A public meeting was held in Oxford on Tuesday to
protest against the erection of a statue to Cardinal Newman, and a resolution was carried " strongly disapproving" of the erection of such statue "on any public site to be given by the Oxford City Council." The old ground of objection, that the statue would be too near to the ashes of Latimer and Ridley, is there- fore given up, and the sentence of exclusion extended to the whole city. No argument was adduced in the speeches, except the bigoted one that Cardinal Newman had changed his faith, an argument true also of St. Paul, and the untrue one that the citizens strongly object to his statue in their midst. If that is correct, why did the representative Council of the city vote a site for its erection P The plain truth of the matter is, that the meeting was composed of men who could not bear to do. honour to a great Catholic, even though he was also a great Englishman, a great intellectual honour to Oxford, and a great master of the literary art. If he had been a great agnostic, converting thousands from Christianity, no one would have objected; and if he had been a great Jew, we should have heard of nothing but the freedom of Oxford from narrow sectarianism and antiquated intolerance. Do Canon Ince and his supporters perhaps think that the statue will convert anybody P If so, our sculptors must have learned to put soul into their work beyond all English precedent.
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