Yesterday week Mr. Layard gave occasion for a good grumble
in the House of Commons about the designs for the new University of London. Lord John Manners wisely promised to suspend the building operations till the elevation could be seen and criticized by the House, and the Duke of Buckingham made the same promise to Lord Granville in the House of Lords on Monday. There is really some need for criticism. The proposed .elevation is in what is called the Italian Gothic style, and looks bin a building mutilated on each wing. The alternative classical .elevation proposed by the same architect,—a man who has clone some good things, Mr. Pennethorne,—is still worse, and looks like -a design for Day and Martin's. We suppose that now that Par- liament has had its attention drawn to the subject, an elevation more suitable to the style of Burlington House, in the immediate neighbourhood of which it will stand, will be selected, and we trust something rather more sightly than either of those at present suggested.
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