THE CROWDED ABBEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9913, 30 July 1910, Page 1

THE CROWDED ABBEY.

Visitors just now thronging Westminster Abbey are struck by the ever-pre-sent sense 'of the incongruity of the monuments that fill its precious space, writes Sir Henry Lucy in the "Sydney Morning Herald." Nest to this is. marvel at the insignificance of many of the persons whoso memory is kept green. Consequence is apparent in the circumstance brought home to the authorities in'a recent careful survey that there is absolutely no room for another statue; howsoever renowned may be the man whom the nation would delight to honour. Txe conclusion is.not new, though it was fondly hoped it might, by some means, be resisted. Nineteen years ago, confronted by the necessity of raising in the Abbey a monument to the memory of . Lord Beaconsiield, Lean Stanley reported that ihere was room for only two more. One site was allotted to Beaconsiield tl.e other reserved for Gladstone. It was in view of this state of things that Mr Shaw-Lefevre, then First Com-: missioner of Works, submitted a proposal for tacking on to th© A b boy a cliapel in which fresh monuments might be raised, or to which unde.irable ones might be removed from the Abbey. A Royal Commission Was appointed to consider * the matter. Whilst unanimous- in admitting the - overcrowded state of the Abbey, it was evenly divided on the question of the desirability of what in the House of Commons was irreverently known as "ShawLefevre's Dead House." The proposal accordingly dropped, and is not likely to be revived.

Mr Shaw-Lefevre, now Lord Eversley, tells some interesting sjtories about the monuments in the Abbey. For twenty years Peel's bore no inscription. After that lapse of time. there' was engraved on the pedestal the grandly simple legend, " Robert Peel." VVh'6h.-the Beaconsiield monument was completed . Lord ,Sa isbury asked Mr Shaw-Lefevre to suggest an inscription to follow the name. He submitted " Twice Prime. Minister." This was accepted, and will be found engraved on the pedestal. " When 1 showed it to Mr Gladstone," Lord'Eversley Fays, "he remarked, 'Twice Prime Minister ! That is no particular distinction.' He had been_ thinking, he skid, over the list of Prime Ministers, and observed that, of those since the Reform Act of 1832, all, with one exception, had been Prime Minister a second time. One t had held the post three times. This was Lord Derby, but his aggregate Ministries, did not amount to more than lom and a half years. By May of concluding the conversation I sa'dj ' I hope, sir, you will beat Lord .Derby's record.' Mr Gladstone was then in bis second Ministry. '.Beat Lord "Derby's record,' he exclaimed, 'that is absolutely impossible. This'is positively my last Ministry. A man must be mad who thinks I could ever again, after this, form another Ministry.' Yet he lived to be four times Prime Minister." A unique chapter of personal diistory recorded on the statue in Westminster Abbey, separated by only a few feet from that of his great compeer and rival.