_Athenaeum_ points out, and we are bound to admit the justice of his
remarks. The details which produce this effect would not be so generally
interesting. "The order itself," says he, "it must be admitted, is well
copied, and excellently executed;" but Mr. Soane's application of it is
loudly censured--a Roman temple being inappropriate for a British Council
Office. Perhaps our critic would have preferred a façade like that of the
Palais de Justice at Paris,--a platform, ascended by an immense flight of
steps, which serves as a basement for a projecting body of four Doric
columns; with four large pedestals in front, and statues of _Strength_,
_Plenty_, _Justice_, and _Prudence_, as the cardinal virtues of English
legislation and trade.

Upon the whole, we cannot help thinking some of the details of this new
range extremely rich and pleasing, although we assent to the above
character of their general effect. The columns, of fluted Corinthian, and
the cornice of the order, are to us very beautiful; but the upper windows
are unsightly, or, as a wag would say, purely attic; and the entrances
are too strictly _official_ for the architecture of the building.
This brings us again to the inappropriateness of the adaptation, which
made these introductions unavoidable.[2]

The front of the building is not completed, the northern wing having yet
to be erected. When this is finished, the effect may be materially
assisted.

While we are in this quarter, and lest "we may never come again," it may
be as well to thank our correspondent, "An Architect," for his letter on
"Whitehall," a very small portion of which has ever been completed. What
has been finished--the Banqueting House--is one of the triumphs of Inigo
Jones, but like all human works, is sadly dilapidated; although this is