Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/73

 Rh "Howard of Bedford, the jail-man " and Warner met again in the streets of Rome in the early spring of 1786. A letter from Warner under the disguise of " Anglus ' J and with the date of 21 May was circulated in private and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year (1786, pt i, 359 — 60). It proposed the erection of a statue of Howard in com- memoration of his efforts to help unfortunate humanity. The proposal was adopted at once by Lettsom, the benevolent physician, and John Nichols, the printer, and by the 22nd of November the subscription for the statue amounted to £1418. 17. 6. The design was however checked by a letter from Howard, penned at Venice on 15 December. His modesty forbade the erection of such a monument and the scheme was abandoned. The list of subscribers printed at this date showed promises amounting to £1512. 7. 6. Some of them withdrew their offers but the balance, by far the larger proportion of that total, was duly paid and invested in the funds, in the names of Lettsom, Warner & Nichols. Various propositions were put forward by which the money could be usefully employed, and the sum of £200 was appropriated towards relieving persons confined for small debts. Their liabilities were small indeed, for with that sum no less than 55 debtors were set free. On Howard's death the original scheme was revived and an agreement for a statue of him was con- cluded with John Bacon on 3 Feby. 1792. It was unveiled on the 23rd Feby. 1796 and was the first memorial of that kind placed in St. Paul's Cathedral. This monument led to the friendship of Warner with the Swan of Lichfield. Its erection attracted universal attention, both in the journals of the day and the separate productions of the industrious poetasters. Among these ephemeral pieces was one printed anonymously and entitled " The Triumph of benevolence occasioned by the national design of erecting a