Punch (62.1872)

June 8, 1872] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI._23^

THE NOBLE SAVAGE AMONG THE ANTIQUARIES.

eadees have hither-
to best known Aye-
ton, the amene,
the urbane, the
amiable, the genial,
by the agreeable-
ness of his answers
to Parliamentary
enquiries, and the
courtesy of his cor-
respondence with
architects who have
had the good for-
tune to he placed
in professional rela-
tions with the Office
of Works. He has
lately included the
Society of Anti-
quaries in the sphere
of his instructional
activity, and has
taken one of those
opportunities of
which he is so ready
to avail himself to
show his zeal in
guarding the public purse from unwarrantable assault, and at the
same time to convey a rebuke in his own delicate yet _ trenchant
style to a Society of weak, if well-meaning enthusiasts, who
believe that it belongs to a Government, with more than it can
do in and about the present, to bother itself _ about relics or

the House of Commons. In this admirable answer, Me. Ayeton
wholly declines to be bound by the letter of his predecessor, which, he
observes, was written without the sanction of the Treasury having
been first obtained. And he adds, on behalf of the Board, that
their Lordships "have no intention of introducing a Bill, or of
laying before Parliament the Report which has been made by the
Sepulchral Monuments Committee."

Lord Stanhope, instead of quietly putting up with the rap on
the knuckles which he has thus drawn on himself and his brother
antiquaries, is audacious enough to "doubt very much whether it
will be found to the advantage of the public service, if a system
should arise of the Chief of a Department disavowing the acts of his
predecessor, even though that predecessor was of the same political
party as himself, and whether a continuity or fixity of Ministerial
action be not a necessary condition in seeking for the future to
obtain for any public object the unpaid services of independent
men."

Does not Lobd Stanhope see that Me. Ayrton is guided by far
higher considerations than any commonplace regard for expediency,
any more than politeness ? He had to consider, first, the duty of
snubbing intruders on a public office, whose head has other things
to do than attend to their crotchets. Then there is the pardonable
eagerness to avail himself of the opportunity of giving a slap in the
face to those who come up to him with the unwarrantable expecta-
tion of a shake of the hand. Lastly, there is the enjoyment of
throwing cold water on the exaggerated notions so common among
antiquaries of the value of the remains of a benighted past, and of
dispelling the delusion that an economical Government can acknow-
ledge any concern, charge, or responsibility in connection with such
things.

We say nothing of the natural pleasure of making oneself dis-
agreeable, for which a Minister who has little enough amusement,
Heaven knows, can hardly be expected to pass by so fair an occasion.

Let us hope that the lesson thus kindly, if sharply administered,
will not be without fruit; that the Society of Antiquaries, or any

records of the past. Me. Latard, who in his brief tenure of the other Society, will in future know its place better than to thrust
office of Chief Commissioner of Works did a good many rash itself and its reports 0n the Office of Works as it is, in answer
things tending to show an extra- if not anti-official interest in such to any appeai from the Office of Works as it was ; that
dilettante matters as Art and Antiquity,—which it has been one of : LoRD Stanhope and all whom it may concern, will henceforth
the most useful and agreeable duties of Mr. Ayrton to undo,-was ; bear in mind the difference between Mr. Layard and Mr.
so far forgetful of the limits of his public duty, as to write to the j Ayrton, and remember not only that-as Mr. Lowe has tersely put
Council of the Society of Antiquaries (m February, 1869) an mvi- ; it_<< we are not a paternal Government," but that " we are not an
tation " to furnish him with a list of such regal or other historical artistic Government," that "we are not an antiquarian Govern-
tombs or monuments existing m Cathedrals, Churches, and other■ment.» and> aDOve all, that " we are not a Government that gives

public places and buildings as, in their opinion, it would be
desirable to place under the protection and supervision of Govern
ment, with a view to their proper custody and preservation."

civil answers, or adopts educated men's estimate of the public import-
ance or aesthetic value of sepulchral monuments, or any other

tent, witn a view to tneir proper custody ana preservation. matters artistic or antiquarian."

rhe Society, 911 this, appointed a Sepulchral Monuments Com- Mr> AyhT0xX) bv these weH-timed and happily expressed answers,
mittee, who with help from the inquiries of Fellows of the Society ken or writteil, in effect adapts to his own use the saying of
andLocal Secretaries all oyer the country laboured-tor two years | Imperatoh sIGISMTJND wnen he proclaimed himself superior to
on the preparation of such a list, for which the Director of the grammar) and declares to an admiring England, " Sum Ayrton
Committee received the thanks of the Society,, and which Lord operarum Commissionarius et sum tarn super eestheUcam quam super
Stanhope its Chairman, m his Address of this year, calls a urbanitatem "

document of no mean importance." With the pardonable enthu- ' ________________—

siasm of an old antiquary, Lord Stanhope, while as an ex-member j

of the House of Commons, reasonable enough to doubt "how far at TREMENDOUS TELEGRAM,

the present time Parliamentary control can be effectually brought The electric telegraph seems a medium hardly suitable for the
to bear upon the affair in question, considering both its novel nature ; conveyanoe of SUch an announcement as the following message from
and its inherent difficulties, goes on- I Constantinople, dated actually on the day but one before the Derby:-

" But at the very least, it is a subject which deserves the most attentive .,,_, _ ■ 1 __-__• _ iw ■

consideration, and which, if successful^ solved, would secure for ages to come . Jhf 'Ecumenical Patriarch has issued a pastoral letter excommunicating
the noblest records of departed glory. To smooth the path for such considera- . the Bulgarian Patriarch, anathematising two Bulgarian Bishops, and inflicting
tion, was therefore an aim most worthy to be sought; and it is precisely this on anotatir tae eternal pains ot hell.

aim which the List of the Committee has attained. It does not assert, as it gach news as the above is of a nature remarkably opposite to that
was not bound to do that an Act of Parliament is at present practicable, but, of an electric apparatus. It smacks of the pre-scientific ages, when

5l _u?Bt ^ a j the electric light was not yet, and the world was in mental dark-

all, must rest. It snows the length and breadth of the work before us; it M • ' 1 _- 1 _ • v * —_ „r;fl,

establishes, on high authority, what are the works of stone or marble that we n*.% Nothing was then known of electricity but some of its effects,
should, if possible, protect from further harm. On these grounds, I may chiefly those of lightning, then considered a supernatural phenome-
fearlessly assert that, whatever the issue of any immediate attempts at legis- nom At the same time Patriarchs and_ Popes were commonly
lation, the gentlemen who served on the Committee will not have toiled in | believed to be supernaturally endowed with fulminating_ powers,
vain." ! like those of which the pretence, above instanced, of exercising has

The Council sharing this delusion of its Chairman, transmitted ! ?.een anachronistically reported by the lightning wire. Fulmjna-
this report to Mr. Ayrton, as Chief Commissioner of Works, in the I ot £hat sort are out of date. _es, Mrs. Malaprop, Ma am,

rash confidence that he would adopt the appeal of his predecessor, !the tlme has Sone h? *or a11 such cursory observations,
or, at least, lay the report before Parliament, while smiling, with
calm superiority, at the enthusiasm of those who could see any
public importance in the subject, or find any interest in old monu-
ments. t _ Amongst the many attractions advertised by the Crystal Palace

But the Society was reckoning without its Ayrton. It little ; for the summer is an " Exhibition of Game and the Apparatus of
knew the stern sense of public duty, and the serene contempt for i Sport," to take place on August 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th." We never
ajsthetic trifiing,_ which had now replaced eager dilettantism and like to spoil sport, but, anxious to save the Directors and Managers
weak consideration for Art and Antiquity, at No. 1, Whitehall ] of the most agreeable place of amusement we possess from falling

Atf56' a *n^° a snare> an<^ coming into unpleasant collision with the Inland

Mb. Ayeton administered to the Society, through his Secretary, Revenue authorities, we would remind them that the Game season,
one of those curt and cutting rebukes, which have made him an even for grouse, does not begin until the 12th of the month in which
object of awful respect and wholesome avoidance to questioners in they propose to hold their Exhibition.

Premature.