Earl Canning was Governor-General of India during the Mutiny, and became the first Viceroy. His name is always to be remembered with those of Clyde, John and Henry Lawrence, and the other great men of the Mutiny time. Lord Canning died in 1862. The Cannings are buried in the North Transept, in a vault near that of the Pitt family.
Close by is the grave of Henry Grattan, who died in 1820, the great defender of the rights of Ireland.
On the opposite side of the Transept to the Cannings is the statute of George Canning’s chief political rival, Lord Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, who died in 1822. Lord Castlereagh was Foreign Secretary, and attended the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. He helped greatly to make peace in Europe after all the fights with Napoleon. He unfortunately became very unpopular later, partly because of the heavy taxes the people had to pay after the French wars, and partly because he thought the Press had too much liberty and he tried to curtail that liberty. There was a terrible riot at his funeral, and the mourners had to fight their way through an angry mob.
Close to Castlereagh’s statue is that of Lord Palmerston, who was twice Prime Minister in Queen Victoria’s reign, after being Secretary of State for War for twenty years. Lord Palmerston was Prime Minister during the Crimean War and at the time when the Indian Mutiny began. He was given a public funeral, and is buried in the North Transept. His wife is buried with him.
On the side opposite to Castlereagh and Palmerston is the statue of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Lord Beaconsfield is remembered as a famous leader of the Conservative party in Parliament, and as a man who did much for the growth of the British Empire. It was at his suggestion that the late Queen took the title of Empress of India, and to him we owe much of our present position in Egypt. Lord Beaconsfield was also a well-known writer of novels. His most famous books are perhaps Lothair, Sybil, and Coningsby. Lord Beaconsfield died in 1881, and is buried at Hughenden in Buckinghamshire.
William Ewart Gladstone, the great Liberal leader, and Lord Beaconsfield’s chief political opponent, is buried in the North Transept, and his statue stands next to that of Disraeli. Mr. Gladstone was four times Prime Minister. The Bill for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church was passed when he was in power in 1871. Gladstone was not only eminent in politics, but he exercised a considerable literary, social, and moral influence over many of his fellow-countrymen. Gladstone died in 1898.
In the year 1870 the Education Bill was passed, a Bill which has made a great difference to all English people, as everybody now has the opportunity of going to school and of having a good and useful teaching, not only in reading and writing, but in many other things as well. The scheme for this new plan of education was made by William Edward Forster, who is commemorated in the Abbey by a medallion which is placed above the monument of his uncle, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, in the North Choir aisle.
The grave and monument of Sir Rowland Hill in St. Paul’s Chapel remind us of another important change which took place in 1839, namely, the introduction of the penny postage and the invention of adhesive postage stamps.
Another monument, a very beautiful and interesting one, is that erected to the memory of Henry Fawcett, the blind Postmaster-General, who accomplished so much good work in spite of the terrible disadvantage of his blindness, which was the result of an accident when he was quite young. This always seems to be a monument to undaunted courage and perseverance in the face of great misfortune, and it should teach us to be brave and patient, however much things may seem to be against us.
It is now time to speak of the chief authors of the century, and to turn our thoughts once more to Poets’ Corner.