Original Communications.

NEAR COMPLETION OF THE NEW

ROYAL EXCHANGE.

"How swiftly time passes!" is the universal reflection at the opening of every new year; and many a time and oft it occurs to all of us in the progress of each succeeding twelve months. To our readers, as to ourselves, looking back it will not seem very long since a graphic representation of the Royal Exchange appeared in The Mirror,' on the occasion of the first stone being laid of the new mart of commerce of this great emporium of the civilized world; and now the note of preparation is sounded for its completion, and within a very limited period the vast edifice, such as it is represented in our engraving, will be opened to the traders of London.

Mr Tite, the architect, sanguinely anticipates that no delay will occur. He declares that he can apprehend nothing at present, unless some unusually severe No. 1197.]

B

Palmer's Glyphography.

weather should occur shortly, to prevent the realization of his hopes, that the contract will be completed in the time originally agreed upon.

In a report sent to the Gresham Committee, on the 20th of last month, on the state of the New Exchange, he has supplied a very gratifying account of the advance of the works, and of the prospect before him. It appears, from this document, that very little now remains to be done in the decorative portion; the roof is nearly finished, and the tower is completed to the cleaning down of the stone-work, which will be done whilst the scaffold is removing. With regard to the sculpture, Mr Tite reports that every figure has been transferred from the model to the stone, and that a month's labour will complete the work, so that it will be ready for hoisting within that period. When the sculpture shall have reached its position, the finishing touches will be given to it by Mr Westmacott.

The little time which it is expected this [VOL. XLIV.

will consume may surprise many of our readers. Judging from its present advanced state, the architect says he has no hesitation in assuring the committee that, if necessary, it could all be in its place and completely finished within two months from this date. The dials and hands of the clock had been prepared, and were to be put up as soon as the scaffold had been sufficiently removed to enable the men to place them with safety. The machinery of the clock is very nearly completed, and the only thing remaining unsettled is the arrangement with respect to the actual tunes of the chimes. Upon that subject Mr Tite has consulted Professor Taylor, the Gresham lecturer on music, and hoped before the next meeting of the committee he should be prepared to report the result. The moulds for some of the bells have been prepared, and, in the course of a month, several of them will be cast, and we may mention that the remarkable grasshopper of the Old Exchange, regilt, has been restored to its former exalted situation.

Everything seems to have favoured "the march of brick and mortar" in this

instance. It is said the utmost harmony and good will have prevailed between the architect and those employed under him. How ridiculously other public works have been in some instances delayed, from dis. cord, strikes, and combinations, need not here be told. Out of the proceeds of the exhibition of the pavilion, as fitted up for the laying of the first stone by Prince Albert, a fund was raised, which has since been augmented from various sources, for the relief of the workmen who might suffer through any accident. From this arrangement the best results have been experienced, and comfort afforded to those who were so unfortunate as to suffer among those casualties which are almost inseparable from the raising of an edifice so stupendous. Mr Tite concludes with congratulating the committee, at the close of the third year of the work, on the favourable state of the seasons throughout the whole period. The mildness of last winter, and the unusually fine spring which followed, were greatly in favour of building operations; and though the early part of the summer was wet, yet since August up to the present time, scarcely a day had been lost by interruption from the weather. Before the Exchange is regularly opened, it is in contemplation to give the public the benefit of a passage through it from Cornhill to Threadneedle street.

It is opposite the entrance, represented in our present cut, that the bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington is to be placed. That also, we are informed, is proceeding rapidly towards completion under the direction of Mr Weeks.

We hope the whole will be worthy the great names of Smirke, Gwilt, and Hardwicke, who were originally called upon to furnish a design worthy of the age in which we live and the country which it is to adorn. On the late Exchange, Dr Smollett, in the Critical Review,' remarked, "A building of that extent, grandeur, and elevation ought, without question, to have had an ample area before it, that we might comprehend the whole and every part at once. This is a requisite which ought to be allowed to all buildings, but particularly all of this sort; that is to say, such as are formed of very large parts; for, in such a case, the eye is forced to travel with pain and difficulty from one object to another." In building the present Exchange this has been remembered, and a much nobler area provided than was occupied by its predecessor.

MR SNEEZE AND HIS DRAMA. (By the Author of "George Godfrey.") CHAPTER III.

The play of Mr Sneeze is acted with the usual improvements. He is congratulated on its success, and gains as much notoriety as he could desire.

PERHAPS I am too particular; Mrs S. is sometimes of that opinion; but I certainly was by no means satisfied with the proceedings of the theatre as the time approached when my play was to be performed. Not only was time utterly disregarded, but in everything, it seemed to me, there was a perfect absence of discipline. The scene-shifters, supernumeraries, and carpenters were bullied in a tone sufficiently loud, and in terms quite coarse enough for anything; but no sedate, continuous, business-like attention, appropriate to the importance of the subject, was bestowed upon my play. Both Mr Grunt and Mr Sinister were anything but perfect at the last rehearsal. This, I should mention, took place on the stage while a melodrama was going on in the saloon, and the music of an operatic drama being tried in the green-room, each of which contributed a variety of dissonant sounds, from time to time, in order to make the confusion in which I was mixed up complete, I was, however, told by Snubby and others the piece went beautifully, that it was quite safe, and that I should find when the performers came before the audience that all were completely up in their parts.

At length the night so long looked forward to with hope and expectation arrived. I was a little startled, on going behind the scenes, to hear from Sinister, the piece having been previously reduced from three to two acts, that he and Grunt were both

decidedly of opinion that it would play infinitely better in one.

To this I would not consent. I showed that events were supposed to pass between two of the scenes, divided by the closing of the act, which it would be preposterous to say had occurred if the action continued, as the characters whom they affected remained in the presence of the audience on the stage.

I went to the box reserved for me and my family on the momentous occasion. The lamps were up, the band was playing, the house was tolerably full, and in a few minutes I saw the curtain ascend. A dia. logue was commenced, but to my infinite astonishment and discomfiture the characters were not those I expected to see. The fact was, the parties who came on were acting the second scene, not a word of the first having been spoken.

Again I went behind, and was so fortu. nate as to find Mr Sinister, who was just. about to go on.

"Here's a fatal mistake," I exclaimed, in a voice faltering from deep emotion. "Mistake! What mistake?" he inquired.

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Why, they are doing the second scene instead of the first."

"Instead of the first! O no, the first is cut out."

"Cut out!"

"To be sure it is, old chap."

"But it was not cut out while I was present."

"No; that was settled this afternoon, shorly after you left. Grunt said the piece must not occupy more than an hour and ten minutes in acting, and so the first scene was omitted.

"But without that," I remarked, "what follows cannot be understood."

Just then a burst of applause was heard in front of the house.

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There, old chap! do you hear that ?" cried Sinister, in a tone of congratulation. "Your piece is going famously. As to the audience not understanding it, what the devil does that signify so they do but laugh and applaud? We know how to manage these things better than you do."

Another sound of laughter and clapping of hands came at that moment to support Mr Sinister's speech, and I began to incline to his opinion, that so the audience did but laugh and applaud, the rest was a matter of secondary importance.

A little tranquillized by this feeling, and by the favourable state of things, so far as I could judge from the laughter still heard in front, I returned in better humour to my box. Here, the moment I entered, my wife flew at me like a fury, "for introducing such low, vulgar jokes into my play, and bringing my own daughter there to listen to them." I was totally unprepared

for this, as the thing which I had all along plumed myself upon, even more than my wit, humour, and invention, was delicacy; and to show that mirth could be excited without grossness of any description, I had uniformly avowed to be one of the many excellent lessons or examples intended to be given, both to authors and actors, in my drama.

My daughter, though she affected not to hear, or not to understand, what her mama was saying, looked as sour and as solemn as if she had been denied permission to go to a ball. I was on the point of replying, with some impatience, to a charge so totally unfounded, when I was thunderstruck at hearing a coarse witticism from the stage, which I had never for a moment thought of connecting with my dialogue, and a string of slang speeches followed, which I had no more to do with than had my predecessor, the late Mr Shakspere. These so disgusted me that I felt disposed to jump on the stage and address the audience, to explain the nature of the outrage thus in course of perpetration.

With difficulty I refrained from adding, by such a step, to the gratification of the grinning multitude. The laughter continued; but I could clearly perceive that not a little of it was ironical, and the cries of "bravo, bravo," which repeatedly followed, were carefully shouted, when anything peculiarly absurd or censurable came out, by Mr Dickenson and his brothers, and a party of their friends who had come in on free admissions which I had procured for them as supporters of the play and the author, and who were in this way, not knowing that my eye was upon them, diverting themselves at my expense.

The principal scene was now to open, and as both Grunt and Sinister were in it, I hoped, for their own sakes, they would endeavour to do something worth seeing, and that they would keep to the text, remembering, as I did, Captain Snuff had assured me those gentlemen were invariably "letter perfect." My disappointment and affliction are not to be described. "The greatest of the versifying tribe,

To paint them, holds an inefficient pen," when these "letter perfect" professors stood before me, and I heard them open the scene and immediately proceed to the concluding speeches. Then they went back to what ought to have been spoken before, and closed the dialogue by repeating several of the passages which had been prematurely delivered. The audience were puzzled: some scornfully laughed, and others peevishly hissed; while I, burning with shame, sat panting, like Zanga, for revenge.

By this time my pride of authorship was pretty well humbled, yet it caused me to