The Late Sir C. Barry, R.A.

amongst whomsoever have languidly defended him , or at any time increased the anxiety of his position ; throughout all the factions into ivhich our calling is divided , ancl with the members of the profession in foreign countries as in these isles , aud wherever in distant colonies art in building has gained a footing , —with all , there will be one feeling of sorrow or regret , at the sudden termination of a life never inactive , and which seemed to have au

important part yet to fill for tlie national honour and the large development of that progress which it had inaugurated , and to ivhich it had to the last contributed by works , by teaching , and by example . The event whicli we deplore was unlocked for , save in the maimer in which the idea of death should be always present to those in health , up to within an hour of its occurrence . Sir Charles had been at Westminster on Friday in last week

, attending to his usual avocation ; and on Saturday he was so far well that he appeared better than usual , and he spent the greater part of the clay at the Crystal Palace . The disease was of the heart and lungs . He was in his sixty-fifth year . It is scarcely possible , amidst the affliction which has fallen upon the family of Sir Charles Barry , to collect all the particulars that are to tlie biographof such a manor unnerved

necessary y , as wc are ourselves by the occurrence , calmly and dispassionately to review the facts and the bearings of his professional existence . Should the record ivhich is due to such a life be consigned to fitting hands , an estimate even higher than has been derived , whether b y the profession or the public , will be formed of the man and of the artist-architect , and of what is owing to the influence starting from the labour of his untiring hand and the

fulness of his well-balanced mind . It lias been saicl of many a great man , that he lived some years too soon ; and the assertion might be hazarded of Barry , by those who , not irreverently questioning the order of this world , would reason upon what might have been . Coulcl a life so valuable have been prolonged vi

m gour , to the age of Sir Christopher Wren and of one or two other conspicuous names in our art , what might not such a life have achieved in the future wliich there is for architecture , and freed from the exaction of a duty which some are now of opinion was delegated to him in error , so far as imitation rather than work of mind was the idea of the basis imposed ? Enough that after tliis , Barry ivas not merely the architect of the finest modem Gothic

building in the world , or that in another maimer he introduced an entirely different character into the architecture of streets , villas , and club-houses , wherein , by himself and others , art in architecture has been eminentl y shown ; be was the artist in whatever he laboured on , the man of ready pencil and of active brain , and'the architect chief of workmen , and rcvivifier or producer of numerous attendant arts . It is not the

Gothic detail so accurately harmonizing with the cloisters , and other parts of the old building at Westminster , and with the neighbouring Henry Seventh's Chapel , that most reflects the power of his mind ; it is that grandeur of the Victoria Tower , wliich is beyond the mediceval works of almost every country aud place ; it is the perspective of his corridors ancl courts , the fretted vaulting of bis halls , the fine effect of his entrances and staircases , and the combination of sculpture as of the other arts with

architecture that mark the Palace at Westminster far out of the category of rivalism , as far above the appreciation of some who , from the old or new bases of criticism , have cavilled at the exuberance , or at some other characteristic of its detail . Enough that , whatever it be else , the Palace has what our architecture ' almost wholly lacked till Barry appeared ; ancl that as a work of building and of art , commenced under the greatest disadvantages of knowledge , and of skilled labour ancl art manufacture

, pursued under the greatest injustice that has ever been the lot of architect employed for a nation or a government , and completed in little more than twenty years under one direction , it remains the most remarkable work of this , or of any time . Without disparagement of his many able pupils , it is the work , too , of the one hand . Barry indeed had the faculty common with great men , for and the abilities of others

perceiving using . Many who worked with him he warmly attached to himself ; and those not inclined for work he , under pressure of business perhaps , could not tolerate . But over all tbat had to be built , or chiselled , or cast , his pencil hacl gone ; so that if the metropolitan cathedral he the fitting monument of Wren , as the inscription there points or did point out , the Palace at Westminster must be considered a work in which the memory of an equal name is inscribed in the effect from every point of sight ; is , —

''* * * cjuotloiiiique vides , quoeiniqiio movcris , " and lives in every form , ancl along every line . But the Westminster Palace , and the decorative arts which arc contributing at

this time when ive'write , generally to architecture , are not the only works of Charles Barry . So long as there exists any vestige of the school of taste whicli he introduced iu the Travellers' Club , and elaborated with more than Italian elegance in the Reform , ancl in liis best work of that class , Bridgeivater House , —so long as there remains the elegant facade in Whitehall , —so long as architectural design is displayed predominantly in fenestration and

cornicioni , rather than in application sometimes slavish of the orders , —so long will there be monument , ancl debt clue , to Charles Barry . In Manchester , where an influence from his art was born even earlier than in London , it is difficult to say what may not be attributable primarily to bis works there . To trace the life of such a man , precise dates are required ; and of these on the instantwe arc able ourselves to supply only a

, moderate number of those that we possess . The facts wc can mention , however , will be valued ; and the general view ive are able to take of the artist ' s'life ancl character , may possibly not be unworthy of perusal . Charles Barry was born on the SordMay , 1795 , in Westminster , —in Bridge-street , as believed by his family . His father was a stationer in a comfortable position—having a running contract

with the Stationery Office , ivhich enabled him to leave his family moderately well provided for . The sou ' s education was commenced at private schools—in Lambeth , and one ive believe in Bedford . He was articled to Messrs . Middleton and Bailey , surveyors to the parish of Lambeth , ancl was the favourite pupil of tbe former , svho left him a handsome legacy . They could scarcely be called architects . Ho had no other professional education

except that due to his exertions ; but his surveying acquirements were not unimportant to his architectural attainments and his course in after-life . Always from his earliest years he shoiieel taste for drawing and design . In 1817 life determined to travel , aud to that end to devote ( very foolishly his friends thought ) the whole of the small property

he had inherited from his father . He remained some time m France , principally in Paris ancl llouen , and then proceeded to Italy . In Eome he met with Mr . Eastlake ( now Sir Charles ) Kinnaird , the editor of " Stuart ' s Athens , " ancl Johnson , afterwards a professor of Oriental languages at Haileybury . With them he visited Athens and other parts of Greece . While there , his drawings attracting attention , he was engaged by Mr . Baillie ,

a gentleman of fortune , as his travelling artist , and with him visited Constantinople , Asia Minor ( where he was interested about the Bouclroum marbles , now in the British Museum ) , Syria , Palestine , Mount Sinai ( where he became acquainted with the late William Bankes ) , and the Decapolis , where he made accurate plans of Jerash ( Gcraza ) , then little known . He with his party attempted a journey to Palmyra , but was disappointed by a

quarrel with the Arabs . He visited Egypt up to the second cataracts , his party consisting of Mr . Baillie , Mr . Wise ( now our envoy at Athens ) , Mr . Godfrey , ancl himself . One of his sketches made at that time will be remembered in Mr . Gwilt ' s edition of " Chamber ' s Civil Architecture , "—the matter of which , relating to the tombs of Benihassan , is of some importance to the comprehension of the relation between Egyptian and Grecian architecture , and probably at the time of its appearance put that subject in a new lig ht , Results of these journeys , however , are but slightly known to the profession or to the world . There exist , we believe ,

numerous sketches of places and remains of the utmost interest , besides journals closely packed with Barry ' s characteristic handwriting ; and , shortly before his death , we heard of his being deeply engaged in the preparation of an article on the Holy Land , for the dictionary of the Architectural Publication Society . Barry returned to Eome , his engagement with Mr . Baillie having terminated , and he became famous for his sketches , which then unrivalledIt

for facility , accuracy , and egression , were . was at this time that he became acquainted with Mr . Wolfe ; and their friendship has ceased only with the life of Barry . He was devoted , when Mr . Wolfe first knew him , to his profession of architecture , but cared for little but Greek , concerning which he was enthusiastic . Wolfe , a pupil of Joseph Gwilt , hacl gone out from home a Palladian ; they both felt the beauties of Gothic ;

but believing it would not he useable , paid little attention to it . They carefully studied Italian—measuring in detail the best examples at Komc , and at Florence—where be measured the Trinita bridge , —Venice , and the rest of the north of Italy . There Barry became an enthusiastic admirer of Pallaclio , Sansovino , and Samnichele ; and some of the incidents of that period , such as lig hting up with torches the so-called bouse of Palladio at Viccnza , to sec the cltcct of the foliagecl capitals , show the enthusiasm and energy with which he pursued his object . It was the same when in Home—nothing was passed by ; everything that