The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

MR. F. PEEL AT BURY,

The Right Hon, F. Peel, M.P. (one of the Under •Secre•
taries of the Treasury), met his constituents at Bury, Lan-
cashire, on Wednesday evening. The lower room of Barn-
brook-mill had been prepared for his reception, and an audi-
ence estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000 assembled. Mr. Geo.
Whitehead presided.
Mr. PneLewho was much cheered, said that among the
anniversaries to which he looked forward with pleasure he
counted that which brought him before his constituents to
account to them for the manner in which he had performed
his duties as their representative, and, as it were, to strike
a balance in the account between them ; and far from that
pleasure palling him by repeated use, he found it as freak
and as treat as at the first, thsnks to the cordial greeting
he always received and the kindly feeling which they in-
variah!y manifested towards him. He welcomed each suc •
cessive meeting as affording another link in that lengthen-
ing chain which bound them together so firmly and yet so
freely; and he looked upon those meetings as a safeguard for
his own faithful service, because they reminded him of his
responsibility to them; and he knew that a sense of respon-
sibility to one's constituency was notless necessary to make
a member of Parliament a good member than was a sense
of responsibility to the elected representatives of the nation
themseh es necessary to make the Government of this
country a good Government. These annual audits appeared
to him to combine many of the advantages of annual elec-
tions, with freedom from their disadvantages, because they
imparted that popular impulse, they gave that fresh sense
of responsibility, under which a member newly elected
might be supposed to act, without foregoing those advan-
tages which might be presumed to be derived from the
services of members of Parliament who had the experience
of several sessions to guide them. It had been said that the
Parliamentary duties of members had not been so onerous of
late as they formerly were ; that the last session, like the pre-
ceding one, had not been productive of any striking legisla-
however,that some measures
not ushered in by any flourish of
trumpets,
ri vue
remer
peseut
passedsl s
were. (Hoar.)wh icb l
thoughcalculatedhto produce the most beneficial re-
sults. But admitting the statement to be true generally,
etg
u
the fact was easily to be accounted for, inasmuch as in the
prevailing temper of the public men the questions of the
day had not afforded a favourable field for the realisation of
such legislative results as he had referred to. These were
times when the questions of most particular interest con-
cerned the foreign relations of this country—the equilibrium
not of classes at home, but of independent Powers abroad—
times when, perhaps, the maintenance of peace—the greatest
blessing which a country could have—might depend upon
the issue of negotiations that were pending—times when
what this country principally desired was that her influence
should be used in the cause of moderation and conciliation
abroad, and when the force of that public opinion, of which
she is the representative, should be brought to bear for ac-
complishing those ends; and times when, in order that pub-
lic opinion should have its due weight, it was essential that
the mind of the country should be as the mind of one man,
and that no questions should arise to divide or weaken her
counsels. (Applause.) It was clear that the mind of the
country had been bent upon what was passing outside, and
he must confess that when We reflected that the tempest
was still raging in America With undiminished fury; when
we marked that war seemed oti the point of breaking out in
the north of Germany ; when
we observed how the horizon
abroad was everywhere clouded and overcast—we could not
be too thankful at our immunity from therm complications in
which foreign countries were involved. We could not be
too thankful, seeing how elsevhero the atmosphere was
overclouded, for the sunshine we ourselves were enjoying,
even though there might be spots in the sun and shadows
beneath it, which it would bo politic at the first opportunity
to remove. (Cheers.) In political speech, under existing
circumstances, the leading topic must necessarily be the
American question. (Hear, hear.) The war had now lasted
three years, and we saw that as yet the north had not been
able to overcome the resistance of the South. The North
was like the Roman Consul who would not deepeir of the
Republic in its adversity, The North did not despair of the
Union, and was straining every nerve in its cause. The
South had broken from that Union ; would not hear of it
again ; disbelieved in the Possibility of its reconstruction ;
disbelieved that the Union could again exist in its former
sense of a brotherhood of States; believed, therefore, that
union for it must mean sub ugation, and so strained on its
side—and if possible to a tigher degree of tension—every
nerve for the purpose of accom plising its independence. To
a bystander he thought it would appear that that dreadful
war must have created a gulf between the Northern and the
Southern people more impassable than the widest seas or the
loftiest mountain barriers by which nature ever separated
one people from another--(hear)—
and that, therefore, the
alternative of that war mast be subjugation or separation.
He remembered meeting in an old writer with the expres
sion " the America of truth.'' what h© meant by that ex•
pression was the undiscovred parts of truth, because he
wrote some 300 years ago, at a time when America, though
e expression was
discovered, had not been explored,
peel)an thod th
ught there could be
forcible enough, But he (Mr.
no doubt that if there were an America of fiction it would
not be so startling as the America of truth, not of 300 years
ago, but of the present day.
Look only
had had nowauthentic at the burden
of this war to ono side—the Nora" We
information on that subject placed before us in Messages
presented to Congress lately-, statements of which, to use an
American phrase, the " reliability" could not be disputed.
Take the question of expense. It appeared that the three
years he Central Govern-
years the war had lasted it was costing t
ecent of,the North at the rate of X 150,000,000 a-year. hap-
peered that of that annual expense they were not able to raise
by taxation more than £25,0u0,000 a 'year, consequently the
remaining £125,000,000 had to be obtained by borrowing;
and that they had up to the present time found no difficulty

in meeting with persons willing and: able to lend thorn the
necessary funds. The consequence was, of course, a rapid
augmentation of the national debt. The debt, which at the
end of the first year of the war, in June, 1862, amounted to
£125,000,000, in June, 1863, was £250,000,000. It was esti-
mated that in June, 1864, it would amount to £375,000,000,
and if the war continued to June, 1865, and if that war,
different from other wars, did not become more costly the
longer that it lasted, the debt would then amount to
£500,000,000. Now, a portion of that debt bore no interest.
It had been employed as a medium of circulation to answer
the purpose of money ; but it was found that the quantity
which could be disposed of in this manner was necessarily
limited. That limit was taken to be about £30,000,000, and
it had been already reached. All the rest of the debt, and
all the money that must be borrowed for the future, must
necessarily belong to the interest-bearing portion of their
debt, and inasmuch as the average rate of interest of their
debt was 6 per cent., next June the amount which would be
annually payable for interest on that debt would be about
£16,000,000 or £17,000,000—a very respectable sum, even
when placed by the side of the interest which we had to pay
ourselves for a debt,incurreci during ages and generations of
wars. (Hear.) Now, these figures, large as they were, would
appear still larger if contrasted with the slenderness of the
proportions of the figures for these same purposes before the
war, only three years ago, In June, 1861, the capital debt of
that country was not more than£l7,ooo,ooo—that was to say,
about the same as the interest that the debt would amount
to in a very few months ; while the income necessary to
cover the expenditure, which had now reached the large
sum of £150,000,000, was then not more than £12,000,000 or
£13,000,000. Now, applying a scale of the same magnitude
—for it was equally applicable to the other circumstances of
the war, to the destruction of private property,—to the
waste of human life. Bear it in mind that the facts had
shown that; war could not be carried on without breaking
off all allegiance to liberty; that we had seen the Habeas
Corpus act suspended, trial by jury and the independence
of the judges interfered with, liberty of the press and of
speech things of the past, and we could form some idea,
imperfect no doubt, of tiee burden and sacrifice entailed by
that war. Now, it might appear a redeeming feature of it
that if not the origin, if not the object of it, at least the end
of it would be the extinction of slavery--(hear, hear, and
applause)—and the conferring of freedom upon vast num-
bers of human beings who had been born and were held in
slavery. (Cheers.) But alas I there were many forms of
evil. Slavery was one—a hateful and most-to-be•abhorred
form ; war was another ; military despotism, too, was an
evil ; and it was a question whether even so great an object
as the extinction of slavery might not be purchased at too
high a price. (Hear, hear.) Probably it was because
some persons thought that however the war might end
slavery was doomed that we found opinion in this country
so much divided on the question. If slavery were the only
hinge upon which the question turned, there would be no
difference of opinion—(hear, hear)—but slavery apart, it
was open to ask such questions as whether this war, eiffe-
rent as it might be in form, was not in principle the same
as that which was waged by the American colonies against
ourselves—whether we might not trace in it the spirit of
1776—whether we did not see in it the influence of the New
World, which it was perhaps too presumptuously supposed
was to exercise so predominant an influence neon the whole
world—whether it was not the influence of the New World
acting upon a part of itself, and whether, in short, that
same centrifugal force which separated the American colo-
nies from this country was not now operating to separate a
part of those former colonies from the other. (Cheers.)
He should not attempt to offer any answer to these ques-
tions. It was not of great importance which direction the
sympathies of people took ; what was important was the
line of conduct which this country, as a whole, had pur •
sued. This country had steadily adhered to a policy of
non-intervention, and he believed that never were
the Americans more anxious for disentanglement in
the intricacies of European politics than had this country
been anxious for disentanglement in this American struggle.
(Hear.) So faithfully had we adhered to our policy of neu-
trality that, as usually happened with very fair people, we
had disappointed both sides at different times. Thus the
North complained that we had been too hasty in acknow-
ledging the South as belligerents, althcugh they were com-
pelled to do the same thing quite as early as ourselves.
(Hear.) On the other hand, the South thought we were
too tardy in their recognition, although it was clear they
had not even now succeeded in establishing their indepen-
dence. But appeals had also been made to the Government
in reference to the acts of private persons and the rights of
neutrals. He referred to the vessels of war of a formidable
class. If these vessels were constructed in our ports a belli-
gerent could not, of course, enter our ports and seize them,
because he must not violate our neutrality; and when they
issued from our ports, far from being liable to seizure, they
ware much more likely to seize the vessel sent after them.
(Laughter,) Ho admitted the difficulty of drawing the line
between such vessels and other munitions of war, but he
thought there was a distinction. These vessels had a sort
of distinctive character, they sprang forth a Pallas armed—
when they left our ports they were fitted and prepared at
all points to prey upon the commerce of a belligerent who
might be at friendship with ourselves, and in that way our
ports might be viewed as starting places for hostile expedi-
tions. Fortunately the case had been provided for by anti-
cipation. An act was passed many years ago giving power
to seize such vessels, and some of them had been seized for
violating that act—the Alexandra, for example, and the
ronclads at Birkenhead. It bad been decided that the
Alexandra was not strictly liable to be seized. The policy
of our Government would be, however, to do as we
would be done by. (Hear.) He hoped when the war was
over that both sides would acknowledge that our conduct
had been eminently fair. (Hear.) The impending rupture
in the north of Germany was a very menacing subject;
but he thought he might appropriately preface his re-
marks by glancing at a very joyful subject—the birth
of an heir to the future throne of this country, and he
hoped that event might prove as fruitful of good to us all as
happiness to her Majesty and the Princess of Wales.
(Cheers.) Denmark was a very small country, and the ques-
tion in dispute was a very small one, but it had brought
matters to the verge of war, and it was much apprehended
that if war should break out there it would drag all Europe
into the vortex. There were two points in dispute, one being
the question of succession to the government of the Duchies.
In the Duchies the rule of succession had been in favour of
the male line, while in Denmark the female line was not ex-
cluded from the throne. On the death of the King of Den-
mark these rules of succession would have separated the
dominions of Denmark into two parts, and as all the great
Powers of Europe were agreed that the integrity of those
dominions was of importance for the maintenance of peace
in Europe, they agreed in 1852 to recognise the title of the
present King to succeed to those Duchies. The States of
Holstein, it was said, were not consulted, and did not con-
sent to this change, hence the present difficulty. The other
question arose from the Duchy of Schleswig being inhabited
partly by Danes and partly by Germans; and Austria and
Prussia had threatened to march their forces into Schleswig
unless the King of Denmark withdrew his Constitution,
which ♦irtually incorporated Schleswig with Denmark.
England in 1862, to prevent things coming to the present
crisis, proposed a very sensible plan of a bond of union of
our own, which it was to Le regretted was not adopted ; and
now, acting as usual on the side of moderation and peace,
had proposed a conference on the subject which, it was to
be hoped, would extricate this question from the arbitrament
of the sword. (Cheers.) It would not be surprising that when
there was cause for so much anxiety in general there should
be an unanimous wish that England should be strong, and
that justice should be done to her strength. (Hear, hear.)
He was happy to believe that the forces of this country,
supplemented by the well-disciplined body of volunteers,
were never a more effective condition than at present, and
could confidently be counted upon as equal to any ewer.
gency. (Cheers,) It has been the object of the Government
to combine efficiency with economy. In the last financial
year the expenditure of the country was, for the first time
for some years past, under £70,000,000, and showed a real
reduction, as compared with the average annual expendi-
ture of the three previous years, of no less than £2,500,000.
But the satisfaction which this would produce would be seen
more complete when it was remembered that the estimated
expenditure of the present year—and there was no reason
to suppose the estimate would be exceeded—was £1,500,000
less than it was last year. (Cheers.) Thus the expenditure
of this year would be £4,000,000 below the average annual
expenditure of two or three years back. It followed that
with a reduction of expenditure a diminution of taxation
could be made; and in distributing the relief derived from
that source the Government had been anxious to effect a
twofold object—namely, to give direct relief to the taxpayer,
and also to encourage the commerce and industry of the
country. Among measures passed for the widening of our
area of commerce might bo mentioned the repeal of the
paper duty in 1861, and the repeal in 1860 of the customs
duties in connexion with the commercial treaty with France.
In the sense of direct relief to the taxpayer, reference might
be made to the remission of taxation during the past year.
(Hear, hear.) During 1863 the income tax was reduced
from 9d to 7d in the pound, with the not inconsiderable
additional boon of 'allowing a man whose income was less
than £2OO a year to deduct £6O. The reduction of the
duty on tea was a matter which spoke for itself. There
was no commodity, not a necessary of life, which was
so universal a favourite, and whose cheapness and ex-
cellence were so much appreciated, The increase in the
consumption of tea was no bad measure of the habits and
customs of the people, and that increased consumption
had been wonderful during the past 20 years. Whereas at
that period 40,000,0001 b of tea were consumed there were
now 80,000,0001 b, showing in 80T119 degree an addition to
the rational and domestic enjoyments of the people.
(Cheers.) It might perhaps be thought that with these
great reductions of taxation the revenue of the country
must show a great failing off. But the tables of the revenue
lately published told a very diff rent and more gratifying
story. Nothing, in fact, could yield more gratifying proof
of the general sound condition and healthy prospects of the
country. It was not to be expected that the decline in the
distress would receive a check with the advance of winter,
but the additions which had as yet been made were small,
compare I with the additions made at the corresponding
period of last year. But, whether the distress advanced,
receded, or altogether disappeared, it would be remembered
both for its severity and for having been passed through
without the aid of Parliament, without a single penny from
the Exchequer, (Cheers.) Arid if the cultivation of cotton,

stimulated by high prices, should become general, leaving
us dependent no longer on one source of supply, then,
whenever the good time should return, it would be doubly
welcome, for it would not only come, but come to remain.
(Cheers.)
The only question asked of Mr. Peel was whether he
would support "Mr. Lawson's Permissive Dill ;" as to
which he said he declined to pledge himself, but had no ob-
jection to vote for a first reading. The meeting resolved
unanimously and with acclamation to support Mr, Peel at
the next election,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—We are in a position to place before the
public this morning a complete history of the pro-
ceedings connected with the respite of George Victor
Townley, and the case has acquired a character of
such extraordinary importance that it cannot be too
attentively observed. On the day following the
conviction of the prisoner, Mr. Baron Martin, who
had tried him, reopened the question by a commu-
nication to Sir George Grey, suggesting, but merely
suggesting, a further inquiry into the convict's
actual state of mind. The judge's letter was not
decisively worded. Of his own opinions, indeed, it
conveyed but this much—that he thought the con-
viction right, but as two medical witnesses at the
trial had deposed " in the strongest manner" to the
actual insanity of the prisoner as he stood at the bar,
the judge thought it right to " call the attention" of
the Home Secretary to the point thus raised. To
this letter Sir G. Grey, after three days' considera-
tion, replied in terms implying that he himself
could see nothing in the report of the trial to call
for fresh investigation, and he begged the judge to
give him his own impression on the subject. Mr.
Baron Martin answered that he " could not say that
he had formed any decided opinion on the point,"
but that he thought there should be further inquiry.
Thus moved, Sir G. Grey addressed himself to the
Commissioners in Lunacy, frankly avowing his con-
viction that the verdict was right, and that the pri-
soner had been sane at the time of the murder, but
stating the question which had been since raised as
to his present sanity, and commending it to the con-
sideration of the Commissioners. These gentlemen
lost no time in proceeding to Derby and instituting
the inquiry with which they had thus been charged.
On the 28th of December they made their report. In
this document they appear somewhat disposed to let
Sir G. Grey form an opinion for himself from the
minutes of the proceedings which they submit to
him, but they do communicate their own con-
clusions to the extent which the following words
will indicate :—" In view of the extravagant
opinions thus deliberately professed by him (the
convict), of his extraordinarily perverted moral
sense, and of the hereditary taint alleged, and
apparently proved, to have existed in the family of
the prisoner's grandmother, we cannot consider
him to be of sound mind ; but his views of right
and wrong, false as they are, appear to have been
coherently acted upon, and with a full sense of
what they involved. He reasons now as he acted
in committing the murder. Upon the point of his
alleged belief in a conspiracy against him we
pressed him very closely, but we could not satisfy
ourselves that this was in the nature of a delusion."
They close their report in these terms—" Being of
opinion, therefore, that the prisoner continues to be
now in the same mental state as when he committed
the murder, and underwent his trial, we think
that, applying the law as laid down by Mr. Barcn
Martin to this case, the prisoner George Victor
Townley was justly convicted." Such was the point
to which the case was brought by the action of
the Home Secretary taken upon the suggestion of
the judge. But by this time action had been taken
in other quarters. On the day before the date of
the commissioners' report a certificate was forwarded
to Sir George Grey, signed by three justices of the
peace and two medical practitioners, briefly testify-
ing, in such language as a certain Act of Parliament
demanded, that George Victor Townley was insane.
And oa the day after the commissioners' report, a
similar certificate was forwarded, signed by two
justices of the peace, one of whom had signed the
first certificate, and two medical practitioners, being
identical with those acting in the first instance, to
the same effect as before. There were, therefore,
three reports made in as many days—one, in the
form of a certificate, on Dec. 27; another, from the
Commissioners of Lunacy, on the 28th; and a third,
in the shape, as it were, of an amended certificate,
on the 29th. Why the last should have been sent it
is not easy to see, unless it was thought better to
comply exactly with the words of the statute,
which spoke of "two" justices of the peace, neither
more nor less, whereas the first certificate had
been signed by three. In fact, it was the latter
of the two doeue_ents on which Sir George
Grey acted, having, as is now known, no dis-
cretion in the matter. An Act of Parliament
obliged him, on the receipt of such a certificate as
was sent to him on the 29th of December, to direct
the removal of the convict from the gaol to a lunatic
asylum, and consign him to a madhouse instead of
leaving him to be executed. This obligation he
simply discharged. The reader is now in posses-
sion of every circumstance of the case from convic-
tion to the reprieve, and the conclusions suggested
are important in the extreme. The Judge who tried
the case did not doubt the justice of the conviction.
He was moved only by the professional expositions
of Dr. Forbes Winslow and Dr. Gisborne, and, in-
deed, if the latter gentleman be identical with the
surgeon to the gaol, whose letter we publish else-
where, we may compress the authority into that of
Dr. Winslow alone, for his opinions seem to have
been largely instrumental in deciding those of Dr.
Gisborne. 'The Home Secretary could see no reason
for moving in the case on the face of the evidence,
nor could he, on a second application, get the Judge
to confess to any doubts apart from what he thought
due to the testimony of the experts. Then came
the scientific and impartial inquiry made by the
Lunacy Commissioners, and it may probably be
deemed fortunate for the prisoner that Sir George
Grey was not, as he has since stated, " called upon
to decide ,on that Report alone whether the sen-
tence of the law ought to be executed or not." The
fate of Townley was decided by the certificate.
Upon this, and this only, Sir George Grey framed
his warrant, as, indeed, he had no option but to do.
Two justices of the peace and two medical practi-
tioners can compel him to do the same in any other
case and at any time. It is under these circum-
stances that the stage of the case which we now
approach acquires such extraordinary importance.
Who constituted this commission of the magis-
trates and two surgeons, with power to overrule
every other authority in the country ? A formal
representation has been made to Sir George Grey
to the effect that the commission was constituted
at the instance of the prisoner's friends and ad-
visers, and by them introduced into the gaol.
This seems to be partially, though by no means
absolutely denied ; but a far more important asser-
tion has received no denial at all. The Derby-
shire magistrates who memorialised the Home
Secretary in the case distinctly alleged that
every member of this self-constituted commis-
sion, magistrates and surgeons alike, had not only
formed conclusions beforehand, but had placed
these conclusions on record. In short, these gentle-
men, who entered, with a power of arbitrary deci-
sion, on the task of ascertaining whether Townley
was sane, or insane, had already settled in their
own minds that he was insane, and had published
their opinions. We are not sure that these asser-
tions cover both the certificates sent up, but the
doubt is not material. Three out of the four certi-
fying authorities, if not all, had unquestionably pre-
judged the case, and put their judgments on record
before they commenced their official investigation.
We have not the least desire to impeach the sincerity
of their views. No doubt their conclusions were
uprightly formed, but, having been formed, they
certainly disqualified those who had formed them
for the office of impartial and unbiassed inquirers.
We do not quarrel with these gentlemen as advo •
cates, but only as judges; and we repeat our opinion
that a law which could admit of their /sassing un-
challenged from one of these capacities to the other
ought, with all possible expedition, to be repealed.
The Derbyshire magistrates, upwards of forty of
whom remonstrated against this proceeding, asked
for an investigation into the "origin and conduct"
of the inquiry which produced such results ; but Sir
Geo. Grey replied that, as the certificate had been
"in accordance with the provisions of the statute,"
these antecedents were "immaterial." Immaterial
they may have been to his decision, but immaterial
to the interests of the public they certainly are not.
As the case now stands, and as we are left, in de-
fault of any correction to conclude, a man who did
not on the 12th of December appearot o n
the
ne i mad
2dalwntt
udaoh nwae
of
hei
,tvoht
ibse no
mad the
Judgemouth
as
thought
toor
have
au
vrey
beenbyw thh Commissioners
who
e was n
wronglyconvicted
tmhaedoapti nail?
sof s
suddenly
eGovernor i
reprieved
thed
on
nGtahoe 3
Gaol
month in deference to the private
e opinionthsofonfettywheoer
magistrates and two surgeons,
expressed in con-
formity with the terms of a
statute the scope of
which nobody anticipated. It is
a very
none the less so because all the steps,
strangeoe
la ruios
asc these ;
result may be, have been taken according to aye.
It is very proper that the sanity or insanity of a
convict under sentence of death should be ascertained
but for ascertaining it an agency should be
beyond any suspicion of prepossesnor prejudice.provdide
POST.—The National ShakspereCso,
has mmipttoet thee,by
their report to the Society
of Arts,
public in posssession of their views of what the ap-
proaching Tercentenary Commemoration should be.
It may all bo comprehended in one sentence—the
a to nin the proi )e
collection of money for a statue. As far as we
understandor the report,
trhere is to be no comme-
m
sense of the word—no
festival. Something is said of a morning perform-

ante at one of the theatres, and of the proceeds of
the London theatres on a certain evening being
given to swell the funds of the committee ; but that
is all. Nothing more of consequence is announced;
and those who are enthusiastic in the cause stop an;
ask themselves whether that is enough ? Thre
centuries after his birth Shakspere is to be honoured
by n statue, and the "improving the occasion," 11l
popular preachers say, by the theatrical perform:
antes, is called a commemoration ! We do not want
to pick holes in a scheme at present only half dee'
loped, but we take leave to say that so meagre
.11
proposal is very disappointing. There can, indeed,
be no objection to a statue par ae. No doubt Shnk;
spere ought to have had a statue years ago. 1311"
now that, after three centuries, the kingdom is can-
vassed for homage to the great bard, is a statue, and
nothing but a statue, the true and adequate met
of commemoration ? Wo think the public will sap
that it is not. Let us have a statue by all means'
but let us have a great deal more besides. Let 118,,
have the week, or the greater portion of the wee,'"
in which the 23d April occurs devoted to
sperian festivity. It is not for us to sketch out.:
programme. We have already laid down eertAle
principles deducible from the nature of the 03
which ought to guide the promoters of the nOcre
ment. But we cannot help saying that, as far as t"
ng'
National Committee's programme goes, nothi
seems to be contemplated but the collection of mall
for the statue. Now, if a statue were the pro
way of commemorating the Tercentenary, then
this collection of resources ought to have talee°
place months ago ; the money ought to have beei.r/
collected, the statue completed, and then when W 8
23d of April came, it might have been uncover;
in the presence of tens of thousands ; 14,1 r
royalty, rank, merit, art, literature, and poPn'ad,
enthusiasm circled round to admire and aPPinu,
Stich an uncovering, with all the accessories whle,d
the various interests and orders represented On'
supply.—oratory, music, song, and the electric BPI'
pathy of numbers—might indeed be termed a CO
memoration, and be worthy of the poet ; but wltn!,i
now proposed, however ultimately successful, '0;
as far as the Tercentenary is concerned be a yenr°
two after date. The money is not yet forthcon3lngt'
the site is not yet chosen, nor the artist; so bs.;
after all, the celebration of the Tercentenary is ,41
danger of becoming exactly what it ought not I° "-to
—a means of raising money, and Shakspere in •
have a statute subscribed for on the principle ,
charity ball! We suggest to the distinguished Pot
sons whose names ate mentioned in the report tuof
they would make the occasion far more worth,' d,
the man whom they desire to honour, if, while! if
hering to the purpose of a statue, they enlarge t'teet
programme so as to include whatever can be furtub•
undertaken in honour of the poet. Can nothill r,
done in other places than London to keep the le,s
centenary Since the Society of Arts has associatt•
itself with the movement, can it not project aro
mode of Shaksperian festivity for the POI
generally ? We can understand the liberality °al
manager giving the proceeds of an evening townre,o
the statue, but we cannot understand the coromitt,ie
acceptance of them. What we could understanic,
a gratuitous performance, at which certain 4,0
credited people—the youth of evening classes, 'ti,
members of mechanics' institutes and literary inBi,er
tutions, and many more who otherwise naight.rjes,
see a Shaksperian representation in their 11°`ket
might be admitted free on production of a tier
obtained through proper agency from the Si,c3c.rr
of Arts. We could understand any scheme !`),`, 011
preseutingthe choicest of Shakspere 's plays
the latest and most perfect appliances of drnin-011
art, or for lecturing on Shakspere, or for orati,°,l3:lo.
Shakspere, or for modes of bringing home u,,,..try
pere to the popular heart up and down the n°,11);
as well as in London. All this would be worielas
him, and would increase his hold on the sife.et;ol
and gratitude of his countrymen ; but all thlet6„,iit
as a means of raising money for a Gtatue, that °";i11
to be raised without difficulty from the free.i,el
offerings of the people, is below the occasion• vor
us have the statue, but let us have also a nell'llslo
making festival.