Vivian, George: A letter to W. R. Hamilton, Esq., with remarks on some passages in his second letter to the Earl of Elgin, on the propriety of adopting the Greek style of architecture, in the new Houses of Parliament (London, 1837)

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Stanley Grove, Chelsea,

January 3, 1837.

Dear Vivian,

I am very much gratified by the remarks
you have taken the trouble to make upon my second
Letter to Lord Elgin on the New Houses of Parlia-
ment, and thank you for the opportunity you give
me for replying to the objections you have offered
to some of the expressions in the latter part, relating
to those who have " prescribed and judged" the
building, which it seems we are fated to have. I
purposely made no distinction between the Com-
mittees and the Commissioners, because I was at
a loss to conceive any good grounds upon which
the former had prescribed, and I have never had
an opportunity of forming an opinion respecting
the positive merits or demerits, even if I had been
capable of doing so, of the Plan selected by the
latter. The whole tenor of my positions for pre-
ferring the Greek to the Gothic, exempted, I may
indeed say, precluded me from the disagreeable
task of making such discrimination. My objections
are, in limine, against the existence altogether, for
our purposes, of comparative degrees of excellence
in a Gothic building, which necessarily implies in
its simplest, as in its most decorated character, a