New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-15
LONDON NOTES
OXFORD AND THE PROPOSED NEWMAN
STATUE-ELEGIES AND THE LAUREATE
SHIP-SOME PECULIARITIES OF
THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH

| a statue 10 that eminent cA-IfouSiJHt, lle late
Cardinal Newman, are not to have their wish
without opposition. Oxford herself is opposin,
this lapidary scheme That somewhat reposeful
city this week the scene OF great public
meeting, to protest against the grant of site
upon municipal soil for this statue. Town and
Gown united in the protest. Mr.. Charles
Inderhill, councillor of oxford, presided; and
among those over whom be presided were many
dignitares of the University. 1t was an open
meeting, and there partisans of both sides!
but the overwhelming sense Of it against the
proposal Nor Is this opposition too late. 1t
was said some time ago that the City Council
had granted the ground asked for in Broad-st
1t turns out that no grant has been made, but
| that committee had recommended it which Is
different
| No hostility is hurtful to a mans fame as
| inudicious friendship, and Ncwman's injudicious
! friends seem likely enough to disturb his hold
on the good will of this generation. When lie
died, his virtues and his genius had won for him
sort of popular absolution. His apostasy was
hardly remembered against him. His tremendous
effort to undo the work of the Reformation had
| failed. II had long since become evident that
! neither England nor the Church Of Eng
land could be R0manzed. Neither the
Queen nor the Archbishop of Canterbury was
to 20 TO Canossa. The Protestant spirit in its
positive, if not in it's most aggressive form, had
proved too stanch TO be shaken. England was
not seduced from her faith, and it was felt that
| the stability of mind which had resisted New
mans seductivene>s might he depended on So
Newman half contemptuousy forgiven for tho
evil he had tried to do The failure of his attemp.
was accepted as an excuse for the attempt. Eng.
| land preferred to remember what was best in the
sympathetic figure which had gone from among
| her people. She lavshed eulogies on him, and
| buried him with anthems of praise.
This it was, perhaps, which mis!ed the less
udicious among his admirers The Roman
! Catholics thought they saw chance and under
the Duke of NorfOIs lead started this project OF
a statue to Newman over against the Martyrs
| Memorial at Oxford | do not wish 10 speak az
il all danger were over, but 1t looks to-day as if
| their zeal had Oyershot the mark Oxford does
not seem ready yet to rcnounce her testimony TO
Cranmer, and Latimer, and Ridley. The speeches
at Tuesdays meeting were in a strongly. | might
say sternly, Protestant tone. What had Newman
done for oxford and for England? asked the
! President; who added
| " The glorious martyrs whose monuments we
have in oxford gave to this country civil and re.
llglous liberty and open Bible and | ask YOU
! Do you wish t. have these things undone ?'
Canon Ince, Regius Professor of Divinity flung
of his robes and spoke as a Protestant Englshman
| Of no party, whether in Church or State. The
| movement against the statue is identified with no
party; II Is the general sentiment of the commu-
nifty which he invoked. He asked, which Of the
two halves Of Newman is il intended to COM
nemOHte? DO we wish 10 raise statue 10 a
Roman Cardinal. and glorify in his person the
triumphs Of Ultramontane Romansm whose policy
was, and Is, TO thwart fire. expression of thought
and the accepted method. of modern civilization p
Who proposed il? Not the City Not the Uni.
veIsty. 1t came from a body of subscribers,
chiefly Roman Catholic. headed by the lay rep
resentative of Romanism in England the Duke Of
Norfolk The Warden of New College Joined in
the remonstrance. So did the Provost Of Oriel.
Newman's college, and it was stated that both
Oriel and Trinity, the two colleges with which
Newman was connected, had refused the statue
on which point controversy has arisen. So did tn.
Warden of keble; so do all the parish clergy.
1t was pointed out that no statue to any public
parsonage was 70 be seen in any street OF Oxford.
Is she to begin with Roman Prelate. once a
clergyman of the Church of England? No. SAYS
the Warden of All Souls. don't let Us offend the
| religious sentiment Of the mass of our fellow
citizens. Even Roman Catholics joined ir the pro.
I
called distinguished. wrote: "Oxford is the last
place where any such statue could be at home.
| If il were possible. Newman ought 10 be repre-.
sented as turning his back on all the colleges:
| as he did in life He adds The whole idea
SEEMS TO me preposterous as if the Catholics
| of Prague were 70 grant site in the middle II
their city Tor "A statue of John lIuss' Resolu-
| tionS condemning tn scheme and asking the City
Council TO refuse a site carried by great
joriteS In the face of this obviously strong feel
ing. the Duke of Norfolk and his colleagues would
be wise 10 abandon their project.
| An ode "ron the death of the Duke of Clarencd
| appeared in " He Times on the morning after
his death: the author of it Mr.. Alfred Austin.
\ second ode upon the same subject saw tho
| light three days later in Sunday paper 70 which
was appended the name of Lewis Morris. third
| has been expected from the prolific pen OF Sir
Edwin Arnold, whom illness and distance seem
| to have silenccd. That Sir Edwin Arnold should
be ill is matter of regret his friends. and 10 the
general reader 1t seems TO be felt also TO be
a little hard on him that he should for any reasoa
be kept out of the competition upon which two
of his rivals entered with such alacrity.
For competition there is, and for no less prize
than the LauIeateship IL has not been stiBed
by the mere fact that the present Laureate Is
alive. and the post therefore not vacant. when
some admirers OF these different writers OF verse
whom | have namcd put them forward soHe
time ago candidates for the succession Ia ioru
| TennysOn, murmur was heard Their rivalry
or that which their friends set up for them was
thought premature; the more severe called "
indecent. From these hard sayings yoGr dS-
| tnguished visitor IL, of course, 70 he eAemp''u'
he was, at the time of this incident, the ui'-
tnguisled visitor of the japanese. aud had Lou
even been appointed Laureate 10 the 0nieas'
| Exhibition Perhaps Mr.. Alfred Austin may a,'S
| be exempted: bat not his friends; and even 'i'
| Lewis Morris might plead that he was too niucn