THE CROMWELL STATUE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 547, 20 March 1876, Page 3

THE CROMWELL STATUE.

( Reynold's Newspaper. ) It lias been said with truth that the world honours those most of whom they know the least. The force of this proverb is exemplified in the number of statutes erected to a lot of royal rascals, ruffians, and nonentities ; whilst that of one of England’s greatest men was nowhere to be seen until Wednesday last, when Manchester did honor to itself by placing in its midst a statue of Cromwell. What can be a greater proof of the fiukeyism of the age than the enormous crop of memorials to the late Prince Consort that have sprung up since his death. The prince was a man of mediocre intellect, of a miserly mind, and despotic tendencies. He contrived to amass an enormous fortune in a few years—the extent of which his widow has taken excellent care shall not be revealed. Prince Albert’s career will occupy at the utmost half a-dozen lines in the page of history, whilst that of Cromwell will fill volumes. And yet the stone effigy of the pirdding-faced German stares us everywhere in the face ; whilst, until Wednesday last, one might have walked from one end of England to the other without coming across the likeness of the great Protector ! Even those two infamous wretches, George IV and his brother, the Duke of York, figure conspicuously on pedestals in the metropolis, whilst Cromwell is nowhere found ! Manchester has, however, honored the memory of one who raised England to thepinnacle of greatness, from which she was speedily plunged into the lowest depths of degradation by his kingly successor, Charles 11.