POPULAR HONOURS TO COMMODORE NAPIER.
COMMODORE Names. is successively attaining all the honours which it is the fashion of modern times to bestow on popular heroes. His return home was heralded by a flight of cheap prints depicting him in his working-dress performing prodigies of valour in a very original style ; and on his landing he was shouted after and feasted ; and, but that there was a jealous old Admiral in the case, he would have been made a Liveryman of London, and had to listen to a fine speech from the Speaker, instead of making the Speaker listen to him, as be soon will. That was the first stage on the way to fame : he has now reached the second, being about to take his seat as Member for Marylebone ; having already sat for his bust to Mr. PARK, who models all the lions of the day ; and been set up in effigy, in the Sun newspaper, which constructs with columns of type a temple of glory to every great.name or event that promises to pay. No doubt NAPIER is booked for the third stage of popularity, that of standing godfather to boots and coats, haberdashery warehouses and coffee-shops, suburban streets, and colo- nial cities ; while his greatest achievement may be commemorated by a pastoral metropolis of many acres in Polynesia, and an "Acre Lodge" standing on something less than a rood of ground. Should the gallant Commodore fight another battle, or what is much the same thing, gain another victory, he may perhaps be promoted to a peerage and pension, like lucky Lord KEANE ; or be made Prime Minister, and have his statue stuck up in every city in the kingdom, like WELLINGTON; or be mast-headed on the top of a stone column, as NELSON is going to be. PATRIC PARK'S bust of NAPIER is a faithful and characteristic like- ness of the homely-featured, good-humoured veteran : the sight of it at once recalled the face that we had only caught a glimpse of before, but that has since become more familiar ; and the hero's admirers need be at no loss for a sculptured resemblance of him, though as yet they may be for a satisfactory portrait. Mr. SAMUEL LAURENCE, who painted an admirable picture of Sir HENRY Pornammt, previously to his going to settle the Chinese, should paint the man who settled the Egyptians. Meanwhile, the medallion of the "Napier Sun "—though a profile is unavoidably imperfect—may serve to assuage the impatience of the public in general and the Marylebone constituency in particular : what 113 wanting in the likeness, may be made up by the Sun's summary of }Liana's daring deeds. The medallion is remarkable, moreover, as a specimen of what is called "metallic relief " ; being cast in brass from a wood-cut engraved according to the process of Com-as, and printed at the same time with the letterpress : the medallion that blazed forth in the " Golden Sun" was printed separately.
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