WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 215, 8 June 1877, Page 1

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

BOM the earliest times the river Thames has been the "silent highway" of the people who have been dwellers on its banks. The coracle of the Briton, the galley of the Roman, and those stout vessels that dared the stormy seas of the .north .whilst their pilots sped out on their mission of war and conquest, have each in turn held possession of its waters. To-day it suggests to us a thousand recollections reaching back to Z TdSu years of old, and embracing thoughts as widely separated as those which are attendant on the festivities of a royal water-party from those evoked by the rash deed of, alas! too many who have plunged into this stream with the wild cry in their hearts— " Any w here, anywhere, out of the world !" But the Thames at Westminster recalls to us, moreover, wise and holy acts performed by " men of renown " in the olden times. It was here that Canute rebuked the flattering spirit o£ his courtiers by bidding the waves ho retreat, which nevertheless, "cast forth some part of

their water towards him, and came up to his thighs." And close by here stands the Abbey founded by Edward the Confessor, concerning which a "biographer of the Saint writes : — „. .t-ijiijii. "The aevoutWntf destined to God that place, both for that it was near unto the famous and wealthy City of London, and also had a pleasant situation amongst fruitful fields lying round about it, with the principal river running hard by, bringing in from all parts of the world great variety ot Tvares and merchandise of all sorts to the city adjoining; but chiefly for the love of tho Chief Apostle, whom he reverenced with a special and singular affection."

In Catholic eyes, however, probably the most notable thing recorded of Westminster has occurred in our own times, when the Holy Father filled up the vacant Archiepiscopal See, widowed for centuries, by the appointment as archbishop of his late Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, and on which action followed so loud a storm of indignation and terror throughout England, that none greater could have been excited had the Pope proclaimed himself king of the realm, and appeared on its shores at the head of a great army to enforce his claim. But the Cardinal who began by being the most unpopular man in the kingdom, ended by being generally beloved and respected, and in the course of a life time, which, unhappily, proved to have all too short a space to run, completely lived down the strong prejudice that had prevailed against him, and succeeded in presenting the Catholic Faith in a new aspect to the people of England; leaving to his successor a heritage of esteem ; — a heritage, indeed, which has been, largely increased by the present occupant of the See, his Eminence Cardinal Manning. The bridge seen in our illustration is the handsomest modern construction of its kind in Europe, and taken in conjunction with the Houses of Parliament close by, of which the Victoria Tower is seen in our picture, it forms an unrivalled stretch of river scenery.