AMERICA AND WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 161, 8 July 1879, Page 4

AMERICA AND WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Dean Stanley recently delivered an intertstirg address in the Theatre of tbe Society of Arts on " The Reminiscences of America in Westminster Abbey." Of the beginners of that system of small commonwealths which ultimately grew into the doited States of America, the Abbey, he said, had no memorials to boast of. But if they might include St. Margaret's Church within its precincts, there, beneath its chancel, the body of Sir Walter Raleigh was laid after his execution, though with no stone to mark bis grave. He might fairly be called the father and founder of the United States, inasmuch as he first contemplated in thought the rise of s.ch a new nation in tbe future. In compliment to Elizabeth, be named the whole of the northern continent from the St. Lawrence, Virginia. A great soldier, statesman, poet, historian, and philosopher, his death waa mainly due to the jealousy of James J., of whom, ss ihey bad been reminded that day, Prince Henry had asked, " What king in Christendom but my father would have mewed up such a bird in a cage ? ' Of the three greet monuments relating to the struggle between tbe French and English for the possession of the American continent, the first to be noticed was that of Lord Howe, which was to be seen on the south wall of the nave of the Abbey. He felt near the spot marked by a local tablet to his memory on the isthmus of Ticonderoga. The tomb in Westminster Abbey was erected by the colony of Massachusetts. In tbe same conflict was killed General Townaend, of whom also there is a monument in the Abbey. When tbe Dean was in America he was presented with a rusty bsyonef, which had been dug up pn the battle field. But the most interesting of the three monuments in the Abbey, belonging to this period was that of General Wolfe, who was sent out by the great Lord Chatbam at the head of an army raised to end the war. Wolfe's spirit rose triumphant above a weak and sickly frame, and so little did he hide his delight when told by Chatham that he was to command, that the Miuister exclaimed on Wolfe's leaving his cabinet, " Good Heavens I what have I done ? I have appointed a madman." But it was the madness of genius. Without again telling the audience the story of tbe storming of Quebec, they might be reminded that, while crossing the St. Lawrence on his way to tbat final triumph, be asked if anyone could recite Gray's •• Elegy," and a young soldier having done so, Wolfe said, with deep emotion, "I would rather have written that poem than taken yonder fortress. 1 ' His scaling the Heights of Abraham and turning out tbe French in twenty minutes was doubtless against all rule. He died in tbe arms of victory in the same hour as tbe French Governor Montcalm, but not until he had named his successor in command. Following oo bad news from the seat of war, the tidings of the decisive triumph sat the church bells ringing throughout England, save io Wolfe's native village, out of respect to bis mother, who, besides losing ber son, had lately become a widow. To make room for the victor's monument in the Abbey it was at first intended to displace, one .of the most beautiful tombs in the building, that erected in memory of a nephew of Henry 111. Happily, Horace Walpole'e remonstrance with tbe Dean of tbat day was effectual, and Wolfe's monument was erected behind the other. It perpetuates on a bronze bas-relief the history of the . siege of Qaebeo. Dean Stanley remarked on the striking likeness, especially as to the nostrils and that region of the face, between Wolfe's physiognomy and tbat of William Pitt, whose monument is close at hand. Coming down to the war of separation between. England and ber American colonies, they were reminded of Boston harbor and Bunker's Hill, where independence won its first victory, by a stained glass window at the extreme eastern end of the chapel. It commemorates an English Minister who, having died at Boston, was brought to his native land ten years ago to be buried among his ancestors in , Scotland; but whose American friends expressed tbeir kindly feeling towards himself and his coontry by this memorial window in the Abbey. In the north cloister, bnt undistinguished by any monumental pomp, is the grave of General Borgoyue, whose surrender of the English army at Saratoga was one of the heaviest and most decisive brows inflicted on tbe English throughout tbe war. But the most interesting monument associated With that war to be seen in the Abbey was thai of Major Andrs, who was employed to negotiate with a brilliant aod dashing, but unscrupulous, American commander for betrayal of the great fortress of West Point, on the Hudson, to the English commander. Major Andrei, on bis way back, was caught by three. American peasants,, and the treasonable despatches having been foand hidden between bis boots and stockings, he was taken into tbe American camp. There all were struck with his noble bearing ; but Washington seeing the gravity of the crisis, insisted upon his being banged as a spy instead of being shot as a soldier. Many years afterwards, with lhe permission of the American Government, Andre's bones were brought . to his country and buried in Westsaioster Abbey, the scene of his execution being represented on the monuBC&t, inelading an authentic portrait

of Washington. To this day Andre's memory was cherished in America, and his history was reflected in Fenimore Cooper's nevel of --The Spy.' Dean Stanley brought sprigs of maple, oak, and sliumack from the banks of th Hudson to place oo the tomb of one who, though technically executed as a spy, we must ever regard as baying died a patriot's death. Coming down to times much nearer our own, the Buxton monument io St. Margaret's might remind us of the final calastbrope of American slavery io the greatest civil war ever fought in the history of the world. Within the Abbey itself, near the entrance of the nave, there was the grave in whioh tbe body of George Peacock rested previous to its removal to America. Dean Stanley, on his return from his Transatlantic visit, had inscribed the cenotaph with Peabody's own words — "I prayed my Heavenly Father day by day that I might be enabled before I die to show my gratitude for tbe blessing which he has bestowed upon me by doiog soma great good to my fellow men " Another American monument in Westminster Abbey was the painted window by George Childs, to commemorate, as suggested by the Dean, George Herbert and William Cowper,