The Genius of Lancashire (circa 1880)

The Genius of Lancashire was sculpted by Percival Ball and presented to Salford Art Gallery by Benjamin Armitage, MP, in 1881. Despite the Victorians’ preference for decency and propriety, the subject’s bosom is rather prominent so that one might mistake Ball’s intentions as being less than proper. The topless woman appears to be breaking a sword by bending it with her knee. Rather than focusing on the more predictable of Lancastrian traits, the manufacturing of cotton goods, the subject is apparently hindering man’s spirit of violence.

Whenever war stalks the globe, trade suffers. Although arms manufacturers’ profits might soar, general trade is squeezed. Peace is nursemaid to prosperity; war is stepmother to poverty, disease and destruction. The cotton kings of Lancashire understood this well enough, especially in the light of the cotton famine precipitated by the American civil war.  

Praying for world peace is a preoccupation for liberalistic churches which heed not the Lord’s observation that wars and rumours of wars would gather apace as His second coming drew nigh. Nevertheless, peace between nations, within nations, and also in families and marriages is always something we should desire and for which we should intercede. The genius of Lancashire breaks swords, the Spirit of God smothers conflict.

…endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3, NKJV