Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/270

NO. 5., nobody would think misplaced on the cenotaph of a Jenner, a Watt, or a Davy. It will not, while our language lasts, be enquired who those men were; but, when the present generation has passed away, will not the fame of Dr. Babington depend more on the monument itself than on his professional merits; including mineralogy, on which he chiefly wrote, but is not much known by those researches? a consideration which makes it difficult to regard him as an unexceptionable candidate for the honours of the British Pantheon. Hence, while the chancels of so many handsome churches as adorn London and its environs would have furnished an adequate site, we doubt the judgment of this Gentleman's friends, known as he was, within the bills of mortality, but not far beyond them, in forcing him into a comparison with the favourites of the Goddess who confers an immortality on earth; and to whom alone admission into those Cathedrals which are become our national mausolea ought to be conceded. Certain unfriendly genii, in the shape of Plutus, have indeed, at the Abbey, often interfered with this legitimate rule, of which a dramatic writer, of such doubtful merit, as Congreve, who left £10,000 to the Duchess of Marlborough, covertly for this purpose, is a flagrant instance: but no one will deliberately and of afore-thought defend these mercenary misdoings.

Meanwhile we should like to know why no subscription for a resort to the sculptor's art "sacred to the eternal memory of"—Edward Jenner, M.D., has been circulated since he was consigned to "the vault of the Capulets." Will it be left to the Chinese to homage in this way such a benefactor to mankind? To allege that his name will survive any monument, would be