§ COLONEL FRENCHsaid, he rose to ask the Chief Commissioner of Works, If his attention has been directed to the Monument now in progress of erection at the entrance to Westminster School, and to inquire if he has any power to prevent such erection?
MR. COWPERSir, the answer to the question of my hon. and gallaut Friend depends on the construction of an Act of Parliament. It appears that it was assumed that this work of art, being called a monument, did not come within the provision of that Act, which declares that no public statue shall be erected in a public place without the written assent of the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Works. I presume the subscribers to this monument had grounds for that assumption, though it might be urged on the other side that, as the monument consists of the statues of public personages, namely, four Sovereigns who especially favoured the school of Westminster, and St. George and the Dragon, it is not exempted from the operation of the Act. But, however that may be, supposing the promoters were incorrect in their construction of the Act, I think it would be a harsh step on the part of the Commissioners of Works to remove the monument on that account. At the same time, I must say that if my assent had been asked to this monument I should have hesitated to sanction the extraordinary incongruity of placing statues in the mediaeval style on a classical column. The incongruity has arisen from the struggle which prevails in this House and elsewhere between the advocates of the Gothic and the advocates of the classical style, and I presume they came to a compromise, which like other compromises, has been less successful than a frank adoption of either alternative.