It has been decided at last to consecrate the church
of the Sacre Coeur, which has been thirty-nine years in building, and presides magnificently over Paris on the lofty hill of Mont- martre. The ceremony will take place on October 17th. It was in 1873, as the Times correspondent reminds us, that the National Assembly authorized the purchase of land by expropriation for the site of the church. It is impossible to imagine such a vote being even suggested in the Chamber to=day. Yet the great Byzantine building, standing on the place where Napoleon once intended to build his temple of peace, draws to it Frenchmen of every class; and it is
by the offerings of rich and poor all over France, and indeed of Frenchmen all over the world, that it has been gradually reared. It has cost so far £1,600,000—the sum which Napoleon was prepared to spend on a temple of peace —and the raising of such an amount proves that there may be something to be said for conciliating the Church even from the point of view of opportunist politicians.