tends to write to you, and I leave to him to describe in detail the different works we are executing in the Cathedral of Paris. Besides I fear Sir, that this letter will already appear to you extravagantly long, and yet I have not yet said anything upon the Churches of Nantes and of Moulins, of which you have asked me for some account. I will try to be as brief as possible.

"The Church which I am building at Nantes, and which bears the dedication of S. Nicholas, is in a great measure finished. The style I thought proper to adopt, is that found in the monuments built at the beginning of the 13th century. I have a great predilection for this style because of the simplicity and vigour which characterise it. To preserve the ancient Church, I have been compelled to construct this building in two parts; the first comprising all the choir and the transepts is built and all the sculpture almost entirely finished; it has been used for Divine Service for two years. I have been occupied this year in pulling down the ancient Church, so as to begin immediately the building of the nave and of the façade.

"The Church of Moulins (Allier), I have been able to build all at once, which is always very preferable; the building indeed is as yet only raised to the height of about five metres, and it will still require much time before that Church is finished. We have also here adopted the style of the 13th century, but it differs entirely from that at Nantes, as well in the general plan as in the details. I will not mention the works which I am doing at the Cathedral of Chartres, for I must really conclude this letter, the great length of which I hope you will forgive, on the plea that I have tried to answer the several questions which you have put to me.-Believe me Sir, I shall always be most happy to correspond with you in all that concerns our common study. Believe me with every sentiment of respect,

"LASSUS."

Architect of Notre Dame, and of the Sainte Chapelle, Member of the Comité historique des arts et monuments.

M. Lassus has had the kindness to send us the Report of the Commission above alluded to, and also a report of his own addressed to the Minister of Public Works in reply to one by the Architects of the Palais de Justice, (in which building, as our readers know or ought to know, stands the Sainte Chapelle,) in answer to that of the Commission. He has likewise most kindly furnished us with stereotypes of the woodcuts with which the first of these Reports is illustrated; in reproducing them, we are bound to thank both him and the Ministry of Public Works, which sanctioned their execution for us. The question at issue briefly stated is as follows. The Palais de Justice in the Isle de la Cité, the ancient palace of the French Kings, and now the seat of the central Judicature, is chiefly a modern pile of buildings, the ancient ones having suffered in a conflagration in 1776. Happily that gem of Pointed architecture, the Sainte Chapelle escaped, and has, as the above letter details, been lately reconsecrated after years of desecration. Contemporaneously with its restoration is proceeding,

under different architectural management, an enlargement of the Palais de Justice for the convenience of public business. The two public works have unfortunately come into collision, on the north side of the Chapel, with reference to what is to be done with a staircase and gallery, which at present darken the windows of that side. The Municipality of Paris, (a most powerful body enjoying a revenue of near £2,000,000 a year, derived mainly from the octroi or duty on provisions brought into the city,) pushes the enlargement of the secular buildings of the Palais, with little regard to the Chapelle. Accordingly the Ministers of the Interior and Public Works, appointed a commission to examine this question, which reported to the latter Minister on the 28th of last August. It was composed of M. Caristie, Architect President; M. Merimée, Inspector General of Historical Monuments, Secretary; and MM. Duperrier, Galis, Riant, and De Lasteyrie, (the historian of Glass Painting) members of the Conseil General of the department of the Seine, and of MM. Baroche, ProcureurGeneral, Duban, (late architect of the Sainte Chapelle,) De Luynes, De Montalembert, and Nivet, Counsellor of State. This commission, as will be seen, was composed of influential persons, and its members were defined "to examine the plans of the Palais de Justice, as they affected the Sainte Chapelle.' Its report begins with congratulatory remarks on the revived taste for Pointed architecture in France. "The Sainte Chapelle, a building to which so many historical recollections attach themselves, is one of the most admirable types of Gothic architecture, arrived at its most complete developement."* It would be grievous to see its costly restoration marred by the same body which executed it. "Yet this would be the case, if the plan of enlarging the Palais de Justice were carried out according to the scheme which has been adopted. Preparations are being made for buildings, which would mask the whole of one side of the Sainte Chapelle, deprive half of its painted windows, repaired at great cost, of day light, and form a sewer at the foot of its substructures." The blame of the mistakes committed hitherto at the Palais de Justice is laid to the piecemeal system of building adopted there.

The Commission considers the two things necessary to effect this are, 1st. To replace the Sainte Chapelle in the position of conservation which is necessary for it. 2nd. To establish an easy communication between the different portions of the Palace situated to the east, and to the west of the Sainte Chapelle."

The latter end is now attained by a gallery indicated in the subjoined plan.

The Commission, in order to accommodate it with the first condition proposes to throw back this gallery to the line A B, that of the ancient Gallerie Mercier. The opponents object that this change would interfere with the symmetry of the Cour de Mai, of which this gallery

Our friends in France quote this Chapel as a proof of the perfection of the ar chitecture of the thirteenth century, under which head they include the First-Pointed churches of France. While most gladly recognizing the extreme beauty of the Sainte Chapelle, we must claim to separate it from them, and classify it, as a very early example of Middle-Pointed.-ED.

forms one side. The Commission replies, by showing how very unimportant such a consideration is, compared with the preservation of the Sainte Chapelle, and retorts the attack on the "mediocre architect "of that court, for placing his work opposite that of Pierre de Montereau.

The necessity of ventilation prescribes that the lower story of the new gallery should be open, and that the whole should be of a medium height, with a terraced roof.

The Commission admits that its proposals would entail additional expense, but contends that the interests of the Sainte Chapelle justify this. It then proceeds with a suggestion for the future custody of the Archives of the Etat Civil, which would suffer the most by the isolation of the Sainte Chapelle.

The architects of the Palais replied in a long report to the Prefect of the Seine. M. Lassus answered them in a report to the Minister of Public, dated November 15, 1849. He states that "the architects of the Palais de Justice insist at length, and in various ways, upon the sacrifices imposed upon the Palace, and the concessions made to the Sainte Chapelle. It is sufficient to cast one's eyes upon the plan of the locality to perceive how much this admirable edifice has lost, instead of gaining, since the commencement of the execution of the new projects, by the diminution of the court, and the raising of the surrounding buildings."

The architects insist upon the necessity for their plan of two parallel galleries, which they compare to the arms of the human body. M. Lassus answers, 1st, by observing "that this parallelism of the two galleries is subordinate to the preservation or destruction of the building of the ancient Cour Royal; a question still under discussion;" and secondly, by applying a remark of these gentlemen about the sentiment inspired by the buildings of the Palais, to the preservation of the Sainte Chapelle.

The architects take credit to themselves, for "having preserved the profile of the buttresses of the façade of the porch." M. Lassus cannot see how they have done so, unless enveloping them in new masonry be preserving their profile. "These gentlemen also assert that the buttresses, and substructure of the Sainte Chapelle have not suffered during five centuries from the proximity of the building erected to the north of this edifice. I reply first that, as every one knows, the gallery whose preservation is under discussion, has not existed for five centuries, but that it was built about 1779, after the conflagration of the Palace, and destruction of the Treasury of Charters: secondly, that it has already been necessary to make costly repairs on this side, and that the state of the buttresses and the foundation, demand still more important ones. I will finally add, that it is sufficient to enter into the lower chapel to be struck with the bad state of the walls, and to perceive that they are impregnated with wet and with saltpetre. I think it is useless to insist upon the impossibility of any assimilation between the elegant design of the Treasury of Charters, [Chapterhouse also?] erected at the same time as the Sainte Chapelle, by Pierre de Montereau, and the buildings which at present occupy the site of this adjunct, the ordinary compliment of every isolated chapel."

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