the modern athens 14

the modern athens 14

Miserable, however, as is the support which the theatre of the Athens

receives, and must continue to receive, the King was constrained to

visit it; however, from the smallness of the house and the number of

those who had legal admission as immediately belonging to his retinue,

or his household, he could be for a long time gazed upon by the

chosen, without any great admixture of the mere vulgar. The play was

nothing; but there was something rather novel in the by-acting. The

great chief of Glengarry, who has made himself conspicuous in many ways

and upon many occasions, and who has proved his descent from Ronald,

the elder of the two Vikings, who came robbing and remained royal in

the Hebudæ, being thus, not only “every inch a king,” as well as George

the Fourth, but a king of a much older and a more legitimate dynasty,

stood up for the royal prerogative of wearing his bonnet, and keeping

his seat, while the band was playing, and the audience shouting, “God

save the King.” For this, he was complained of somewhat angrily, and,

in my opinion, very unjustly; for, if they played and sung “God save

the King,” in honour of George Augustus Frederick Guelph, King of Great

Britain and Hanover, then they stinted others of their due, and showed

a partiality not to be borne, when they did not strike up “God save the

Chief,” in honour of Alexander Ronaldson Macdonell, of Glengarry and

Clanronald, heir to the titles, the virtues, and the valour, of Donald

of the Isles. This was omitted, however, and so after this dramatic

scene, the Monarch of these realms staid not another hour in the

Athens; but merely rested a day in the neighbourhood, and then took

his departure, in manner as shall be set forth in another section.

 

 

THE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

 

“_Si monumentum queriris, Circumspice._”

 

Though the laying of the foundation-stone of the “National Monument of

Scotland,” is to be regarded as a mere interlude in the royal acting,

and of course as a mere parenthesis in my outline of the same, yet

it merits a few sentences, not only on account of the curiosity of

the thing itself, but because it throws some light upon the vanity

of Scottish official men in general, and upon those of the Athens in

particular.

 

To some people, the idea of building a national monument for Scotland,

or in other words, a monument for the Scottish nation, may seem a

work not of supererogation merely, but of folly; because the Scottish

nation, so far from running any risk of becoming extinct and being

forgotten, is in a very lively and flourishing state; and there are no

people that, wherever they may go, cherish so carefully and proclaim so

loudly, the praise of their country, as the Scotch. But this monument

was intended to answer two very nice purposes,--the one for the glory

of the loaf-and-fish politicians of Scotland, and the other for that

of the Athens. So long as the country was in a state of distress,

and it was doubtful whether the politics of the old or new system

would ultimately triumph upon the Continent of Europe, a very large

proportion of the leading men of Scotland, and of the Athens, joined

the people in being Whigs. As such, they had no immediate share in the

good things of the state; but they hoped that the wheel of hostilities

would revolve, bring the party into office, and so feed them in

proportion to the extent of their fasting and longing. Independently

of their intrinsic value, Whig politics are a much better theme for

declamation than Tory. In that faith, one can talk long and largely

about the majesty and rights of the people, and when not in office, one

can promise as largely as one pleases; while the most judicious plan

for the Tory is to pocket his reward, and thank God; or if he boasts

any thing it must be only to the choice few, and when the inspiration

of a dinner looses his tongue. Under all those circumstances, the

Tories of the Athens, though they had all the substantial things their

own way, were confined to the actual enjoyers of office and emolument;

and the tongues and pens of their opponents were so hard upon them that

they had begun to be afraid to hold even their wonted meetings. Thus

it became necessary that they should do something which should either

win the hearts or dazzle the eyes of their countrymen. The former

was without the compass of their speculations; so they set about the

latter; and after floundering a long time from one scheme to another,

they at last hit upon this wise one of the monument.

 

After the requisite number of ladies and gentlemen had licked the

scheme into some sort of shape in private, they held a meeting in the

Assembly-Rooms in George-Street, on the 24th of September, 1819, at

which his Grace of Athol presided; and divers other persons, equally

loyal, and almost equally tasteful and wise, gave their assistance.

The time was well-chosen. It was in the very depth of those political

clouds which, arising immediately from the sufferings of the people,

and remotely, as was supposed, from the wasteful expenditure and

unaccommodating pride of the Administration, were threatening to

burst upon both ends of the island. The object, as set forth in the

resolutions of that meeting, was threefold:--First, the erection of a

monument to commemorate the great naval and military achievements of

the British arms, during the late glorious and eventful war; secondly,

in order to testify the gratitude of the projectors to the Almighty,

they were to connect a church with the monument of the achievements,

and endow two ministers to officiate therein; and thirdly, they

were to set apart a certain number of the seats in this church for

the benefit of pious strangers visiting the Athens. All which being

settled, they set about a subscription for raising the funds. In

those days, however, they were by no means such adepts in political

arithmetic as they have since become, through the labours of Joseph

Hume and others; and though they had their purses, they were neither so

full nor so easily opened as their loyal intentions. As that moment,

the monument to the achievements, the church, and the two ministers,

would have cost them more than a hundred thousand pounds; and thus the

monument, besides its more avowed and desired objects would have been

the monument of all the disposeable cash of the whole of the Tories

of Scotland,--a sepulture and a remembrance of which, they were not

altogether so fond. Wherefore, finding that the subscriptions amongst

themselves were in danger of becoming the monument of the project, they

applied to the General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk. That venerable

constellation of churchmen, after grave deliberation, declared that the

thing was “a most suitable and appropriate __EXPRESSION__ of gratitude to

the Lord of Hosts,” and forthwith recommended a general address from

the one thousand and one parish pulpits of the Kirk, for the purpose

of obtaining collections and subscriptions from the one thousand and

one parishes. But the parsons were not over hearty in the cause,

and the people were less so; and thus the whole sum produced did not

much exceed a hundred pounds--about two shillings for the prayers and

pleading of each minister.

 

Having thus learnt from experience, that the scheme would not do,

either as a party and political measure among themselves, or as a

clerico-politico-religious one in the hands of the ministers of the

kirk, they took up new ground altogether, and addressed themselves to

a much more active and promising principle, the vanity of the Athens.

They began with a long and learned parallel between the overthrow of

Bonaparte and that of Darius and Xerxes; and then, coming gradually

a little nearer home, they hinted, that, in his encouragement of the

arts, Lord Melville was the express image of Pericles. This brought

them to the marrow of the subject: Edinburgh was very much like

Athens,--it was, in fact, the Modern Athens, or the Athens Restored;

the Calton Hill was a far finer thing than the Acropolis; the freestone

of Craigleith excelled in beauty and durability the marble of

Pentelicus; the Firth of Forth outstretched and outshone the Egean or

the Hellespont; the kingdom of Fife beat beyond all comparison Ionia

and the Troad; Ida and Athos were mere mole-hills compared with North

Berwick Law and the Lomonds; Platæa and Marathon had nothing in them

at all comparable with Pinkie and Preston Pans; Sir George Mackenzie of

Coull, excelled both Æschylus and Aristophanes; Macvey Napier was an

Aristotle; Lord Hermand a Diogenes; Macqueen of Braxfield had been a

Draco; the Lord President was a Solon; a Demosthenes could be found any

where; and Lord Macconachie was even more than a Plato. Then, to make

the parallel perfect, and indeed to make the Modern Athens every way

outstrip the Athens of old, only one thing was wanting, and that was,

that there should be erected upon the top of the Calton Hill, a copy

of the Temple of Minerva Parthenon, to be called the national monument

of Scotland, as that had been called the national monument of Greece;

and that the independence of the modern city and the modern land should

survive the building of the monument as long as that of the old had

done.

 

The proposal took amazingly; for, in an instant, every quill was up

to the feather in ink, every tongue was eloquent, and every lady and

gentleman took an Athenian _nom de guerre_--Alcibiades there, Aspasia

here, till they had Athenized the whole city. Still, however, fine

as the situation was, and fond as they were of it, a Parthenon in

speech was a cheaper thing than a Parthenon in stone; and so, though

Edinburgh had, beyond all doubt or dispute, become the Modern Athens,

it still wanted the temple of Minerva upon the Calton Hill as the

national monument of Scotland.

 

It was still wished and resolved, however, that this finishing touch

should be given to the likeness and the glory of the Modern Athens;

and, as the tories, the ministers, and the dilettanti, had all failed

in the accomplishment of the thing, it was resolved to call in royal

aid; and have the assistance of his majesty at laying the basis of this

mighty monument. But even here, there were obstacles in the way of this

slow-going Parthenon: it would be too much to ask the King to lay the

foundation-stone in person; and yet, if he were present, the laying of

it would be a humiliation of the whole tories of the country in the

sight of majesty; for it happened unfortunately for them, that the

grand master of the mystic craft in Scotland was none other than the

whig Duke of Hamilton: But wisdom has many ways of going to work; and

so they resolved that the tory lords should act the King by deputation,

and command the grand master to do the work. This was no sooner thought

of than put in execution. An immense number of the craft formed a

procession, and the stone was laid, leaving the structure to be built

when time and funds should permit.

 

 

THE DISPERSION.

 

“To your tents, O Israel.”