3-011-979 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lord Palmerston inaugurating the statue of the late Sir G. C. Lewis at Hereford, 1864. The British prime minister unveils a statue by Carlo Marochetti. 'The figure is cast in bronze, and is 7 ft. 6 in. high...In St. Peter's-square a platform had been erected for the accommodation of the noble Viscount, the gentry of the county, and the municipal authorities...An immense crowd was assembled within a short distance, by whom the noble Viscount was most enthusiastically cheered...The Rev. Mr. Clive then addressed his Lordship, inviting him to uncover the monument of his departed colleague, whose public and private virtues were justly and gracefully described in Mr. Clive's most appropriate speech. Lord Palmerston then drew aside the curtain...amid the deafening cheers of the multitude, the troops simultaneously presenting arms, salutes being also fired, and the militia band playing a slow and solemn march...There has seldom been, observed Lord Palmerston, any man in a great public career who so entitled himself to the esteem and admiration of his fellow-countrymen...It is therefore, I say, quite a becoming act on the part of the people of this city and county to have erected to his memory the statue which we have now uncovered".' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.