We observe in American newspapers that the controversy about
Mr. Barnard's statue of Lincoln continues. We wrote on the subject a few months ago, but return to it now for what seems to us a sufficient reason. Although the right of choice—for the statue is to be a present from America to Great Britain—rests with Americans and not with us, we may be allowed to take a sensitive interest in the controversy, especially as silence might be mistaken for indifference. There could be no such thing as indifference on this subject in Great Britain. Lincoln has lionto one of the greatest of heroes to all Englishmen interested in politics and history. In a sense, and this M the first thing to say, we cannot look a gift-horse in the mouth. Whether the American Committee offers us the Barnard statue, with all its rugged and rather violent realism, or the idealized statue of Lincoln by St. Gaudens, which is much better known, we shall receive it with intense satisfaction, Yet we need not seem to have no opinion at all on the subject.
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