16 JANUARY 1892, Page 3

It is not quite easy to follow this remarkable piece

of prac- tical logic. Supposing that in future years a statue is erected to Mr. Gladstone within a hundred yards and in " immediate eight" of the statue of Lord Beaconsfield at Westminster, will it be regarded as a " counterblast " to the statue of Lord Beaconsfield, and as indicating that Lord Beaconsfield's and Mr. Gladstone's politics were equally true and equally false ? It might be represented to Canon Ince that the Martyrs' Memorial can hardly be regarded as in immediate sight from the proposed. locality, for it is well round the corner, though no doubt Canon Ince may be referring to a sort of vision which can see round corners. But perhaps Canon Ince thinks that as Byron sings "the mountains look on Marathon, and Marathon looks on the sea," so the statue of Cardinal Newman

would look on Balliol College, and Balliol College on the Martyrs' Memorial, which would be a sort of seeing it at second-hand. If only the statue could be lodged in the galleries of the University, or at least included in Trinity College Gardens, the Canon does not think there would be any counterblast. Municipal Oxford, however, does not seem to appreciate the subtle conditions under which the bugles of Canon Ince's imagination would be set blowing. And pro- bably " the multitudes of English Christians " whose wounded feelings are supposed likely to bleed afresh at the sight of such a statue in such a place, may turn out to be equally insensible.