COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 22 June 1886)

THE BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH (Dr. MAGEE),

in moving the following Amendment:— Provided that such repairs and restorations shall have been approved of by the said Commissioners, said, had not the title of the Bill contained the word "restoration" he should not have troubled the House on the matter. But the word "restoration" was by no means so definite as "repairs." To the uninstructed mind it meant simply the restoring to the state in which the building had been before; but in the mind of an architect—and especially an eminent architect—restoration meant putting in something which the builders could, should, would, or might have done, and it was sometimes very startling and very exasperating to find what was done in the name of restoration. Objects of historical interest like cathedrals required to be guarded with the most jealous care, for if once "eminent architects" got their hands upon them they began to vivisect them according to their own inner consciousness. Most of their Lordships were acquainted with one of the most lovely cathedrals in the country—that of Salisbury; that 173 cathedral fell into the hands of the most eminent architect of his day—Wyatt—who pulled down the bell tower because he thought it interfered with the view. Then he shifted the holy table from its place, and finally took down all the monuments from their places and distributed them about the church wherever he thought they would look pretty. The consequence was that the whole interior history of the cathedral had vanished. It was not safe to intrust our cathedrals to any architect, however eminent, and the more eminent the more he was afraid of him. Deans and Chapters would scarcely dare to say a word in opposition to an eminent architect, who would thus be enabled to work his wicked will upon our cathedrals unrestrained by any consideration except that imposed by his own inner consciousness. In the smallest parish church not a door or window or pew could be altered without a faculty from the Bishop's Court; but no licence from the Bishop's Court was required for dealing with the cathedral, the most important architectural edifice in the diocese. The only other thing that would prevent them from pulling the cathedral down and leaving it there, or substituting for it a Grecian temple or a Chinese pagoda, was the difficulty of getting subscriptions for the purpose, or the fear that subscribers would seek to get them back if they were to be applied to other purposes than those they gave them for. Unless his Amendment were adopted, there would be no check on an architect doing anything he pleased under the name of restoration. That was not a safe state of things for our cathedrals, and by his Amendment he simply asked that over public money there should be some public check, and, in his opinion, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were the proper persons to exercise the power. They made the grant, and they had the additional advantage of having an architect of their own to advise them. He proposed this Amendment in no spirit of hostility to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, but merely to insure that over the expenditure of public money there should be some public check.