The desire evinced by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury to be guided, in determining the amount of my remuneration, by the precedent established in respect of the payments hitherto made to architects for the public buildings of the country generally, is all that I can fairly expect at their Lordships’ hands, and is accordingly acknowledged with feelings of gratitude on my part. The fixed sum of 25,000_l._, originally proposed by the late Lord Bessborough as a recompense for my services as the architect of the New Palace at Westminster, which, be it observed, was no less than 10,000_l._ below what I was justly entitled to upon the amount of my estimate, was unfairly forced upon me, and I was compelled, under the existing circumstances, to acquiesce, but under a protest as to its insufficiency, the force of which has been greatly strengthened by the experience I have now had during a period of 17 years, in carrying into effect those portions of the New Palace which are now completed. My acquiescence in the sum proposed by the late Lord Bessborough has, notwithstanding my protest and the manifest insufficiency of the amount, been deemed to be a bargain, the conditions of which were, that for a given sum of money the architect should carry into effect a given design in a given period, namely, six years, which conditions have been long set aside by circumstances over which I have had no control. By what process the late Lord Bessborough arrived at the conclusion that 25,000_l._ was a fit and proper remuneration for the architect of such a building as the New Palace at Westminster, I have no means of knowing; but certainly it could not have been, as the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury seem to imagine, from any precedent then existing in his department, when all architects, without distinction, received at the least 5 per cent. upon the cost of their respective works. The precedent to which their Lordships allude, of paying the architects, who were formerly attached for a time to that Board, at the rate of 3 per cent., had then been abolished nearly seven years. But assuming, for the sake of argument, that his Lordship could have been guided, which is not in the least degree likely, by the precedent which had formerly been acted upon in his department in respect of its attached architects, it should be borne in mind, that although they received only 3 per cent. upon works, they were relieved of one of the most important of their professional duties, namely, the labour and responsibility of making contracts, measuring and making up accounts, &c., which it is evident the Board of Works has always considered to be equal to a further allowance of 2 per cent.; for as regards all other architects (with