MEMORIAL TO DEAN STANLEY.
December 13th, 1881.
In the ancient Chapter-house, Westminster Abbey, a meeting was held on the 13th of December, 1881, for promoting a scheme for raising a fitting memorial to the lamented Dean Stanley. The Very Rev. Dr. Bradley, the new Dean, presided, and was supported by the Prince of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Granville, the Duke of Westminster, and many eminent persons in Church and State. There were also some ladies, and the representatives of Working Men's Clubs and Institutes, the purpose being to honour the memory of Dean Stanley, not merely as a high ecclesiastic, but as the helper of many good and beneficent objects in social life. The proposed tribute was to take the form first of a monumental memorial in the Abbey to the Dean, and also to his wife, Lady Augusta Stanley, and to establish a Home for Training Nurses at Westminster, an object in which Lady Augusta had taken deep interest. The present meeting, however, was only to set on foot the movement, and the first resolution was: "That the genius, the character, and the public services of the late Dean of Westminster eminently entitle him to a national memorial." This was moved by the Prince of Wales, who said:—
"Mr. Dean, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—In proposing the first resolution, which has been committed to my care, I desire to express the very sincere pleasure, though I must call it the sad pleasure, which I feel in being asked to move this resolution. I do so with feelings of sorrow, owing to the long friendship and acquaintance which I had with the late Dean of Westminster; and yet with pleasure, as I have the satisfaction of proposing to you a national memorial to which I am convinced the late Dean was so thoroughly entitled. The loss which the death of that eminent man has caused to this, and, I may say also, to other countries, is indeed great. That loss was deeply felt by my beloved mother the Queen, who bore for the late Dean the greatest possible friendship and affection, and also by all the members of her family.
"If I may be allowed to speak about myself, I had the great advantage of knowing most intimately Arthur Stanley for a period of twenty-two years. Not only had I the advantage of being his pupil during my residence at the University of Oxford, but I was also his fellow-traveller in the East when we visited Egypt and the Holy Land together; and I am not likely to forget the charm of his companionship and all the knowledge that he imparted to me during that tour. The many virtues and many great qualities of the Dean are so well known to all of you, and are so well appreciated throughout the length and breadth of the land, that it is almost superfluous in me, and would be almost out of taste, were I now to go through the long list of all that he has done from the day in which his name came into prominence. Still, as the churchman, as the scholar, as the man of letters, as the philanthropist, and, above all, as the true friend, his name must always go down to posterity as a great and good man, and as one who will have made his mark on the chapter of his country's history. To all classes he felt alike—to rich and poor, to high and low—he was, I may say, the friend of all; and it is most gratifying on this occasion to see here present the representatives of all classes of the community, and especially of the great labouring class to whom he was so devoted, and who, I think, owe him so much.
"It is also deeply gratifying, I am sure, to the Dean and those who take a deep interest in this meeting that we have the advantage of the presence to-day of the Minister of the United States. As I was saying, not only was the late Dean appreciated and looked up to in this country and in Europe, but also by that kindred country across the Atlantic to which he so lately paid a visit, and where we know that he received so much kindness and hospitality. I heard from his own lips on his return from America the expression of the great gratification he derived from his visit, and of the hope—of what, alas! was not to be—that he might on some future occasion be able to repeat it.
"There is much more that I should wish to say in regard to one whom I so deeply deplore, and to whom I bore so great an affection. But I am sure it is not the object of this meeting to make long speeches, and as many speakers have to follow me, I will only again express the gratification I feel in being here to propose the resolution which I now have the honour of bringing before you."
The resolution was seconded by Earl Granville. The Hon. J. Russell Lowell bore testimony to the honour in which the memory of Dean Stanley was held in America, and said he felt sure that many of his countrymen would be delighted, as some already had done, to share the privilege of helping this memorial.
The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Tait) moved the next resolution, as to the placing of the recumbent statue in the Abbey, and also completing the windows in the Chapter-house, in accordance with plans proposed and partly executed by the Dean. After speeches by the Marquis of Salisbury, Mr. S. Morley. M.P., the Marquis of Lorne, and Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, Mr. Gardiner, representing the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, spoke of the constant efforts of the late Dean to help and elevate the classes who lived by manual labour. He was President of their Union, and he was honoured by the working men of Westminster and London.
RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.
March 1st, 1882.