IV. NEW PALACE OF WESTMINSTER.

BEFORE We attempt a description of the new Seat of British Legislation, called, in association with the monarchy, the New Palace of Westminster, let us notice some of the surrounding objects. And first let us glance at the line of buildings immediately opposite Westminster Abbey, stretching along Margaret-street, and shutting out for the present the view of the land front of the new pile. It consists, first, of the Law Courts, each with its public entrance into Westminster Hall at the back; next, of the buildings that have been used since the fire of 1834, for the sittings of the Lords and Commons. A strange medley this line of exterior here presents-bald looking Tudor architecture-private looking doors, opening into apparently unimportant private residences-old decayed brick-work-wooden erections towering up, and running about in various directions-and over all the gorgeous architecture of the new pile gradually stretching forth its bulk, preparatory, as it were, to thrusting the whole altogether out of its way. That House of Lords, which has so lately ceased to be used, contains portions of the walls of the chamber in which Edward the Confessor died, and which possibly from that circumstance was first named St. Edward's chamber. Subsequently it was called the Painted Chamber, under which name it will be remembered for centuries after the last vestige of it shall have disappeared. It was in that chamber the warrant for the execution of Charles the First was signed. There all parliaments for several centuries used to be opened-though not subsequently used by them in their sittings. There oil painting was in use two centuries before Van Eyck, as we used to think, discovered the art. It was long a matter of wonder what the name Painted Chamber" could mean, until, on the removal of some old tapestry in 1800, the walls and window-jambs were found to be covered with pictures representing the battles of the Maccabees, incidents relating to the life of Edward the Confessor, and other subjects. The accounts of the payments made for mending these paintings are still in existence, and are contained in a roll of the 20th of Edward the First's reign. This was not the original House of Lords. That building was taken after the fire of 1834 to make the present House of Commons. In looking then upon this latter building, which will also soon disappear under the advances of the new pile, we look upon the scene of those historical events which have been indissolubly connected with the locality of the Upper House.

Previous to its destination to that purpose, it had been used as and was known by the name of the Court of Requests, because there the masters of the court received and answered petitions or requests for justice from all parties. Going back still farther into the depths of the past, we find the same chamber called the White Hall, also the Lesser Hall, and lastly, probably originally, the Hall simply, or the Great Hall, for it is supposed to have been the original hall of the Confessor's palace, and to have descended to the position and name of the Lesser Hall when Rufus built his new banquetting-hall-that which has since been so famous as Westminster Hall.

And which, then, is the old House of Commons, we naturally ask, on finding that neither of the houses raised since the fire of 1834, was originally used by the popular representatives? If, standing by the base of Henry VII.'s Chapel, and with the Abbey Chapter House behind us, we look directly opposite, we see before us, over the houses of which we have been speaking, the gorgeous magnificence of a kind of wing transept

that projects from the centre of the new pile. Within that transept, which extends up to the central tower, and is lighted by magnificent cathedral-like windows, we find St. Stephen's Porch, and beyond that St. Stephen's Hall, the latter being on the site of St. Stephen's Chapel-the old House of Commons, which was utterly destroyed by the fire of 1834. It is supposed to have been founded by King Stephen in honour of the proto-martyr, and was rebuilt and sumptuously decorated during the reigns of the first three Edwards. The college being suppressed at the Reformation, St. Stephen's Chapel was turned by Edward VI. into the Commons' meeting-house; who then ceased to be indebted to the Abbot of Westminster's uncertain hospitality; and so matters remained until the fire of 1834. The pictorial wealth of its walls remained long unsuspected; but on the Union with Ireland in 1800, alterations were made which led to the discovery that the internal walls had been most gorgeously decorated with sculpture, paintings, and gilding; that the exquisite tracery of the windows had been filled with stained and painted glass; and that in a word, the whole interior had been of the most sumptuous description.

Turning from these vestiges of the past, and which will for the most part soon cease even to be that, we turn to one and unquestionably the most magnificent feature of the old palace, one filled to overflowing with those great events which nourish the national intellect and aspiration,-we turn to Westminster Hall, which happily belongs to the future pile, as indissolubly as to the past. Let us be grateful that the fire spared that. Rufus, it is well known, built this hall.

The very uninteresting-looking Law Courts suggest on such a site extremely interesting reminiscences. Here law has grown up, like the parliament, from a state of entire dependence into a very vigorous individual strength; both were nothing more than separate records of the king's will-the one dealing with the moneys he wanted-the other with the law he was obliged to dispense, and which originally formed no slight personal exaction, when he sat himself on the bench, and might be appealed to by all comers.

We may here briefly mention that the Law Courts comprise the Queen's Bench, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Common Pleas, the Lord Chancellor's Court, and the Rolls Court. They are at once uninteresting in their appearance, and fortunately they are temporary: they will all be removed in the progress of the new pile.

Upon that work we now commence our survey in New Palace Yard, which at present is open to Margaret-street on the west side, and bounded by the houses in Bridgestreet on the north. But if we look upon the New Clock-tower in the corner near the bridge, we see indications of what is intended with regard to this space. An immense blank, suggesting the shape and size of a cathedral window, is filled up with brickwork in the lower portion of the tower, and contrasts oddly with the finished elegance of all other parts of the structure. That is the future opening to a wing which will start from the Clock-tower, displace all the houses on that side of Bridge-Street, extend up to Margaret-street, there cross to the corner occupied by the law courts, and then return to the side of Westminster Hall; thus inclosing the whole area. On the other side of Westminster Hall the same line of enclosure will be continued to the new façade of the west front. Here, there will be arches of ingress and egress to and from the Star Chamber Court, where will be the chief entrance for Members. A similar arch, but of greater magnificence, will connect this quadrangle with the world of London without, at the angle of its north and west fronts, in Margaret-street. It is proposed to use some portions of these new buildings as public refreshment and meeting-rooms, and also for offices connected with parliamentary business.

The west or land front of the New Houses will ultimately be the most picturesque

and rich, because the most varied in its surface, of all the fronts. Two different aspects of it may be briefly noted as peculiarly fine. The one is from a point nearly opposite Westminster Hall, with the Clock-tower, and the first or level portion of the façade on the left, and from which point you look between the Hall and the façade, over the Star Chamber Court to the building that emerges crosswise from the central tower, looking like what it will in part be, a National Valhalla. The second is from Henry VII.'s Chapel, and commands the end and a side view of St. Stephen's Hall and Porch. A vast high-pitched gable, enclosing a window of the grandest dimensions, with slight tall square pinnacles on each side, and large turret towers on each side of these again, while to the right rises the grand bulk of the Central Tower, stage after stage,—these are the first features that arrest the eye on looking at the side (or southern front, it may be called,) of the wing in question. Then, looking more closely, to understand the general impression of wealth, amounting to lavish profusion, that is conveyed to the eye even in the first glance, we find these tall square pinnacles contain two statues-Edward III. and Henry VII.; that the top of the gable comprises three, namely, William Rufus, Richard II., and William IV. in whose reign the pile was commenced, all these statues being as magnificently environed as art can make them; that the triangular space between the windows and the gable-roof above is filled with the arms, badges, and cognizances of Richard II. in high relief, under canopies; that the turret-towers, at each corner of the end of the wings are pierced through and through, so that the light reveals-while, as it were, helping to create a part of their structure; and, lastly, that every portion of the stone seems moulded or pannelled on the surface, and crocketed or indented on the edges. Beyond this part, the Old Houses yet occupy the space that properly belongs to the continuation of the level part of the façade, until we reach Victoria Tower, which forms the termination of the land front in the southern direction. The Central or Octagon Tower demands a few additional words. Looked at in its future completed shape, it presents, first, one great lantern or stage, three lights in height, with flying buttresses, pinnacled. Above that rises a second story, two lights high; and finally, over all, a Gothic spire, richly crocketed. The entire height is 240 feet.

The architecture of these level portions may be described thus: first, the basement story, even with the ground, is lighted by a row of double flat-pointed windows, within a square moulding, modest-looking as becomes a basement, but handsome enough to harmonise with the splendour above. That consists, one might almost say, of nothing but windows from end to end, and from roof to basement of the façade, divided, for convenience, into innumerable elegant divisions of various kinds, vertical and horizontal. But as we fear that would hardly be a sufficient architectural description, we must say then there are three stories of windows, divided horizontally by rich bands of sculpture, and perpendicularly by buttresses, the sumptuous character of which may be judged, when we say, each contains three statues beneath niches, one above the other, terminating at top in most elegant light pinnacles, rising high above the line of roof, and at bottom in crocketed canopies, with large crowns beneath. These buttresses occur after every two windows along the whole façade. Over each triple tier of windows rises a terminating niche, set in a kind of battlement, also above the line of roof but not so high as the pinnacles; consequently there is a kind of undulating broken line of roof suggested to the eye, above the actual line. Of the general style of the architecture of the New Palace it is difficult to speak in precise words. Mr. Barry has thus negatively described his original intention:-"It has been my aim to avoid the ecclesiastical, collegiate, castellated, and domestic styles, and to select that which I consider better suited to the peculiar appropriation of the buildings." He