The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

deeply sorry to SATURDAY REVIEW.—We are
securedap approbation
Abbabtion
hear of a proposed scheme for commemorating the
merits of Sir George Cornewall Lewis by
It ito
isn of
saida '
that‘ bust
the
a p l
d tablet" lhests in
Westminster
the ro
"the erec-
ey.
of the Dean, but it is to be hoped that either the
Dean or those who have undertaken the manage-
ment of the Memorial may be induced to think bet-
ter of it before the mischief is irrevocably done. We
need hardly explain that, in thus saying, we are not
actuated by any disrespect to Sir G. Lewis. Tt is,
on the other hand, the very honour which we bear
to the memory of that illustrious scholar and states-
man which makes us even more anxious than we
should be in another case to save his name from
being made an excuse for inflicting another dis-
figurement on the noblest church in England. If
the two feelings could possibly clash, we might say
that, much as we respect Sir G. Lewis, we respect
Westminster Abbey still more; but there is really
no need of any such collision. It is alike in the in-
terest of the memory of a great man and of the pre-
servation of a magnificent building that we plead
against reverence for the one being perverted to the
mutilation of the other. A similar blow was once
threatened by way of commemorating Mr. Hallam.
That blow was happily averted; so there is, per-
haps, hope that some means may be found for doing
honour to one of the greatest English scholars with-
out inflicting further damage on the work of the
greatest of English kings. The true doctrine of
monuments and memorials is a very simple one, and
one which we have done our best to set forth on
other occasions. A monument is simply a man's
tomb. It must, therefore, be in a church, church-
yard, or other cemetery, and it cannot properly fol-
low more than two or three types, in har-
mony with both the religious and the archi-
tectural character of the place. A memorial
may be of any kind, and may be set up in any
place where it is thought good, and it is subject to no
restrictions beyond the general laws of art and
good taste. The monument is something purely
ecclesiastical; the memorial may be ecclesiastical
or secular, just as may happen. A memorial may
be indoors or out of doors; it may assume the form
of bust, statue, cross, picture, anything that is most
liked. And it may be set up in any place whatso-
ever, while a monument is absurd in any place save
the place where the man is buried. It is perfectly
right to commemorate Sir George Lewis by a
strictly ecclesiastical monument in the church where
he is buried. It is equally right to commemorate
him by a mere memorial—a statue, picture, or
whatever is liked best—in any fitting place either
in London or Oxford. But it would be foolish to
set up a strictly ecclesiastical monument of Sir G.
Lewis in Westminster Abbey, because he is not
buried in Westminster Abbey. It would be equally
foolish to set up any other sort of memorial for him
there, because Westminster Abbey is—what some
people seem to forget—a church, and a church isno
place for memorials of any but the ecclesiastical
kind. It is especially foolish t set up a tablet and
bust in Westminster Abbey, because such tablet and
bust will certainly be incongruous with the archi-
tecture of the building, and can hardly fail to in-
volve the destruction or concealment of some portion
of the original work. For all these reasons, the
proposed scheme for commemorating Sir G. Lewis
is one which we trust will never be carried into
effect.
SPECTATOR.—Mr. Roebuck on Tuesday night
paid an unexpected compliment to his countrymen.
He announced—and by acts, not words—his belief
that the national character is greatly changed. That
insular self-esteem, that haughty impatience of in-
terference from abroad, that ignorant inability
to bear with foreign dictation, of which fo-
reigners used so bitterly to complain, has, he
conceives, departed. The Englishman has be-
come a cosmopolitan, and, like most neophytes,
betrays the novelty of his ready to welcome the
his convictions by their me-
bounded ardour. g
brother but as a bosom
foreigner not only' aeae
friend ; to learn from him not only how to act but
even how to behave ; not merely how to treat his
neighbours but bow to guide the proceedings of the
family circle. These are lessons the meekest of men
are seldom willing to receive, yet Mr. Roebuck
that his fellow citizens here, after
obviouslycenturies believes
of stiff neckedness, attained even to this
height of Christian humility. At least, that is the
only theory upcn which we can explain the auda-
city with which be
st
conveyed to the House of Com-
mons a rebuke addressed by the Emperor of the
French through him to the Government of Great
Britain. Mr. Roebuck, it appears, had heard that
the Emperor had changed his mind on the subject
of the recognition of the South, and, taking ,this
Majesty" to be the natural dictator of English po-
licy, went across to ask
_him the question with as
little scruple evidently as he might address an in-
terpellation to the Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. The Emperor, with tiiat maganimity which
has in it so ranch either of Christianity or contempt,
spoke as frankly es in if Mr. Roebuck had never de-
nounced, as he did She_ffield, the " perjured lips
which polluted the Queen's cheek." " I said, ' Your
Majesty may make a formal ark."
to Eng-
land: Ile stopped me' and said, ' No, I cannot de
that, and I will tell you why. Some months ago I
did make a formal application to England, and
England sent my despatch to America. That de-
spatela got into Mr. Seward's hands, and was shown
to my ambassador at
Washington, and it came back
to me, and I feel that I was ill treated by such con.
duct. (Hear, hear, and sensation.) I cannot
eubject myself to
.t. 101.0 danger of similar
treatment ; but I will do everything short
of it—l will give you full liberty to state
to the English House of Commons that this is
my wish, and to state that I am determined in all
things to act with England, and more than this,
that I wish to act with her as regards America: "
The intent of that sentence is clear. The Ern
if M. Roebuck reports him truly, thinks himself Emperor,
betrayed by the British Government, and appeals
from his betrayer to the House of commonss
earnest is be in the matter that he does not even
respect ordinary forms of international courtesy.
Instead of inserting his complaint in a despatch and
then: suffering that despatch to ooze out through
an <<officious" print, he selects a special envoy, that
envoy an Englishman, that Englishman a Radical
representative notorious for his anti-Napoleonic
speeches, and bids him carry a verbal reproof of the
Government of Great Britain into the British P -
liament. That reproof, moreover, is ma Par-
liament.
de formal
by his consent to its publication, and couched in • the
form of a charge of treachery against a Government
with which, adds his Majesty, 66 I am determined
in all things to act." No incident could be
better
calculated to expose the mischief of a practice now
becoming too prevalent, that of members of the
Lower House turning themselves at their own dis-
cretion into volunteer ambassadors.
LONDON REVIEW.—Mr. Roebuck, arriving
at
the Tuileries with his umbrella, and " hoping he
don't intrude," which will be a spectacle of,
Shef-
field
may well be proud. Whenever there
difficulty this busy gentleman repairs straight is a
to
the scene of action, and sends in his
card. The
lamented Mr. Edwin James once upon a time—as
admirable
we all must well remember—adopted this
expedient when the Italian question was attracting .
universal notice. He took upon him the high
mission mission of representing tae Maylebone
and the Parish Pumps of Old England Beadle
at the court of General Garibaldi. med
with credentials from himself, he conversed
freely with the General, and wrote an
account of his conversation to the Times. Mr. Roe.
buck flies at higher game, though he is equally con-
versational and equally communicative about his
conversation ; and the. Sheffield Foreign Affairs
Committee have the satisfaction of knowing that
to crowned
their member only accredits himself-
heads. There will soon be no palace in Europe
that does not know the sight of Mr.
Roebuck's
umbrella. He has also
poked
in on Austria in a
family way—he has
looked
in on France, and we
have no reason for supposing that he does not mean
to look in upon Prussia, Russia, and A • menu,. Mrs.
Candour, in the "School for Scandal,"
had not a
more successful wayof - • - •
/ arriving just in the nick of