The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-19 00:00:00

THE LATE SAMUEL ROGEL'S.

The death of a man who bad attained to such length
of days as Samuel Rogers would in itself be a somewhat
remarkable occurrence ; but when it is considered that
the case is not one of insignificant longevity—that the
man of whom we are speaking Was for the greater por-
tion of a century the companion and intimate friend of
all the most remarkable men in Europe—suck an event
as Lie dieappearanee from the scene cannot be passed
over entirely without comment. It would be unfair,
however, to his memory, to consider him merely as the
friend of men distinguished in every branch of human
achievement and human attainment ; he had in his own
person attained considerable distinction in various ways.
As a poet his name will continue to occupy an eminent
place upon the catalogue of classical English writers—as
a literary critic, as a judicious connoisseur in art, and
more especially in painting, few men have been his
equals. For half a century, too, his home was the centre
of literary society, and the chief pride of Mr. Rogers lay
not so much in gathering round his table men who had
already achieved eminence as in stretching forth a help-
ing hand to friendless merit. Wherever he discerned
ability and power in a youth new to the turmoils and
struggles of London life, it was his delight to introduce
his young client to those whom he might one day Lope to
equal. The courtesy and consideration of the host soon
drew forth the same qualities in his guests. Many a,
man now living can remember that on a Saturday night
he went to bed an unknown lad, thinking of the cele-
brated men of his time as a person thinks who has only
read about them, and on Sunday walked home from the
hospitable house of Mr. Rogers encouraged to persevere
in his task by the hearty good wishes and friendly syni-
pathy of those, who had heretofore appeared tg? him
injustice
indeed as inhabitants of another world. Great
indeed should we do to the memory of Samuel Rogers,
if in the few remarks we venture to offer upon his dia-
meter we did not give the first place to his boundless
and unassuming charity, of which his unvarying kind-
ness to literary men at the outset of their career was but
a single form. Were this the proper place to recount
hi:toiies of this kind we could tell many a tale of forlorn
and well nigh hopeless wretchedness relieved by his
band. It was not necessary with him, as with costive
philanthropists, that misery should have what is called
a "claim" upon him, in order to bring hial to the
garret where it lay pining. He had seen mention of
it in the police reports, or in the public journals
he had heard it spoken of at the dinner-table of
a friend. No rennlrk issued from his 1 ips at the
time; he heard it as though he heard it not; but
the next day betimes he might have been seen in
person examining into the truth of the representation,
and, it need were, affording relief with no sparing hand.
All this was den. without ostentation and without boast.
No living man can pretend to say that this was his prac-
tice throughout his whole life, for be has worn out three
or four generations of men ; but it would be strange in-
deed if the youth and manhood of Rogers had in this re-
spect been materially different from his protracted old
age. _ _

-The biography of Samuel Rogers would involve the
history of Eui ope since George 111., then in the bloom
of youth, declared to his subjects that "he gloried in the
mass of Briton." It is now well-nigh a quarter of a
century since that Monarch was carried to his grave in
extreme age, worn out with mental and bodily disease.
Let us take the most notable historic drama of the cen-
tury 17P3-1815 the rise, decline, and fall of Napoleon
Bonaparte. This was but an episode in the life of
Samuel Rogers. He was a young man of some standing
in the world, fully of an age to appreciate the meaning
and importance of the event, when the States-General
were assembled in France. If we remember right, he
actually was present in Paris at or about the time, and
may have heard with his own ears Mirabeau hurling
defiance at the Court, and seen Danton and Robespierre
whispering to each other that their time was not yet
come. Let us go back to other events as standards of
acimeasurement. As the war of the French Revolution
and that against Napoleon Bonaparte were episodes in
the ripe manhood, so was the American war an episode
in the boyhood of Rogers. He was of an age to appre-
ciate the grandear, if not the political meaning of events,
when Rodney won his naval victories and when General
Elliot successfully defended Gibraltar. He could remem-
ber our differences with our American colonies and the
battles of Bunker's Hill, Brandywine, and German Town,
as well as a man now in manhood can remember the
throe glorious days cf July and the Polish insurrection.
To have lived in the days of General Washington, and to
have heard discussions as is the propriety of admitting
the independence of the North American Provinces, and
to have been alive but yesterday, seems well-nigh an im-
possibility ; but such was the case of Samuel Rogers.
When he opened his eyes upon the world that great and
powerful country which is now known as the United.
States of North America was but an insignificant depend-
ence of the mother country—a something not so im-
portant as the Antilles, even in their forlorn condition,
are at the present moment. They were just rising to be
somewhat of a little more significance than the " planta-
tions" to which Defoe smuggled off the troublesome
characters in his fictitious tales. They now constitute
one of the most powerful States in the comity of nations.
Let us take another test—that of our Indian empire.
But three or four years before the birth of the subject of
these remarks Colonel Clive fought the battle of Plassy
and laid the foundation of it. He lived through the
government of India by Warren Hastings, and, being
in London at the time, could well understand the discus-
sions which took place upon the subject of the India
Bill. The battle of Assays found him a man forty years
of age. He was in full possession of his faculties when
Lords Hardinge and Gough won their victories in
North-Western India, but the other day. It would be
superfluous to lay before our readers any contrast be-
tween the dates of other political events at which this
remarkable man must have assisted, at least as an intel-
ligent spectator. Let them carry their minds to the days
of Wilkes and the Duke of Grafton, and remember but the
mere names of the statesmen who have administered the
affairs of the country from that time to the present, and
they will have present to their recollection a list of the
associates and friends of the late Mr. Rogers. As might
be expected, his more intimate associations were natu-
rally with the leading men of the Liberal party, but such
was his courtesy of temper and of manner that he was
received upon a friendly footing even by those with
whom he was known to differ on points of political prin-
ciple. A mere politician he never was at any period of
his career.

It is, however, to the literary history of the century
we must mainly look for a correct appreciation of
Rogers's career. He not only outlived two or three go-
nerations of men, but two or three literary styles. The
Poet of Memory, as he has been called, must not ho
rashly judged by the modern student, whose to-te has
been partly exalted, partly vulgarised, by the perform-
ances of later writers ;—we are speaking of a contem-
porary of Dr. Johnson. Rogers inutrt have been a young
man, some 20 years old, when the great lexicographtr
died, and therefore a great portion of Johnson's writ-
ings must have been to him contemporary literature.
Let those who are inclined to cavil at the gentler
inspirations of Rogers think for a moment upon
what English poetry was between the deaths of
Goldsmith and Johnson and the appearance of
Walter Scott's first great poem. Cowper redeems
the solitary waste from absolute condemnation
as the most. unfortunate epoch in our literature. Rogers
n) doubt formed his style upon earlier models, but he
was no servile copyist ;—he could feel, without any ten-
dency to apish imitation, the beauties of such authors as
Dryden and Pope. The poem by which his name is
principally known to the public will always remain as
among the classical pieces of English literature, while
some of his smaller poems will never cease to hang in
the memory of men while the English language is under-
stood. This, however, is not the proper place for enter-
ing upon any critical disquisition as to the literary merits
of the remarkable man who has just terminated his long
career. Our intention reaches no further than to call
attention to the remarkable duration of his life, and too
pay a tribute of respect to the memory of aa
ble man
on who
richly s
7h
richly deserved it. Among the many
rem,
acrkonsiderPed as
which may be mentioned in
that of a literary
man, the fact
that during the greater portion o
flis life he was a wealthy his
shouldicareer be Particularised
ofw ißsclyormo,n,tbwratortdhse.
of and
banker in the cityof London. It must have been
intellectualbyan ex.
traordinary combination of position,
lyanrdivaolf
social qualitih*eae,woafs prudence, and
same man
aanndwScott, talked finance with Huskisson and
Peel upon equal terms, exchanged bon ewes with Talley-
raud, and was the friend of all the eminent men and
of many of the indigent and miserable who flourished
and suffered dining three parts of a century. Such a
nd ,
man W 53 Samuel Rogers.
Mr. Rogers was born in the year 1762, and bad there-
fore attained the venerable age of 93. In 1787, after
completing a course of travel, he published his " Ode to
Superstition," and other poems ; and five years later
appeared the " Pleasures of Memory," by which his
fares as a poet was established. In 1798 he published
,
his " Epistle to a Friend," and other poems ; in 1814
his " Vision of Columbus and Jacqueline ;" in 1819,
" Human Life ;" and in 1822, the first part of " Italy,"
on the. illustration and printing of which 10,0001. is said
to have been spent. Mr. Rogers's house in St. James's-
place is a perfect treasury of att. The pictures are
amongst the best of their class, and though few in num•
her are said to have cost 6,0001.

ST. JAMES'S, WESTMINSTER, SAVINGS•EANK.—The
savings•bank which was opened in the Vestry-room of
St. James's parish last April has met with great success.
From the time of its commencement to the present date
a period of eight months, it has opened 413 accounts,
sod received'deposifi to the amount of 2,2621. 6s. 2d ;
an extent of business that far exceeds that done at first
by many of the savings-banks which are now among
inthe
it
the
isolflopth_oefEa_rl
London,o fD Derby,
largest in
ElElensgmlaerned; a
nTdheamproej:gidetnhte cfnatmlness bank is
f
PRICE or GOLD.—The quotation. of gold at Paris is
thelis t Earlov ioef° .P
resi
Aberdeen,ents aair4de
ithose
English Mint price of 31. I I d
about 4 per Bailie premium (accordirrgto_tire last tariff),
which, at the -• • pear
standard gold, gives an exchange of 25'27 ;
e at Paris on London at short being
Ronudnee the
eor exchange
25.22#, it follows that gold is about 0.18 per cent, dearer
in Paris than in Lond.on. By advices from Hamburg
the price of gold is 420 per mark, which, at the English
Mint price of 3/. 17e. 101 d. per ounce for standard gold,
gives an exchange of 13.48 ; and, the exchange at Hams
burg on London at short being 13.4 ?2, it follows that gold
is 0.13 per cent, dearer in Hamburg than in London:
The course of exchange at New York on London fo
bills at 60 days' eight is about 108/ per cent., and, the
par c; exchange between England and America being
109 23-40 per cent., it follows that the exchange is nom i
nally 1.03 per cent. against England • but, after making
allowance for charges of transport and difference
of in-
terest, the present rate leaves no profit on the transmis-
sion of gold either Way between kite two countries,