NATIONAL GALLERY.--The alteration of the present National Gallery has formed a part of most schemes of metropolitan improvements. It was constantly in Sir C. Barry’s thoughts from the very time of its erection. He shared the universal opinion that its elevation was far too low and uninteresting, and this impression he embodied in a little sketch, made at the desire of Sir E. Cust, who was at that time a member of a Parliamentary Committee on the subject, and intended for his private information only. Unfortunately the fact of its existence oozed out, as such facts always do; and, what was worse, imperfect copies of it were made, and circulated without the author’s knowledge. He thought himself compelled to allow a correct representation of it to go abroad, and from this arose inevitably a serious difference between him and Mr. Wilkins, the architect of the National Gallery. Mr. Wilkins not unnaturally conceived its publication to be a breach of professional etiquette, and denounced it as such in no measured terms, especially when the success of Mr. Barry in the competition for the New Palace at Westminster still further embittered his feelings. But to this, as to the other attacks of the period, Mr. Barry made no reply, perhaps feeling himself in the wrong, certainly regretting the anomalous position into which he had been drawn, in his anxiety to rescue from comparative insignificance the building which occupies “the finest site in Europe.” For some time the matter slept, till he was again consulted on the subject of enlargement of the Gallery, and made in 1848 a design for improving and extending the present building. He proposed to build over the vacant space in front, and advance the building to the line of the street. Several designs were made by him for the elevation, all having some great central mass, to overcome, as much as possible, the fatal effect of the Nelson Column upon the façade. He returned to the work again in 1852, in connection with larger schemes, and with designs upon a larger scale, for a building almost entirely new. But nothing was done. The work, like all those which touch various interests, and which have to be debated upon in a popular assembly, presented difficulties, opened the door to various opinions, and ended for a time in mere discussion. Now again, as in the former case, it seems that substantial results may be hoped for. Another competition on a grand scale, though not attaining to the magnificence of the Law Courts, has been entered upon, and can hardly be allowed to be undertaken in vain.