A LODGING FOR THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD WANTED.
THE country seems to have made up its mind to have national monuments of illustrious Englishmen ; but where on earth to put them it knows not. It has been the custom to cram them into Westminster Abbey ; but the place is choke-full. Besides, many 'worthy persons entertain scruples to making sacred edifices the abodes of paid exhibitions, or to setting the dangerous precedent of entering a church without paying for it in some shape ; and moreover, there are scroples as to the character of the effigy-can- didates for enshrinement. The religious principles of the statues are investigated : as the marble BYRON was convicted of non- conformity, he was left to go to pieces in the Customhouse-cellars ; if a stone Brom were to appear before a Dean and Chapter, sin- gularly profane texts about "Church and State" and the Prince of Darkness might be quoted from his writings. For statues, it seems, are to be catechized almost as rigidly as living candidates for admission to the church. Altogether, from the most opposite motives, people are pretty well agreed that abbeys and cathedrals are not the most suitable places for portrait-monuments. Mr. BARRY proposes to give the ejected gentry house-room in the New Palace at Westminster, "either in the open arcades, or in galleries to be provided above them in the proposed additional quadrangle on the site of the New Palace Yard" ; a suggestion of which the value depends on many circumstances. Some exception has been made to making the Houses of Parliament ornamental : but that is a very mechanical view of utility which regards as supererogatory what would make a great national structure an exponent to after ages of the state of art in the nation ; to say nothing of the con- stant memento to living men, that there are things of beauty to cul- tivate and worship which are above mere politics and party-strife. Art is not only an exponent of itself, but also of the state of the national mind : as an exponent of the state of the national mind to the nation, it enables the nation to know its intellectual progress, and to keep heart throughout the lower cares and troubles of daily life, public or private. Why, therefore, should it not show its enno- bling aspect in fullest force where the nation assembles to provide laws for its own conduct and for its deportment before the world ? And in that place, too, it might be most proper to marshal in breathing marble the men who have been the genius of the country, to remind our lawgivers what high mandate is theirs in ruling a ' nation thus gloriously represented in the world of intellect and greatness. But then come the further questions—Is the abode offered worthy of the monuments, with a regard to the dignity of art, or worthy of the commemorated dead ? are the flower of the country to be left in corridors and staircases with porters and doorkeepers and "strangers,"—treated worse than the statue in Don Juan, for that is admitted to the banquet-ball ? If so, nothing will be gained by accepting Mr. BARRY'S invitation. This should be distinctly ascertained before engaging the lodging. A site for the reception of national monuments, whether viewed as objects of art or as reminiscences of great men, might well stand among the highest national buildings ; but it ought not to be among the mere accessories of a legislative ball, on a par with anterooms and coach- houses. And would the public have constant and absolutely free access to the presence of the illustrious effigies ? That is an impor- tant question. One of the most beneficial uses of such an assemblage would be the familiar lesson to the mind of the people in its idle and most impressible mood. The English have shown, late in the day, but quite as soon as they were enabled, that they are ready and able to profit by the arts that forbid ferocity—witness the mul- titudinous resort to the National Gallery and the British Museum. Our city is singularly deficient in such lounging-places, where idle- ness itself becomes instructive, and where the people can face in a tangible shape their own greatness, and see in part, bodily, that they do not pay taxes for nothing or for solely unworthy objects. The Hall of the Immortals should belong, in its accessibility, its freedom, its use, to the public. Let it be near the Houses of Par- liament if you will; but see that it is not made for the use of " Members only," or of " strangers" upon sufferance—see that the people are quite at home in it. This points to the necessity of a proper tribunal to consider all such subjects, not merely as part and parcel of a single building-job, but with reference to the wants of the whole Metropolis. Some body should be established, to subsist permanently, in order to take into consideration, with regard to the general improvement of the capital, every scheme proposed. In that way, some consistent plan or principles might be kept in view ; and successive projects in detail might be made to subserve to one whole series of improvements. Such a body as the Fine Arts Commission would do, only not limited to promote the fine arts "in building the Houses of Parliament." In less free coun- tries that have encouraged painting and sculpture, the sovereign, or his ministers and servants aptly chosen, have constituted a com- mission of the kind ex officio : but with our self-government and precise delegation of authority, a particular administration is needed. for the purpose. It is useless to write about these things on paper, or to report about them in "blue books," while they are treated without breadth of view, merely as incidents to separate jobs: we want a machinery for securing that what is henceforth done to London should all tend to the one object of making it as much more commodious and beautiful as the means will allow, instead of wasting all means in petty and conflicting speculations.
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