ell as to France
and to the Church, of this magnificent edifice. When he came here from
the bishopric of Tarbes, his first episcopate, in November 1874, one of
the earliest steps taken by the present Cardinal Langenieux was to get a
full report on the condition of the Cathedral from M. Millet, the
accomplished successor of M. Viollet-le-Duc in the great work of the
conservation and restoration of the historical monuments of France. M.
Millet, on August 25, 1875, reported that the flying buttresses needed
immediate attention, and that 'the gables and vaults of the western
facade were seriously damaged, so that the rain water was penetrating
the masonry and threatening the destruction of the numerous statues and
sculptured ornaments of the grand western portal.' This portal, as every
traveller knows, is simply matchless in the world. The Archhishop
thereupon invited four of his personal friends, all at that time members
of the Ministry--MM. Dufaure, Leon Say, Wallon, and Caillaux--to Reims,
to see for themselves the state of the Cathedral. They came and
inspected the building, and after their return to Paris prepared a bill,
which became a law in December 1875, appropriating a sum of 2,033,411
francs in ten yearly instalments to the restoration of the Cathedral.
The work began at once under the direction of M. Millet, who
unfortunately died in 1879.

It was prosecuted after his death by another able architect, M. Brugere,
and is now in the hands of M. Darcy, who has shown by his work at Evreux
and St.-Denis that he is no unworthy successor of Viollet-le-Duc. The
appropriation made in 1875 has been expended, but I am glad to find, on
looking into the Budget for 1890 of the Ministry of Public Worship, that
a sum of 301,508 fr. 26 c. is still available for the works at Reims.
This budget, by the way, is an instructive document. It shows that the
whole outlay of the State in France upon all objects connected with
public worship and religion in France and Algiers, excepting the service
of the chaplains in the army and the navy, amounted in 1889 to a little
more than one franc per head of the population! The whole expense in
connection with the Catholic Church, the Calvinist and Lutheran
confessions, the Israelitish religion and the Mussulmans, was no more
than 45,337,145 francs, a sum less than the amount annually expended by
the Protestant Episcopal Church of the single State of New York upon
keeping up its churches, colleges