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SPANISH RELICS TO GO. Tennyson, speaking of the Light Brigade at Balaclava said there were cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, and cannon in front of them, but the Kingstonian could scoff at the idea, for this reason, that any day he could say, ‘cannon all round us’.
The appearance of the cannons planted at the comer of the streets, some with nozzles in the air, some with nozzles in the ground, but all weather beaten and past their time, was not at all unsightly. No doubt familiarity bred contempt in the case of the citizen; but to the stranger the cannon carried with them reminiscences of ancient glories The days of Rodney and Hawkins when Spaniard! were crushed and beaten lay at our street doors.
So when Mr Lazarus proposed to buy up the old cannon from the city there was a flutter of excitement in the air. It was at once suggested that the Spaniards had ransomed their fugitives. But of course that was absurd.
A more prosaic end is in store for these emblems of Britain's glory. Mr Lazarus offered 5s. each for the lot - wherever he could find them in fact, the offer was accepted, by the City Council and now Mr Lazarus will convert them into gratings and sewer-tops so that the vulgar may trample under foot the Spanish spoils.
There is a certain picturesque beauty about these cannon. When the old buccaneers roved the Spanish main, and brought Spanish galleons with all their trophies to Jamaica, the cannon were thrown about the streets by the hundred. Then they were used to adorn the streets. These were the old unpractical days. Now, everything having its use, an eminently practical end has been reserved for the old destroyers, and another interesting link with the past will disappear.
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