The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-22 00:00:00

THE EGYPTIAN OBELISK FOR NEW
YORK.

Writing from Alexandria of Nov. 9, the Correspon-
dent of The Times gives the following particulars re-
specting the obelisk, known as Cleopatra's Needle,
which is to go to New York:—lt appears that the
American Consul-General in the time of the Wilson
Government had asked for the monument, but it had
been decided not to part with the sole obelisk that re-
mained in the Delta. The request, however, was re-
newed when the European Ministers fell and Ismail
Pasha granted it. "In the circumstances," say the
present Ministers, "we are obliged to confirm the gift
and reluctantly to give up the obelisk. But," they
add, "henceforth no Egyptian monument whatso-
ever shall be ceded to any Power or to any town
outside Egyptian soil." Meanwhile our American
friends are busy with the removal of their precious
possession. The obelisk has been cleared to its base,
20f C. below the present level of the soil, and it stands
on a block of granite forty tons weight, which, again,
rests on three wide slabs. The whole is to be taken
to New York. The monument is to be lowered in the
beginning of Decetnber and launched in a case, which
will be towed round to the arsenal wharf, where the
whole will be thrust longways into the hull of a
steamer and so conveyed across the Atlantic.

The following petition has, we are informed (says The
Times of Wednesday), been signed by the Governor of
Rhode Island and many other persons in that State :

"To th,lse concerned in the removal of Cleopatra's
Needle from Egypt. A petition from certain citizens
of America against it. Whereas, the obelisk of
Alexandria known as Cleopatra's Needle, and origi-
nally brought from Heliopolis, was according to some
set up were it now stands by the last Sovereign of
Egypt, Cleopatra, in honour of the birth of her child,
by Julius Ctesar, and according to other and
more generally received authorities, set up there during
the reign of Tiberias Cattr ; and whereas, either of
these dates occurs in the momentous era in his-
tory marked by the and of the Egyptian Empire, the
source of all science and art, the establishment of
the Roman Empire, the extinction of the Jewish
nationalty, the completion of the Old Testament, the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the beginning of the
Christian era; and whereas, no site could be more
significant for a monument so set up than Alexandria,
the port by which the Romans entered Egypt, the
doorway between the eastern and the western world;
and whereas, the same has stood undisturbed for
nearly 2,000 years; and whereas, the removal and
setting up elsewhere of a part of this monument cannot
compensate for the destruction of it as a whole; and
whereas, the site and time of its erection, no less than
its obelisk, all form part of this monument as it
now stands; and whereas, the taking down a monu-
ment so venerable by violating a reverence for
antiquity would misrepresent the American people
and be an act of vandalism which mutt ulti-
mately receive the scorn of the civilized world;
and whereas, by the gift of the Khedive of Egypt the
monument has now become American property and
the flag of America waves over it; and whereas, those
who have obtained this gift have been actuated by a
desire to add honour to their country; and whereas,
now that the right of Americans to remove the obelisk
is undisputed, no act could so redound to the honour
of Amsric and Americans as a forbearing to exercise
that right through reverence to antiquity ; and whereas,
such an act of forbearance would mark an epoch of
progress and a larger feeling for the humanities than
has existed hitherto in the world; therefore the under-
signed respectfully petition that the monument may
be left untouched where it now stands."