might
be continued. The commissioners knew nothing of building, and, like
many people of to-day, may have thought that the old cathedrals were
finished in a few years. Fortunately, Wren was an enthusiast in his
great work, and the happy possessor of an equable temperament that
nothing could seriously disturb. Otherwise this disgraceful treatment
of so old a man might well have been fatal.

It is better to turn away from this as quickly as may be, and
contemplate with a laudable pride the great achievement of our
ancestors. The Plague, and still more the Fire, must have seriously
impoverished the City; and in 1703 the great storm did immense damage.
Of the five-and-thirty years the cathedral was in building, one half
were years of war; and the public confidence and security were further
disturbed by a revolution, by civil war in Ireland, and by plots and
intrigues without number, following in the wake of a disputed
succession. Yet the City raised, and almost without complaint, a sum
enormous in those days, and which would, even in our own time, be
reckoned as serious.

I have calculated the expense as follows. My figures lay no claim to
infallibility--I doubt whether a chartered accountant could make a
quite accurate balance-sheet--but they may be taken as fairly
approximate:--

RECEIPTS.
L s. d.
Coal Dues 810,181 18 2
Subscriptions and Miscellaneous 68,341 14 1
---------------
Total L878,523 12 3

EXPENDITURE.
L s. d.
Preliminary 10,909 7 8
Purchase of Houses 14,808 3 10
Cost as in "Parentalia" 736,752 2 3
Interest on Loans 83,744 18 9
----------------
Total L846,214 12 6

BALANCE in 1723 L32,308 19 9

My balance does not tally with Mr. Longman's. He tells us that the
coal duty, which was on sea-borne coal, was 1s. 6d. per chaldron,
whereof four-fifths went to St. Paul's. The age of Indulgences was
over, and, unlike the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the cost of
building St. Paul's was chiefly defrayed by a public impost; and this
cost may be estimated in round numbers at about three-qu