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plans for every description of building, it behoves society to protect itself against false and presumptuous professors in an art, partly æsthetic, but to a greater extent, essentially practical. The word architect means chief workman,' and not as commonly accepted, 'draughtsman.' As architecture is now practised, it is contended that without certain necessary safeguards, such as exist in the legal and other so-called learned professions, the public interests are not sufficiently protected. It has been remarked that architectural works should be the utterance of public sympathy and should not be treated by those interested in them in the spirit of a clique. Architecture is daily becoming more depressed, faulty, and full of shams, from the interference of sciolists and connoisseurs. An architectural work is chiefly valuable for its details, but so long as the designs for buildings are selected by men who know nothing whatever of the correctness or incorrectness of those details, and who are guided by those calling themselves architects,' who, in their turn, studiously ignore the art-workman and the intellectual labour of the artisan, so long will money be squandered on unsightly buildings, and our public edifices be destitute of artistic power and feeling. The public being wholly uninformed on such subjects generally defer to the opinion of these sciolists and connoisseurs, who having neither confidence in themselves nor in any architectural draughtsman, advertise throughout the length and breadth of the land for designs, fondly imagining that they will obtain thereby the best plans at the least price. Facts prove, however, that no first-class piece of architecture has, in any part of the world, been put up from a competitive design. No architect who loves his profession simply as an art, and for the pleasure he derives from its pursuit, but only he who regards his calling as a money-making one, will risk his reputation on the competition die.'

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Building committees, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are composed of men unable to judge of the merits or demerits of the plans submitted to them, and as a consequence, a man who thoroughly understands his profession is very chary of exposing his work to an ordeal he cannot precisely gauge. He cannot tell that his judges are not ignorant; he does not know that they are not venal and partial, and therefore does not like to run the chance of an inferior work, with public acclamation, being preferred to his superior one. The premiums offered by these building committees for what they consider the best design are so despicable, that even a man who is doing a good business and does not perchance understand architecture, either as an art or a science, will not withdraw his attention from a cer tainty for an uncertainty.

These building committee men seem to forget the old saying, 'that a labourer is worthy of his hire.' They forget that a doctor is paid his bill, even if his patient has taken adulterated drugs and died a lingering death. They forget that a lawyer is paid his fee, even if he has made faulty pleadings, and thereby lost the widow her last mite. They forget that a merchant does not buy a cargo of wheat or import a thousand dollars' worth of a 'special line' of goods or the chance of Mr. So-and-so taking either the one or the other off his hands. Physicians and barristers do not come in crowds, and bring hundreds of prescriptions and deeds made on speculation for a man's approval, yet it is no uncommon thing for so called architects to swarm like bees round a man and ask him to take a pick from their rejected wares. A man who writes 'Architect' after his name has a great variety of things to know and understand, totally distinct from the qualifications of a mere draughtsman. He should be a judge of all kinds of material used in building, their qualities, properties, strength, durability, etc., together with their

various methods of mechanical workmanship, and, likewise, should possess a thorough knowledge of English so as to write out a clear and unambiguous specification, in order that justice may be done both to his employer and to the mechanics who carry out his plans. Inasmuch as many valuable works on architecture are written in French and Latin, a knowledge of these two languages is a decided advantage, though perhaps not a necessity; yet without the capacity of reading any other language than one's own, a man can scarcely be said to be liberally educated. A mere draughtsman--a man who has spent but three or five years in an office is totally unable to acquire a sufficient knowledge of both the aesthetic and practical features of architecture, so as to be entrusted with the designing and execution of a building of any importance. The average time that a young man, say from sixteen to eighteen years of age, spends in an architect's office is between two and three years, and by the time he is twentyone years old, he casts his bread on the waters, and puts forth his sign as 'Architect.' Full of self-importance, and with builders anxious to do any work he may chance to obtain, flattering him and paying apparent deference to his architectural skill, he ceases to study, even if he has the inclination, and the consequence is, if he succeeds in business, he assists, with others of the same stamp, in putting up buildings in which the five orders are burlesqued; in erecting edifices which are nauseous imitations of the Farnese Palace; and in constructing churches with tin spires and flying buttresses in honour of Him who hates a lie.

Architects who are in the habit of competing, being aware that the men composing building-committees and who select the designs, do not understand the meaning of a line when drawn, or whether the specification is correctly written, use all their skill to catch them by glare and frippery, and

in this way a once noble art is degraded. Competent architects are set on one side because they will not pander to ignorance and conceit, and buildings are put up which remain till they are either burnt or pulled down, or crumble away from faulty construction-memorials of the folly of those who selected the designs and of the incompetence and want of experience of those who made the plans. Competition amongst architects, it is contended, puts a premium on quackery and fraud by its almost forcing men to display their designs in the most meretricious garb, based upon a false estimate of the cost, in order that they may have a show of superiority over other plans that may be chaste and pure and which rest upon a true estimate of the cost. Competition nominally aims at obtaining the best skill in the market, but fails for the reasons above stated, and also from the fact that one who has been but two or three years at the business may hit off a design or plan that captivates the uninitiated, and, from want of skill and experience, may make such errors in his detail-drawings and specifications as to cause the expenditure of thousands of dollars more

than the contemplated outlay, in order to render the 'captivating building' even fit for occupancy.

Architecture cannot raise its head without wealth, and since wealth is now more diffused than formerly, and not confined (as in days gone by) to the educated and upper classes of society, it has long been under popular influences which are always fickle, unsettled, and more or less inimical to the spread of true art.

Painting, which is essentially a fine art, has undergone the same deterioration; the object of the present race of artists being to paint pictures to suit the masses, but not to raise the standard of art. Inasmuch as people are surrounded in daily life by bricks and mortar, and as the outward eye is naturally affected by what it sees, it

forms an estimate from the objects presented to it. It is common to hear men, otherwise tolerably informed, openly avow that they do not understand architecture, but that they know well what pleases the eye. Such people, however, forget that unless that which is continually around them and before their eyes, is more or less refined, they are totally unable, except by study and contemplation, to form a correct idea of what is chaste and elegant. People who have, from early childhood, heard no music except that which meets their ears from the handorgan on the street, would have but a poor appreciation of Mozart and Beethoven. The man who says he knows what pleases his eye in matters of architecture, and sets himself up as a connoisseur, when his whole life has been spent in a place where nothing but bricks and mortar, heaped up without regard to either art or science, have been constantly before him, and who has never read about or studied the art, is as much able to give an intelligent opinion upon what is correct, chaste, and pure in architecture, as the man whose knowledge and taste of music has been acquired by listening to the soft and dulcet strains of the street-organ. In both of these imag

inary cases it is apparent that something more than good eyesight and perfect hearing is necessary to appreciate or understand what is truly correct and pleasing in art. In truth, it is cultivation or training, and without that, no man, whatever his abilities may be, can give a correct opinion upon anything relating to architecture, sculpture, painting, or music. The poet who wrote

It is the mind that sees, the outward eyes
Present the object, but the mind descries,

knew full well the necessity and value of cultivation.

From this lack of knowledge and the uncritical faculty of the public, it comes that the profession of architecture has in its ranks men totally incompetent,

who yet, at the same time, hold, in popular estimation, more or less prominent positions.

In order that the practice of architecture should not be followed by incompetent men, and that money should not be wasted, and our towns studded with unsightly and badly constructed buildings, it is contended that the Legislature should throw its protecting ægis around architecture, and compel every one who follows it as a profession and a means of livelihood to undergo, in common with land-surveyors, lawyers, and others, an examination as to his skill and capacity.

Competition amongst architects has lowered the standard of the artisan, inasmuch as the former having, in but few instances, sufficient knowledge to guide the latter in the conduct of his art, prefer employing one who knows just enough to keep them straight in matters of strength and stability to one who is so thorough a mechanic as not to be persuaded to violate his art by carrying into execution any crudity or absurd novelty in matters of detail.

Another cause of the decline in building and architecture is, that cheap labour is carrying the day against skilled, and so long as that is the case, the thorough and intelligent mechanic must lose ground, and his place be supplied by men who have never served their apprenticeship to what they profess to follow. Men who have no pride in their art, have, as a rule, no character either for skill or integrity to maintain. A mechanic, now-a-days, is not employed because he is skilled and honest in the conduct of his craft, and consequently has no inducement to earn a good name in these respects, inasmuch as he knows that the veriest tyro will be employed, if he undertakes to do the work at a lower price. A good mechanic, for his skill, and the benefits he bestows on society, is enti tled to a better position than he now holds, and it is much to be doubted whether more real ability is not required by those who execute the finest

joiner work, put life into stone, turn an intricate vaulted arch, and make the exquisitely wrought engines that drive our looms, railway cars. and steamboats, than by those who sell tea, sugar, dry goods, and grain, or who dabble in stocks. The system of suretyship also works prejudicially in matters of building, and causes, in many instances, good and reliable mechanics to be ignored, by placing skill at a discount and money at a premium. Suretyship, moreover, adds to, instead of diminishes, the cost of building, simply for the reason that if a mechanic is skilled in his calling and has not the means to procure the necessary funds as a guarantee for the carrying out of his contract, his tender is rejected and the work is given, often at a higher price, to one who may not be as skilled, but who is able to furnish the requisite guarantee. In large and heavy undertakings, especially in those of railways, the system of causing the contractor to find suretyship, moreover, enhances the cost of construction, while no advantage at all accrues to the public either in the quality of the work or in securing the completion of the contract by the time specified. Were the system of suretyship abolished, there is no doubt but that work would be done cheaper and better, and contracts would be carried out by skilled men, and not, as is often the case now, by a man who has money, but has no knowledge personally of construction. We in Canada are apt to look to England for whatever is excellent in the arts and sciences, and doubtless the Motherland, in many instances, is a good exemplar. But notwithstanding the vast sums of money that have been spent in England on ecclesiastical edifices during the last quarter of a century, there is nodisputing the fact that the architects there have put up no buildings comparable with those of the mediæval craftsmen. The main reason of this is, that architecture, even there, has also been under the controlling influence of sciolists and connoisseurs, and that any

thing which showed that wealth had been spent upon it has been mistaken for art.

The restorations that have been made by such men as Scott, Street, Burgess, and others, have detracted from the beauties of the original works, and the people of England should rejoice to know that Dean Stanley and other architectural amateurs were foiled in their almost successful scheme of 'restoring and beautifying' St. Paul's Cathedral. As with us, the draughtsman there has been exalted, the thorough architect passed over, and the art-workman entirely ignored; and until the mere draughtsman finds his proper level, and the competent architect works hand-in-hand with the art workman, no improvement will take place, and the public will be the sufferers. A short time since, in Toronto, architects were invited to compete for a large building, which drew out a number of designs. The building-committee had not amongst its members a single person possessing any knowledge of plans or of architecture. The most highly-coloured and flaunty drawing, with statues here and there on the façades, was chosen. The architect who made the design knew full well that the statues could never be put up at the cost, and his only object in showing them on the design was to catch the unwary, and give a better aspect to the building than it would have without them. The ruse succeeded; the design with imaginary statues was accepted, but, of course, they were never put up, no places having been left for such ornamentations by the fraudulent designer and the no less criminal committee. In church architecture especially, there ought to be, above all things, truth and honesty of construction, yet in no class of buildings is there more sham and dishonesty. A building erected to the Almighty ought not to appear better than it is by artificial means. No

thing is to be more deprecated than making a church appear rich and beautiful in the eyes of men, yet at the same time full of trick and of falsehood.

All plaster, cast-iron, and composition ornaments, painted like stone, are the veriest impositions, and notably unfit for a sacred edifice. 'Omne secundum ordinem et honeste fiat.' Let people build according to their means, and consistently with truth, and not endeavour to aim at grandeur by fictitious effect. Plain stone and brick work, and wooden principals and rafters impress the mind. with feelings of reverential awe which never can be produced by cement and plaster imitations of stone groining and elaborate tracery, any more than by tin spires, tin pinnacles, and tin flying buttresses, which in these days are stuck about churches in painful profusion.

From want of knowledge, it is no uncommon thing to find the entrance gates and archway to a cemetery adorned with pagan instead of Christian emblems. Had the Romans not practised burning instead of burying their dead, they would not have used cinerary urns; had they believed in the glories of the Resurrection, they would not have sacrificed bulls and goats, and decorated the friezes with the heads of goats and oxen, nor placed the inverted torch of despair on their mausoleums. They were at least consistent we are grossly inconsistent. In matters purely mechanical, the architect of the present day has far superior advantages to his professional brother of ancient or mediæval days,

and should avail himself of such improvements, confine them to their legitimate uses, and prevent their being substituted for nobler arts.

There is too much reason to fear that the wealth and art-taste of the present day lean towards ready-made manufacture. Nevertheless, castings

for ornamental sculpture should be entirely rejected as bringing about monotonous repetition in place of beautiful variety, flatness of execution for bold relief, while encouraging cheap and false magnificence.

Branding-irons were formerly used for marking slaves, and most appropriate is their use for marking owners' and makers' names on carriages and machinery; but when used to replace the sculptor's art they tend to subvert a principle, and in this way mechanical inventions in untrained and unskilled hands become degrading and objectionable.

A piece of architecture differs from a painting, inasmuch as the latter can, when finished, be concealed from view if found to be discreditable, while the former, if faulty and mean, remains a public eye-sore and mars the beauty, it may be, of nature. For this reason, and many others, it behoves the public to know that those following the profession of architecture are educated and skilled men. At the present time any one, whether skilled or not, may set up as an architect; but for the public weal, considering the vast importance and varied ramifications of the building trade, it is necessary that the Legislature should protect its interests.

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