The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-11 00:00:00

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lishmel 1, however, have no desire to see the f
wise CZ utments of the truly great ALFRED changed.
Like tlteir forefathers at Runnymede, they are pre-
pared to abide by their time-honoured Constitu-
tion, acid to resist with all their energies every
encroachment. Let the Crown enjoy all its legi-
timate prerogatives. We do not seek to impair
its power or authority, but, and particularly, while
the Gernnanic influence is so prevalent, we cannot
consent to its undue extension. Evils may possibly
arise far worse than those which are to be counter-
acted. Collisions have taken place—and are still
possible----and regarding the people as the
undoubted source of legitimate authority, and
the prerogatives of the Crown solely exercised
for their laenefit, we cannot consent to the enlarge-
ment of tile former at the expense of the popular
rights and privileges. These views may not be
suited to German or Muscovite feelings ; but we
address ourselves to English auditors—to those
who have firmly stood by their franchises, and
whose forefathers have freely shed their heart's
blood in resisting any approximation to despotism.
The approaches may be cautiously and secretly
made, but every outwork is worth defending to
the last ; and whether the attack be put forward
in the shape of a summary conviction or a police
bill, in whatever way the interests of centrali-
sttion are to be promoted, the same jealousy must
still be exhibited that rendered our Constitution
what it is. The creation of a life Peerage may
be a very trifling matter, as well as the prescribing
of rules for the pay and accoutrements of the
local police, or the power of indicating their extra
duties. But they are all movements in the wrong
direction, which should be closely watched, and
care taken that they should not in any way be
constituted into precedents that may impair or
disturb the well-established safeguards of the
liberties and privileges of the United Kingdom
and its inhabitants. From what occurred last
night, notwithstanding the large majority, we be-
lieve that the measure under notice will be so
purified as to prevent any considerable danger in
the event of its ultimately receiving the legisla-
tive sanction.

It is announced in a little semi-official para-
graph now going the rounds of the public journals
that the miserable pittance of 251. per annnns,
recently bestowed upon the late Mr. JOSEPH
HAYDN, has actually been continued—these are
the literal words of the paragraph—" to his un-
fortunate widow." Unfortunate, indeed, the poor
lady must in truth appear in the eyes of any sane
observer possessed of the smallest modicum of
sensibility. But unfortunate in a very different
sense, we suspect, from that implied by the com-
miserative phrase of the Treasury penny-a-liner.
Unfortunate beyond the common human cala-
mity indicated by her widow's-weeds. Un-
fortunate in being the witness of the petty
insult offered directly to her (since then
departed) husband while lying prostrate upon his
death-bed--and now posthumously reiterated in-
directly ley its renewal to herself as the relict of
that poor dead man-of-letters I The insult of a
beggarly pension of 251. a-year—a pension al-
ready analysed in these columns as one securing
to its recipient the munificent alms of just ls. and
41d. a day What tends very considerably
to enhance the poignancy of this insult,
(levelled gratuitously, and, as it appears
to us in the instance immediately re-
ferred to, most wantonly and most cruelly,
against the aggregated interests of Literature), is
the fact that, at the very time when a pauper-dole
of 251. a-year is awarded in the first instance to
Mr. JOSEPH HAYDN, and, in the second, to his
" unfortunate widow"—as a tribute to scholar-
ship, mark that ! as a tribute to scholarship--it
is mooted as a grievance among military men
that the widow of a Brigadier-General recently
deceased should become entitled to a ponaion
from the State of merely from 2000 to 3001. p r
annum, instead of one the champions of her
cause are sticklers for, namely, a pension of
actually from 4001. to 5001. sterling ! For the
relict of a scholar, a beggarly pittance of 251.
a-year is deemed something munificent—for the
widow of an officer, one of 2501. per annum is
considered something deplorably inadequate.
Ah, well ! it is not to-day we have to learn how
marvellously better Captain SWORD fares among
us than his luckless half-brother Captain PEN.
The one clad in scarlet and gold—the other occ4•
sionally out-at-elbows, sometimes may be even
nowadays as in the times when Grub-street had
not yet foreshadowed the Row, hid away iu a
garret, trembling at the possible advent of a milk-
score. The contrast is still at intervals some-
thingdeplorable—that presented, we mean, by the
diametrically opposite estimate of the scholar and
of the soldier, formed lay our very enlightened
rulers and our very civilised Government.
" swells" who appear to have as
wholesome a horror of mere authors as that enter-
tained by the aristocratic BYRON against--

Fellows
In foolscap uniform turned up with ink."

For them, BUCEPHALUS might lie up in clover
and fatten through old age into an hoioured
grave—PwAsus starving the while ignobly in the
parish pound, thence to be carted away in good
time to the knacker's yard for cat's-meat. Good
old AUSTIN CAXTON, for them, might famish upon
a wretched 25/. a year over the growing folios
of his " History of Human Error "—Captain Ro-
LAND simultaneously twirling his moustache
at his club window in Pall-mall, with his
plump cob round the corner somewhere at
livery, and his keen sword hung up over
his easy chair at home, red with rust in an
obsolete scabbard. Honour still, say we, to
the warrior, whether in life or in death,
respect and sympathy and solace still b• the lot
of his weeping relict, when the rewards of his
long services have come at last in duo season to
be his only posthumously. But something better
than insult let us accord in GOD'S name to
the scholar, and the scholar's widow. Some fitter
recompence to the Soldier of Thought than the
alms thrown to a beggar in the kennel, than the
handful of coppers doled out grudgingly as a
Maundy offering to some pitiful type of parochial
mendicancy.

ANOTHER JOSEPH ADY.—A man named West, about
sixty years of age, who described himself as a commer-
cial al,ent, was brought before Mr. A'Beckett, at the
)uthwark Police-court, charged with fraudulently ob-
taining sums of money from several persons by repre-
senting himself as an officer of the Cuurt of Chaucer' .
Ile was remanded for a week.
THE GOLD ROUBERT.—JOIIII Hall, charged with hay.
ing received a large quantity of the gold dust st.den in
its transit from London to the continent, was placed at
the bar of the Niansion-house yesterday, and again re-
manded till Saturday.
There is no probability of M. Manteuffel visiting
Paris at prevent, as stated by sotto journals. The posi-
tion
of Prussia in regard to the Western Power: remains
as it was.

1 I ATTEMPTED BURGLARY.—Henry lingpenny wax
yes.
terday charged at Guildhall with hurglariously attempt-
ing to enter the premises of Messrs. Mar,indale, ware-
housemen in Aldermaubury. He was remanded.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY, March 10:—The two gold
medals given annually by his Royal Highness the Chan-
cellor to the two commencing bachelors of arts who,
having obtained senior optitnes at least, show themselves
the g r eat rgt proficients in classical learning, have been
adjudged to E. L. Brown, Trinity College, and T. B.
Rowe, St. John's College.
MINISTERS' MONEY (IRELAND.--Mr. Fagan and Mr.
Beamish have brought in a bill to amend the act 17th
and 18th of Victoria, chap. 11, with a view to the total
abolition of the taz thereby imposed in lieu of " Nl-
nibters' !Annoy " in Ireland.,