[Illustration: Statue of James Watt, to be erected in Westminster
Abbey.]
The people of this country have not been ungrateful to the memory of the
great improver of the steam-engine. A bronze statue has been erected by
subscription at Glasgow: another, of white marble, has been placed in
the Hunterian Museum in the same large commercial town; and a third,
also of white marble, which is completed, is about to adorn Westminster
Abbey. From the latter statue the above drawing has been taken, by
permission of Mr. Chantrey, who has been judiciously selected to execute
these three important works. Independently of his high excellence as a
sculptor, Mr. Chantrey had the advantage of modelling Watt some time
before his death. Nothing can be finer in art, or more characteristic of
the philosopher, than this statue. The perfect simplicity and repose of
the composition, so expressive of the calm and reflecting mind of this
extraordinary man, are beyond all praise.
The public meeting, at which it was determined to erect a statue to the
memory of Watt, was perhaps one of the most interesting that ever was
held in the metropolis. It took place on the 18th June, 1824; and the
late Lord Liverpool, then Prime Minister, presided. A foreigner who was
present, M. Dupin[1], was particularly struck by the announcement from
the first minister of the Crown, that the distinguished persons who met
that day were assembled to pay a solemn tribute of gratitude and respect
to the memory of an illustrious countryman. He says,--“The simple
applications of industry, which, among the nations of antiquity,
appeared unworthy of the study of philosophy, are now the final object
of the most sublime theories. The mechanical arts, whose practice would
have made the great geometers blush, who, like Archimedes, contributed
to their advancement, have become a title of honour, in the nineteenth
century, amongst the British nation.” It would be singular, indeed, if
it were not so; and a minister of the Crown would be unfit for the
government of our industrious community, if he did not feel that the
great inventions which have grown out of our commercial superiority, and
which have in a large degree created that superiority, were not
eminently calculated to claim the noblest rewards that the people could
bestow.