.We should like to add our protest to those expressed
• by correspondents in the Times against the removal of John Gibson's statue of Queen Victoria from the Princes' Gallery in the House of Lords. The removal is proposed in order to make room for a War memorial, and, naturally, everybody wants that memorial to have a suitable place. Nevertheless, we feel that the removal of statues, when it can possibly be avoided, is wholly wrong in principle. The Peers who voted for the removal probably did not quite understand the issue. They trusted to Lord Curzon. Lord Curzon has defended his scheme with his usual ability, but we remain unconvinced. If we came to regard it as a light thing to remove monu- ments which were set up by our ancestors there would be no end to it. Every' generation would Consult its own taste without respect for the way in which taste happened to grow in the past or history to unfold itself. It may be that Gibson's statue is not a good one. It may even be a bad one, but the fact that it was placed where it was should be respected.
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