The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-11 00:00:00

ROYAL LITERARY FUND.

The anniversary festival of the Royal Literary
Fund was held last night at the Albion Tavern,
Aldersgate-street, when about 100 gentlemen sat
down to dinner. The Archbishop of York occupied
the chair, and among those present were the Marquis
of Clanricarde, the Earl of Sheffield, the Bishop of
Carlisle, Mr. D. F. Fortescue, M.P., the Dean of
Westminster, Mr. B. Westhead, M.P., Mr. Goschen,
M.P., the Astronomer Royal, Dr. Livingstone, Pro-
fessor Plumptre, M. Vambery, and Messrs. Locker,
A. Michie, R. Bell, C. C. Hoskyns, Matthews, Q.C.,
and Otto Goldschmidit, &c.
After the removal of the cloth,
The Most Rev. CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast
of " The Queen," said that although circumstances
had deprived her Majesty's subjects of thO oppor-
tunity of seeing her as frequently as they might
desire, it would be a great mistake to suppose that
her seclusion was accompanied by any indifference
to public affairs or to the interest of her subjects.
On the contrary, her Majesty's interest in all that
concerned the welfare of her people had, if possible,
been increased by the loss which she had herself
sustained.

The toast was received with the utmost cordiality,
as was also that of " The Prince and Princess of
Wales and the rest of the Royal Family."
In proposing the latter toast the CHAIRMAN
acknowledged the important service which had been
rendered to this corporation by his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, who presided at the annual
dinner last year, and who had the satisfaction of
knowing that many cases which would otherwise
have been undealt with had been relieved out of the
munificent contributions which his presence had
secured for the fund.
The toast of " The Church" was proposed by Mr.
D. FORTESCUE, and acknowledged by
The Bishop of CARLISLE, who said that not the
least reason which had induced him to attend the
dinner was a feeling of loyalty to the most rev. pri-
mate, to the ability and success of whose adminis-
tration of the province which had been committed
to his charge he bore willing and ample testimony.
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast of the
avening, " Prosperity to the Royal Literary Fund,"
said that he particularly desired to guard himself
against being supposed to entertain any notion of
patronising literature. Literature had now become
so great a power that anything like its patronage
was entirely out of the question. It preached to us,
taught us, and made laws for us, or, at all events,
suggested them, and they were then enacted by the
proper authority. It tried men, and severely--
sometimes too severely—punished delinquents. Now
and then it appealed to public justice on behalf of
some one against whom public opinion had pressed
too strongly, and procured his acquittal. It worked
great social reforms, and it delighted us with the
contemplation of fictitious characters, and in that
way. almost pushed the actor who used to monopo-
lise that function off the stage. This power, as an
aggregate one, was a thing of quite modern date.
We were accustomed to speak of the Elizabethan
era as the most glorious in English history, but
there was then no community, commonwealth, or
republic of letters such as now existed. A friend of
his said to him the other day that no member of
the House of Commons told the whole truth upon
any question; yet after a long debate in thathouse,
and after suggestions from all sides, there remained
no part of the subject that had not been explored.
In the same manner, although no individual writer
might tell the whole truth upon any subject, by
the combined exertions of all writers it came to
be fully discussed and completely explained, and
thus a common sense of mankind was

formed individual could create,
bo
individual might reap the ad-
vantage. Let them conceive for a moment the good
effects which arose from this constant and searching
criticism, which was so all-pervading that nothing
emi npge t
ethoroughlynt to examined by per-
sonstb
pass
bwoitwheoruct
cbotask. In the first
place it was a great means of our education. We
were being educated daily. Every hour of travel,
every interval of leisure, every spare five minutes
was now occupied byreading. Nor was this confined
to the privileged climes; literature was now so cheap
that it reached the lower classes. Was not that a

power to be anxious about, and was it not important
that the literature which exercised this influence
should be sound and honest and pure ? A power
was committed to the hands of the literary class
which was committed to no other; and he was bound
to say that that power tended very much to justice.
He might say, as a public man, that he believed that
the criticism to which all public men were subject
had a wholesome effect. It was not favourable to the
development of individual character, but it was
favourable to general action according to the rules
of good sense. The influence of literature, also, had
a great effect in securing us from panics. This had
been recently illustrated in the case of the Russian
epidemic, and of the assassination of President Lin-
coln. In the former case alarm might have greatly
tended to produce all the ill effects which were ap-
prehended, but by means of a few questions; and in
consequence of the facilities which men of science
now possessed for communication, alarm was dissi-
pated almost as soon as it was aroused. In the latter
case, but for the means of spreading information
which now existed, the most exaggerated ideas might
have prevailed in America as to the real character of
the crime which had been committed ; men might have
whispered words of terror into each other's ears, and
the apprehension might, and probably would, have
grown up that the murder of Mr. Linpoln was the
result of a conspiracy including all classes of society.
Under the process Of Sifting which now went on by,
• the 'help of the world of letters, every man contri-
buting his theory or statement, the crime would sink
to its proportions, and he trusted that it would be
found that it was the act of one or two men, and
that the brave and generous people of the South who
had suffered so much in this war had not been in
the slightest degreeimplicated in it. (Loud applause.)
Passing from these general considerations to the
more immediate subject of their meeting, he could
not imagine any occupation more honourable than
an honest and independent literary man. There
must be a pleasure beyond all other intellectual
pleasures in being able to count beforehand upon a
thousand, or ten thousand, readers, whose hearts
would beat sympathetically with yours, and whose
opinions would be formed upon yours, so that your
utterance would become part of the world's heritage,
and would last, in the common sense of mankind,
from generation to generation. Think of the little
work of Thomas a Kempis, translated into a hundred
languages, and sold by millions of copies, and which
in the inmost moments of • deep thought men made
the guide of their hearts and the friends of their
closets ; or take the case of Sir W. Scott, who him-
self suffered greatly from literary toil. Surely it
must have been a great pleasure to him to think that
he had solaced many a sick bed, lightened the tedious
hours of recovery, and presented agreeable pictures
of life to those who might be disposed to despond
or to despair. Take one of our own poets, Tennyson,
for example, whose great excellence it was that he
had poetized the life of the 19th century. Must it
not be a source of great satisfaction to him to know
that his works would be read by tens of thousands
of readers, and that the thought which struck him
as the best and truest would become the best and
truest to thousands of people who would repeat
them and love them ? (Applause.) Let them now
go to the • other side of the picture. Because
the position of the literary man was so lofty there
was a reverse to the medal. Because his privileges
were so high his career was attractive, and many
persons embarked upon it who failed in their endea-
vours after success. Their wine might be very good,
but it had not the special aroma and flavour which
were necessary to secure it appreciation. They failed
to gain the sympathy of their readers, and soon
found that they had made a grand mistake as to
their avocation. More than that, a man's faculties
must decay, and he might become unable to work,
or one who had worked hard all his life, and although
able to support himself had not been able to make a
provision for those whom he loved, might be taken
away. These were all cases in which this fund
would come into operation. At a meeting in
another place the other day he heard a gentleman
say that all charity was either useless or positively
mischievous ; if it went in aid of the parish rates it
was useless, and if it did not it was altogether mis-
chievous. Having had considerable experience of
the working of charities he could not at all agree
with that declaration. It was often impossible for
literary men to provide for their families ; and he
could not admit that indoor relief in the workhouse
was the proper and only resource of the widows and
children of those who had instructed us, amused
our leisure, and improved our lives. In the case of
bodily labour no man could go on working after the
limbs absolutely required rest, but with regard to
mental labour the case was different. Thebrain could
unfortunately be coaxed to go on working until it
died, and there were hundreds and hundreds of cases
of men in this teeming city who were working their
brains to death, and who if they were told they ought
to rest would reply that the system under which
they were working was so constituted that rest was
impossible. Society was responsible for the exist-
ence of that system. It insisted upon having
its daily paper, and you could not seize upon the
man who wrote the leaders, or who reported, and
tell him that he was imprudent because he did the
work which his position absolutely required of him.
In his opinion as applied to cases arising out of cir-
cumstances and conditions such as those to which
he had alluded charity was neither mischievous nor
useless. In consequence of his being called upon
to take the chair upon that occasion he had had the
opportunity of inquiring into the operations of this
corporation and becoming acquainted with the cases
in which assistance had been given, and he was pre-
pared
to say that, so far as he could judge, the
charity of the society had in all cases been bestowed
upon deserving objects. The late Mr. Thackeray,
who was a friend of his, had adorned the Charter-
house by his description of one of the poor brethren
now departed, Colonel Newcome. He was himself
a governor of the Charterhouse, and was desirous
that the persons who obtained the advantages of
that foundation should be chosen from the class for
whose benefit it was originally intended, and from
which Mr. Thackeray appeared to have supposed
that they were selected. It was, therefore, his in-
tention as soon as a vacancy came to him to consult
the secretary of this corporation, and if he could
name a real literary man who would accept the pre-
sentation he should mark his sense of the honour
which had been done him by his selection to preside
upon this occasion by appointing him one of the
poor brethren of the Charterhouseto succeed Colonel
Newcome. (Applause.)
The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm, and
subscriptions to thefund were afterwards announced
to the amount of upwards of £l,OOO.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE proposed 46 The
Health of the Chairman," which was most cordially
received, and briefly acknowledged by the most rev.
prelate.

Mr. GOSCHEN propose " The Literature of Eng-
land," coupling with the toast the name of the Dean
of Westminster.

The Dean of WESTMINSTER, in responding, dwelt
upon two peculiarities of English literature—one
that, while the literature of other countries, such as
Italy and Spain, had flourished for a time and then
come to an end, there had in England been several
successive periods at which literature had reached a
high pitch of excellence, and at all of which, though
differing materially in each, it was intimately iden-
tified with the life and character of the nation ; and
the other that the literature of our time, al-
though : still maintaining the insular indepen-
dence which marked our character, had become
more cosmopolitan than it was formerly, and had
in different branches been materially influenced by
the literature of France and Germany. He con-
cluded with a panegyric upon living historians, in-
cluding Earl Stanhope, Mr. Merivale, the historian
of Julius Caesar, who found an Imperial rival who,
with all the resources of his empire, would find it
difficult to outshine hie gngliall antagonists) Mr.

Froude, Mr. Carlyle, and the Dean of St. Paul's,
whom he described as the patriarch of English lite-
rature, not only from his years, but because more
than any other man he had combined the pursuit of
different branches of literature, and had proved the
possibility of combining the highest genius and the
profoundest learning with the deepest love of truth
and the highest regard for the best interests of the
Church of England.
" The Health of the Writers upon Science and
Art" ivas proposed by Mr. A. B. Hope, and re-
sponded to by the Astronomer Royal and Mr. G. G.
Scott.

Professor Plumptre, in a speech of some length,
proposed " The Travellers," which was briefly ac-
knowledged by Dr. Livingstone, Mr. Vambery, and
Mr. Michie.

Other toasts were proposed and acknowledged,
and the company did not separate till a late hour.