The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-19 00:00:00

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the mind of the reader; nor was the fate of Cardinal

easy to separate his lawful from his fraudulent gains, he
was advised to make a donation of the whole to the
King, in the hope that, as was the case, his Majesty
would restore it to him. And I must quit all this ?'
was one of his latest reflections."
The two following notable illustrations of the vanity
of earthly possessions are too remarkable and too perti-
nent to be omitted on the present occasion. In the
prefatory chapter of Florian's Gonsalve de Cordova we
find the following striking passage :
" The renowned Abdermi, Prince of the true be-
lievers, put on record the following evidence of the
vanity of immense wealth and illustrious rank :—‘ Fifty
years have elapsed since I became Caliph, during which
time I have possessed and have been satiated with
honours, riches, and pleasures. Rival Monarchs fear
and envy me. Heaven has showered upon me all that
men can wish for. I have registered the number of
days in which I enjoyed real happiness ; they amount
only to fourteen I Mortals, learn hence duly to appre-
ciate grandeur, the world, and human life.'"

Our next illustration of the insufficiency of wealth to
give peace of mind, is derived from the Diary raj• a
Lover of Literature, in the Gentleman's Magazine for
November, 1839. The Nobleman who is the hero of
the piece was the late Lord Lauderdale, and the fol-
lowing is an extract from the Diary :
" His Lordship had been taking a ride about his
extensive domain; on reaching an eminence which
commanded an immense and diversified prospect, Min-
gay was admiring the prodigious extent as well as the
variety of the view, when his Lordship observed, And
now, Mingay, of all you see I believe there is xot an
acre of ground which is not my own.' Good God !'
said the barrister, you must be the happiest of men.'
' In the whole compass of this scene, I will venture to
affirm (mid his Lordship) that there is not one so mi-
serable.'"

It can hardly be necessary for us here to observe,

;hat our denunciation of excessive wealth is not intended

to apply to that class of persons who rank high amongst
us as wealthy merchants, but to persons of much more
extensive possessions than we have ever heard attributed
to the most affluent of our townsmen ; and the indivi-
dual instances which we have adduced in the course of
this article, may serve as an illustration of the meaning
we attach to inordinate possessions.
We have much gratification in bearing testimony to
the liberality of many of our townsmen, who have the
reputation of being wealthy, and whose names are al-
ways to be found on the list of bountiful contributors to
all our public charities.
Of the late Mr. James Cropper we may now speak
without reserve, as any compliments we may pay to his
memory cannot be justly regarded as a partial or in-
vidious attempt to exalt one living member of the com-
munity by depreciating others of our townsmen, Mr.
Cropper was one of those who seemed to consider the
wealth which he had honourably acquired only the means
of doing good to his fellow-man. To borrow a very signi-
ficant simile from a celebrated 'French author, he ap-
peared to be elevated only to enable him to discover
more clearly the human misery around him. When
once assured that his bounty would not be misapplied,
he dispensed it most cheerfully and most liberally. On
one occasion, when funds were much wanted for the
dissemination of anti-slavery tracts, we happened, by
mere chance, to see his name with the sum of 500/. op-
posite to it ; while no other subscriber, although there
were royal and noble titles in the list, contributed more
than 1501.

As one instance out of many that we could adduce
of the promptitude with which he came forward to
promote any schecae for the amelioration of the condi-

tier of his fellow-men, we avail ourselves of the present
opportunity of stating, that when, in the year 1831, we
published an " Outline of a Plan for the entire Sup-
pression of Street Begging, " &c., which has been re-
printed in the Description of the Liverpool Night Asy-
lution, Mr. Cropper was so much pleased with the
proposition, that he made us a tender of 501. as his
contribution towards making the experiment. This
liberal offer, of which we declined to avail ourselves,
conscious that we could not acquit ourselves of the
duty to our own satisfaction, on account of our other
indispensable engagements, was conveyed to us in a
note which, for the honour of the excellent man, whose
loss can never be sufficiently deplored, we subjoin :
Dingle Bank, 3 mo. 20, 1830.

ESTEEMED FRIEND,-Thy proposition of giving
ration of dry bread, to be eaten on the spot, to any
person asking for it, as a means of suppressing that most
distressing and perplexing nuisance of street begging,
is so simple, and could so easily be tried, that I am
very desirous the experiment should be made. If it
should succeed, it might, very properly, form a branch
of that most excellent institution, the Provident Dis-
trict Society, but there is yet too much of uncertainty
about it to be undertaken by that Society. A novel
experiment is best tried at the expense of a few in-
dividuals. Myself and my sons, and Robert Benson,
will give 10/. each, and my friend W. liathbone, who
is also desirous the experiment should be made, will
give 51., and very likely I may meet with others wil.
ling to contribute. I think if we bad 150/. or 200/.
to begin with, it might be tried, in the first place, simply
with bread, because that would be attended with
least trouble, though in case of a permanent establish-
ment, by no means the cheapest. We know that a
great portion of the population of Ireland live on pota-
toes only, and in many cases, when salt was subject to
duty, they were deprived even of that. It would not cost
more than a half-penny to supply a person with as many
boiled potatoes as he could eat, whilst many would readily
eat two pennyworth of bread ; but the giving of boiled
potatoes, or any broken meat collected from the inha-
bitants, would require a very different establishment to
that which would be needful for the simple supply of
bread, and as this would be the more substantial food,
it should have the preference as a trial. There can
be no doubt that this plan would destroy the trade of
begging, because many mendicants, much as they dis-
like work, would prefer it to such humble fare. I
consider that the community is greatly indebted to
thee for the establishment of the very important relief
afforded to the suffering class by the Night Asylum.
I wish the present plan, which is equally simple, may
be equally successful, and I am thy sincere friend,
To Egerton Smith. JAMES CROPPER.

MORAL REFLECTIONS ON WEALTH.
The following extracts may form ;an appropriate
appendix and commentary to our short chapter on
riches :

MEDIOCRITY IS THE BEST STATE OF FORTUNE.—
All I desire is, that my poverty may not be a burthen
to myself, or make me so to others ; and that is the best
state of fortune that is neither directly necessitous, nor far
from it. A mediocrity of fortune with a gentleness of
mind, will preserve us from fear or envy, which is a
desirable condition, for no man wants power to do:mis-
chief. We never consider the blessing of coveting nothing,
and the glory of being full in ourselves, without depend-
ing upon fortune. With parsimony a little is sufficient ;
and without it, nothing ; whereas frugality makes a poor
man rich. If we lose an estate, we had better never
have had it ; he that has least to lose has least to fear,
and those are better satisfied whom fortune never fit-
uoured, th#n whom she has forsaken. The state is
most commodious that lies betwixt poverty and plenty•
Diogenes understood this very well whim he put himself
into an incapacity of losing anything. That course of
life is most commodious which is both safe and whole-
some ; the body is to be indulged no farther than for
health, and rather mortified than not kept in subjection
to the mind. It is necessary to
provide against hunger,
thirst, and cold ; and somewhat for a covering to shelter
us against other inconveniences, but not a pin matter
whether it be of turf or of marble. A man may lie as
warm, and as dry, under a thatched, as under a gilded
roof. Let the mind be great and glorious, and all other
things are despicable in comparison. The future is un-
certain, and I had rather beg of myself not to desire
anything, than of fortune to bestow it.—Seneca's Mot uh..
" REFLECTIONS UPON WEALTH.—Every man is
rich or poor according to the proportion between his
desires and his employments ; any enlargement of his
wishes is, therefore, destruction to happiness, witll the
diminution of possession ; he that teaches another to
long for what he can never obtain, is no less an enemy
him of patrimony.
tTo
hheisr qc
hu i el
lose
s aa
ltl igf rhe
tei
fi
cations,had robbed
ause their wants are
Prevented ; and added 'o the
lassitude which follows
satiety, they have a i
pr de proceeding from wealth,
which
wea ,
which makes them impatient at the loss of pleasure,
from though they have no enjoyment m the possession

gula spent, for one supper, 80,0001, and Heliogabulus
20,000/. The usual cost of a repast for Lucullus was
20,000/. Misalla gave 400,000/. for the house of
Antony. The fish from Lueullus's fish-ponds were sold
for 35,000/. Scaurus's country house was destroyed
by fire, and his loss was estimated at 850,00)1. Otho,
to finish a part of Nero's palace, spent 487,500/."
If the extraordinary instances of prodigious indivi-
dual wealth which we have here noticed should excite
the envy of any reader to whom fortune has been un-
propitious, we invite his attention to a few memorable
instances which we shall addue in proof of the utter
inefficiency of riches to insure for their possessors that
contentment without which there is no real enjoyment
in life. The melancholy fate of that ecclesiastical
*Creams, Wolsey, is too familiar not to suggest itself to

Mazarin less humiliating and deplorable, as may be ga-
thered from the following passage in his history from
Enfield's and Aikin's Gencral Biography
He was attacked by a disease which his system was
unable to resist. When he became sensible of his dan-
ger, he felt some scruples concerning the wealth he had
amassed, and his confessor plainly told him that resti-
tution was necessary for his salvation, and as it was not