The Loyalist Monument

Année
1880
Mois
11
Jour
27
Titre de l'article
The Loyalist Monument
Auteur
E. S. W. P.
Page(s)
2
Type d'article
Langue
Contenu de l'article
THE LOYALIST MONUMENT. SIR: As one deeply interested in this movement on behalf of the Loyalists, I wish to express my hearty agreement with “V.T.” in his [or her] suggestion of a Loyalist Memorial Hall. A costly obelisk, such as would doubtless be erected if the monument took that form, has always seemed to me a waste of money in memory of the dead. If some preferred this, a solid granite pillar might be placed in King Square to their memory, at a moderate cost. But I venture to think that the descendants of the Loyalists wish to erect a more notable and useful memorial than an obelisk. I would remind your readers that the people familiar with the early history of the Province are rapidly passing away and with them we lose not only many of the traditions of the past and our associations with the days of the Loyalists, but valuable mementos and relics are lost or scattered far and wide, which the owners would gladly have placed in such a building. Only a few months ago, Judge Weldon presented a valuable collection of China, many pieces of which had been brought here in 1783, to Kings College, Windsor. Probably this would not have passed away from the Province, if there had been a prospect of a Memorial Hall. Let the Loyalist descendants in the whole Province agree to put such a building in St. John as shall be worthy of the memory of their ancestors. One handsome room should be devoted to memorials of our early history. Memorial art has now reached a high state of cultivation. Pictured windows, executed by the best English artists, might give scenes in the early history of the city. Portraits of many of the Loyalists would hang on the walls. Memorial brasses would recount the names and virtues of others. There might be gathered many of the relics of a time of self-denial, perseverance and hardihood, which we may wish to keep before our minds. Such a room I saw in the noble Guildhall in Plymouth, England opened a few years ago. There in painted windows you could read the history of the city from the earliest times, concluding with one of the opening ceremonies by the Prince of Wales, where every face in the glass was a life-like portrait of one of the actors. I speak especially in the interests of our children. Such a building would do much to create and keep alive the enthusiasm and veneration which we should all regret to see weakened by lapse of years and want of a suitable Memorial. Could I, for instance, take my child, with an inheritance of Loyalist blood on both sides of the house, into such a room as I have described, I could do more in a few hours to teach her to cherish and keep green the memory of the Loyalists than the sight of a monument would do in a lifetime. E.S.W.P. Moncton, Nov, 26.