We chanced to spy in the window of a print-shop,
the other day, a little engraving of the intended fa9ade of the new British.Museum ; which we were assured by the publisher is authentic. A more meagre, frigid, commonplace design, no tyro: in his first year's pupilage could have tuned out. It consists of a wide, shallow, entrance-portico, of eight Ionic columns, with a blank pediment, engrossing nearly the whole of the centre; and two projecting wings, terminated by porticoes of six Irric columns without pediments; the whole façade presenting a con- tmuous colonnade, with a window between each column: in short, it is a repetition of the poor and characterless design of the inner court, ex- cept that a few of the columns are disengaged from the wall in the mid- dle and at the ends. And this is to be the front of the British Museum! Certainly it is a worthy companion to the National Gallery. The treasures of sculpture and painting--the works of nature, art, literature, and science, collected by this country—will be lodged in two of the most paltry buildings that architectural ingenuity could well devise. The ostentation of ornament, the feeble attempt to attain elegance, the affectation of classical purity, in both structures, unfortunately challenge that notice which the absence of all pretension alone could avert from their utter insignificance. People cannot pass them by unnoticed if they would : the ludicrous efforts of littleness to ape the aspect of grandeur, unfortunately provoke merriment. Foreigners have in the " National Gallery" a ,perpetual source of ridicule ; and the Nelson column will be a fresh laughingstock: must the British Museum also be a reproach to the taste of the country ? The only way to prevent it from becoming so, is by a strong expression of public opinion, and an urgent "pressure from without," promptly and incessantly applied. If another architect may not be had, still a better design might be ob- tained. The only redeeming feature of that tame and tawdry structure the New Royal Exchange—its portico—was made what it is through the disgust excited by the original design, which was as shallow as Sir Rormrtx SMIRSE'S for the British Museum. Architecture will never cease to be sacrificed to the spirit of jobbery, until the wholesome control of public opinion is exercised over official indolence and inca- pacity.
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