e not had the opportunity, till this morning, of consulting with
the Chapter on the subject of your note. When you formerly applied to me
for leave to inter the remains of Lord Byron within this Abbey, I stated
to you the principle on which, as Churchmen, we were compelled to
decline the proposal. The erection of a monument in honour of his memory
which you now desire is, in its proportion, subject to the same
objection. I do indeed greatly wish for a figure by Thorwaldsen here;
but no taste ought to be indulged to the prejudice of a duty.

With my respectful compliments to the Committee, I beg you to believe
me,

Yours truly,

JOHN IRELAND.

The statue was for some time laid up in a shed on a Thames wharf. An
attempt was made in the House of Commons to alter the decision of the
Dean and Chapter, but it proved of no avail. "I would do my best," said
Mr. Hobhouse, "to prevail upon Sir Robert Peel to use his influence with
the Dean. It is a national disgrace that the statue should lie neglected
in a carrier's ware-house, and it is so felt by men of all parties. I
have had a formal application from Trinity College, Cambridge, for leave
to place the monument in their great library, and it has been intimated
to me that the French Government desire to have it for the Louvre." The
result was that the subscribers, in order to retain the statue in
England, forwarded it to Trinity College, Cambridge, whose noble library
it now adorns.

The only memorial to Byron in London is the contemptible leaning bronze
statue in Apsley House Gardens, nearly opposite the statue of Achilles.
Its pedestal is a block of Parian marble, presented by the Greek
Government as a national tribute to the memory of Byron.

CHAPTER XXIX

BENJAMIN DISRAELI--THOMAS CARLYLE--AND OTHERS

Me. Disraeli's earliest appearance as an author had been with the novel
of "Vivian Grey," published after a brief visit to Germany while he was
still in his eighteenth year. Two volumes were published in 1826, and a
third volume, or continuation, in the following year. The work brought
the author some notoriety, but, as already noticed, it contained matter
which gave offence in Albemarle Street. After the publication of the
first part, which was contemporaneous with the calamitous affair of the
_Representative_, Mr. Murray saw but little of the Disraeli family, but
at the commencement of 1830, Mr. Benjamin Disraeli once more applied to
him for an interview. M