The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-14 00:00:00

"That kings for such a tomb might wish to die."

I am seldom betrayed into a quotation except, my dear
Bob, as you know, from Horace or the Latin Grammar, but
the subject, I positively declare, stole it from rae. And,
now I am about it, I remember that there are certain lite-
rary and other gentlemen who are about to raise a fund to
worthily commemorate sweet Will of Avon himself. I de-
clare positively that the only possible objection that I can
see to such a scheme is that the poet himself, whom I hold
in as much reverence as anyone, would probably shrink
from it, and rest content with his little coloured stone bust
in a country church, his quaint epitaph, and that large and
universal monument of love which he has built up in all
hearts. At the tomb of an ancient chief, each warrior once
brought a stone, and piled it upon the grave as he passed,
till the rough pyramid rcse into the sky and lived amidst
the wreck of finer works unharmed by Time ; and at dear
Will's tomb we men of the pen have for ages brought our
hearts and laid them down ; old Ben, rough old fellow, was
the first bricklayer, and then Leonard Digges, and Milton,
and, Dryden, and good old Doctor Sam, with Pope and
others, till it mounts upwards and upwards to the skies,
nor will it decrease till the last of us poor authors shall
have gone to join, let us piously hope, for we are a wild
race, his chief in heaven

But since you will have a statute--a fine work of art, my
dear Bob—of couse you artists with the pen, and the brush,
and chisel will make your exertions towards its proper
erection a labour of love. There will be no literary jealoasies
--not that such ever exist—over the matter. There will
be no cliquism, and I am sure all will modestly keep in the
background, and let the working men go forward, and the
fifth-rate penmen won't jump into the first-rate places. The
playful humour, admirable terseness, and keen sarcasm
which some of you possess, will be exerted in whipping up
a languid Public to its duty ; you will not coquet with
lords, dukes, marquises, and bishops; you will not bow
down to gilt calves on any account; and dear Jones, who
dines with Lord Fierbras and Captain Deuce-Ace, will
leave their society, and work on the committee for raising
this great public monument. Above all—as, my dear Bob,
I hear from those versed in literary history, it is three hun-
dred years since he was born, and the time is rather a long
while to wait in these days of stony and statuesque recog-
nition—l am sure that no literary gentleman will put little
stumbling-blocks in the way, and hinder the erection of a
fitting monument to one to whom all the world owes so
much; nor will they, whilst building up this, try to build
up little ones for themselves ; I do not suppose for one
instant that they will paint their names—at any rate, more
than once ; no, they will be as modest, retired, and self-
abasing as they always are. Reddit Saturnii regnum ; the
Golden Age has, indeed, returned; the lion of literary fame
shall lie down with the dramatic lamb ; the venomous critic
shall coil in glistening beauty round the pink-feet of the
dove of Posey; the big elephant of the book-world, who
has lined his own and so many other people's trunks, shall
modestly consort with the timidest little mouse of a perio-
dical essayist, who has just ventured out of his hole, and
got into print. The world, my dear Bob, will wonder; but
what care we for the world,we do not want to trumpet forth
ourselves, but to testify the applause, delight, wonder, and
admiration of this generation to the Mightiest Genius of all
time.

Believing, my dear Bob, that this little sketch fully em
bodies your intentions, I am quite with you.
BROWN THE ELDER,

Megatherium Club, April 23.

THE Po ST- OFFICE SAVINGS BANK.—The weekly
deposit is about £lO,OOO, the withdrawals less than one-
third. The sum now remaining in the Post-office bank is
£3,263,000, and the number of present depositors 307,000,
showing an average balance of over £lO each.
NEW MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.—
The followipg gentlemen will be entitled to take
their seats at the commencement of the forthcoming session
of Parliament :—Sir Roundeil Palmer, on his re-election
for Richmond as Attorney-Genera►—Sir R. P. Collier, on
his re-election for Plymouth as Solicitor-General—Colonel
Vyse for Windsor, in the room of Mr Hope, deceased—
Mr C. Neate, for the eity of Oxford, in the room of Mr J.
11. Langston, deceased—Mr Humphrey, for Andover, in the
room of Mr W. Cubitt, deceased—Mr R. Bateson Harvey,
for Buckinghamshire, in the room of the Hon. W. G.
Cavendish, now Lord Chesham—Major Waterhouse, for
Pontefract, in the room of Mr R. M. Milnes, raised to the
peerage—Sir C. O'Loghlen, Bert., for Clare, in the room
of Mr F. M. Catena, deceased—Hon. C. R. Ilanbury Tracy,
for the Montgomery boroughs, in the room of Capt. Willes
Johnson, deceased—Sir William Frazer, Bart., for Ludlow,
in the room of Mr Beriah Botfield, deceased—the Hon. F.
Lygon, for West Worcestershire, in the room of Viscount
Elmley, now Earl Beauebamp—Mr J. PM, for Taroworth,
in the room of Viscount Raynhaw, now the Marquis
Townshend—Mr M. Treherno, for Coventry, in the room
of the Right Hon. E. Ellice, deceased—Mr Lloyd, for
Barnstaple, in the room of Mr. George Potts, deceased;
Mr. George Shaw Lefevre, in the room of Mr. Pigott, now
a Baron of the Exchequer,