NOTES AND QUERIES.
LIE Hindoo cosmogony represents the world as resting upon an elephant, the elephant upon a tortoise, and the tortoise upon some still more profound support, not hitherto described; but modern science, with its sceptical eye, investigating the actual relation of the spheres, has suggested grave doubts as to the existence either of the elephant or the tortoise, to say nothing of the third and still more important coadjutor. A similar superstition exists respect- ing the Great Globe in Leicester Square. There is a story from the prre-Adamite days of that sphere, how there was a statue of George the Second m the space where the Globe was not ; how, *hen the Globe was called into being by the great cosmographer, the statue was to be encased and to remain as it were the kernel of the Leicester Square world ; and those who visited the exhi- bition viewed the counterfeit of the world with the more reverence from the supposition that it actually encased the effigy of an Eng- lish. George. Some sad sceptic in the Commons has instituted an inquiry which has swept away the venerated superstition ; and Sir William 3iolesworth—the editor, by the by, of Hobbes—has declared, in the most coldblooded manner, that the statue which was supposed to enchant that world has been "carted." When the time for enclosing it arrived, the statue was found to be much damaged—parts of it gone, and the remainder was carted away : besides, it is of no worth : the last of English Kings to draw the sword on the field of battle was in effigy but a man of common clay with. a surface of lead. Moreover, it was private property, and private property resents inquiry. Some man insists upon doing what he likes with his own, even if that " own " be a clay and leaden king. What a sarcasm upon English institutions is the whole story ! Stung at last to a sense of its duty by this regal tragedy, the Board of Works announces a bill to be introduced, for the purpose of authorizing the department to take charge of public statues. England welcomes the announcement, anxious for the fate of that opus magnum which surmounts the arch at Hyde Park Corner. There is indeed reason to hope that if a public department should have the statues in charge, individuals would feel their cha- racter at stake, and thus there would be a certain guarantee for securing some merit in the statues to be taken care of. The Board of Works would hardly like to be the imperial curator of a dozesa images which many a Jew broker would be ashamed to put before his shop.
The Board of Works would do a service not less important than that of statue-conservation by performing the duty of bridge- restoration. It is now said that the toll-paying bridges are not to be redeemed for the public, but the_petty obstruction of the penny or halfpenny is to be permanent. This is a preposterous economy; for it is not the mere cost which makes a toll-bridge an impediment to free traffic—it is the obligation to have in possession, not only
enAh, but the kind of cash which is the legal tender. What with tolls on one bridge and risks on another, the ways of the London public across its river are precarious. We still have nothing but adumbrations of promise about a new West- minster Bridge ; and that is the great object for the Board of Works to accomplish. It is now said that we are to have a struc- ture at a cost of 300,0001.; which introduces a fear that it will be a work of elaborate ugliness ; English art being of that kind which feels bound to give enough for its money, while the more We have of it the worse. A bridge in hand is worth two in the studio, and it would be a great stroke of state for any Minister-of Ilablic Works to bestow upon London a structure really worth haying—at the time when we want it. Surely the present bridge
is not to he preserved for the New Zealander who is to view Lon- don from its ruins ? Sir William Molesworth - will -attain his crowning title when he constitutes himself Pontifex Maximus.
If public works could only get on as zealously for England as other workmen have been getting on for the Emperor of Russia, we should soon have all we want. It does not require any official hinderance to prevent impatient workmen from finishing West- minster Bridge, as it does to hinder the machine-makers of the Clyde or the shipbuilders of the Thames from finishing the orders of the Emperor Nicholas. We have long thought Nicholas a double-faced fellow, but it appears that he has many faces—one for every country that he looks upon, and at least two for this. At Court he is the Imperial Nicholas ; to our Customhouse-officers he is Messrs. Merck of Ham- burg; for whenever a piece of naval war machinery is seized as being made for him, it turns out to belong to that respectable com- mercial firm. Either Nicholas is the Hamburg merchant, or the Hamburg merchant is one of the Powers of Europe—a great Power contemplating the creation of a navy, "unbeknown." Does this seizure of goods belonging to Messrs. Nicholas and Co. account for the reprisals upon the goods of Sir Hamilton Seymour ? One perceives the advantage of the many avatars in which the Russian demigod can appear. Talking to an English gentleman, he speaks "en parole de gentleman "; before our Customhouse- officers he is a plain merchant ; when his goods are seized he be- comes his own privateer and sacks the property of a private gen- tleman.
Timeo Danaos !—It is a Russian war-ship arriving at Shanghae which announces that Japan has been opened to the trade of the world, only the Emperor of that island has asked for time. It is a time bargain with the Russian Admiral; and Commodore Perry, the American who had first broken the ice, or perhaps we should say the varnish of Japan, has gone to ascertain the rights of the matter. Very properly. A free gift from Russia to the world is indeed a formidable prognostic.
Mr. Disraeli observes that Nicholas has taken to arms- against Turkey because Lord Aberdeen is in power. It is not less re- markable that he deferred his final robbery of "the sick man" until Wellington had departed. We do not suppose that he feared a Waterloo, but perhaps he did apprehend some hinderances from the soldier-statesman who-knew him. A story is current amongst the friends of the Duke, that he had occasion, not-very long after the accession of Nicholas, to discover the practical character of the hypocrite. The Emperor made to the Great Captain certain state- ments respecting military proceedings, which, from such authority, Wellington received as facts. Mr. Canning afterwards pointed out to the Duke a statement from St. Petersburg, undoubtedly au- thentic, that was totally incompatible with the Imperial statement. Nicholas lately designated himself to our Ambassador by the name of "gentleman" : on the occasion we speak of, the Duke applied to the Autocrat an epithet much shorter: "Yes," he said to Canning, "I see what you mean ; but could I suppose that the fellow was a damned liar ? "
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