The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-06 00:00:00

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(From the Morning Herald of this day.)
Not long since a committee was appointed by an
eminent scientific society to ascertain and report
on the best methods of drawing the patronage and
consideration of the Government to the pursuit of
science under difficulties. It was hoped that 17
urging the claims of men who had devoted tine
and fortune to pursuits unremuuerative to them-
selves, but of great national importance, the Go-
vernment might be induced to extend to, scientific
attainments some portion of those golden smiles
now wantonly and exclusively lavished on mere
political services. We have no fault to find with
the proposal ; whatever is done to urge the claims
of genius, literature, or science on the attention of
a nation, notoriously indifferent to these claims in
its collective capacity, shall command our respect.
ful consideration. At the same time, we think .
that such an intention would have had a far bet-
ter chance of success, and been more likely to gain
general sympathy, if, instead of confining its efforts
to one class of literary men, it had extended those
efforts to all, and used its best endeavours to urge
the necessity of some better provision for literary
and scientific merits—we are ashamed to add—
literary and scientific destitution.
These remarks have been drawn from us by a
correspondence which has taken place between Mr.
Hallam, Mr. Macaulay, Mr. Dickens, and others,
and the head of her Majesty's Government, rela-
tive to two gentlewomen, sisters, one of them a
goddaughter of the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, the
lexicographer. Singularly enough another letter
appears at the same time from Walter Savage Lan-
dor, in the columns of a contemporary, calling at-
tention to a James Defoe, living at Kensington,
the great grandson of the novelist, whose "Robin-
son Crusoe" and " Plauge of London" have drawn
more tears and smiles than any two prose books in
the language. It appears that the Misses Lowe,
the two ladies alluded to, and James Defoe, have
been left friendless and helpless ;—like some few
others, they have no stay but the noble thoughts
of their connections and the remembrance of
names. that England would not willingly let die ;--
noble but inadequate guardians against, hoae ills
whinWWl hardest on the solitary and -*he aged:- - •
Lord Palmerston, in his reply, did not consider
that the Literary Fund, under his disposal, "could
be meddled with for a pension to the goddaughter
of Dr. Johnson"—and, perhaps, in the strict letter
of his interpretation, he was right. It might lead
to more trouble than Governments are generally •
willing to undergo if the relatives of deceased lite-
rary men were put forward as objects of the national
bounty. And consequently an appeal has been
made to the nation ; happily, it may seem, with-
out Miss Lowe's privity—for age has not been
without its effects—to raise in her behalf 4001.
That the result will be successful we cannot
entertain a doubt ; and, therefore, it would seem
superfluous to recommend this proposal to our
readers. But we hope that this appeal will not be
lost on the nation, and that the efforts of Carlyle,
Dickens, and Forster, may lead to some more per-
manent and extended good than—good as it is—
the present case commends. Let any man consi-
der, for a moment, the literature of this country ;
let him consider what it has done for us as a
nation—(take that side only)—and then consider
what the nation, as such, has done for its literature
and literary men. It is not only that we have a
larger, a nobler, a purer, a more connected body ( f
literature, than any other nation ever had or has,
past or present; on this head we might dilate
" until the crack of doom ;" and all this is patent.
What we now insist upon is, that as a nation—and
in the lowest national point of view the literature
of this country has done more for its well-being
and the well-being of its Government than all
the laws, the police, the constitutions and in-
stitutions of it put together. As a body the lite-
rature of this country--all, at all events, which
has left any permanent impression on the pub-
lic mind, has been on the side of law, of order,
and we are bold to say it, of religion, if that word
be truly interpreted. How many feelings of our
better nature have been called by it into vigorous
and successful combat against our worse ones ?
How many hours othervritie doomed to be wasted
in dissipation, in the streets or in the watch-house,
has this same literature of ours with noblest
alchemy converted -into golden moments ? How
many riots has it kept down, or moderated when
afoot ? But it is not our purpose to launch out
into a needless eulogy on that which every man
praises and most men value. What we urge is—
that Government, as a Government, is incalculably
indebted to it—that hut for this literature—with
our strong political tendencies and strong political
excitements, Government would find it very hard
to get on at all. It would have to multiply its
police and double its files of soldiers. Not a dirty
Job world it do, and hardly a clean one ; did not
men know that at their own fireside, and locked
up in a small bookcase, there was a sedative for the
ills of life far better than beer, opium, or polities ;
glimpses in comfortable nooks and corners at Elie
invisible world ; prophets and poets, who had
diviner things to tell of law, order, and govern-
ment than the loudest or the longest of parliamen-
tary orators. As the best kind of police, there-
fore, we do think that literary and scientific men
are fully entitled to their retiring pension, more
than all the civil or military services in the world.
Why, then, are they without it ? And why does a
nation, not ungenerous in rewarding those who
serve it, grudge the least token of its liberality to
those who are at once its best of servants and wisest
of masters ?

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD.

So far as local interests were concerned, he really did
not see why he-should not be able to represent them
quite as well as his hon. opponent. It was not.very dif-
fi,mlt to " know" what was wanted—the difficulty, un •
fortunately, was to "obtain" it. (Cheers.) He promised,
if returned, to be always at his post, to give every at-
tention to the subject of local interests, to have his door
always open to his constituents, and to reply to every
communication which might be sent to him. Beyond
this, however, he must hay that the general feeling of
the country was for war, and he trusted that it would
be carried on with a vigour which would inflict such
heavy blows upon the enemy as to compel him, before
the end of next year, to come forward and sue for peace.
(Applause.) He had seen with pride and satisfaction
the success with which his friend Admiral Lyons had
carried on operations in the Black Sea, and he had no
doubt, if the Government came forward as they ought
to do, and sent an overwhelming force to the Baltic,
that we might be able to strike such blows against the
Emperor of Russia as would make him tremble for him-
self even in his own palace of St. Petersburg. (Immense
cheering, accompanied with waving of hats and other
demonstratirni of approval, followed the eine:Ligon of
the gallant Admiral's address.)
Mr. GREGORY moved, and Mr. BRITTEN seconded, a
resolution expressive of confidence in Sir C. Napier, and
after a Grief interval allowed for questions, in the course
of which nothing of any importance was proposed, it
was carried with enthusiastic unanimity.
The proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to
the chairman, and an injunction to the electors to "go
early to the poll."