LONDON’S GREAT CATHEDRAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2009, 19 February 1907, Page 3

LONDON’S GREAT CATHEDRAL.

There is a lesson from Venice. There they built the Campanile, the sentinel and glory of that oasis ill tlie mud, upon the mud itself, and great was the fail thereof. We built our noble monument upon London clay, and the utilitarianism of a progressive age, which may or may not bring all London tumbling about our children’s head, has almost reduced itb security to the level of the Campanile’s security. When the latter fell the world was horrified. Sympathy and subscriptions poured iu a genuine stream. It was felt that the loss was not national, but international, and many worthy people wlio could hear unwrung of one of tlie usual “shocking disasters” of human life were greatly moved. Shall there be less feeling for tlie incomparable majesty of St. Paul’s than was found for the Campanile of St. Mark's, and shall we be slow to profit by tlie experience of others ? Venice lost lier signpost, being unable of lierself to help herself. If wo were to lose our Cathedral we should be proved the wreckers of our own great monument. Imprimis, all notion of beginning operations for the sewer’s construction must be abandoned, and the most thorough, authoritative, and impartial investigation must be made. Then, when the full facts are known, the best ways and means must be devised for so securing the permanence of St. Paul’s that we and our successors may rest content. To that statement of the case we hope and believe that no one will take exception. There stands the great temple, revered by Christians, treasured by Pagans, dominating London with strength anil beauty, majesty and power. Symbol of our greatness, memorial of our patriots, shrinp of our piety—we love it more than we realise. Look at it to-day as you pass by, measure its marvel of design, go in by tlie great doors and absorb tho spirit of its vast silences and hallowed dignity, and then say whether a wilderness of sewers or hundreds of thousands of pounds spent in tlicir deflection can be considered for one moment by the side of a shadow of real danger to the Cathedral bequeathed to London s Our purpose in pursuing this subject is not! to attack the County Council, nor to speak with disrespect of their necessary and doubtless artistic sewer, nor to set up any hysterical demand for a subservience or actuality to aestheticism that would take insufficient account of the limitations of mundane existence. We are aware that bald statements may sound more alarming than the facts warrant. When you say that' a sorious subsidence of the ground has been discovered at the South side ol St. Paul’s Cathedral, and tlie southwest tower shows a deviation from tlie perpendicular of thirteen miles, the average reader may almost fancy that it is, so to speak, all up with the Cathedral, anil that its dust must soon be counted with that, ol no Campanile of St. Mark s. But wo believe that the peril, ill tms actual instance, is not altogether so deadly as it sounds, and we need b\ no means expect' the worst. Trs lapse from the perpendicular, md-eil « even, to some extent, an old tr ,jle and were there no new cause lor apprehension too much need not perhaps be made of tlie danger—St. James’ Budget.