25 AUGUST 1894, Page 3

Mr. Herbert Gladstone, as First Commissioner of Works, informed the

House on Monday night that "no series of historical personages could be complete without the inclusion of Cromwell," and though he had no sum at his disposal for de- fraying the cost of a statue this year, Sir William Harcourt, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had promised to make the necessary provision in the Estimates for next year. This is a promise which should be received with universal approbation. Whatever Cromwell was, he was a great historical figure, and though not perhaps on the whole a great Parliamentary figure, yet, like the skull at the Egyptian feasts, he was a salutary memento mori to all Parliaments. We trust a worthy statue will be erected to him, not within the walls of Parliament, but just outside them, where the Members, as they flock in, may see him, and . shiver at the thought of " prating," as too many of thefh do prate. Underneath it might be written those historical words, "Come, come, we have had enough of this. I will put an end to your prating. It is not fit that you should sit here any longer."