ERECTION OF TIIE STATUE OF GEORGE TIIE THIRD.
MR. WYATT'S unlucky statue of George the Third on horseback— which was first delayed by the deficiency of funds, then by the damage it sustained in the casting,,and lastly by the opposition to its erection in the place where it now stands, the middle of the road-way in Pall Mall East—was opened to the public on Wednesday. The ceremonial of inauguration was to have been performed by the King ; but his Majesty sent his royal brother of Cumberland as his proxy upon the occasion. We had the curiosity to mingle with the throng of visiters that filled the booths erected on two sides of the statue ; that which was towards the houses of the recusant leaseholders having been left open—to soothe their irritation at their defeat, we may presume. All that was to be seen, we witnessed : we saw as much of the Duke of CUMBERLAND as his stock and whiskers would allow, and as much of the ceremonial as the tarpaulin that shrouded the statue admitted ; but we beard only the cheering within and the groaning without,— the speeches we did not hear, though we saw Sir FREDERICK TRENCH and Mr. JERDAN seemingly very eloquent and enthusiastic. The Duke's addiess must have been impressive, since it procured for him several rounds of cheering. The cheers, however, were given with more effort than enthusiasm, and were loudest in the immediate vici- nity of the royal personage ; where also the excitement of the hats was
most conspicuous. Two very ominous misadventures occurred in the preliminary pro-
ceedings: the royal standard was hoisted upside down ; and the work- men's own flag, composed of pocket-handkerchiefs, displayed the re- volutionary tricolor—red, white, and blue! The Duke, Sir FREDERICK, and the architect, having proceeded un- covered into the presence of the statue, the tarpaulin screen was let down, and disclosed the bronze effigy of George the Third, with his tie-wig and pigtail, wearing a uniform coat, very badly made, and mounted on a beautiful charger, which is very finely modelled, and certainly de3erves a better representative of the royal rider. The King looks down Pall Mall towards St. James's ; and holds in his hand a cocked hat, with "a wee pickle feather in the tap," that might be coveted by a military cap-maker as a sign of his trade. The colour af the bronze is neither verdigris green, like WEszmoicorr's statue of Canning in -Palace Yard, nor olive green, like CHANTREY'S of Pitt in Hanover Square, but a brimstone and treacle hue. The cheering, when the figure was uncovered, was by no means deafening; and the Duke, " illustrious by courtesy," departed in silence, though a few groans from the crowd followed him as he rode away. Altogether it was a very dull business.
We were always at a loss to what cause to attribute the inveterate opposition of the residents in the neighbourhood ; for the road-way, like the woild, is "wide enough for them both :" but the secret is out now—they had got a sight of the figure ! As, however, they could not bring the bronze into court, their weightiest argument was not put forward.
The perfect keeping of the thing was crowned by the absurd, bom- bastic, twaddling, would-be epigrammatic, inscription. "To his Most Excellent Majesty George the Third, King ot Great Britain and Ireland. and lb-fader or the Faith.' "A Monarch who was the safeguard of Christianity, without the honours of Di admit; and the conqueror if half the globe. without the fame of it here; who reigned amidst the wreck of empires, yet died in the love of his people. when peace was established throughout his w ide dominions, when the literature and the commetre of his country pervaded the stolid, when British valour was without a rival. and the Britisu character without a stain."
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