gruous, and would seriously disturb the harmony which is so important an element in æsthetic beauty: while on the other hand, a grand building of the style of Sir Christopher Wren, surmounted by a soaring cupola, forming the central object of the city of Liverpool, directing all eyes to itself, as that of St. Paul's does in the city of London, would maintain that harmony unimpaired, and at the same time supply sufficient variety of form and outline to remove all fear of tame and spiritless monotony. There is an exceedingly unsightly church standing just below St. George's Hall, in a somewhat extensive churchyard, which, if the existing building were cleared away, might form an adequate site for the new cathedral. I am told that this locality has been suggested, and it would seem, from its central position and the elevation of the ground, to be as good a one as Liverpool can supply.

Nor only would a classical cathedral be more in harmony with the history and Oos of the Tyre of the West,' but the plan and arrangements to which that style so happily lends itself would meet the wants of the church of the nineteenth century, far more nearly than one erected in the earlier styles. The duty of the designer of such a building, as Mr. Beresford Hope has excellently said-though utterly repudiating Classical architecture as the exponent of his idea is to 'realise the spirit of his age, the wants of the special town, and the requirements of our national church, and so produce a building in which pomp shall be subordinate to use, and the highest of all beauties, the beauty of truth, shall be attained.' No false antiquarianism must dictate a forced and exaggerated return to a state of feeling and an ecclesiastical system which have long since passed away. There must be no 'playing at long choirs with nobody to fill them,' banishing the altar far away from the sight and hearing of the con-gregation; no close screen must shut off the clergy from the people; no massive pillars must hide the officiating ministers. Better build no new cathedral at all unless it proves itself practically useful; not a mere architectural monument, however magnificent, reflecting the wealth of the community which built it and ostentatiously displaying the skill of its designer, but, to quote, Mr. Hope again, the true Ecclesia, or house of assembly of the Christians of the city and diocese, and at the same time the shrine where the daily service of prayer and praise may go up unceasingly.' Anything else would be palpably unreal and in consequence justly unpopular.

Now, happily, exactly the kind of building Mr. Hope desires as the cathedral of the nineteenth century, and, if anywhere, in Liverpool, though in a style which he would repudiate as an abomination, we have ready to hand in Sir Christopher Wren's original plan for St. Paul's Cathedral, to which I have already referred, on which his grandson tells us he always seemed to set a higher value than on any he had made before or since, as what was laboured with more

study and success,' and the abandonment of which 2 in deference to the objections of those who, startled at the absence of aisles, and the circular plan of the choir, thought it 'not enough of a cathedral fashion,' cost him tears. 3 'Had he not been overruled by those whom it was his duty to obey, he would have put it into execution with more cheerfulness and satisfaction to himself than the latter design.'

Of this earlier design, of which all well-qualified judges express their admiration as one of the noblest triumphs of Wren's genius, a model exists, fortunately on a sufficient scale to allow us to enter it and appreciate the consummate beauty of its interior. This model, after a sojourn at South Kensington, has returned unhappily unrestored to its old home in the Trophy Room' at St. Paul's. It has suffered shamefully from decay and neglect and the uncontrolled mischief of visitors in former years, but it remains in a sufficiently complete state to show what kind of work it was that Wren had in his mind as the most suitable home for the cathedral worship of the Anglican Church. The execution of this design after two centuries would be a glorious tribute to the memory of our great English architect, worthy of the citizens of the second city in our empire. Now that London, blind to the beauty of what it sees every day-communia vilescunt'is demolishing the noblest works of Wren, and grinding down his churches with their towers and spires of inimitable picturesqueness into Portland cement, let it be the honour of Liverpool to show her appreciation of his genius by calling into material existence this, his best loved design.

Not that I would recommend the adoption of Wren's model without modifications, especially externally. The criticisms Mr. Fergusson passes on it in his History of Architecture are not unfounded. The Attic story crushes the main structure by its undue height and heaviness. The hollow curves which connect the central mass with the arms of the cross might be broken with advantage. The huge windows, as big as triumphal arches, would need reduction. The secondary cupola over the western vestibule-there is no proper nave-should become a less prominent feature. The junction of the dome with the building from which it springs might also be improved. Such modifications Wren would have doubtless introduced in carrying out this design, as he did in the erection of the existing cathedral, to its great

2 Parentalia, p. 283.

This interference with our great architect's design, on the somewhat apocryphal authority of Spence's Anecdotes, has always been attributed to James the Second, then Duke of York, who wished to have 'side oratories' 'ready for his intended revival of the Papist service.' The Parentalia, however, is entirely silent as to any such influence, and attributes the rejection of the first model to the Chapter and others of the clergy,' who, wedded to the old cathedral arrangement, insisted on a plan which, in the words of the Parentalia, exhibited the Gothic rectified to a better manner of architecture,' i.e. the ancient division of nave, choir, and transepts, with side aisles, reproduced in Classical architecture. They insisted on forming the skeleton; the architect might clothe it as he pleased.

VOL. X.-No. 57.

3 D

benefit; and with his exquisite sense of proportion would have certainly got it all right. But whatever exceptions may be taken to the design, its effect even externally would have been one of unspeakable grandeur, while internally there could be no question of its almost magical loveliness. On this point all authorities agree. The late Mr. Petit speaks of it as the noblest interior in the world,' with an exquisite alternation of light and shade, certainly unobtainable in Gothic architecture, and a perspective of length not surpassed by the finest buildings' in that style. Mr. Fergusson acknowledges that the inte rior would probably have been as superior to that of the present church as the exterior would have been inferior.' Dean Milman expresses his 'admiration of the first design,' while Mr. Penrose, in a note to the Dean's Annals,' calls attention to the unrestricted burst of vision through the noble diagonal vistas' presented to the eye in every direction, on passing from the comparatively narrow vestibule to the vast dome area beyond.

As all who read these pages cannot have seen Wren's model, and some who have seen it may have forgotten it, it may be well to mention its leading features. The ground plan exhibits a Greek cross of equal arms, with a domed vestibule at the west end, fronted by a magnificent portico of eight lofty Corinthian columns with two in the recess behind. The exterior has one order throughout, instead of two, as in the present cathedral. It is consequently free from the objection justly brought against that, that the upper order is a mere screen wall raised to hide the upper tier of windows and the flying buttresses. The central cupola, of the same diameter as that of the existing church, is supported like that on eight arches, each of which opens into a compartment covered with a smaller cupola. These cupolas are lighted from above, the effect of which would have been inconceivably fine. The consequence of this arrangement of eight compartments surrounding the central area, instead of four only as in the existing St. Paul's, is that the four intermediate arches have a meaning and a purpose, the absence of which is one of the chief blots of the present interior. The adoption of the Greek instead of the Latin cross, and the comparative shortness of the eastern limb, also removes another practical defect in Wren's cathedral, viz. the great distance between the congregation gathered in the vast auditorium' beneath the dome and the officiating clergy and choir in their stalls, and from the altar, thus enabling all to take a more intelligent part in the daily worship and to share more devoutly in the high Eucharistic celebrations.

The more Wren's model is examined, the deeper the conviction grows that no architect has ever, while preserving the old cathedral idea, so well realised and so admirably provided for the changed requirements of the Reformed Anglican cathedral worship. With the

Annals of St. Paul's, p. 403.

Ibid. note 1..

modifications in these requirements which two centuries have rendered necessary, and which Wren would have been the first to grasp and carry into effect, no plan could be better suited for the needs of a cathedral planted in the midst of a vast mercantile and labouring population; none would conduce more to its practical usefulness, and consequently to its true popularity, as the great mother church of the city and diocese, where all, from the highest to the lowest, would always find a place, unite in the services of the church in their stateliest and most elevating form, hear the word of God read and preached, and have frequent opportunities from the earliest hour of receiving the Holy Communion. A great opportunity presents itself to Liverpool churchmen. I trust they will not let it slip.

EDMUND VENABLES.

THE ORDER OF CORPORATE REUNION.

MOVEMENTS in favour of Reunion have not been unknown during the existence of the Established Church. In the reign of Charles the First, one of these, under much opposition, made considerable progress, enlisting many active and zealous adherents. Its true nature and character were from time to time faithfully reported at Rome, and such active interest was then taken in it, even by high ecclesiastics, that the fable of the Pope having offered a cardinal's hat to Archbishop Laud was then first formulated. But the proposal for Reunion-though it had for supporters Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, and Montagu, Bishop of Chichester, on the English side, and Gregorio Panzani and Franciscus à Sancta Clara on the Roman-turned out abortive, and failed; while neither the attempts of the Nonjurors nor that of Archbishop Wake succeeded any better. Narrow in their conception, frequently, but national in their scope, and often hampered in their action by mere political considerations, these promoters of reunion failed, and perhaps deserved to fail. The evils of disunion, and the further mischief of division being continually subdivided by division, were great and pressing; but no one who could be called an ecclesiastical diplomatist appeared prepared to grapple with such evils on principle, and this by a bold and determined action.

The Order of Corporate Reunion-the first open and systematic attempt to face bravely the danger and difficulties of divisions-was founded quite recently, on the 8th of September, 1877. That feastday was exactly the twentieth anniversary of the original institution of the well-known sodality of prayer for this much-desired object—the 'Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom.' There was therefore a marked propriety in the selection of the anniversary named, when the platform of action was to be henceforth occupied in addition to that of prayer. The origin of the Order thus arose :—A certain number of persons within the pale of the Establishment realised keenly the distasteful fact that those rulers and guides who by their rank, office, and opportunities, ought to have been actively engaged in defending things spiritual within that community, were evidently doing nothing of the kind: some of them, in fact, the very reverse. Many of the chief rulers obviously defended little else than