The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-26 00:00:00

CAXTON—meetings were convened, speeches were

delivered, subscriptions were opened.

Every one

appeared eager to vie in testimonies of grati-
tude for the peaceful but triumphant achieve.
ments of the first English printer. A fountail

was to sparkle in the daytime and gaslights were t,
glitter in the evening, in cotnraernoration of a carver
.by which the land had been so vividly iiluminatal. A
monument of an appropriate description was to attest
!to after ages that our generation had been alive to the
benefits conferred upon his countrymen by the intel.

ligence anti in ustry of CAXTON. It was to actor
the precincts of the venerable Abbey of Westmiostei,
becau-e in' the cloisters of that superb edifice the first
British printer was first sheltered. All hearts—at
least the hearts of all enlightened men—exulted at
the prospective erection of this token of national
appreciation. The noise of this ardour has diminished
—the activity of this demonstration has abated—the
notion of the Caxton Testimonial has, by the vast
majority of its promoters, been altogether forgotten.
With Mr. H. H. XliemaN and his immediate sympa
thisers we are convinced it is different ; we are
satisfied that the committee and the secretary, ap-
pointed some weeks since in the Adelphi, are by no
means idle or indifferent; but we are equally certain
that with the public generally, the idea of a
monument to CAXTON is as a vision of a fort-
night old—gone from the recollection. Even when
these observations shall recal the matter to the me-
mory of the people, the result of the reminiscence will
he like the verse of BULWER-LYTTON, they will again
" Dream the dream they dreamed."
Knowing this to be our national peculiarity, what
are our reflections about the sale of SHAKSPERB'S
birthplace ? We tremble lest that memento of the
greatest poet the world ever saw should become the
possession of an unworthy purchaser. What a dis-
grace would it not be to every man and woman in
the island were this " holy ground" of genius to
be profaned by the footsteps of a huckstering show-
man ! What a fact to record in the history
of British literature, that the shrine to which
the illustrious of all lands had resorted as
pilgrims, had been " knocked down" to a mercenary
speculator by the hammer of an auctioneer ! What
an antithesis to inscribe among our national memo-
rabilim that the only relics of the mighty being who
flourished in the days of Queen ELIZABETH should
be sold like any vulgar curiosity in the days of Queen
VICTORIA I Yet that event may possibly, will pro-
bably occur within -a few days, unless the enthu-
siasm already evinced throughout the United King-
dom be sustained.
Let us be aroused to a sense of the value of these
mementoes of our true benefactors and instructors
by this critical position of the- humble dwelling-
house in which the eyes of WILLIAM SHARSPERE
first opened.
They are, from their many gentle
and sublime associations, better than gold or
jewels. They are the fragments of a glorious
past which have drifted to us—time-wore and
and
mutilated, but authentic
as
venerable—down
the flood of Time and across
the abrsrr of
perilous centuries. Let us prize themm
uthirue(s
prized the green leaves and the scarlet berries that
floated round the prow of his vessel, and told
him
of w
the countries beyond the ocean. And while
Bider as to the surest means of preserving theecol.
lbirth-
place of that wonderful mortal, the like of whom thy;
world never saw before, and (say the adoring Ger-
mans), " will never see again"—let us see whether
the other relics of national genius which are scattered
hither and thither over the i,lands cannot he saved
from destruction, and rendered the property of the
people, under the especial care of the supreme Go-
vernment. Glad are we when the residences
of our great countrymen have accidentally
passed into the possession of men capable of
appreciating genius and reverencing its abodes.
Glad are
of are we, for example, that Barnes-elms,
yore sheltered under its roof the golden in-
tellectw of ABRAHAM COWLET, should have become in
oar own day the dwelling-house of such an one as
Sir LarricsLor
of
SHADWELus
L, th
the Vice-Chancellor of
England. But it
Tina
of ALEXANDER
Pops,
atTwickenham,
wroth to know that the
should
bare been levelled by the vandalisr ignorance,
tr
of iri o isaanzd
that_ t,#e ,gapiens in which the translator
'MOM 4itit-- Lady M ART WORTIEIr
gtould,,b» d*rad by the architectural°:TxtraAT,

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