The Merry Past 



would be a place where " everyone was obliged to 

 mind his own business." 



From time to time Puritanism suddenly lashes 

 itself into a frenzy about some matter which in 

 reality is perfectly immaterial as regards morality. 

 Nude statues, which perhaps of all things in the world 

 are least calculated to excite the passions, would seem 

 to be a constantly recurring source of irritation. 



When the Achilles statue was erected in Hyde 

 Park in 1822, the want of drapery was declared to be 

 extremely shocking. Ex-Sheriff Parkins, indeed, in- 

 formed the public, through the columns of the 

 " Morning Herald," that if his mother, who was a 

 Newcastle woman, had caught any of her children 

 looking at such an object, she would have soundly 

 whipped them. 



This was recently parallelled in the case of a 

 supersensitive individual, who during the controversy 

 as to the alleged indecency of certain statues 

 about to be erected on the new building of the 

 British Medical Association at the corner of Agar 

 Street, Strand, proudly informed a representative 

 of the Press that he had pasted paper across the 

 windows of his office in order to guard against any 

 risk of contamination ! 



The House of Commons is largely to blame for the 

 unhealthy atmosphere of cant which pervades the 

 country. Members too often speak in favour of and 

 vote for measures, of the injustice and futility of 

 which they are perfectly aware. 



Few of either party possess the slightest moral 



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