Nevertheless, and in spite of the unanimity of the municipal
body to whom the proposal was made, a feeble protest has been pub forth by Mr. Harman Keble in the Times of Tuesday, and by Canon Lice in the Times of Wednesday, on grounds of which it is not very easy to appreciate the sentimental validity. Canon Ince, who is the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, speaks of Dr. Newman as having " won for himself the admiration of all English Christians by the genius and subtlety and passionate eloquence of his writings, as well as by the sincerity and simplicity of his life." Nevertheless, he strongly objects to the proposed site, which he terms "the finest open space in Oxford," though we do not understand that that is precisely the ground on which he thinks it will " deeply wound the religious susceptibilities of very many loyal members of the Church of England." The objection in his mind is not, we suppose, to the removal of the cabstand which now occupies "the finest open space in Oxford," but to the proximity of the proposed site to the Martyrs' Memorial, erected in 1838 to the memory of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, who were there burnt at the stake. It is "within a hundred yards," says Canon Ince, " and in immediate sight of the spot " where the martyrdom took place ; and therefore the erection of a statue to the great Roman Catholic convert will be regarded as a " counterblast " to the Martyrs' Memorial and will be supposed to imply that all religious opinions, if sincerely held, are equally true and equally false.
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