Page:The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty, 1907.djvu/23

 an Inspector of Historical Monuments, and the office was filled for some time by M. Prosper Merimée. Moreover from 1830, an annual grant for the up-keep of monuments has appeared in the French Budget, no less than £120,000 having been granted in one year (1896). In 1837, the Commission des Monuments Historiques was appointed for the purpose of framing a list of monuments, and objects having an historic or artistic interest and of supervising works of restoration executed on scheduled monuments. This Commission has for its President the Minister of Public Instruction and the Fine Arts, who is charged with the duty of giving effect to the recommendations of the Commission; other important Public Officers are members. Under its auspices a classification of monuments deemed to be of national importance has been gradually elaborated, and at the time of the passing of the Ancient Monuments Act of 1887, over 2,000 monuments were included in the list. Three general inspectors of Historical Monuments, with salaries varying from £250 to £300 act under the authority of the Commission; and a staff of forty architects attached to the Commission superintend works of restoration.

Such is the elaborate official machinery which France has established for protecting her historic monuments. In 1887 an Act was passed which gave the powers necessary to render this machinery effective. The State indeed had not been powerless before this date; a power of expropriation, which does not exist in English law except by special enactment, had been enjoyed by the State since 1810, and it had been officially laid down that 'the acquisition of an edifice belonging to a private person might be declared to he of public utility, even when the State had only the intention of preventing its destruction on grounds of general interest.' In 1841 another Expropriation Act was passed, and under its provisions property was