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Leader (1850-1860), 5th May 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 10

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      London Statues. Our London Statues, Few ...

      generously , in a manner worthy of a great nation of no mean fame , and let it be spent on statues of our . great dead—statues chosen from models sent in by our best sculptors , and chosen after a severe competition . Let a committee decide on the rotation in which the fame of our grea * immortals are to be perpetuated , and let us no longer erect statues to small perishable reputations , who begin to be forgotten before the monument can be got ready . The best way of preventing this is to erect no statue to any man till he has been dead ten or twenty years . Time is the best winnower of great reputations . We want no Marquis of Granbys to block up our streets as they do our old inn signs . It is for posterity , we must remember ^ and not for ourselves , that we eject statues . Blteo is a great man in the House , now , but what a small man he will be fifty years hence > - —let us not then erect statues to onr Bufoes . _

      We should also adopt the French plan of erecting models of our intended statues in their intended sites , and fairly submitting them to public opinion . Let the press have its jibes at them . Ptinch fling his crackers ; let the mob pervert their meaning in every possible way ; works of genius are not to be overthrown by a few jokes , but " empty pretension crumbles away and melts at the very sound of wise men ' s laughter . What suggestions are made let them he carried out , and if condemned , let the artist be paid for his model , and the work returned to his friendly keeping ; better one man be disappointed than that the London streets should be broadened with an eternal ugliness . ..-..- _

      Let no hole-and-corner interests tyrannise ever us with their bad tastes , or force Upon us parochial great men miserably executed . There are still <» reat sites crying aloud for statues , There are on our bridges fine pedestals , and at the corners of our streets . Our Quadrano-les and squares have as yet many a centre uninhabited , and the time has come U > fill them . Our Museum might have its Bacoit and its Shakspeabe , our Admiralty courtyard its Howe and Jebvis , our War-office its MABLBOBOirGH or Havelock ( ten years hence ) . At the same time , while we suggest this , adoption of a French custom , we would also try and revive an Egyptian one also . In Egypt , when a king-diedy it was decide whether his had

      the " custom to have a jury sit to reign been good or badfand . whether , accordingly ^ he should be buried with respect or infamy . _ In the same way every five years an iconoclastic jury of wise xnen should be held in London to decide upon what street statues ^ should be removed , destroyed ( and washed ) . Five years would wonderfully open men's eyes to the rijeiit or demerit of a statue , as well as to the worth or the reverse of a o-reat - reputation j ^ the verdict w . ould be accordingly . Then . ihig- ' ht we hope to sec . the Stylite Yobk toppled from his column , and Gegbge IV . helping to pave Trafalgar Square . Then would James II . be off to the Museum gallery , and Ciiaiiles I . to the quadnnip-le of the s-eine fine building . Then might black-browed Fox of Blton pLujv hope ouce again ' to go with clean hands , and sooty Caskikg to v . car a decent coat on his back .

      422 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. L M...

      422 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . L 5 > 18 ^ -

      — ¦ T~A4£Es-A-Ia>~Ju^__^ Tts / Hat! No M...

      — ¦ t ~ A 4 £ ES-A-ia >~ JU ^__^ TTS / HAT ! no more toothsome Banburies ? No more Tipper P VV Will you leavens nothing , O ye regenerators of mankind , to make our lives comfortable withal P You have denounced our fecund cups , vhich Hobacic rr . y . s make us pleasantly , discrios , but which you aver make us brutal . You have lid us'eschew butchers ' meat as an irrittwicnfutn walontm . You have banned onr salt as the forbidden fiuit . You have quoted the only passage in Dante you know over the doors of our theatres and ball-rooms . You have leagued yourselves-with publicans and sinners to prevent us washing down our humble bun with a draught of innocent claret . And now , iinkindcst cut of all , ' you- attempt to put our pipes out . Truly , Philanthropy ' must be hard-pressed for a new field in which to pursue the labour of good works , when it sets itself to organize . ' an

      Anti-Tobncco Society . Where will tho sort of thing stop P The month of May is not long , enough for all the May meetings as things eland . They nro actually obliged to begin them . in April and run them into June . When will they 'begin , ami when will they end when the Anti-Beef and Mutton Society is started P _ When it is found necessary to guard society against mustard , white waistcoats , parsnips , toothpicks , and water-gruel . P Shall not life , then , be one everlasting May meeting , with tho Dean of Cablisle as Perpetual Grand ? Fur bo it from ub to sneer nt any good work , or to utter a tingle word in disparagement of any movement tending to ' benefit or ameliorate tho moral or social condition of tho community . We have , therefore , not a ward to sny ^ ngainst the arguments of those who advise tho rising generation not to smoke tobacco . Wo-cay with them , " Young man , don't leiirn to smoke ;

      it is a br . d Imbit , tmd if > ou don't learn to indulge in it , you will Ecvev niisH the . gratification the practice affords . It is Quito another tiling , however , when we iiro brought face to faco in the light of thy , and , let us add , in the nineteenth century , with a society which actually umpires to put down smoking- by Act of Parliament ! - "VVe have , then , to consider not % yhctlur the work is good or not , biit whether those who" propoeo doing it nre settingabout it in the right way . It is a good thing to endeavour to pievent people- ivom htcnling , but gravely ,, to petition 'Parliamout to pnes tin Act to put fcteuling down , lile weed pavement , or Sunday trading-, in Kuneihinjr to muke us liiugh outright . Yet this is in effect exactly whut tho British Anti-Tobacco Society aspires and hopes to do . A meeting' of the Society took place the other day at Exeter Hall , under tho presidency of tho Dean of Cahlisxe . Tho

      report of the Secretary , we must say , was highly satisfactory . He reported that Sunday-school teachers and clergymen were adopting the Society's opinions , and were putting their pipes out accordingly . Dr Close had delivered a lecture which had done much good ; Dr Hodgkins ' s paper against tobacco had been well receivedrather a mild phrase—by the Social Science meeting at Bradford- and it was hoped that the example set by her Majesty in causing Prince Alt-bed to be prohibited from smoking on board the Euryalus would have an excellent effect . it memorial to

      was also a matter for congratulation that a - Lord Palmers-ton , requesting him to appoint a committee of the House of Commons to examine into the medicinal effects of tobacco , had received numerous signatures . In the whole report there is nothing which all sensible men will not be glad to hear , with the single exception of the fact that , whereas the expenses of the Association since November , 1858 , had been £ 355 Os . 2 d ., the income had been short of that sum by £ 14 Is . 8 d . One must necessarily regret that a movement which has been so well supported by signatures , has teen so indifferently backed up with

      subscriptions . _ ,. But now hear Dean Close and Mr . Samuel Mobley . The Dean takes advantage of the presence of some ladies to appeal to them . He seemed to presume that they were unmarried ladiespossibly a girls' school out for a treat—and assured them that if they married gentlemen who drunk and smoked , they would get sallow-faced and lantern-jawed husbands . He did not , however , deem it necessary to mention if they married gentlemen who ate too much pudding , they would have husbands who would suffer from surfeit or indigestion . He mentioned , as the result of his observamuch col in

      tion , that the young boys in these days had not so our their faces as many old boys he knew . The absence of colour in the young boys was " owing " to smoking , and the presence of colour in the old ' bovs was not owing to port . He mentioned , also , that in 1820 , when he left college , he did not know of a single collegian who had smoked . King- James may also have stated in hFs Counterblast that he did . not know of a single person who smoked previous to the return of Sir Walteb Raleigh from America ; or possibly Lord Chestebfield may have remarkecHn his " Letters" that no man in his circle of acquaintance worp a beard and moustache . Finally , the Dean brought his logic

      to a climax by declaring that he inade it a rule never to pay any attention to arguments agrainst his own view of ¦ & . $ question put forward by " anoriymousjournalists , who , "like Irish assassins , shot from behind a hedge . " So that , apart from bird's-eye and shortcut , arguments are worth nothing if you d ( . n ' t knpw who uses them . Commend us , however , to Mr . Mobley Tor a real downright tobacco stopper . He had had great experience among young men . There were 150 in the house to which he belonged , and he never lost an opportunity of giving them a friendly warning against smoking . Such was his horror of the practice that ; he " would not take into his service any young man who was a confirmed smoker ; for he was satisfied that fifteen out of every ttceiiti / young men ivho smoJcecicame to grief and ruin . We are positively horrified when Johnson tQbeen

      we think what might have been the fate of Dr . SjCMtjel ¦] ) fly ;^^ . . i ^ f . S ; f ^ Tnlml » i ^ a . of Mr . Mobley ' s opinion on the tobacco question . Would that dictionary have ever been written ? It is evident that Sir Isaac Newton would have been looked upon by Mr . Mobley as a very bad boy , and his contemplation of pippins regarded as a first indication of a tendency to rob orchards , and come to the gallows . No doubt Mr . Mqbley ascribes the bad end of Sir Walteb Baleigii and Lord Bybon to cheroots . And this opens the gate upon a wide field for inquiry . Did Mr . Manning smoke ? Did Mrs . Manning chew snuff after the fashion hitcly introduced among the fair sex in America P Did Mr . Puixingeii first meditate his embezzlement of tho profits of the Union Bunk over a pipe of iatakia ? Was it piekwieks that first precipitated

      Bill Sykes into crime ? It is an awful thing , when a score of us are sitting together placidly puffing our cigars after the toils of . the day , to think that fifteen of our number are doomed to perdition . If you nre right in your figures here , Mr . Mobley , nothingshort of jin Act of Parliament will meet tho catse . Go to Lord Palmeuston , as you propose and my that , your consideration of this question , " blended with tho conviction that the subject lies within the province of the Legislature has induced you to eug-gest to his Lordship that in older to obtain tho object you desire , some act ought to bo pnesed to put out every pipe in the nation . We must wnrn you , however , that when your

      deputation waits upon tho noble lord , ho will have lit his elbow tho liight Honourable William E" \ vabt Gladstone , one , who , wh are sure , never run up a wino or cigar bill at college , or who was ever known to smoko oven the humblest of cubas by any Dean in posse of his acquaintance . Wo must warn you also that this model voung man will whimper to his chief , " This is all very well , my dear Lord Palmehston , but how is tho Qcekn ' s revenue to be kept up P The duty w so much , you know ; und if we aio to prohibit thp importation of tobacco , or raise the duty to a figure which only a few can afford to pay / we must put on another tenpciico upon income , or Homething . " How about that , anti-tobacconists ? Arc yon prepared with that other tenpencoP

      So much for fiscal exigency as against morals . But now m to juatico . Is this a free country , or iB it notP Aro wo who uso onr pipe and don't abuse it to bo utterly deprived cf our whiff hecaufio tiomo boys known to tho Dean of Cablihle and Mr . Moiu . r . v indulge in tho weed to excess P Let Manter Jokhs or Tomkink have the freedom of tho tttore-room for hnlf-nn-hour , and he will make himself ns palo and ill with black currant jrim ua ho will with

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05051860/page/10/