brightly, and the horn awakening all the echoes, far and wide.

“Go your ways,” said Pinch, apostrophizing the coach; “I can hardly persuade myself but you’re alive, and are some great monster who visits this place at certain intervals, to bear my friends away into the world. You’re more exulting and rampant than usual to-night, I think: and you may well crow over your prize; for he is a fine lad, an ingenuous lad, and has but one fault that I know of: he don’t mean it, but he is most cruelly unjust to Pecksniff!”

PROFESSOR COCKERELL’S LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

This gentleman, who succeeded the late lamented Mr. Wilkins in the professor’s chair of the Royal Academy, is labouring with all the generous energy for which he is distinguished, to lay the products of a well-stored mind before the students, so as to excite them to an emulation of the works and achievements of the great masters in Architecture who have gone before. We have had the pleasure of attending the course of lectures of this session, and were greatly rejoiced to find, from the numbers and character of the auditory, that the study of the art is being regarded with interest by many out of the pale of the profession. It would have been a grateful duty to us to have given a full report of these lectures for the benefit of our readers, but we felt to be precluded from doing so, by a previous announcement on the part of the _Athenæum_ of the intention to do so, and which has since been very effectively carried out. In justice to that excellent periodical, we can, therefore, only refer to its pages those of our readers who may be anxious to give that attentive perusal of the lectures which they require and deserve, contenting ourselves with the liberty of making such extracts as we think will suit the purpose of our less ambitious readers, or to whet the appetite of the others.

There is one thing, however, in which even the comprehensive report of the _Athenæum_ is necessarily defective. Such a display of illustrative drawings, so laboriously compiled, as were exhibited by the learned lecturer, it has never before been our good fortune to see brought together; and without these, or some more adequate representation of them than mere description, the spirit or essence of the lecture is greatly weakened, and in some instances lost. Two large sheets, or rather assemblage of sheets, were hung up, shewing in comparative juxta-position most of the famous structures of antiquity, the one in elevation, the other in section, and over these the eye could wander and the mind could dwell with marvellings and delight that no words can express. How small appear those finished and exquisite gems of Grecian art, its temples, when compared with the developed boldness of the works of the successors to the Greek school, who have been charged with innovations and corruptions. These great sheets present to us a map or chart reduced, as it were, to a small scale, of the hitherto ascertained geography of building art, and suggest an endless train of reflection and inquiry.

But there were others whose assemblage and lengthened treatment would make up volumes, some embodying the ingenious speculations of the professor, but, in the main, rigid and critical delineations of the buildings of the ancients from measurement and other laborious means of research.

These, however, it would be quite in vain for us to attempt to enumerate, or to refer to in any more lengthened way of notice; we therefore proceed to our extracts.

After quoting the regulations of the Royal Academy in reference to the delivery of these lectures, and pointing out how much it is desirable to add to their provisions in this respect, on the model of the French Academy, the effects of which are visible in the advantages which the architects of that country enjoy; and contrasting the pains taken by the governments of the Continent in the encouragement and cultivation of art, with the niggard policy pursued in this country, he says—

“It is now more than a hundred years that Thomson, the
best informed upon the Arts of all our poets, indignantly
remonstrated on our national inferiority and neglect of this
branch of intellectual culture, and complained with grief, in
his Ode to Liberty,—

‘That finer arts (save what the Muse has sung,
In daring flight above all modern wing),
Neglected droop their head.’

“Foreigners have attributed this disregard of the rulers of
an ingenious and a great people to various causes—to physical
insensibility, to the sordid nature of our commercial habits,
or the adverse propensity of the Protestant religion,—to which
objections the history of the ancient dynasties of this country
(never inferior in the fine arts), the abundant enthusiasm of
individual artists of our own times, and the public sympathy,
are direct contradictions. Finally, they have fixed the
reproach on the government, by pointing at the Schools of
Design established by parliament; for they say, truly, that so
soon as the inferiority of our design in manufactures drove us
from the foreign markets, we took the alarm, and immediately
formed schools of design, _à l’instar_ of those on the
continent; not from a generous love of art, but, confessedly,
from the well-grounded fear of loss in trade. The members of
this academy hailed the measure with joy, as the harbinger of
a better sense of what is due to our intellectual position
in Europe, and they have willingly given their gratuitous
attention to its conduct. But the instruction of youth must be
accompanied with the higher prospect of employment and honour
in national works; and we are happy in the reflection that the
decoration of the parliamentary palace at Westminster, and
the interest taken by an illustrious personage in that great
object, hold out to us the hopes of equality at least in these
noble studies with the improving countries of the continent,
and the opening of a new career for genius and industry.”...

“Academies were established as depositories of learning and
practice in the fine arts, and the means of their preservation
and transmission through the vicissitudes of the times. The
enlightened and commercial Colbert had seen how in Greece and
ancient Rome, and in modern Rome, under his own countryman,
the Constable Bourbon, a public calamity might disperse and
ruin them for half a century, without some fixed and corporate
body and abode. He never dreamt that, in the absence of the
fostering patronage and employment of government, the Academy
could do more than fulfil these negative objects. The Royal
Academy had done much more than this—it had sustained the
credit of the country in fine art, and had reared talents which
were now part and parcel of English history. Through good and
evil report it had nourished the flame; and it was consolatory
to find that they had transmitted it to better times, through
long and adverse circumstances; for now they had the happiness
to see two Professors in the Universities of London, the
British Institute of Architects, large public patronage in
Art-Unions, &c., and a growing interest in the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge towards fine art generally.”

The professor next contended for the necessity of an intimate and active union of architecture with the sister arts of painting and sculpture, shewing how in Egypt, where these were less regarded than subsequently in Greece, a deficiency existed in the justness of proportions, and a seeming neglect of order and regularity.

Of his first course of two years back, he remarked, that as the history of art was the only safe foundation of study, so he had chosen that as the commencement of the discharge of his duties as a lecturer. “The second course (that of last year) had treated chiefly the literature of art.” Books and the authorities that lived in them, such as Vitruvius, the old Italian and French authors, and, above all, the admirable Alberto, were not to be discredited, as is too much the fashion now-a-days.

“As well,” said he, “might the lawyer or the divine dispense with books, as the architect. In the very dawn of literature the architect required to be learned. In the Memorabilia of Xenophon, Socrates inquires, ‘But what employment do you intend to excel in, O Euthedemus, that you collect so many books? is it architecture? for this art, too, you will find no little knowledge necessary.’

“A familiar example of the great utility of these researches had been given in the quotation from Philibert de l’Orme (lib. ii. c. xi.), of the specification for concrete, written in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and corresponding precisely with the recent so-called discovery of this method of securing foundations. During the last century our architects had discontinued the ancient practice, having adopted the most fallacious fashion of wood-sleepers, to the ruin of many fine buildings. It was, then, the ignorance of this invaluable and most instructive and amusing author, Philibert de l’Orme, which had led to so fatal an error....

“In the present course the Professor purposed the consideration of the more difficult, but no less important, injunction of the Academic regulations, ‘that these lectures should be calculated to form the taste of the students, to instruct them in the laws and principles of composition, and fit them for a critical examination of structures.’”

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

A PROBLEM.

We have been much pleased with a little geometrical puzzle, which has lately come under our notice, and, thinking that it may afford equal amusement (perhaps not unprofitable) to our readers, we have thought it worth while inserting it in our pages. The puzzle or problem, as we may term it, was thus proposed to us, and we give it to the public in the same words. A lady was desirous of covering a _square_ room with a carpet, and wishing to employ an irregular piece (vide cut) which she had in her possession, and which was _equal in superficial extent of surface_ to her room, was greatly at a loss how to fit it exactly. She mentioned her difficulty to a friend, who immediately put an end to her trouble by cutting the carpet with _only two straight_ cuts in such a manner that all the pieces when united formed a perfect square, exactly covering the room.—Query, how was it cut?

Miscellanea.

CONGRESS OF ARCHITECTS.—The first Congress of Architects held its meeting at Leipsic, on the 14th November, 1842. There were 547 architects present. Next year the Congress is to be held at Bomberg, in Bavaria, when it is expected that a considerable number of English architects will attend.

MONUMENT TO BURNS’ HIGHLAND MARY.—This monument has now been completed over the grave of Highland Mary, in the West churchyard, Greenock. The erection is more of the Roman than the Grecian style of architecture, is pyramidical in form, and may be said to be divided into three compartments, the cornice-stones between which are beautifully and elaborately carved. The first, or lower compartment, contains the inscription tablet. The second bears a bas-relief of Burns and Mary Campbell, representing their parting scene, when they plighted troth and exchanged Bibles across “the stream around the Castle o’ Montgomery.” The artist has been peculiarly happy in depicting the position of the loving pair at this hallowed parting; and few who have seen a correct likeness of the bard can fail to recognize it upon the beautiful Ayrshire stone which has been used, although it has been necessary, to be in keeping with the truth, to impart to the features a more juvenile cast than those in which Robert Burns is usually represented. The third compartment contains a female figure, emblematical of Grief, bending over an urn, which her arms encircle, and upon which is carved the word “Mary.” Above her head, and almost at the apex of the pyramid, a star, with rays is cut, in remembrance of the beautiful invocation in “Mary in Heaven.” The inscription on the monument is simply couched as follows:—“Sacred to Genius and Love—to Burns and Highland Mary.” The monument stands about seventeen feet high, was erected at the cost of 1,000_l._, and is by far the most imposing object in this old churchyard.

DUKE OF ORLEANS.—A fine marble bust of this illustrious prince has been placed in the “Salle de Conferences,” at the Chamber of Deputies. Its merits as a work of art are of a very lofty order, and it resemblance to the deceased is remarkably striking.

THE CITY ARTICLE.—In consequence of the late rain, umbrellas rose, and pattens were in demand. Consols were done at 90; and so was our reporter at the White Horse Cellar, by a Jew, who sold pencils. We don’t know much about India stocks, but we have been induced to invest a little capital in India handkerchiefs. We lately had an interview with a broker about a week’s rent in arrear, and found him a regular “Bear.” Tartans look lively, and broad cloth is flat, so is small beer. Feathers are buoyant, and tallow is low, especially at evening parties. We offered to make a purchase of sugar, but, tin being scarce, our offer was declined. This changeable weather, and the pressure of leather, affects our corn to some extent. The only time-bargain we have lately made was with a cabman, and he had the best of it.—_Punch._

CRUEL ASPERSION.—Rivarol, speaking of Mirabeau, said—“That man would do any thing for money—even a good action.”

ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION.

Under this head we shall give notices of pending competitions, and shall feel obliged by our friends forwarding us the accounts of what may fall in their way of this character. We shall also be happy to give engravings of the selected designs; and think that, by such publicity, the present very defective system of decision may be amended. Publicity is sometimes a remedy when more direct measures have failed.

KINGSTON UNION.—DESIGNS FOR AN INFIRMARY.—To be sent in by the 6th of March.

NEW CHURCH, TORQUAY.—11th March.

ALMSHOUSES, SPALDING.—6th March.

ALMSHOUSES, RINGWOOD.—1st March.

COUNTY ASYLUM, OXFORD.—10th March.

NOTICES OF CONTRACTS.

The following contracts are advertised in different papers, and we have kept a register of the particulars of each at the office, which may be referred to on application. In the continuation of this plan, which we flatter ourselves will be of service to our readers, material assistance will be rendered by the forwarding of papers from our country friends, or by any other means of notification, of which they may choose to avail themselves.

NEW CHURCH AT HILDENBOROUGH, NEAR TUNBRIDGE, KENT.—Tenders to be sent on the 2nd of March. Mr. Ewan Christian, 44, Bloomsbury Square, Architect.

RAILWAY STATION BUILDINGS, AND OTHER MASONRY, &C., HUNT’S BANK, MANCHESTER.—Plans open from the 13th of February; tenders to be sent in on the 6th of March. Mr. Gooch, Oldham Road, Manchester.

Also, FORMATION AND COMPLETION OF THE BRANCH RAILWAY TO HALIFAX, 1 mile and 55 chains.—The same time and parties.

WEST LONDON RAILWAY.—Contractors to attend at 35, Great George Street, Westminster, at 11 o’clock of the 20th inst. Tenders to be sent in on the 3rd of March.

IRON BRIDGE, GREAT YARMOUTH.—Engineers, Messrs. Birch, 3, Cannon Row, Westminster, 20th February to the 11th of March.

PUMPS AND WELLS, METROPOLIS ROADS.—Tenders to be sent in on the 22nd inst.

GREENWICH UNION, ADDITIONS.—Mr. R. P. Brown, Architect, Greenwich; time for receiving tenders, Feb. 23.

* * * * *

IRON DWELLING HOUSE.—A large iron mansion has been built by Mr. W. Laycock, of Old Hall-street, in this town, the inventor of a new principle in the application of iron to building purposes. The fabric, which has been made in separate plates, is now erecting for the purpose of public exhibition previous to its transmission to Africa, where it will be used as a palace by one of the native kings. This singular building has three floors exclusive of an attic. The basement story is 7 feet high; the second, 10 feet; and the third, in which is the grand suite of state apartments, is 12 feet high. In these his sable majesty will give his state audiences. The principal reception room, the presence chamber, is 50 feet by 30, and ornamented throughout in a style of most gorgeous magnificence. To counteract any annoyance from heat, the inventor has contrived the means of admitting a current of air, which can be regulated at pleasure, to pass through an aperture left between the outer plate and inner panel.—_Liverpool Albion._

The late appointment of Mr. Donaldson, as Professor of Architecture to the London University, Mr. Hosking being previously inducted to the similar appointment of King’s College, are significant signs of the times as to the growing importance of architectural practice. Mr. Vignoles is Professor of Engineering at the former institution, Mr. Dyce is the appointed professor at King’s College of the Arts of Design and Architectural Enrichment, and is also Superintendent of the very important School of Design, founded by Government at Somerset House. It will be our business, as we proceed, to make our readers acquainted with the facilities and advantages offered by these and other institutions and appointments.

* * * * *

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_The readers of THE BUILDER will be pleased to observe, that although it appears in the form of a Magazine, our own mind is not made up or reconciled to its continuing in that character, or at any rate in that character alone. We shall look forward with some anxiety to the period when we should be enabled to make it a complete Weekly Journal, and this cannot be done without comprehending news; neither do we think it economy that it should be otherwise—economy of time and economy of means are involved in it, particularly with the workman. A newspaper is to him a desideratum, and why should he be driven to something like a double reading, and the purchase of two papers: one containing a good deal of matter of no interest in the world to him, when so ready a means of combining both is offered as in this instance!_

_It is requested that where there has been any irregularity in the transmission of THE BUILDER, notice will be forwarded immediately to the office._

_Received Mr. Freeman Roe’s small tract, entitled “~The Common Pump, &c.~” which, as it may be practically interesting to many, we shall take an early opportunity of transcribing from._

_Lithographic print of the Wesleyan Theological Institution, Richmond, Andrew Trimen, Esq., architect. We shall notice this structure at an early opportunity._

“_Palmer’s Patent Glyphography, or Engraved Drawing._”

_Kelly’s Post Office Almanack._

_Design and explanation of “A self-supporting Institution” for the Labouring Classes._

_We are also preparing a weekly table of prices of Building materials; and a long list of Buildings in progress, and contemplated. All additions to our knowledge on this head will be thankfully received._

_We have in preparation several articles:—1st. On Wood Pavements. 2nd. “The Metropolitan Model Institution, for improving the dwellings of the Industrious Classes.” 3rd. On Casinos in public parks and gardens. 4th. The Continuation of the Review of Bardwell’s Temples. 5th. Notice of Palmer’s Glyphography, &c._

TABLE OF AMUSEMENTS.

PLACES OF AMUSEMENT OPEN GRATIS TO THE PUBLIC.

BRITISH MUSEUM.—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 10 to 4.

NATIONAL GALLERY.—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 10 to 5.

SIR J. SOANE’S MUSEUM.—Every Tuesday and Friday, till July.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE.—Every day except Saturday and Sunday, before 2.

WINDSOR CASTLE STATE ROOMS.—Daily, except Friday.

SOCIETY OF ARTS.—Every day except Wednesday.

EAST INDIA HOUSE MUSEUM.—Every Saturday, from 11 to 3.

ST. PAUL’S.—Every day, from 9 to 10, and from 3 to 4.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.—Ditto.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

COMMERCIAL and GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE, ANNUITY, ENDOWMENT, and LOAN ASSOCIATION.

112, Cheapside, London.

Capital 500,000_l._ in shares of 50_l._ each. Deposit 2_l._ per share.

DIRECTORS.

Henry George Ward, Esq., M.P., Chairman.
John Aylwin, Esq., Dulwich.
Robert Bastow, Esq., 20, Surrey-place, Old Kent-road.
William Bastow, Esq., 20, Surrey-place, Old Kent-road.
Henry Cornfoot, Esq., Old Palace, Richmond.
Adam Duff, Esq., Morden-hill, Blackheath.
Henry Hind Edwards, Esq., Park Village East, Regent’s-park.
Edward Evans, Esq., 2, Stones’-end, Borough.
Robert Meggay, Esq., 38, Great Tower-street.
Richard Pope, Esq., 11, North Terrace, Camberwell.
John Richards, Esq., 17, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars, and Reading.
Thomas Bush Saunders, Esq., 19, Lincoln’s-inn-fields.

Rates of premium calculated on as low a rate as is consistent with the safety of the assured and the stability of the Company.

A septennial division of the profits, either in the way of bonuses, or in the reduction of premiums; two-thirds to the assured, and one-third to the proprietors.

A system of loan upon personal or other securities, provided the party borrowing assures his life for double the amount he receives.

Policies which shall have been assigned six months as a bona fide security not void by death from suicide, duelling, or the hands of justice.

No entrance fee or other charge beyond the policy stamp.

All matters in dispute, where no fraud is suspected, to be referred to arbitration.

Claims payable three months after death, or earlier on receiving a discount.

A liberal commission to all parties bringing business.

Premiums payable yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly.

Medical referees paid by the Office in every case referred to them for their professional opinions.

Interest at the rate of 5_l._ per cent. allowed on the paid-up capital.

Applications for the remaining shares, agencies, and prospectuses, to be made to the Secretary, 112, Cheapside.

Board days, Mondays and Thursdays, at half-past One o’clock.

FREDERICK LAWRANCE, Secretary.

* * * * *

WILLIAM PATTEN and CO., WINDOW-GLASS, SHEET LEAD, WHITE LEAD, VARNISH and COLOUR MERCHANTS, respectfully inform the Trade and their Friends in general, that they have removed from their late Residence and Places of Business in Little Distaff-lane, and Little Knight-rider-street, to more convenient Premises, situate No. 20, OLD FISH-STREET, DOCTORS’-COMMONS.

W. P. and CO. will be happy to forward Prices by post, but decline to publish them, conceiving it to be injurious to the Trade.

* * * * *

LAWRENCE and CO., 55, PARLIAMENT-STREET, WESTMINSTER, and 10, YORK-PLACE, LAMBETH, Successors to the Patentees and Manufacturers in Zinc to her Majesty the Queen Dowager. Original makers of Malleable Sheet Zinc Bars and Wire, Drawers of Tubes, and Sash-bars. Perforated Zinc for Larders, Safes, and Blinds. Roofs and Verandahs covered with Zinc. Rain Pipes, Chimney Pipes, Cowls, &c. Gutters, Ridges, and Sky Lights. Baths and Zinc Door-plates.

N.B. The Trade supplied. Patent Smoke-curers, and Chimney-shafts, wholesale, retail, and for export. Fine Swedish Steel.

* * * * *

WEAK LEGS, KNEES, and ANKLES.—Surgeons in England, Ireland, and Scotland continue to recommend BAILEY’S ELASTIC LACED STOCKINGS, KNEE CAPS, and ANKLE SOCKS. They are light, cool, and warranted to wash. Since the reduction of postage, afflicted persons in the country can have any bandage by post for a few pence, by forwarding their measure. The particular property of the Stocking is to give constant support in varicose veins, weak, swollen, or dropsical affections of the legs, or in any case requiring equable pressure. The Knee-Cap will be of great service where the knee-joint requires support from accident to the pan of the knee, after inflammation, rheumatic or gouty affections, or in any case where, from weakness of the part, support may be required.

Laced Stockings, 18s. 6d.; Elastic Knee-Caps, 10s. 6d.; Patent Trusses, properly adapted, 12s. 6d.; Hunting Belts, 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. each. Ladies’ Belts of every kind.

Mrs. Bailey waits on Ladies.

Rupture Trusses properly adapted to suit the case.

Address 418, Oxford-street, London.