MISCHIEVOUS PROPENSITIES OF JOHN BULL. A CORRESPONDENT Of the Windsor
Herald writes thus.
Will you believe that I lately saw several well-dressed persons amusing themselves by pelting the bronze statue of George the Third, which has been recently erected in the Long Walk, and shouting with laughter as the statue rang with their violence ? If such is to be the fate of splendid statues in exposed situations, we must no longer wonder at the want of encouragement, which we hear so much about in this department of art. These people were rebuked by an old Guardsman, who had learned better in the gardens of the Tuileries."
This is characteristic of John Bull. He cannot sit upon a bench in the Park without cutting his name on it, or scribbling nonsense or indecency. He cannot walk through Kensington Gardens without breaking off a bough; nor through a nursery- ground without pulling a flower. If he crosses a private park, he cannot keep the foot-way, but will go and stare in at the house. If Ile walks into the country, he pelts and drives the cattle and poultry; a bird cannot fly out of a hedge, or a squirrel run up a tree, but he must have a fling at it. His sports are all violent. Hunting, shooting, fishing, bull and badger-baiting, dog and cock- fighting, horse-racing and prize-fighting, are his favourite amuse- ments. The love of physical and animal enjoyment is shown in these national sports, as well as in the feasting at public and pri- vate dinners. This senseless and wanton outrage of pelting a statue was perpetrated by well-dressed persons. Brutality is by no means confined to the "lower orders." The chances are, that a mechanic would have respected a work of ingenuity and art, because he is at least able to estimate the labour that went to produce it. These peo- ple saw a noble statue, and not being able to appreciate its beauty, they resented their ignorance by flinging stones at it. They had no other way of getting a sensation from the sight. It was a want of imagination. Had it been a statue of ALFRED or MILTON, it would have shared the same fate. It is the old story of the pearls and the swine. They do not know how to enjoy the sight of any thing beautiful. They will not take the pains to understand, suffi- ciently to take an interest in, a work of art. The mass of the peo- ple have the excuse of want of sufficient leisure to acquire the art of enjoying relaxation and rational pleasures. The public at large, too, have so long been excluded from palaces and gardens, picture- galleries, &c. that they have not yet learnt decent behaviour, ex- cept where they are checked by the fear and shame of being de- tected. Over-work and over-feeding has made them gross in in- tellect as in body. In this respect, the much-abused Penny Ma- gazine may do a good deal to enlighten the minds and improve the taste of the middle and working classes of the community. Had these persons read an account of the statue in the Penny Magazine, they would not have needed to pelt it by way of deriv- ing gratification from it.
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