From this time the building proceeded quietly towards completion. The towers were the last finished. There was not, of course, the same pressure of necessity for their completion; the nature of the soil under their foundations demanded great care and deliberation in raising the superstructure; and their design perhaps gave more trouble to the architect than that of any other part of the building. “Nothing,” it has been truly said, “tended more to retard a general appreciation of the architectural merits of the New Palace than the necessarily slow and protracted realization of its chief vertical features and skyline.” The central tower was the first finished; next came the clock-tower; and finally the great mass of the Victoria tower received its last stone. The great flagstaff rising above was added subsequently. It was indeed the last object which engaged his professional attention in the building, and was left unfinished at his death. The drawings of the flagstaff, and the lantern-work at the base, with its screens and flying buttresses, were made by his son (E. M. Barry, Esq.) in accordance with his known intentions. But it was on a temporary wooden staff, that the great flag was hoisted “half mast high” on the day of Sir Charles’s funeral. SECTION IV.--It is impossible in a life of Sir C. Barry to omit notice of the long, harassing, and unsuccessful controversy, which he carried on with the Government in relation to his remuneration for the New Palace at Westminster. To his friends it is a painful subject; its nature and its effect upon his feelings and his health they would be glad to forget: but the true statement of the case is not only due to his memory, but also highly important, both to the architectural profession and the public. It often happens (it may probably be so in this case) that a battle lost to the individual by the influence of special circumstances, and by the use of overwhelming power against him, may prove to have been virtually won for those who come after him. It will be my endeavour to admit into the narrative as little as possible any expressions of mere opinion, and to tell the story chiefly through the main official documents put out on both sides, omitting the minuter details of the controversy, and the disputes on trivial points, which naturally arose from the antagonistic position produced by its continuance.