The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

The renowned are treated in the majority of instances
in the light of public benefactors—free pass being
yielded to them in ':places of general resort, or
through the ordinary means of conveyance—pay-
ment being repeatedly refused at their hands
on the steam-boats and on the railroads. Evidences
of respect like this as displayed towards DANIEL
WEBSTER might be regarded as only a matter of
course in America—but we doubt very much if the
moat credulous man in Great Britain could believe
that a similar tribute had been offered to THOMAS
MACAULAY, or, believing it, could regard it as a sign
of anything but irremediable insanity. Surely, we
may remark, then, that in one particular, at least,
they manage these things better in the United States.
Better too in one part of Germany—where WILLIAM
HUMBOLDT is a Baron, and in another where
the same title has been conferred upon LIEBIG
Better in Denmark, where the once poor, and
ignoble, and contemned CHRISTIAN ArinnusEri
be received as no dishonouring guest in the palace of
his Sovereign. Better in the days of antiquity, and
of paganism, when
during the supremacy SOCRATES
could
was not less revered, although a poor man, than
CICERO himself, surrounded with all the splendours
of one of the wealthiest and proudest of patricians.
How different for ages past until now has
been the treatment of the great men of England,
both by the Monarch and by the multitude Here the
literary biographer, in particular, is but too
familiar with the records of calamity as
the surest among the fruits of a high poetic
reputation. It is an old tale now, the death of OTWAY
strangled by a
crust in the last agonies of a pro-
tracted starvation—a tale as old as the demise of Ca-
-310E153 the sweetest among the bards of Portugal. A
narrative more awful, and as well remembered also, is
that of the suicide from hunger in the garret at No. 4,
Brookatrtet, Holborn (with ten or twelve pounds
still owing to him by the well-to-do and well-condi-
tioned booksellers), of "the marvellous boy that
perished in his pride," the noble-hearted and noble-
minded CHATTBRTON. We all of us preserve,
moreover, among the catalogue of these numerous
and harrowing recollections the memory of BUDGELL
drowning himself in the Thames, of SAVAGE dying in a
debtors' prison, cf DRYDEN beggared in his old age
—that old age glorious with the fame of one of the
truest men, as he was also one of the most re-
splendent geniuses this country has ever possessed
amongst the number of her children. The greatest
critic of his age—as he is himself the finest prose-
writer in the language—has told us in moving words
that the gruntings and slobberings of Doctor JOHN..
SON over his dinner, even when in the society of
ladies, was the unconscious penalty of that famine
which in his youth had so often driven him to
devour a plate of broken meat behind the screen at
St. John's Gate. In the instance of that great man,
it is true that a tardy recognition of his powers was
among the few noble acts recorded of his late Majesty
King GEORGE 111., and then only when the pension
had been extorted by those herculean labours which
had already in a manner placed the " leviathan of
literature " in a position of comparative competence.
Examples, however, of the ucalloviated sufferings of
genius era not by any means restricted to periods so
very recent, any more thou the parsimony displayed
by England in doing honour to her illustrious citiz-ns
is restricted to the departments of art cr of letters. No
Ssvereign since the days of the Second CHARLES has
been found munificent enough to raise even the
humblest monument over the bones of SAMUEL BUT-
LER, within arrow shot of where we are now writing,
in the graveyard of St. Paul's Church, Covent-garden,
although that extraordinary wit was the means of
bringing into ridicule the antagonists of royalty by
the " inextinguishable laughter" excited from age to
age by the drollery of his incomparable " Hudibras."
While, upon the opposite hand, the most renowned
among the naval heroes of England, the great sea-
captain who passed away, Eeeas-like, in a flaming
chariot of victory at Trafalgar, has left a child and
grandchildren unprovided for by the grateful country
for whose glory he reaped so many laurels, and in
whose defence he at last expired. Even
the testimonial raised in commemoration of
his many wonderful achievements, remains
still in the most conspicuous spot in the wealthiest
capital of Europe, a disgrace to the nation that could
accept an alms of 5001. from the Emperor of RUSSIA
to proceed with a columnar tribute which continues
up to this moment uncompleted notwithstanding!
Everywhere, indeed, we may recognise the testimo-
nies of that ignoble economy by which the Anglo-
Saxon race seems to be perpetually challenging the
attention of the world to the knowledge of
its pence-'grudging ingratitude. As the latest
and not the least lamentable testimony of
this disgraceful parsimony, of a nation as
wealthy and otherwise as extravagant as
Great Britain take the civil list dating from
the 20th day of Jane, 1851, to the 20th day of
June, 1852, granting the peddling sum of 1,2001. in
half- a-dozen paltry pensions ! Why, the amount
—considering the financial resources of the em.
pire—is what one might have expected, to have been
bestowed as vales upon the butlers of England and
not as tributes
of homage to the
genius of Great
Britain. If anything be wanting to secure the
greater glory of the land it is surely a modification
of this odious system of false economy —a change in
this particular tending most effectually to wipe a
grievous blot from the national escutcheon.

The Irish elections are proceeding rapidly, and
many important changes have taken place in the re-
presentation of the sister kingdom. Several well-
known faces will be missed from the lobbies of the
House on the re-assembling cf Parliament, some of
whom will be greatly regretted by their former col-
leagues. With so many changes, of course, there
have been gains and losses 012 all sides ; but the ba-
lance certainly inclines in favour of those professing
extreme opinion?, and against the moderate parties.
In the metropolis, 'Mr. Joan REYNOLDS, whose good-
humoured and ready wit rendered him exceedingly
popular, has been replaced by Mr. VANCE, an out-
and-cut Tory and Orangeman of the old school. The
loos
to the Liberal party was, however, retrieved in
Corkwhere. Sergeant , MORPHY and Mr. FAGAN,
tried and faithful men, who had already served the
constituency
with zeal and efficiency, were placed
at the head of the poll by a considerable
Colonel CHATTE N, ltto majority,
yickii.g 614
spat
t,,
z:ir
FAO XN. Tr, Limerick neither
Members,
of the old Members having
o
electioc, Mr. R. POTTER, offered themselves for re-
ER) a sulleitc.r of considerable
influence in the distriot, who
-l;
fence of Mr. SLIITII O'BRIEN a& conducted the de-
and 'iaany of the other
and Mr. F. VV. R.ussann were s-
leeted in the places of the Earl of ..kau
state prisoners - , ,
Rim. and Mr.
J. o,Braus, changes that will not, however h
veidn tohveerlinthuelec.holnlitianceeniule7t..
.eted ibvaisninonerliwstas
the Dark!'
T. DAVISON and IL. MiCA
dates, Messrs.
effect on th
IRNS, Lora
JOHN CHICHE-
Q
T.ggt having resigned, and Mr. It j.
TENNI:NT v
I.el •Cg defeated after a sharp contest. One
vote has thus been gained by the Government, 'which
is little more than a set-off for the very ,
decisive defeat at
Waterford of the cha-
meleon-coloured Sir RENEr WINSTON BARRON, whose
opinions may be regarded as a species of political
kaleidoscope, the latest view', however, being favour-
able to the powers that be, by mt. R. KEATINGE,
the Liberal Member for the CountyAt Dungsrvon,
Mr. J. F. MAGUIRE, the proprietor and editor of the
Cork Examiner, has reaped the reward of his_
ener-
getic efforts for many successive 3 ears, having de-
feated the candidate put forward on the DEVONSHIRE
and BURLINGTON interest. "The Dukes" nominee
was also defeated at Youghal by Mr. ISAAC Burr,
the well-known Queen's Counsel, and late Member for
Harwich, who now occupies the seat held during the
last session of Parliament by Mr. Cuxsuorx ANSTBT.
That Hon. Gentleman did not on the present occasion
sue for the most sweet voices of the electors of
Yougbel. Ministers have here again gained one
vote, which is compensated by the return for Newry
of the Liberal Kitts, in place of the late Protectionist
Member, Mr. 14 .....ALLEWELL. In Drogheda Sir Wu.,
, . LIAM SOMERVILLE Secretary for Ireland under
Lord :r
"" RUSSELL, has sustained a severe
check at the hands of the Derbyite M'CANN
while in Dundalk Mr. Terer,ss M'Cuezetou;
one of the staunchest opponents of the Ecclesi-
astical Titles .L'lll, has- been replaced by an Eng-
!i,,b barrister, and recent convert to the Roman
Catholic fcith, who last year published an. elaborate
i defence of the proceedings of Cardinal WISEMAN, and