SECTION II.--These troubles having at last passed away, and all preliminaries having been arranged, Mr. Barry entered upon his work full of energy and hope. Great public expectation had been excited; the design of the new building was generally popular, and the authorities were prepared to aid and favour its execution in the best possible manner. He did not feel the burden of the work, and the responsibility now laid upon him. For a long time his unremitting exertion was in the truest sense “a labour of love.” Had circumstances allowed of the completion of the building, in anything like the time named, and at an expense such as had been calculated, the work would perhaps have been less beautiful than it is, and would certainly have been far less important in its influence on the “Gothic revival.” But it would have been universally accepted as a brilliant success, and the architect would have been spared many troubles. As it is, the account of the progress of the building shows conclusively (what those who have experience of such works know but too well) that difficulty, controversy, and misrepresentation beset the career of one who has to work for the public service. Had all been foreseen, it cannot be doubted that Mr. Barry would gladly have faced it all in the service of his art. But he would hardly have entered on his work with so much buoyancy and hopefulness of spirit, with so much self-reliance, and so much confidence in the future. His difficulties arose, first from the inevitable occurrence of delays, for which he was in no sense responsible, and the liberty which he claimed of modifying his design; next, from the appointment of independent authorities to superintend certain portions of the work; and lastly, from the course which the Government took in respect of his professional remuneration. No one perhaps will say of the difficulties which he experiences in life, that he does absolutely nothing to bring them upon himself: but it may be safely declared of Mr. Barry that his one object throughout was the perfection of his work, and he may claim the sympathy which belongs to enthusiastic and devoted labour in the cause of duty.