THE PARLIAMENT HOUSES JOB.
THE erection of two temporary chambers for the meeting of Parlia- ment, at an estimated expense of 30,0001., on the very spot must likely to be fixed upon as the site of the permanent Houses, is a job that has been managed in as easy and quiet a manner as the joe tiers could have desired. The interval between the prorogation or the old Parliament and the assembling of the new, has allowed a most convenient opportunity for carrying the plan into effect. Had the two Houses been sitting at the time of the fire, and the Members been fairly burnt out before the business of the session bad been half got through, we venture to say that a place of meeting would have been found for them, with a week or a fortnigh 's ad- journment, and at an expense of 3000/. instead of 30,0001.; with accommodation sufficient, if not equal to what is now prie ided. We do not mean to disparage the completeness of the present chambers, or to refuse the architect credit for the expedition with which they have been finished: but we denounce the whole pro-. ceedings as one job, which, had not circumstances favoured, would never have been attempted. From what we have heard and Seen, the temporary house of Commons is far more sightly and commodious, and infinitely mere wholesome, than the old one. It would have been very odd if it were not. There has been time enough; and money has been no object. Unless we are gleetly misinformed, indeed, the expense will amount to more than (1,,uble the sum estimated. And if' it should turn out that instead of thirty thousand, sixty or seventy thousand be the amount of the outlay, we trust that a question or two will be asked in the house of Commons touching the nature of the relationship between- architect and the builder, the way in which the builder obtened the contract, and the person who has thy examinatio vi ba charges. TI.e answers to these questions may throw seine light upon what at present appears dark and mysterious—how such a sum as 60,000/. or 70,000/. could have been economically em- ployed in the works just completed. If it be satisfactorily shown that the money has been fairly laid out, then is MT. WILKINS, v: ho has promised for the same sum to build us a new national gallery, decked with domes and porticos, bas-reliefs and statues, entitled to be relieved from the censures bestowed upon his taste 'oy virtue of his economy.
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