The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-05-20 00:00:00

eorresponttenct.

PUBLIC MEMORIALS.

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To the Editor of the Dorset County EXpf ON and
Agricultural Gazette.

Stit,—Memorials to public character, are fast run-
ning to such • pitch, that—speaking Hammiest—
obscurity after a man's death will soon become a
more distinguished thing than fame. The greet
spirits of antiquity were content, end more than
content, with the prospect that they should one day
" fly living through the nomths of men." With
the wise and good in all ages it has been the seine,
and they hate gone to their grieve with dignity and
calmness, even when it seemed unlikely that thee
would ever attain the true man's rightful memorial,
mean the 'honest chronicler's" unvarnished tale.
But now-a-daya there has gone abroad • stranp
disease, which *dilute men with double cowardice.
We mistrust both the dead and the living. We heye
not resolution enough to believe that the worth of
the departed will, really and palpably, litre even if
se let it alone and abstain from nursing and fondling
it with our officious care. And we hare not loyalty
of heart enough to trust our ootitemporaries for keep-
ing anything or anybody in mind, when they have
owed W be in sight It would seem as it we rat

faith in the perpetuity of nothing, save bricks and
mortar, bronze, canvass, and marble. Not that this
vice is making its appearance now for the first time,
but in an age which not only prides itself on doing,
but is in reality doing much, to reform itself, any dis-
tort on of public feeling or principle acquires the
greater prominence.
The reasons which are considered strong enough
for driving people to prop and shore up a deed man's
memory are sometimes deplorable indeed. Not long
ago the chairman of a memorial meeting, anxious to
inagniiy his hero'a virtues, remarked that there had
probably never been a more affable member of Par-
iiament, nor one more ready at all times to put his
hand into his pocket. If this is ground enengh to raise
a statue or an obelisk upon, one really does not see
why a new department of the building trade @koala
not be opened at once.
But the extent of this cowardly solicitude has bees
unfortunately shown most conspicuously velFere there
was certainly the least demand for it, bine mew
sues adopted for "perpetuating the memory" of
Prince Albert. When • miner Jells down • shaft
hole, or when a railway porter is run over by a
train, what, Sir, is the memorial fund which his
mates get together for him Why a day's wages
per heed, more or less. And what should we think
of the man who should vi round the staff of a station,
or the members of a pit-gang, with a shrewd gums
at the depth of this and that wan's pocket Would
he be likely or not to brighten the memory of the
dead hand, by hints that so and so is earning
enough to have given more, and that somebody else
—though barely earning bread and cheese, deep in
debt already, and may be sending help to needy
relations, or to a distant strike--should nevertheless
have the subscription list thrust upon hie notice?
Now, Sir, I contend that very much this sort of
error has been fallen into by the National Memorial
Committee. Prince Albert died; there was a wail
from end to end of the land that told in no doubtful
tones how his name had been stamped into our history.
Shortly after the funeral, a working man in London
went without his dinner, and sent a shilling to the
Lord Major in order to commence a memorial fend.
Within three weeks from that time .£30,000—• sum
equal to the annual income paid to the Prinee in his
lifetime—had been got t %ether. Why could we not
have taken this sum, and set about the first thing
that came to band? Instead of that we took the
euheeription his; and began to reckon how many
dukes and esels, how many squires' of low degree,
and bow many mechanics of no degree, apparel
among the contributors. And then came • curious
circular to the clergy, asking for parochial collec-
tions, just at the very time when the notion was
spreading—as happily it is spreading still—that
something ought to be done in the parishes to help
the Lancashire workpeople.
. . .

Will anyone pretend for a moment that Prinee
Albert is being honoured by this kind of thing ?
Were be still present amongst us, would he not
declare loudly that his lofty forehodinp of paths-
mous fame have been bitterly misandeistood? Yet
we mesnt well, and should have done well, but tor
this obtrusive trick of cowardly ofbcioasnan, which
mars our trust alike in the greatness of the dead and
in the goodness of the living.

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