The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-16 00:00:00

I-Ur/dm ."-ittv ,

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1845.

" Shall CROMWELL have a statue in the new Houses of
Parliament ?" is a question that seems calculated, notwith-
standing all that has been written on the subject, still to form
the subject of a " very pretty quarrel." As we happen to
have been the first to direct public attention to the originally
proposed omission of this illustrious warrior and statesman
from the Commissioners' draught list of English Worthies to
be commemorated in the halls of the British Legislature,
we feel ourselves scarcely at liberty to exercise the option of
retiring from the discussion on its revival by the appearance
of the " Fourth Report of the Commissioners on Fine Arts."
But, tedious as it would otherwise be to reiterate the grounds
on which we are to contend for what will appear to the
convictions of every dispassionate reader of English history a
self-evident proposition, the wailings of the Morning Post
on the delinquencies of the Commissioners cannot fail to
furnish ample amusement to counterbalance everything that
is wearisome in the matter. The report itself, too, is a do-
cument so replete with inconsistencies, that there can be no
lack of novelty in the treatment of the subject, if we do not
avail ourselves of some of the more startling passages upon
which we have just fallen.

"Commissions of Taste" and " Commissions of the
Fine Arts," invariably determine in this country in miserable
reports, or still more worthless constructions in brick and
stone. Without a moment's hesitation we must rank the
" Fourth Report;" now before us, among the number of
those periodical extravagances which the British Go-
vernment or Parliament commit, with all pomp and
circumstance, against the " taste" and the " arts"
they take under their especial patronage. The list of the
members of this Commission involves so incongruous an as-
semblage of names as to prepare us, to some extent, for the
incompatible resolutions at which they arrive, while affinities
of connoisseurship and taste in the Fine Arts approximate
the perceptions of the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of
Lansdowne, Lord Francis Egerton, Lord Ashburton, Mr.
Gaily Knight, Mr. Samuel Rogers, and Mr. George Vivian—
all of them munificent patrons and acknowledged judges
of art, with Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, or the Earl of Lin-
coln, or Mr. Thomas Wyse—it would be abundantly pleasant,
did our time allow of such a diversion, to inquire. Mr.
MACAULAY is too universal a genius not to make it
dangerous to question the propriety of adding him to the
list of the Commission ; but why Lord MAHON and the
Earl of SHREWSBURY, a mediocre historian and an unsuccess-
ful pamphleteer, should be associated, together with Mr.
B. HAWES, and Sir James GRAHAM in a tribunal of judgment
upon matters connected with the Fine Arts we are utterly
that "many
unablesituations
ittoh iftmohrde e rssttyaln. The Commissioners rp o
statuesed ofconsistert
GoGothic
ef niches
architectureonly,
adopted,whic h, in
area c c o rd -
uni-
formlyarea also
narrow,o
stuat onncosaot
nne
de]:
wheretci
hve eee d
that,
gialpst
,etuwdl
iawoetnefet
3he,t
asoi
tnfva
itaewuffwe
si
odrtb
both
imh
nti
g;
hghtttho abeteot
nhfi vet
opportu-
nities placednie ti t in;s pa encdt i owne,
for displaying the abilities of the artists, the last-named
situations are the most important." They further submit that
six4insulated marble statues might be conveniently placed
in St.• Stephen's porch, and that six such statues might be
conveniently placed in St. Stephen's Hall ;" and they are
at once prepared to recommend that "statues of Marlborough
and Nelson .be placed in St. Stephen's porch, and
that statues of Selden, Hampden, Lord Falk-
land, Lord Clarendon, Lord Somers, Sir Ro-
bert Walpole, Lord Chatham, Lord Mansfield,
Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Grattan, be placed in St. Stephen's-
hall." But
which is t
the e porch
orPrinceand
,d
eblbsyei
design
ttni
n h h
ll
thehtaosa
fSp
e
sesuggestioncreation of
ete
Stephen, since Mr. Barry,
altered the working plans approved of by the Lords'
superintendingCore-
as
12,ttoh
the building,
his
w oe find
localities. of a new gallery ? At
p.
anbutor
m t
enormoustthe se mf r excrescence
more
last words !') determined, since the date of this memo-
randum. The principal landing place is called the Nor-
man Porch ; the Victoria Gallery is called the Royal
Gallery ; the Lobby to the House of Lords is called
the Victoria Hall." We do not, however, attach much
importance to this difficulty of ours; for, no doubt, by
the close of the eat week of the next session the whole no-
r iei
gdn i ilg
" The names
a foot note that does
a
of various apartments have been altered and finally (more
l
no-
menclature of these portions of the fabric will be again trans-
formed. We hasten, in the first place, to sympathise with our
afflicted Contemporary. The signatures of the Commis-
sioners, he observes, " sufficiently testify not only what is to
be done, but what is to be left undone,'; Under both heads
there is matter for deep regret. After all Sat has " recently
been said on the §ulfmt . . public feeling and lationil