Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 11405-h.htm or 11405-h.zip: (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/4/0/11405/11405-h/11405-h.htm) or (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/4/0/11405/11405-h.zip) THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. VOL. 12, NO. 342.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1828. [PRICE 2d. * * * * * [Illustration: COUNCIL OFFICE, &c. WHITEHALL. ] COUNCIL OFFICE, &c. WHITEHALL. From the Druids' Temple, at Abury, (our last engraving,) to the Council Office, at Whitehall, is a long stride in the march of time. From "grave to gay, and lively to severe," is nothing to it; but variety is the public dictum; and with more sincerity than the courtier in _Tom Thumb_, we say to the public, "Whate'er your majesty shall please to name, Long cut or short cut, to us' tis all the same." On the annexed page is represented the new splendid range of buildings, including the _Council Office_, _Board of Trade_, &c. at Whitehall. The architect, Mr. Soane, has adapted the façade from the Temple of Jupiter Stator, at Rome.[1] But Mr. Soane's adaptation has been only partial, and he has adhered merely to the details of the columns and entablature. "The façade," it is well observed in an early Number of the _Athenaeum_, "enjoys one of the most favourable sites for the display of a public building which the metropolis affords; no limit has been set to the expense; the finest materials the country yields have been used in its construction; the richest example of the richest order which antiquity has left us, has been lavishly employed in its decoration; and yet," continues the critic, "is not the whole a failure?" He then describes the effect of it as "poor, or at best but pretty," and attributes the absence of grandeur to the "want of sufficient elevation."--"To the general elevation it may be objected, that it has no prominent centre; that, composed of two wings and an intermediate space receding, it has more the character of a flank than a front building; and that the want of a central entrance derogates greatly from its dignity as a principal façade."