As to the effect of the Memorial itself, everything will
depend on the manner of treatment. It is arranged that the statue of Queen Victoria shall be executed by Mr. Brock, while five archi- tects—Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A., Mr. Aston Webb, A.R.A.., Mr. Ernest George, Sir Thomas Drew, of Dublin, and Dr. Rowland Anderson, of Edinburgh—have been selected to send in com- petitive plans to the Office of Works. We confess to a somewhat hopeless feeling as to the artistic outcome of the Memorial, and dread a dead, dreary, soulless, formal effort of the type which Renan so well called l'art administratif,—an art of which Berlin and Vienna are full. However, it is no good to be too pessimistic, and perhaps the result will falsify, Our misgivings. We sincerely trust it may. In any case, when once the design is accepted the sculptor and the chosen architects must have a free hand, and be allowed to do their best without being fidgeted to death by Committees.
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