If the reader will now recall to mind, for an instant, the mortifications and discouragements, as well as the incessant toils, which had attended this attempt to give to the whole body of English artists, archæologists, and students, advantages which theretofore only a very small and exceptionally fortunate knot of them could enjoy, or hope to enjoy, he will, perhaps, incline to think that enough had been done for honour. The casts and drawings had been saved. The removal of marbles had formed no part of Lord ELGIN’S first design. It was only when proof had come—plain as the noonday sun—that to remove was to preserve, and to preserve, not for England alone, but for the civilised world, that leave to carry away was sought from the Turkish authorities, and removal resolved upon. Entreaty to the British Government that the thorough exploration of the Peloponnesus, by the draughtsman and the modeller, should be made a national object, had been but so much breath spent in vain. Private resources had then been lavished, beyond the bounds of prudence, to confer a public boon. Personal hardships and popular animosities had been alike met by steady courage and quiet endurance. All kinds of local obstacle had been conquered. And now some of the most precious results of so much toil and outlay lay at the bottom of the sea. The chief toiler was a prisoner in France. But Lord ELGIN was not yet beaten. He came of a tough race. He was— ‘One of the few, the letter’d and the brave, Bound to no clime, and victors o’er the grave.’ [Sidenote: LORD ELGIN BRANDED, IN ENGLAND, AS A ROBBER.] The buried marbles were raised, at the cost of two more years of labour, and after an expenditure, in the long effort, of nearly five thousand pounds, in addition to the original loss of the ship. Then a storm of another sort had to be faced in its turn. A burst of anger, classical and poetical, declared the ambassador to be, not a benefactor, but a thief. The gale blew upon him from many points. The author of the _Classical Tour through Italy_ declared that Lord ELGIN’S ‘rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations; depriving the Past of the trophies of their genius and the title-deeds of their fame, the Present of the strongest inducements to exertion.’ [Sidenote: Eustace, _Classical Tour_, p. 269.] The author of _Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage_ declared that, for all time, the spoiler’s name (the glorious name of BRUCE)— [Sidenote: Byron, _Curse of Minerva_, § 7.] ‘Link’d with the fool’s who fired th’ Ephesian dome— Vengeance shall follow far beyond the tomb. EROSTRATUS and ELGIN e’er shall shine In many a branding page and burning line! Alike condemn’d for aye to stand accurs’d— Perchance the second viler than the first. So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, Fix’d statue on the pedestal of scorn!’