The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-02

done to show that more must De done, ana
more completely; and the expenditure on an
avowed experiment was not without its valae.
Very recently Dean Milman's scheme has
been revived, and with q force and emphasis
which alone can secure success. There is no
timidity or half heartedness about the pro-
motors of the present attempt to complete st.
Paul's. They are to he credited with that
boldness which is the first and usually most
successful element in promoting a great work.
We have seen the appeal, which we under
stand will be presented to q great public
meeting, to be held at the Mansion House on
Wednesday next. The great leaders in
Church and State have undertaken to advo-
cate a cause which enlists no party views,
and addresses itself only to a national and
religious necessity, and seeks to remove a
national disgrace. Mr.. Gladstone and Mr..
Claiborne Hardy and the Earl of Carnarvon
represent the great political parties; art,
commerce, and property will be combined to
acknowledge their respective duties, and to
urge upon others claims which their repre-
sentatives admit in their own persons. The
promoters of the plan wisely, we think,
ask for subscriptions in instalmentS; for
the work which they undertake must ex-
haust many years in its completion, and much
time and consultation in settling it.
There ought to be no doubt as to the an
swer which the public will give to this de-
mand. What has been done or what is doing
in almost every diocese in England, there
ought to be no hesitation about as regards
the largest and wealthiest city in the world.
London can scarcely afford in common de-
cency to leave undone what such places as
Ely and Hereford cheerfully undertake. If Sir
Paul Pindar two hundred and fifty years ago
gave G10, 900 to this very st. Pauls; if, only
the other day, Sir B. Guinness expended for
the honor of his own city as much as G150,-
600 on such a cathedral as st. Patrick's; if we
find it announced that the territorial mag
mates are at the present moment subscribing
their fives and tens of thousands of pounds
for the cathedrals of Gloucester and Chester,
the $3.50, 600 which is asked for in the
case of st. Pauls amounts, as re-
CARDS such a city as London, to the pro-
verbal flea-bite. If Bristol can build that
half of its church which was never b uilt, and
at the same time complete that queen of
parish churches, st. Mary Redcliff, it is
ridiculous-we can find no better word for it
to think of leaving st. Pauls as it is.
Country folks and the Intelligent foreigner"
only laugh at us when we talk of the difficult
ties of the work. That the chief church of
the richest city in the world should be con-
spicuous even among parish churches In these
days of art and culture, church building,
church restoration, and sumptuousness even
in markets, town halls, and Manchester
warehouses;, for its darkness, desolation,
dbu iL4Ooo ID olO va Jul
plicabie English facts. 1t is not to be ac-
counted for, and to Justify it is puerile and
impairment. There it is. 1t won't do to
say that st. Paul's ought to remain plaster
and wash, when, as a matter of fact, we gild
and paint and inlay and carve our own
ceiled houses and our own shops every day.
There is an clearinghouse in the Poultry just
finished which exhibits ten times the splen-
dor of st. Pauls. The memorial to Prince
Albert and its costliness would probably ex-
coed both in amount and elaboration what is
proposed to be done at st. Paul's by five or
ten times the cost-proportions of size being
allowed for. The time has come--the art has
come-the men and the skill will not be found
lacking-will the spirit and heart of England
itself, in which during the last twelve years
perhaps twice as much has been spent in
private structures of very great architectural
pretence and considerable architectural sue
cess as is asked for at st. Pauls,
furnishes the best omen for a st. Pau which
we need not be ashamed of. The Thames
Quay and the new City streets announce
what the great City church must be. We are
told that the City companies and many great
City men are getting enthusiastic. We hear
of e2000 promised in one quarter if G100, 900
is raised in a twelvemonth. Before the
scheme comes before the public several single
gifts of $1,000 each are guaranteed. And
what, after all, is G250, 600 to London mer-
chants, to owners of London house property,
to the firms and corporations whose annual
profits are reckoned by five or even six
ciphers?
The fact is that people don't love London
OF feel the pride they ought to feel in Lon
don. Part of this feeling is atfectation, and
part mere hunkeyism. London is a city to
be proud Of; the old reproach of its squalor
and ugliness is being rapidly wiped away.
More expenditure in architectural splendor,
and on the whole more reGl taste, has been
shown of late in London than in any other
capital in Europe. 1t is our stupid English
habit to vilipend our own successes. Oul
geese are not so much swans as goslings oil
ducks. The reconstruction of the Belgrayiau
quarter is ten times better than a Haussman
nized Paris. The Law Courts, if sordidnes'
and Ayrtonism do not interfere, viii
far exceed anything done by German
professors and royal dilettantisn
on the Continent. Everybody has an interest
in London architecture; everybody who il
connected with the Government, tho law
and the trade of the empire. st. Paul's be.
longs to the citizens, but it also belongs t
the West enders and the country families and
the season immigrants. st. Pauls belong
to Manchester and Liverpool, and, for the
matter of that, to Australia and Canada anC
India. st. Paul's is the cynosure of the EN-
pire. II is not a medieval structure, to b,
sure, and does not precisely assimilate will
medieval feelings; and everybody gives, an,
gives because it is the fashion, to mediaova
churches. But it is the only great and
sumptuous church of the trst-class whicl
the Church of England as it is has built, as il