The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-13 00:00:00

LITERARY FUND.

We feel great pleasure in presenting the fol.;
loWing intefesting article to our Readers. The
benevolent principles Upon which the LITERARY
FUND was founded, and the extensive assistance
'which it hip rendered to many Unfortunate fol-
lowers of the Muses, deed no eulogitim from us;
and are stated with so benignant and philosophic
aspirit,and with such pious Zeal, in the subjoined
REPORT, that we shall not officiously intrude
upon thestibiect. We have "reason to beiieve
that this elociderit and affecting statement was
drawn up.by the gentleman whose name► is first
subscribed at the conclusion, and to whom the
public, among many other valuable works of
learning and genius, are indebted for such a cor-
rect and beautiful translation of the,XNEin, and
such an admirable biography of our great Poet,
MILTON, as will he lasting ornanients of Britishi
Literatdre
:
The REPORT of the REGISTRARS of the LITERARY
FUND SOCIETY at its LAST ANNIVERSARY.—
Read by RICHARD YATES, D.D.
On the day on which we annually meet to commemorate the
birth of ow Institution, it has been customary for our Trea-
surers to submit to our assembled friends, and through them
to the public, a general statement of the funds or the Soeiety.
On the present occasion we shall not confine ourselves within
our wonted limitation ; but, assisted by our Registrars, who
are solicitous to discharge their appropriate duty to the great
cause which we are all equally zealous to proinote, we shad
endeavour, with the aid of our recoids, to enforce our just
claim to the protection of the generous meeting which Nye see
before us ; to the patronage of the public of Britain ; to the

favour and the countenance (if such language be not too bold
for us to hold) of the extended community of Europe and of
civilized man. Of ourselves we are conscious that we are no-

thing ; but we draw confidence and pride from our cause, which
we know to be comprehensive of the highest and the noblest in-
terests of otir species. ,
Addressing ourselves to an audience enlightened like the
present ; to men, who possess by erudition the experience of
ages, and who feel within themselves that very good which we
would illustrate, it must be unnecessary for us to insist upon
the utility and the grandeur of literature and the sciences.—
They, to whom we speak, require not to be told that these pro-
ducts of the cultured intellect constitute the true wealth and
consequence of the individual, the strength and the pre-emi-
nence of the nation : that the mind of man was given to him.
at his birth in i state of naked imbecility, to be arrayed and
adorned, and to have its capacities of power unfolded and che-
rished into growth, by the indtistry of its possessor : that from
the aggregated efforts of single minds, cemented by learning
into one mighty and living mass, is produced that wonderful
result, which is called Science; x power which raises Man, the
intellectual-atom of this little planet, into importance in the
universe; which lifts his nature above the sensual; which
opens to hiul the fertility of the earth ; which expands before
him the communicatiOn of the ocean ; which elevates him to
range amid the worlds revolving in the infinity of space, and
places him, as it were, upon the threshold of the Palace where
the magnificence of the boundless Divinity is displayed.—:.
When we thus speak, and when we affirm, from the records of
the -!last and the observation of the present, that nations arc ex-
alted or depressed, ennobled or debased, in the proportion of
their general knowledge or ignorance, we are aware* that we
are but asserting truths, with which this assembly is familiar;
and we dwell on akin forfora moment, only that we may assume
our just merit as an association that is the encourager of science
and the friend of genius in its exertion. We profess not to
awaken science and genius, or to stimulate them into their
splendid activity by calling their possessors to opulence or ho.;
nours ; for opulence and honours wait not on our. command :

but weprofess to be not inefficient in exciting these powers and
graces of the human community, by cherishing the cultivator
of intellect in his distress, and by applying the lenient bandage
to his wounds, if we cannot plant the crown of gold upon his
head. To redress his wrongs, without aspiring to recompence
his worth, is the object which we avow ; and this object to the
extent of our abilities we have achieved. With respect only to
intellectual and literary merit, in its too frequent union with
worldly poverty, have we distributed the funds confided to us by
the liberality of the public; and, in the exercise of our delegated
discretion, we have uniformly approved ourselves to be free
from the misguidance of any erroneous bias. At all times,
even in those of the strongest paroxysms of party-disease, have
we preserved ourselves free from the contaminating influence of
political passion; and no author hai ever been repulsed from
our bounty, hut the wretched assassin of private character; by
whom the press had been fashioned into the weapon of indivi-
dual malignity. In the communication also of our relief have
we been feelingly studious of the sensibilities of the relieved.
'We -have: not regarded his poverty as degradation : we have
covered him from the gross eye of the world : we have sought
him out in the retreat of his generous pride, and have prevent-
ed, wheverever we could, the pain of his solicitation. Our
bounty, or rather, as we should call it, yours, has fallen silent-
ly and softly from our hands, like the dews of heaven upon the
withered plant, and has been felt 'in refreshment at the heart,
while its illapse has been too fine for the sight. By this deli-
cacy, however, which from the first has presided over our con-
duct, we are sensible that some advantages are lost to our so-
ciety : for the public may not be satisfied without that c'ontroll
over our proceedings which can be given to it only by thebroad
disclosure of our beneficiaries ; and we stand deprived of the
means of carrying with us the general sentiment and sympa-
thy, whilst we conceal the merit which we have succoured, and
the woes which we have relieved. But we have balanced this
alternative of evils ; and we find that a contingency of loss is
the least weighty in the scale. We cannot remove the veil
which has hitherto been thrown over the suppliant at the altar
of mercy, where we officiate as the priests ; and if we should

be wrong in this protection of our sanctuary, we trust that our
error will be forgiven for the purity of our motive. But some-
thing may allowably be conceded to the inquiries of the public,
and whenever any communication on the tender subject of our
distributions can be made without the pain of private sensibi-
lity, we shall always be gratified by making it.
In the period between our last and our present meeting, some
cases of more than ordinary interest have occurred to us, and
from these we conceive that we can select a few, which, stand-
ing under peculiar circumstances, may be brought forward to
your view without the infliction of a pang upon their sub-

PRICE SEV'ENISESt'CE

jeCts,'and consequently Without any violation of the primitite
ors which we have uniformly acted.
Equally removed, as the dispensers of the public benifi--
,
cence, froin local as from political partialities, We inquire not
into the birth-plaee of the distressed author, whether. it were on
the banks of the Vistula" or, the Thames ; beneath the bright
suits of Italy,
,or the freezing and gloomy atmosphere which'
environs the fires of Heels. Our arms, in short, spread, every,
wheie; and are stretched o'er every Seam .em brace the ietellecnial
and the learned, and to shelter them from the inclemencyof
want. In a former year, and you all must know, we discover-
ed the venerable Bard of Iceland, where he patiently reclined
beneath the shed of poverty; and we imparted comfort to the
latest hours of his life. In the present rear, cornmencing with
us from our last anniversary, we have been Able to' gratify our:
selves by three Lets of the same far..reaching liberality, and in
each case the subject of our attention has been eminent for his
talents, the attainments of his miitd, and the calamities of his
fortune: The first of these ill-fated, but illustrious foreigners,
who was offered to our notice, is a native of Poland, and is to be
classed, as we haVe unqUestionable authority t 6 assert, with the
most profound gedmetricians of Europe. &impelled by
want to dispose of his MSS. in Paris for a sum just. adequate
to his immediate subsistence, he passed into -.gland, to
solicit from our Board of Longitude some recompence of }Ai
science. But; straitened in its meant of bounty tied- with its
ft/rids rigidly appropriated; this Board could Only acknowledge
his merits, and compassionate his distresses. To us, therefore,
it belonged to mitigate his calamitous situation and, that-he
now lives to enrich the world with his scientific labours, mu-st
be ascribed principally to our beneficent interposition.
The next subject of odr expansive liberality is of a still.
•more distinguished character. Of a noble family within the
territories of Prussia, he has dedicated a long life to the labours -
of literature ; and his publications, on the several topics of the
German Law, of Political EcondmY, of Topography, of Na-
tural History, and of Biography; haie been numerous and
able. A sufferer, by some very uncommon incidents, anti in-
volved in the disasters which have peCuliarly saddened this age
of remarkable vicissitude, he has been plunged into indigence,
and has felt his white head overwhelmed by the wave. His
case was Submitted to us, and we supplied (it was all that we
could supply) a temporary alleviation of the severity of his
fate.
Of the third literary fOreigner, who, within the period over
which our retrospect is thrown,.has bee' consigned by calamity
to oar relief, see find it more difficult to speak ; for with him
recollections :are associated in our minds to awaken our perso-
nal sensibility, and to disturb the even tenor of our narration.
During many years lie participated in our honourable labours,
and gave Many a feeling and judicious vote for the tempering
of that bitter cup, which he then little thought that lie should
himself be destined to drain even to its dregs. He long form-
ed a part of the diplomacy of Italy, and long eepported in
the comehonity of Britain the proprietieS of his delegated rank.
But, amid the revoltrtioris and disasters of his devoted country,
his income sunk suddenly beneath his feet; and our inquiry
found bins (for he had retired from us, and his distress was
prolixity dumb) in destitution and the Wretchedness of want.
Need We say, that ive received him into our fostering care ;
and, if we could not fill hit pillow with down, that we softened
it under his dying head ?
Of the numerous cases, which, during the revolution of the,
last twelve months, have evinced the activity of our relief to
the authors of our own country, we shall bring before you only
two ; partly that we may not liarrass your attention with too
long a detail ; and partly, as in these cases, the zealous beni-
ficence of our Society has been somewhat more peculiarly
displayed.
A gentleman of one of the first tintitled families of England,
of eminent abilities and extensive knowledge, had distin-
litished himself by his practice in a superior province of del
aw, as well as by the powers of his legal and historic pen.
His incoirie was affluent, as his walk Was on the eleva-
tion of life : but, in consequence of that inatention to d.)-;
mestic economy, which in a former age had ruined the
great Lord Verulam, he became embarrassed with debt ;
and, the evil being exasperated by circumstances over which
he had not any control, lie was compelled to fly for safety to
the protection of a foreign ream. Oppressed by old aze, and
withered by successive years of distress, he was' found by us,
as he was struggling for subsistence in the capital of France;
and our unsolicited, but much wanted, bounty was instantly
extended to him. By' some recent intelligence, he was appa-
rently on the bed of death : but whether he still survives, or is
at rest from his labours, we can please ourselves with the re-
flection, that some of the last days of the unhappy exile have'
been lightened of their load by Our beneficence:
'ln the next case, with which we shall close this enumera-
tion of our deeds f Mercy, we were unhappily deprived of the-
same gratifying reflexion : but we regret the circumstance as
OUT misfortunce, and cannot feel it with any self-reproach as
our fault.

A gentleman, long Conversant; bY the effect of his talents,
[is learning, and his manners, with the society of the great,
[ad retired, on a very small patrimony, to an obscure residence
n a remote angle Of our country. Prefessionally he had be-
longed to the law, and he had pleaded at the bar : but, directed
by the bias of his mind to the less rugged paths of general lite-
rature, he turned from his professional studio, and devoted
himself with ardour to antiquarian research and topographical
illuStrations On hit success in this ample field of intellectual
exertion the public were summoned to decide ; for they re-
ceived from him a work of provincial history, replete with curi-
ous and valliable information. lie was also a poet; and, to
display his intimacy with the writers of classic antiquity, he
has left behind him in manuscript the first English trans-
lation of Athezimus ; a work for the execution of which,
as otir audience need not be told both his acquaintance
with the language Of Greece, and his command of the poetic
and the prose diction of his own country, were at once neces.
sanly exacted, After a series of years, passed amid the pri-
vations and difficulties of a straitened income, when he was
now far advanced into age, and 'was bowed almost to the
ground by infirmity, he found himself, with a wife, old also
and infirm, under the oppression Of positive poverty ; for
his little tenantry were bankrupted by the prevailing distress
of these extraordinary times; and he was left with not more
than an annual thirty pounds to protect him from the hu-
miliation of a workhouse. His situation became accidentally
known to us ; and a vote for his relief was passed with accla-
mation by oar Committee: but alas ! the hand, which should
have received our bounty, was then cold ; the tongue, which
would have thanked us, was for ever mute ; and the benefi-
cence, which was destined to comfort the living, availed only
to bury the dead ! The gift was instantly assigned by us to
the widow: and with her paid the debt which she had incur-
red by the discharge of her last pious duty to the companion
of her long life.
By recurring to our melancholy records, we might easily
produce to you more cases of interest among the children of
literature and misfortune, in which our hands have been ex-
tended to heal; but we have said what must be sufficient to
convince you: that your purposes of good in our support have
not been disappointed of their effect by any violation of our
trust. We have opened to you the temple consecrated to
Mercy and the Muses ; and you hate seem us not negligent of
our duty at the shrine. You will continue or wig break your
attachment to us as you may deem our action to be useful or of
no moment., Without any personal interest to incline us on
the question, we cannot have an object to promote which is not
identified with yours. General good, to be accomplished.
by specific humanity, is the end which we all equally profess to
have in view ; and if the public should decide that ti•is object is
unattainable, or has not been approached by us (adecision
it is not possible for us to anticipate), we shall have only to la-
ment that a voice, which we must necessarily respect, should
pronounce us to be in error. Our conviction of the rectitude
of our aim, as well as of our intention, must remain unaltera-
bly the same ; and, with reference to ourselves, we cannot be
in error., Gratified with the palpable good which we-have
effected, with the sorrows which we have alleviated, with the
respect which we have shewn to literature and genius, we stand
possessed of our recompense. For ourselves, then, let it be re-
peated, we cannot have been deceived : for ourselves we canno4
Lave any thing to regret, to palliate, to excuse ; for otirselve4 ,
we have succeeded ;—we triumph, and our hearts can only
rejoice.
CHARLES SYMAIONS, D.D.
JAMES ANDERSON, LL. D. Registrars.
JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS, F. S.A.
May 21, 1822.

As a party of musicians were going down the river yesterday
upon an aquatic excursion, the boat was upset near London
Bridge. COVINGTON, an expert waterrnan, rescued them all'
except one, who swam ashore with the assistance of his fiddle.