The Sun.
London, England, 1801-05-08 00:00:00

.LITERARY FUND.

THP Annual Dinner in honour of this meritOtious
Institution, took place yesterday; in Free Masons'
Hall. Sir 141. m Es BLAND BURG ES officiated in the
Chairfor.the President, the Marquis of Bott,,and
was supported by the Duke of SOMERSET: There
was a more numerous company than we have ob-
served on former occasions; among whom were
many distinguished ornaments of the literary world.
The Dinner was abundant and good, and after the
-Kmd, the QUEEN, and ROY AI, FAMILY, had been
drank with heart-left applause, Messrs. Boscawt
FITZCERALD, D'ISRAE LI, and BIRCH, obliged
the company with Poems in honour of thelnstitu-
tioo. Messrs. BOSCA*EN, FITZdtRALD, and
BIRCH, delivered their own compositions with
great success. Mr. D'ISRAE L I'S Poem was recited
by Mr. GRUBB.

Sir JAMES BLAND BURG ES Concluded himself
with his usual spirit and attention in the Chair, and
gave such a Etvourable account of the increasing
prosperity of the Fund, as could not but be highly
gratifying to every friend of Literature, Genius,
and Humanity. %\Te shall seled the Poem written
by Mr. Deputy BIRCH for insertion this day, as he
is one of the oldest Members, and as it is his first
Poetical contribution. He recited it with zeal and
sensibility, and we hope the flattering reception his
Muse experienced, will induce her to make an
annual offspring at the shrine of Literary Bene-
volence.

ADDRESS

FOR THE
ANNIVERSARY or THE LITERARY FUND
SOCIETY, ISor.

Mit:ol4nd recited by S "WU L BIRCH, Eq.

THIS favottr'd Isle of Freedom and Renown,
'Which well Humanity may call her own,
Thro' many an age of Fame extended wide,
Has almost prov'd that Mercy was its pride ;
Whose shrines of Pity towering to the skies,
More than its regal palaces surprise—
Nor on the publiceditiee alone,
Does sweet Benevolence inscribe the stone;
But oft with stealth to Solitude withdraws,
Ar.d, self...approving shuns a world's applause.
The mountain's hen;lit—the forest's deep recess,
Her humbler characters alike impress.—
No pathless wood—no unfrequented
Fut Gratitude has there some glowing
,Childi •
Whose sighs like unobstrutted ineente-rise,
A meek, sincere, prevailing sacrifice !
Unstter,, unpitied, Sorrow cannot roam,
For Sympathy will track the Sufferer horite.
Wide as Misfortune bids the tear to start,
Or silent Anguish wrings the human heart;
Broad a, the air—and piercing as the ray,
That visits Nature from the orb of day,
Her good Samaritan is always found, .
To minister a balm to every wound.
Our pious Ancestors, who seem'd to try
What Mercy best might balance Misery;
By Observation and Experience taught,
This godlike Virtue near Pertedion brought.
They smooth'd Life's rugged road thro' every stage,
From helpless Infancy to helpless Age.
The child thatdrew, unown'd, the vital air—
Or lost, thro' Shame or Want, a mother's care—
. Or hall-endow'd, as niggard Nature frown'd—
tinblest with organs, or of sight or sound—
The tender v rn, of enchanting form,
The unshelter'd Lily, drench'd by many a storm,
Ere yet matur'd in Beauty's pride it grew,
Attradivecnly to the Spoiler's view—
And the poor Vidini of sedudive Art,
Whom fatal sensibility of heart,
By one false step, had dotatn'd thro' life to rove,
Thehouseless wanderer of uuhallow'd Love— -
The tender Mother, and the faithful Wife,
Despairing of her unborn Infant's life,
Whose pangs and sorrow, tho' to all' decreed,
By Poverty were multiplied indeed
The mind subdued by melancholy Care—
The shiver'dintelleet of wild Despinr—
< And crirneless Penury, Constrain'd to dwell
Oppression's Captive in some'dismal cell—
The snow-topt wreck of many a Warrior brave,
Who hurl'd their thunders o'er the distant wave—
And pale Disease, of Life the lingering drain,
Thro' all her thousand images of Pain-
- For wants like these, they some asylum found :
Their pious labeairs knew hor rest nor bound.
' They heap'd what good their bounty
.estis Id- bestow,
On the sad Offspring of unlet teed Woe:—
They synipathiz'd with ev 'ry poor Man's let ;
The Man of Genius was alone forgot.
The sport of Fate, which Wit to Wantallied,
And where if brain imparted, bread dmied.
While the poor Peasant could his meal supply,
The rough=hewn Son of thratightless Industry ;
Who little ask'd.—his sturdy arm was sure,
With spade or flail that little to procure:
Pale drooping Science, with precarious toil,
Could scare provide her with her midnight oil.
Whose heart refinai, that swell'd with many a sigh,
Ot' e'er it could consent to beg, must die.
Unsought she never could her need proclaim,
Conceard, 'twas Agony ! but known, 'twas Shame !
-At length this wretchedness attention drew ;
The glorious privilege was left for you!
Oh ! envied thought ! Oh ! exquiste employ !
Your Proud distinction—your exclusive joy !
Search not the records or of Greece or Rome
For luxury of thought :—best found at home:-
Say ! can the glorious deeds their Heroes wrought,
Or the stern virtues whiCh their Sag,es taught,
Yield such sublime exuberant delight,
As warms arid satisfies the soul to-night?
You on the waters caseyOur scraps of bread,
Which many a secret Child of Merit fed:
You saw them not—you trusted what was given,
And your work prospeed, as appov'd by Heaven.
So, ere the winter's cold, with liberal hand
The Sower strews in faith the furrow'ci land,
Hid for a while the future treasure lies,
Till vernal showers and autumnal skies
Call forth the springing. blade, and swell the ear ;
The promis'd plenty of the smiling year.
Tht. Reapers now the nodding sheaves enfold,
Their loaded tops all burnish'd o'er with wald.
With like success your mercy has been sown;
list the bright harvest shall be all your own.

It is matter of serious regret that amidst all the
Ghosts by which our modern Play-wrights seem
blunted, they are never visited by the GHOSTS of a
SHAKESPEARE, an OTWAY or a Row E
It will perhaps be deemed matter of astonishment
that to the present number of Theatres in Paris
anther should be added, but it is nevertheless true,
that a new Theatre is to be opened next month in
Paris, under the management of Pi cAitD, an Author
and a Player, and under the secret patronage of the
Chief Consul.

A Work has lately- been published in France,
novel in its kind, in that Country. It is a His-
tory of the Stage 'at Paris during the days of Le
published by the son of that celebrated
/lore The Work contains much unpublished Cor-
respondence of VOLTAIRE, Gmktucic, and other
cutewporary men of celebrity.

, • LAlr REPOPT.

COURT OF KING's BENCH, THURsDAY, iiiir 7.

THE KING V. WM. DARTER.

Tr-its was an Information filed by His Majesty's
Attorney General against the Defendant, • for ob-
struding an Officer of the Excise in the due.execu.
firm of his duty; on the 6th of Okflober, at Pc.n..
zancci and of which the Defendant was found
There being some favourable circtlinitances in
the case of the Defendant, the Couit was disposed
to be mild upon him, and therefore ordered that he
be only imprisoned in Newgate for a Month, and
then discharged.

THE KING eV. JACOB CRAB.

This was a Conviaion for a similar offence, but
of a more violent degree.
An Affidavit was read on behalf of the Defendant,
by which two Magistrates of the town in which he
lived, gave hini.a very good charaler, and stated
that they believed him to have conducted himself
extremely well for the last ten years, supporting a
family by his honest labour, &c.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL expressed his sur-
prize that these two Magistates should havi joined
in such an Affidavit, when it was notorious'that this
very Defendant was sentenced, in the year i 797 to
be imprisoned in Newgate for -one year for the
very same offence, and had endured that -sentence.
He could no otherwise account for it,' but that all
these persons in the West of. England, near the
coast, Gentlemen and others, were in one general
conspiracy to defraud the Revenue, and their notion
of morality did not include smuggling amongst
the vices of men in society.—He must consider
whether he would not file a criminal Information
against these Gentlemen for this Affidavit, because
it was an attempt to impose upon the Court.—Uri
less the fats was admitted an the part of the
Defendant, that he was sentenced to twelve months
imprisonment, for smuggling, in the .year 1797, he
should desire the Court to allow him time to have
an Affidavit of that fat, on the part of the Pro-
secution.

The Defendant then admitted the faa.

Lord KENYON lamented the prevalence of this
praaice of Smuggling, and the frequency with
which Smugglers assaulted Revenue Officers in the
due execution of their duty. These parties would
do well to remember, that if, in any of
.these affrays,
death ensued, a thing not at all unlikely, they must
all be hanged; inevitably. The number of applica,
tions that were made to him for Warrants, in these
cases, was prodigious. As to these Gentlemen,
who had made this extraordinary affidavit, the one
was described as Mayor, and the other as Alder Man
of the Borough : his Lordship thought it would be
proper to lay the case, as far as it regarded them,
before the LORA) CHANCELLQR.—In the mean
time the Defendant must stand committed to New-
gate, and be brought up on Wednesday next to re-
ceive the Judgment of the Court. •

Richard Tuckford, James Tunnel, Robert Carter,
and James Shepherd, were soriviaed of similar
offences, and they were ordered to stand committed
to New ate, and be brought up on the same day for
Judgment.

The ArTORNEY GENERAL moved, that Allan
M'Leod be charged with two Informations ; which
he was accordingly. The one charged the De-
fendant With publishing a violent Libel, _within.
tent to stir up.othe People of Ireland to Rebellion,
&c. by-declaring the Social Compatl at an end, on
the establishment of Martial Law, &c. The other
was stated as a Libel on the Earl of CLARE, &c.
both these Publications appeared some time ago, in
the Albion, Newspaper. The Defendant pleaded
Not Guilty to both Informations, and was told by
the Clerk of the CrOF,n, that his trials. would come
on at the Sittings'.after the,present Term, in the
City of London.

THE KING V. BEEVOR.

The Defendint, the Rev. Augustus. Beaver, was
brought into Court to receive its Judgment, for
sending- a Challenge to Major Paine, and for mis-
condutt towards him at• Norwich, the circum-
stances of which are already sufficiently before the
Public.

Mr. IWINTosH, who was the Defendant's Coun-
sel at the trial at Thetford, addressed-the Court on
this occasion, and alledged, that he had no parti-
cular instruEion from his Client to use any severe
language against the Prosecutor, and that what he
said was the result of his judgment, exercised. .as
well as he was able, upon a full view of all the cir-
cumstances of the case; and said, that if .there was
any impropriety in his Address to the jury, he
hoped his Client would not he made to suffer for it.
By the weakness of an Advocate, every Client
must suffer, hut it was not just that the Client
should suffer for the faults of his Counsel.
The Defendant retutAd his thanks to Mr.
11PINTosti for this explanation, and said; that no..
thing could be more handsome.
Lord KEIIYON said, that it he wished to return
thanks to any body, he ought to do it out of Court.
Mr. Justice GROSE, after having eXpatiated on
the impropriety of the conduct of the Defendant, he
being a Minister of the Gospel, and whose (Ivy
it was to preach and set example to others, of that
peace which the Holy Gospel inculcated to all, and
having lamented the prevalence of this vice of
appealing to arms, under a false notion of Honour,
to adjust differences,. by which Parties might be led
to commit murder, and having taken notice that
this was the second instance within a few months
in which a Minister, of the Church had come before
the Court to receive its judgment for this breach
of Morality and of the Peace, pronounced the sen-
tence of the,Court on the Defendant, which was,
" That hu do pay to the King a Fine of ten Marks,
that he be impriioned in the King's Bench for three
weeks—that he do give surety for his good beha-
viour for three years, himself in fool. and two
Sureties in 7.501. each, and that he be further 4116-
sorted until such Fine be paid, and such Surety b:
given,"

itTN .n6st ins;

This was a Rule cal.ing"6n the Dcfenkinf
spew Cause why a Criminal fnfdratution thoitld"r3.it
be led against him, for alledged miseonthql toWar,is
the Commercial Commissioners to who!n he nry!,...
his Return upon the Income Bill ; was no*
moved by Mr. LITTLEDALEi, that it be c..nlargedt
which, after a few.words from Mr. ERS,KIttE Rn..t
the ATtOkNET GENERAL, and afterwards,somd
observations from the Bench, was enlargedlcdord,
•

Mr. CEORGE WILSON moved fat a Mand.aritus
to be directed to the Mayor. of Norwich, calling •
on him to 'give notice to certain Persons, of their
having been eleded by the Freemen of that:eity, as
Common Councilmen, under die:te circumstances—
Previous to the Eledion of Com Mon CoUneilmen,
some of the Candidates had been objeCted to as ine-
ligible, because they bad not taken the Sacrament,
within Twelve Months, as prescribed by the Test
and Corporation Ads.
On the other hand, it was contended that the tree:
men had a right to chose Dissenters if they pleased.
When the Eiedion was closed, the greatest number
of Votes happened to bare been given to two per.
sons
,Ivito had not,-. as it appeared. on searching the
register of these parishes, 4ken the sacrament
within a year, as requited by the Statute ; and
therefore' the Mayor did not teturn thorn as being
elected, thiy'being,, in his opinions ineli ible ; but,
as the-others were in a Minority, he did not return
them either, eons,idering, perhaps; that a to rheas
the elettion was void ; ‘vhereas it was now con-
tended, that all the Votes which were given for
those who were ineligible were thrown away, and
that the next to them upo;t the Poll were duly elec.
ted ; and this Mandamus was sought in order tir:t
they may be tetttrned and sworn intcs
tion.for Mandamus gran redo
Lord KENYON said that New Trials mast posi.
tively come on on Thursday next.