The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-15 00:00:00

fttusir.

EXETER-MALL—The concert given by Mme. Gold-
schmidt and her husband, in aid of the Nightingale
Fund, attracted a largo and brilliant audience on Tues.
day night, notwithstanding the high price of the seats,
the whole of which were reserved at a guinea each.
Nearly two thousand tickets were sold. Making all
necessary abatements, therefore, for the expenses of
the entertainment, a balance will remain over, as a
contribution to the fund, well worthy the greatness
of the occasion, awl the known liberality of Jenny
Lind. The programme was, on the whole, admirably
selected. Perhaps the instrumental compositions
might have been more sparingly introduced, with
benefit to the majority of the audience, to whom the
highest class of purely instrumental music is always
fatiguing; but the vocal pieces chosen were, without
any doubt, not only the best specimens of ea.h class
of composition which they served to illustrate, but
also the best as calculated to display the varied
resources of the great singer by whom they were
principally execute.t. It included Mendelssohn's
hymn, " Hear my I'rayer, 0 God," the soprano part
in which was sung by Mme. Goldschmidt with a
devotional intensity of expression peculiar to herself ;
an arrangement of the 130th Psalm by M. Gold-
schmidt, displaying more musical knowledge than
feeling or inventive power, and furnishing another
illustration of the old Greek proverb, " Half is
greater than the whole; " an air, with chorus, from
Rossini's Turco in Italia, " squallida veste ;" the
" Horst du," from the Camp of Silesia ; and the
"Alziam gli evviva," quartet and chorus, from Eury-
anthe. The instrumental pieces were Mozart's
symphony in G minor, Bethoven's Chorale Fantasia,
and Weber's Concertstack , the piano parts in which
were carefully and conscientiously played by M.
Goldschmidt, and the clever overture to the Tempest
by the conductor, M. Benedict. A chorus from
Beethoven's Ruins of Athens concluded the concert.

FIELDING'S FIRST MARRIAGE.—MISS Cradocx VMS
not a portionless beauty. She had a fortune at her
own disposal of 1,5001., by no means an insignificant
sum in Fielding's eyes. Nor was this his only de-
pendence. A small estate, situated at East Stour,
in Dorsetshire, had come into his possession after
his mother's death, and offered him and his young
bride an asylum in the country. Peace, happiness,
and competence were now within his grasp. Soon
after his marriage he settled in Dorsetshire, and
commenced a new course of life. He preposterously
resblved to become a squire of the first magnitude.
He determined to show the rude squirearchy of
Dorset how superior to their order was the London-
bred gentleman. Family pride also whispered to
him the expediency of keeping up an appearance
corresponding to the dignity of the distinguished
race from whence he sprang. Accordingly, Squire
Fielding soon began to create a sensation in the
country. His mansion was the scene of profuse
hospitality and riotous enjoyment. His horses and
hounds were numbered among the glories of the
neighbourhood. His equipage otyvied in splendour
and elegance the carriages of his richer neighbours.
and the yellow liveries of his serving-men were ion g
held in remembrance. Directly the glories of a suit
were dimmed or soiled, it was thrown aside, for the
rustic flunkeys considered it their duty to keep up
the squire's character by the lustre of their personal
appearance. The day of reckoning came. In a very
short time Fielding found all was spent and gone.
The roar of mirth, the deafening cheer, the splendid
liveries, prancing horses, staring rustics, full-mouthed
dogs, faded before him like some "insubstantial
pageant." He bad been generous, hospitable, pro-
fuse ; and what was his reward? Those who sat at
meat with him now ridiculed his extravagance. Even
the gaping boors of the neighbourhood cracked their
heavy jokes at his expense.—Latorence's Life of
Fielding.

259

THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND.

THE above institution held its annual general
meeting on Wednesday, at the rooms of the society,
in Great Russell-street. Mr. Bond Cabbell, M.P.,
was in the chair, and an unusually large meeting of
members, including among others the Rev. Dr.
Whewell, Dr. Croly, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr.
Monckton Milnes, M.P., Mr. Mike, Mr. Forster, !cc.
The yearly statement of receipts and expenditure
having been read, Mr. C. W. Mum, pursuant to
notice, rose to move :
That, whereas during the eleven years from 1R44 to
IR-i4, both inclusive, the cost of assisting 477 applicants
to the Literary Fund amounted to 5,6011. 13s. 7d. ; and
whereas the cost of assisting 624 applicants to the Artists'
General Benevolent Fund wiihin the same eleven years
amounted to 9941. 4s. 101; this meeting is of opinion that
the expenses of managing the Literary Fund are unreason-
able, and that a great change must be made in the admi-
nistration of its affairs.

Mr. Dilke then briefly called attention to the com.
parative cost of management between the two socie-
ties as instanced in the year 1855, when forty-eight
applicants were relieved by the Literary Fund, at a
cost of 389/. 17s. ad., for salaries, &c. ; while sixty-
five were relieved by the Artists' Fund, at a cost of
571. 3s. He thought these facts must carry convic-
tion to every mind.

Mr. W. B. PROCTOR seconded the motion.

Mr. ROBERT BELL opposed the motion :
The facts of Mr. Dilke's motion were not to be disputed,
but there was an essential difference between the two funds,
which had not been stated, in the circumstances of each
and in their mode of making grants. (Hear ) There was
little or no necessity to inquire as to the applicants for
assistance to the Artists' Fund, because artists were
generally well known ; but that was not the case with the
Literary Fund, inasmuch as literary men, whom it sought
to relieve when in distress, did not form a distinct class
easily recognisable like artists. The claims of applicants
to the Literary Fund required to be carefully and delicately
investigated. He thought it most important that they
should strictly understand in what the expenditure of the
Literary Fund consisted, which the resolution characterised
as " unreasonable." The expenses to which Mr. Dilke
objected consisted chiefly of two items—namely, the rent
of the house and the salary of Mr. Blewitt, the secretary.
It was idle for any one to speak in general terms of the
extravagance of the committee or the society, when they
could at once put their hands on the actual items on which
the charge of extravagance was based. The amount of
business devolving on the committee of the Literary Fund,
he contended, was ten times larger than that transacted by
the Artists' Fund.

Mr. CHARLES DICKENS disputed some of Mr. Bell's
statements. There was an unquestionable analogy
between the Artists' and Literary Funds, and he
thought the reference made in the resolution to the
comparative expenditures of the two funds a con-
vincing proof of the mismanagement of the Literary
Fund. He would separate the question from its
details. It seemed to be regarded by the committee
as rather a model sort of thing than otherwise that
they should expend 401. of other people's money in
giving away 1001.:

But in case any ill conditioned spirits here (continued
Mr. Dickens) should ask what can justify such a scale of
expenditure, I will endeavour to supply the answer cut of
my experience. I went lust June to Willis's-rooms, St.
James's, a place of highly fashionable rescrt—l went to
see all I could, and to sa, as little as I possibly could.
Allowing for the absence of the fairer and younger portion
of the female sex, it appeared to rue that the assembly
might very justly be compared to Almack's in the morning.
( Laughter.) Various highly respectable dowagers were
ranged in a row. T:,e ball was opened by a noble marquis
supported by other noble marquises, who having walked a
minuet, a member of the House of Commons took the
floor—a mere commoner as yet, but still a gentleman of
high character and great position ; to him succeeded a dis-
tinguished lard—the son of a distinguished lord—and to
him a bishop. (Loud laughter.) To him succeeded a
member of the bar, a learned taxing-master; and at length,
in an interval of the theatricals, a man more immediately
connected with literature--though, of course, not. consi-
dered very respectable—was allowed to step in and sustain
the part of Pariglos, and delight the audience by explaining
that this was the hest of all possible societies, conduct, d
under the best of all possible management, at the best 4 f
all possible expenditure, and with the best of all possib'e
funds. (Cheers and laughter.) It is in these things—it
is by our being so stupendously genteel—by keeping up
such a fashionable appearance—by giving way to the
common social vice of being permitted to hold on to great
connections at any price—that our money goes. ( Hem,
hear.) Why, sir, the very last distinguished writer of
fiction whom you cauorrht for your public dinner told yon
in return for drinking his health somewhere towards the
small hours of the morning, that he felt like the servants
in plush, who are permitted to sweep the stage when there
are no more great people to come on ; and I myself, some-
where about twelve years ago, felt like a kind of Rip Van
Winkle reversed, who hail gone to sleep for a hundr. d
years, and, waking, found the fund surrounded with ad-
juncts awl associations, from which I wish so much to
see it emancipated.
- -

The house and the secretary he regarded as a p:
posterous pretence, and, finally,
he begged respectfully and strongly to put it to, tt•
members of this institution that they must decide what
this Literary Fund was, and what it was not—what it was
for and what it was not tor. (Hear.) The question arose

260

whether it was really a public corporation for the encou-
ragement and relief of men of genius and learning who
might be reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or
deprived, by enfeebled faculties or declining life, of the
power of literary exertion ; or whether it was a snug con-
ventional party, bent on following its own usages, bent on
a vast deal of unnecessary parade, and bent on toadying
once in every twelve months a score or two of the
members of the aristocracy with a view to recruit its
Anances ?

Mr. MONCKTON MILNES thought that Mr. Dickens
and his friends seemed to regard the managing com-
mittee of the society as so many ghouls fattening on
the flesh of literary men :

It suited the convenience of Mr. Dickens and his friends
on this occasion to sneer at the patronage bestowed on the
society by members of the aristocracy; but he might be
allowed to remind them that the list they propounded last
year as the council of the society was composed almost eu•
tirely of lords and right honourables. (A laugh.) Having
regard to the delicacy with which the corporation had
hitherto administered its funds, he considered that one
great moral element which made it so eminently useful,
and he would be loth to see it changed in that respect.

Mr. MURRAY, of Albemarle street, after a few pre-
liminary obseivatious deprecating the serious effect
of this opposition on the prospects of the society, and
especially of the covert assaults made upon it by Mr.
D►ckens himself in his periodical publications from
time to time, moved an amendment justifying the
purchase of a house and the increased salary of the
secretary, but recognising the necessity of such re-
trenchments in the general expenditure as might be
consistent with the security of the fund and the ex-
tansion of its resources.

The amendment of Mr. Murray was then put and
carried by a majority of 21, the numbers being—for
Vie amendment, 51, and for the original motion of
Mr. Dilke, 30.
The officers for the ensuing year were then elected,
awl the meeting separated.

ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.
THE correspondence between the two Governments
uion the recruitment question has been published
by the President and presented to the Senate. It is
of a very voluminous nature. The first mention
made of the matter is iu a despatch from Mr. Marcy
ti Mr. Buchanan, dated Washington, June, 1865,
and requesting Mr. Buchanan to call Lord Claren-
don's attention to the fact that a plan was on foot to
enlist soldiers within the limits of the United States
to serve in the British army, which was "a disregard
of the sovereign rights of an independent nation,
aid a clear and manifest infringement of the laws of
the United States." On the 16th July Lord Claren-
d3n replies to Mr. Buchanan's note of the Bth July,
a justifies the incontestable right of the English
G ,vernment to accept voluntary offers of service, but
disavowing the violation of the laws of the United
States as having been committed by unauthorised
it4ents. In conclusion, Lord Clarendon says that as
s precautionary measures, with whatever honesty
ft ley may be carried out, could effectually guard
a ;elitist some real or apparent infringement of the
which would give just cause for complaint to the
Government of the United Suites, her Majesty's
Government had determined that all proceedings for
enlistment should be put an end to, and instructions
to that effect had been sent out before the reception
of Mr. Buchanan's note."

On the sth Sept. Mr. Marcy replies to Lord Cla-
rendon's note, and observes that in authorising a
plan of recruitment which was to be carried out in
part within our territories, the British Government
seemed to have forgotten that the United States had
s.wereign rights as well as municipal laws, which
were entitled to respect ; and concludes :

The information which has been laid before the President
has convinced him that the proceedings resorted to for the
purple of drawing recruits from this country for the
British army have been instigated and carried on by the
ac: ire agency of British officers, and that their participation
therein has involved them in the double offence of infring•
ing our lass and violating our sovereign territorial rights.
The information in the possession of this Government is
so well established by proof, and corroborated by so many
public acts, that the President feels warranted in present.-
bit; to the British Government this conduct of her
Majesty's officers, as disrespectful to the United States
and incompatible with the friendly relations between the
two countries.

To this Lori Clarendon replies, on the 27th Sept.,
that her Majesty's Government is fully aware of the
obligations of international duties, and expresses his
confidence that the United States Government will
fail to prove any well-founded charge of disregard of
sovereign rights against the British authorities, or
their agents, in the United States. Lord Clarendon
also, in rather forcible terms, remarks upon the lax
observance of the neutral laws within the Union.

On the 18th Oct. Mr. Marcy replies that Lord
Clarendon's answer to the demand for redress and
for a violation of its laws and sovereign rights, is
laconic and un.atisfactory.
Mr. Maley further asserts that the United States
Government have abundant proot that British officers
and agents have transgressed the laws and disre-

PIIE PRESS.

garde(' the rights of the United States, and that as a
solemn duty the Government insists upon a proper
satisfaction.

Two 'despatches of great length, resuming the
whole question, conclude the correspondence.
The first from Lord Clarenden to Mr. Crampton,
dated Nov. 10, 1855, calling upon the American
Government to establish distinct charges, and to
specify by name those officers and agents charged
with infringing the law. Lord Clarendon then pro-
ceeds to argue that to persuade men to do what is
lawful, such as by simply enlisting as soldiers within
British territory, persons who might choose to leave
the United States territory, is not a violation of inter-
national law; and that whatever the municipal law
of the United States may be, it was not infringed by
order, and even if it be shown to have been infringed,
the British Government did not put poseiy cause the
law to be broken, and hence the territorial rights
cannot be said to have been intentionally violated by
the British Government. To this Mr. Marcy replies,
on Dec. 28, 1855, with a disquisition on international
law, supporting his views by quotations from
Putfendortf, Vette], and Hauteville, and concluding
with a request that, as the evidence is clear that Mr.
Crampton has taken a prominent part in organising
the recruiting scheme, the United States Government
requests he be recalled,—as also Mr. Barclay from
the post of Consul at New York. This document
was delivered to Lord Clarendon on the 29th Jan.,
and the correspondence ceases.
With respect to the Central American question,
the offer of the British Government to submit the
question to the arbitration of a third power, is given
in a brief note from Lord Clarendon to Mr. Cramp•
ton, dated the 10th Nov., 1855.