eral offices
were destroyed in 1733, in order to erect the present building facing the
parade, the expense of which was estimated at 9,000 pounds. The facade
consists of a double basement of the Doric order, and a projection in the
centre, on which are four Ionic pillars supporting an entablature and
pediment.

Where the treasury of the kings of England had its abiding place--or,
more properly, where its _eidolon_ or Platonic idea lodged, before it
took up its abode in the cock-pit--were hard to say. The exchequer,
which in the reign of Edward I. was literally the king's strong box, was,
in his time, lodged in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Sir Francis
Palgrave says, that the earliest place of deposit for the royal treasures
which can be traced is "that very ancient apartment, described as the
'Treasure in the cloisters of the Abbey in Westminster, next the
Chapter-house,' and in which the pix is still contained. This building
is a vaulted chamber, supported by a single pillar; and it must remain
with the architectural antiquary to decide why a structure in the early
Romanesque style, ranging with the massy semicircular arch in the south
transept, acknowledged to be a portion of the structure raised by the
Confessor, may not also have been erected in the reign of the last
legitimate Anglo-Saxon king. In this treasury the regalia and crown
jewels were deposited, as well as the records. The ancient double oak
doors, strongly grated and barred with iron, and locked with three keys,
yet remain."

The theory of the British treasury was much the same during the nomad
period of its existence that it has continued to be in its settled and
citizen-like life. There was from the beginning a treasurer, whose
office it was to devise schemes for raising money, to manage the royal
property to the best advantage, and to strike out the most economical and
efficient modes of expenditure. He had even then the control of all the
officers employed in collecting the customs and royal revenues, the
disposal of offices in the customs throughout the kingdom, the nomination
of escheators in the counties, and the leasing of crown lands. Then, as
a check upon the malversion of this officer, there was the exchequer, the
great conservator of the revenues of the nation. "The exchequer," said
Mr. Ellis, clerk of the pells, when examined before the finance
commissioners, "is at least coeval with the Norman Conquest, and has been
from i