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THE GOVERNMENT OFFICES.-II.

SOMERSET HOUSE.`

of this cloister. Nothing was left of it but a bare plot of ground. He also pulled down the steeple and part of the church of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem. Burnet, alluding to the Protector's rapacity, admits that "many bishops and cathedrals had resigned many manors to him for obtaining his favour." The flagrant proceedings of the previous reign had, however, blinded men to the sacredness of this species of property; and this consideration, though it does not excuse the Pro

THE Somerset House of 1847, and the Somerset House of 1547, present striking contrasts. The first Somerset House was built three centuries ago by a very unscrupulous ruler of England, who, out of the spoils of religious houses, and by confiscations of private property, raised a magnificent palace, whose erection in some degree precipitated his downfall. The Somerset House of 1847 is the official seat of several important depart-tector's acts, is in some sort a palliation of them. But ments of central Government, and of Revenue; and every transaction there carried on is indicative of a condition of society which allows no overgrown power to domineer over the few or the many, but subjects every exercise of authority to the immediate control of the representatives of the people.

In 1536 the rising fortunes of Edward Seymour were crowned by the marriage of his sister to Henry VIII. He was immediately created a peer, by the title of Viscount Beauchamp. On his sister giving birth to a prince in the following year, Seymour was elevated to the earldom of Hertford. On the 1st of February, 1546, four days after the death of Henry, he was elected by the Privy Council Governor of the young King Edward VI., his nephew, and Protector of his realms, until he should attain the age of eighteen. On the 10th of February he was appointed Lord High Treasurer; on the 16th created Duke of Somerset ; and on the 17th he was made Earl Marshal. It seems probable that he already possessed property on the site of Somerset House. The whole of Covent Garden and its neighbourhood, and Long Acre, comprising seven acres of valuable ground, belonged to him. The desire to possess a residence suitable to his high station was natural, and he.determined to build a palace on the site of the present Somerset House. To obtain space and building materials he was guilty of some infringements of public and private rights, which were urged against him in the hour of his adversity. An inn of Chancery, called Strand Inn or Chester's Inn, the episcopal houses of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and of the Bishops of Worcester and Llandaff, and the church and churchyard of St. Mary-leStrand, were demolished for the site of his new house. The common mode of building was still with timber and rubble, bricks not being generally used, and only the mansions of the nobility were built of stone, which was necessarily brought by sea, so that the most expeditious plan of obtaining the materials for new buildings of stone was to pull down old ones. With this object he caused the charnel-house of Old St. Paul's, and the chapel over it, to be demolished; also a large cloister on the north of St. Paul's, called Pardon Churchyard, which contained a greater number of monuments than the church itself. The Dance of Machabray,' or 'Dance of Death,' commonly called, says Stow, the 'Dance of Paul's,' was painted in a part

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the rise of Somerset House exposed its owner to the reflection, "that when the King was engaged in such wars, and when London was much disordered by the plague that had been in it for some months, he was then bringing architects from Italy, and designing such a palace as had not been seen in England." While he was thus pursuing these false means of aggrandisement, now sending his brother to the block for caballing against him, and, within two or three weeks afterwards, ordering the demolition of Pardon Churchyard, which was commenced on the 10th of April, 1549, his own downfall was rapidly approaching, and, on the 14th of October following, he was committed to the Tower. One of the grounds of dissatisfaction exhibited against him was his ambition and seeking of his own glory, "as appeared by his building of most sumptuous and costly buildings, and specially in the time of the King's wars, and the King's soldiers unpaid." He did not fall with much dignity; and his private appeal to Warwick, his great rival, to save him, was treated with neglect. Warwick, though without the title, succeeded to the real power of the Protectorate, and Somerset was reduced to such insignificance that he was released from the Tower, and merely allowed to sit at the Council. Whether he attempted to regain his former position, or Warwick, now become Duke of Northumberland, felt uneasy so long as Somerset lived, does not appear; but, in December, 1551, the ex-Protector was again placed in confinement in the Tower on treasonable charges, and in January, 1552, he was beheaded.

It is very probable that Somerset House was never inhabited by the Protector. He commenced the building in March, 1546-7; and in October, 1549, up to which period it was in constant progress, his political life may be said to have terminated. According to the scale of a print in Strype's 'Stow,' the site occupied an area of 600 feet from east to west, by 500 feet north and south. The principal architect is believed to have been John of Padua, an Italian, who was appointed "Deviser of his Majesty's buildings" in 1544. Old Somerset House was the first building of Italian architecture executed in this country.

On the death of Somerset his palace came into the possession of the Crown, and Edward appears to have assigned it to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, for her use when she visited the Court. It is spoken of at this period as "her place, called Somerset-place,

beyond Strand Bridge." When she came to the throne, | size.
she seems always to have given the preference to
Whitehall and St. James's. In the reign of her suc-
cessor it became the residence of Anne of Denmark,
Queen of James I.

Somerset House was settled for life on Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., and was fitted up for the reception of herself and household in 1626. The subsequent events of her husband's reign drove her out of England for a time; but the Restoration brought Queen Henrietta to England again. One of her first objects was to put her palace in a state of repair. On the death of Charles II., in 1685, it became the sole residence of Catherine of Braganza, now Queen Dowager; and she lived here until her return to Portugal, in 1692.

From the period of Catherine's departure, Somerset House ceases to possess any interest in its palatial character. It still continued to be an appurtenance of successive queens, until, on the 10th of April, 1775, Parliament was recommended, in a message from the Crown, to settle upon Queen Charlotte the house in which she then resided, formerly called Buckingham House, but then known by the name of the Queen's House; in which case Somerset House, already settled upon her, should be given up and appropriated" to such uses as shall be found most useful to the public." The demolition of the old buildings was commenced as soon as an Act could be passed to carry into effect the Royal message. Soon afterwards the street aspect of the old house is alluded to in the following terms :— “There are many who recollect the venerable aspect of the court-way from the Strand, as well as the dark and winding steps which led down to the garden, for years suffered to run to decay, and where the ancient and lofty trees spread a melancholy aspect over the neglected boundary, by no means unpleasing to the visitor, who, in a few moments, could turn from noise and tumult to stillness and repose." Sir William Chambers was appointed architect of the new building, and in 1779 one of the fronts was completed. From a Parliamentary return printed in 1790, it appears that a sum of £334,703 had been then expended, and a further sum of £33,500 was still required. The site occupies an area of 800 feet by 500 feet, being a few feet less than the area of Russell-square. The front towards the Strand consists of a rustic basement of nine arches supporting Corinthian columns, and an attic in the centre with a balustrade at each extremity. Emblematic figures of Ocean and the eight principal rivers of England, in alto-relievo, adorn the key-stones of the arches. Statues of Justice, Truth, Valour, and Moderation, divide the attic into portions; the summit is crowned by the British arms supported by Fame and the Genius of England. (Cut, No. 4.) Opposite the entrance, in the court, is a bronze statue of George III., and at the foot of the pedestal a bronze figure emblematic of the Thames, by Bacon. The terrace towards the river is raised on rustic arches, and again we have an emblematic figure of the Thames, of colossal

The view from this terrace is perhaps the finest on the banks of the river, the grand features being St. Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge, on one hand, and, on the other, Waterloo Bridge and the Abbey; and over the opposite bank may be seen the Surrey Hills. The scenery of the river itself is full of interest and animation. From either Blackfriars or Waterloo-bridge, but particularly from the latter, Somerset House is seen to great advantage, and appears truly a magnificent pile. One of the earliest purposes to which the present Somerset House was appropriated was for the annual exhibition of paintings by the Royal Academy. first Somerset House Exhibition was opened on the 1st of May, 1780, and continued annually until the erection of the National Gallery. The use of apartments for the meetings of the Royal Society was also granted in the same year, and the Fellows met here for the first time on the 30th of November. The Society of Antiquaries, having obtained a similar privilege, met for the first time at Somerset House in January, 1781. Two other learned bodies, the Royal Astronomical and the Geological Societies, have also had apartments assigned to them: a great public building could scarcely be appropriated to a better purpose. The entrance on the western side of the vestibule leads to the apartments used by the Board constituting the University of London; and by the same staircase we ascend to the rooms appropriated to the Government School of Design. The whole of the left wing of Somerset House was left incomplete by Sir W. Chambers but in 1829 this part of the edifice was completed from the designs of Sir R. Smirke, and it now forms King's College.

The parts of Somerset House which are appropriated to science, learning, and the arts, are superior in magnitude to those applied for several departments of the Government. Passing by the offices belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, there are those connected with the Navy, which are subordinate to the Central Board of Admiralty in Whitehall. First is the Admiralty Civil Department, the Transport Office, the Victualling Office, and the Sick and Maimed Seamen's Office. In one of these departments is the Model Room, where most of the articles used in the naval service are kept for inspection by those who undertake the naval contracts. The Audit Office for the Public Accounts and the Civil List Audit Office are also at Somerset House. The only Board of Revenue which has its seat here is that of Stamps and Taxes: its offices are chiefly in the southern front. The probate and legacy duties, the land-tax and assessed taxes, and now the income-tax, are collected under the management of this Board. The business of each of the different departments of the Stamp Office is transacted in separate rooms. there is the Hair-Powder Office, the Medicine Licence and Stamp Office, the Pawnbrokers' Licence Office, the Stage-Coach Duty Office, the Receipt Stamp Office, the Dice Stamp Office, the Hawkers' and Pedlars' Office, the Allowance Office for Spoiled Stamps, the Attorneys' Certificate Office, &c., &c.; and each

Thus

is frequented by a distinct class of persons. Some of these rooms are two stories below the level of the court, and here the mechanical operations are conducted. The legal and commercial stamps are impressed by handpresses, and the newspaper stamps by hand without any mechanical aid. The name of each newspaper has been inserted in the die, in moveable type, since the reduction of duty in 1836, and by this means a register is obtained of the circulation of every newspaper in the kingdom. In the basement story are presses moved by steam; one of which is employed in printing medicine-labels, another for printing the stamp on country bank-notes, and four or five are employed in stamping the embossed medallion of the Queen on the postage envelopes.

In another part of this mass of public offices are three departments which have been organised within the last few years, and whose functions are of a very important character. These are the Poor-Law Commission, the Registrar-General's Office, and the Tithe Commission. The Poor-Law Commission was appointed in 1834, as a Central Board for regulating the mode of administering relief to the poor. Local administrative boards of representatives were created in place of irresponsible and generally inefficient bodies. "The Central Board may be described as an agency necessary for consolidating and preserving the local administration, by communicating to each board the principles deducible from the experience of the whole; and, in cases where its intervention is sought, acting so as to protect the administration being torn by disputes between the members of the same local board, between a part or a minority of the inhabitants and the Board, and between one local board and another, and in numerous other cases affording an appeal to a distant and locally disinterested, yet highly responsible authority, which may interpose to prevent the local administrative functions being torn or injured by local dissensions."*

Adjoining the offices of the Poor-Law Commission is the Registrar-General's Office; a department created in 1836 by the passing of an Act for registering all births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales, after the 30th of June, 1837. It is the business of the Registrar-General to see that every arrangement connected with the business of registration is strictly carried into effect by the different persons on whom it devolves. The whole of England and Wales is divided into convenient districts, over which there is a Superintendent Registrar, to whom the Clergy of the Establishment and other ministers of religion, and the subordinate Registrars, transmit quarterly returns of all the births, marriages, and deaths which have occurred during the preceding three months. These returns are collected from upwards of 14,000 persons, and are finally transmitted to the central office at Somerset House. Here they are examined and arranged, and indexes are formed of the names: erasures, interpo

* Evidence of Edwin Chadwick, Esq., before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1838.

lations, informalities, omissions, errors, or defects of any kind are detected, and the person who registered the defective entry is immediately referred to, and his explanatory letter is filed for reference in connection with such entry. Separate alphabetical indexes are made for reference to the births, marriages, and deaths of each quarter, being twelve separate indexes for each year. To each entry there is a reference to the district from which the certified copy was made. Various other means are adopted to render the registration complete and easy of reference. The information collected by the Registration Office will throw light on a variety of questions relating to public health and the social condition of the people, and will be the means of preventing much future litigation.

The Tithe Commission has its offices in the same line of building as the Registration Office, and it likewise has been created to work out a valuable legislative improvement, which has placed property in tithes on an unobjectionable basis. The process which the Tithe Commissioners were appointed to superintend is the commutation of tithe into a rent-charge, fluctuating in value with the septennial price of wheat, barley, and oats. For example: if the tithe of a parish be settled by agreement or award at £300 a year, the mode of ascertaining its subsequent annual value is by supposing one-third of this sum invested in wheat, one-third in barley, and one-third in oats, at the prices of these commodities for the preceding seven years, and the result gives the amount due in money to the tithe-owner. By this means, the objection which Paley urged-that the tithe-owner stepped in to participate in profits realised by the outlay of capital he had never advanced-is completely obviated.

THE MINT.

The establishment of the Mint in London must date from the remotest periods of the known history of the capital. There can be no doubt some of the Roman emperors coined money here, and specimens bearing the name of London in an abbreviated form still exist. In the Saxon period, also, we know not only that London had a Mint, but that it was the chief one in the kingdom. There were eight Moneyers (as the chief officers were called, to whom the coining of money was intrusted in early times) in London in the reign of Athelstan, and six at Winchester, the next place in rank. The Mint in the Tower is as old as the erection; and it has been worked in every reign from the Conquest, with one or two unimportant exceptions.

Till the present century the Mint remained in the Tower. But about 1806 the Government, finding the military department had greatly encroached upon the buildings used for coining, intrusted to Sir Robert Smirke the erection of a new edifice upon Tower Hill. (Cut, No. 3.) It was completed about 1811, at an expense of above a quarter of a million of money. This immense sum, however, included Boulton's expensive machinery, which, by successive improvements,

has been brought to such a surprising degree of perfection, as, in conjunction with the other admirable arrangements of the establishment, places a power at the disposal of the Moneyers that will enable them, if required, to receive fifty thousand pounds' worth of gold one morning in bullion, and return it the next in coin. It is amusing to contrast this rapidity with the state of things existing when every piece was struck by hand, or when the entire process of coining could be carried on in a single room. In the present interesting process of coining, the ingots are first melted in pots, when the alloy, of copper, is added (to gold, one part in twelve; to silver, eighteen pennyweights to a pound weight), and the mixed metal cast into small bars. And now begin the operations of the stupendous machinery, which is unequalled in the Mint of any other country, and is in every way a triumph of mechanical skill. The bars, in a heated state, are first passed through the breaking-down rollers, which by their tremendous crushing power, reduce them to only one-third their former thickness, and increase them proportionally in their length. They are now passed through the cold rollers, which bring them nearly to the thickness of the coin required, when the last operation of this nature is performed by the drawbench- a machine peculiar to our Mint, and which secures an extraordinary degree of accuracy and uniformity in the surface of the metal, and leaves it of the exact thickness desired. The cutting-out machines now begin their work. There are twelve of these engines in the elegant room set apart for them, all mounted on the same basement, and forming a circular range. Here the bars, or strips, are cut into pieces of the proper shape and weight for the coining-press, and then taken to the sizing-room to be separately weighed, as well as sounded on a circular piece of iron, to detect any flaws. The protecting rim is next raised in the marking-room, and the pieces, after blanching and annealing, are ready for stamping. The coining-room is a magnificent-looking place, with its columns, and its great iron beams, and the presses ranging along the solid stone basement. There are eight presses, each of them making, when required, sixty or seventy (or even more) strokes a minute; and as at each stroke a blank is made a perfect coin-that is to say, stamped on both sides, and milled at the edge-each press will coin between four and five thousand pieces in the hour, or the whole eight between thirty and forty thousand. And to accomplish these mighty results the attention of one little boy alone is required, who stands in a sunken place before the press, supplying it with blanks. The bullion is now money, and ready for the trial of the Pix, which, at the Mint, is a kind of tribunal of judgment between the actual coiners and the owners, as the greater trial known by the same name in the Court of Exchequer is to test the quality of the money as between the Master of the Mint and the people. This trial generally takes place, on the appointment of a new master, before the members of the Privy Council and a certain number of the Goldsmiths' Company;

from the latter a jury of twelve persons is sworn. The Lord High Chancellor, or, in his absence, the Chancellor of the Exchequer presides. Ruding was present at the trial of the Pix in 1799, when, after a variety of minute experiments, it was found that a certain quantity of gold which should have weighed 190 pounds, 9 ounces, 9 pennyweights, and 15 grains, did weigh just 1 pennyweight and the 15 grains less: a closeness of approximation sufficient, no doubt, to satisfy the nicest tribunal.

THE EAST INDIA HOUSE.

It has been said of Burke, by a very brilliant writer of the present day, that so vivid was his imagination. on whatever related to India, especially as to the country and people, that they had become as familiar to him as the objects which lay on the road between Beaconsfield and St. James's: "All India was present to the eye of his mind, from the hall where suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns, to the wild moor where the gipsy-camp was pitched-from the bazaars, humming like bee-hives with the crowd of buyers and sellers, to the jungle where the lonely courier shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away the hyænas. The burning sun; the strange vegetation of the palm and cocoa-tree; the rice-field and the tank; the huge trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the village crowds assemble; the thatched roof of the peasant's hut, and the rich tracery of the mosque where the imaum prayed with his face to Mecca; the drums, and banners, and gaudy idols; the devotee swinging in the air; the graceful maiden, with the pitcher on her head, descending the steps to the river side; the black faces, the long beards, the yellow streaks of sect; the turbans and the flowing robes; the spears and, the silver maces; the elephants with their canopies of state; the gorgeous palankin of the prince, and the close litter of the noble lady-all these things were to him as the objects amidst which his own life had been passed."* If such should be the rich, varied, and animated picture which the imaginative eye suddenly conjures up in the not very spacious or striking part of the great eastern thoroughfare of Leadenhall-street, in which the India House comes into view, not less glowing are the historical recollections which attach to the edifice in connection with Anglo-Indian power. History presents nothing more strongly calculated to impress the imagination than the progress of English dominion in the East under Clive and Warren Hastings, and Cornwallis and Wellesley. Instead of clerks and mercantile agents living within the precincts of a fort or factory only by permission of the native rulers, who regarded them as mere pedlars, Englishmen have become the administrators of the judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great country,-of provinces comprising above a million square miles, and a population exceeding one * Edinburgh Review'-Article on Lord Clive, by the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay.

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