The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-09 00:00:00

SHALL

SHERIDAN KNOWLES

HAVE A PENSIONf

With peculiar satisfaction we transfer the following
remonstrance from a publication entitled the Renfrew-
shire Magazine to our columns. Long ago, and re-
peatedly, we ourselves have insisted upon the cruelty,
the injustice, and the impolicy of neglecting those who
have distinguished themselves either by their literary
or artistic creations. We have frequently taken oc-
casion to press the claims of Mr. Knowles upon the
attention of the Government, and, while those claims
still continue unacknowledged, we are satisfied that
an earnest co-operation on the part of the press would
ultimately elicit the recompense of so much genius
applied to the adornment of our national
literature, clothing virtue in an alluring
garb, inculcating patriotic sentiments with an unusual
eloquence, and breathing throughout a spirit of bene-
volence and magnanimity. At the same moment we
cannot perceive the utility of cavilling at the munifi-
cence displayed towards some authors merely in con-
sequence of the niggardliness evinced towards others.
We cannot coincide with those who would become
churlish at the butt of malmsey presented periodi-
cally to Ben Jonson, because Shaksaere was without
so generous a guerdon—at the poetical coronation of
Petrarch, because Boccacio remained uncrowned—at

the departure of Prior upon the Parisian embassy,
because Wycherley was compelled to pen his wittiest
comedy upon his death-bed—upon the two hundred
pounds per nnnnm nnnfprrvri upon Alfred Tennyson.
because the services of Sheridan Knowles still remain
unrecognised by her Majesty's Ministers. In the in-
stance of Mr. Knowles there is not merely a neces-

lity to reward for inestimable labours, but a great
necessity likewise to repair an act of injustice long
committed.—En. Sun.]
" While the melancholy circumstances attending the
death of the highly-gifted, yet world-wearied Ilaydon,
are still fresh in our memories, it may not be amiss to
direct attention to the case of Mr. James Sheridan
Knowles, whose name is not to be found in the list of
civil pensions. . • • • .
There may be some who will ask what Knowles has
done to entitle him to a pension ; their number will be
few : yet, lest the eyes of any such may chance to light
on these remarks, we shall mention the names of some of
those noble productions which, of themselves, would have
been sufficient to hand down the name and memory of
their deep-toned, far-thoughted' author to a grateful
and admiring posterity. How Tell's soul-stiring Ode
to Liberty' comes home—to use a homely phrase—to the
hearts of us Scots. We have not altogether forgotton
how Wallace faught and conquered in the cause of Scot-
tish freedom ; nor how well Robert Bruce imitated his
great precursor. Well do we remember the first perusal
of this breathing, burning' strain,
Ye crags, and peaks ! I'm with you once again
While the English language exists, will the play of
William Tell ; the possessor of a fame which, instead of
fading, will grow in strength every hour of its existence!

How we feel constrained to weep with mad Vir-
ginius,' and o'er the story of his wrongs' to breathe
forth, unconsciously, a sigh. The noble-soulcd and
generous Hunchback,' whose inner-man, with its
celestial proportions, cast in heaven's own mould, ex-
hibits such a goodly contrast to the deformity of its
earthly ally, is a searching study of human nature in
one of its most eccentric pha3es ; and is laid open to
the world in language the most chaste, yet attractive ;
with a voice the most melodious, yet full of power and
pathos ; commanding attention with a mild authority,
while it soothes and elevates the soul. But here we
must pause, our space being of necessity very limited ;
still, we do so with the less regret, considering that
many, very many, of our readers are, without doubt,
admirers of the Shakspere of the nineteenth century.
As we have already said, the plays above alluded to
are a few of those magnificent productions which stamp
their author as the possessor of genius of the most
exalted order ; and should the present attempt to reply
to the supposed question, ' What has Knowles done to
entitle him to a pension ?' fall short of conviction, let
the proposers of it read, mark, and learn,' for them-
selves. They will be amply repaid for their pains. .
In conclusion, may we venture to express the hope that
Mr. Knowles may yet, and that at no distant period,
have bestowed on him a pension adequate to his merits
—we ask, he expects no more. If those whose province
it is to confer such marks of a nation's gratitude upon
individuals whose time, talents, strength of soul and
body, are, or have been, devoted to the enriching of our
stores of literature, neglect or refuse to listen to his
claims—ignorance of them they cannot plead—then the
country, independent of the Government, must be ap-
pealed to; and, together with these of other localities,
Mr. Knowles has, from similar association, a peculiar
claim on the opulent merchants of Glasgow. Surely if
a testimonial of such enormous value could be so easily
obtained for George Hudson, by an appeal to the mer-
chants, traders, 84e., of Great Britain, they will not re-
fuse to give forth, out of their abounding substance,
wherewith to fund a suitable annuity for one of the
brightest and most valuable intellects of Britain! What
scatterm p t e d John
r
ptoro
Bull and his 'canny. brither, s
gold in such profusion at the feet of one whose sole
a miserable delusion was that_ awwnheicyh,,
claims to their gratitude lay in the wonderful agility he
1 yed in climbing the mountains of Plutus, and
in enriching himself, bag after bag, with such a vast
had displayed
amount of the world-worshipped ore; and his having
aided and abetted the 'airy creation of so many of
the bubbles of the day! Shame will affix itself, dur-
ing their existence, to the men of the present day, should
they refuse to listen to an appeal made for such a pur-
pose as we have above alluded to, on the behalf of Mr.
Knowles ; and, when their brief sojourn here shall have
ended, aught but kindly remembrances will be attached
to their memories. That the necessity of such an ap-
peal may soon be speedily obviated by the bestowal of
a Government pension on him whose cause we plead, is,
we repeat, our unqualified and fervent prayer! It has
bestowedß
etterlanteowthlanltneve cannotr,' isr come
an e oldan
hoursa3
ingo so
let it is
soon,
been too long delayed already, and, come when it may,
redeemingeit only for the purpose of redeeming the
stillto l a
honour were
eet
f the nation. Delay a little longer, and perhaps
es d now,
he, whose useful life an adequate pension, bestowed
'gone to that bourne
from ,e
might serve to eke out, may have
hownohuerncsehallbe
no traveller
paidto
siamentations and
Then, indeed,
all
praises sufficient to canonize his bone s, be.
poured forth ;
y
and over his cold remains, as they are in the nar-
row house,' mayhap many a voice
shall
exclaim, We
ne'er shall look upon
like
again.' And when the
costly and storied pile shall have been raised to his me-
mory, bearing witness alike of the splendour of his
talents, and the unselfish purposes to which they were
devoted, it will also, to our shame, tell of the compara-
tive poverty, and apparent neglect, in which his ungrate-
ful countrymen suffered him to languish and die !"