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| ALBERT MEMORIAL, BELFAST. -This artistic memorial, one hundred and forty-seven feet in height, stands at the foot of High Street, and a statue of the Queen of England's late husband, Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, usually called the Prince Consort, occupies a niche which faces that thoroughfare. The four dials of the tower are illuminated at night, so that no Belfast man out late "at his club," or "lodge" can have any excuse for fibbing to his wife about "the time o'night," or morning, when he gets home. He is paternally taken care of by old Father Time at every principal point of the compass. The memorial was erected by public subscription, in 1870-about the time that Dublin refused a site for a similar memorial because of the deceased Prince's well remembered anti-Irish sentiments. During the great famine period, he is said to have written to the famous German savant, Baron Humboldt, "The Irish deserve no more sympathy than the Poles"; and it is further alleged that he added, "They can eat grass!" These words have been frequently ascribed to the late Prince Consort, and their authenticity has never been contradicted. If he ever wrote, or uttered, them, he was an unfeeling monster. If he did not, he is a much maligned man. The weight of assertion, if not of evidence, is decidedly against him in this case. |
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