The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-02 00:00:00

THE BENEVOLENT FUND.

The chair was then vacated by Mr. Jones in
order that it might be taken by Mr. John Abel
Smith, the chairman of the Benevolent Fund So-
ciety, which is connected with the Provident
Clerks' Association, and whose annual meeting
follows immediately after that of the Provident
Clerks' Association.
The following report was read by Mr. Linford
Ti. board have much pleasure in presenting their 19th
annual report to the members and friends of the Provident
Clerk%, Benevolent Fund. The income for the year 1859 has
been as follows, viz. :
Donations
Annual subscriptions
Life do. 10 10 0
Subscriptions of ss. and
upwards from assurers,
being clerks
£1,440 4 0
Interest, dividends, &c. 799 7 3

£2,239 11 3
Gratuities to members in distress, and to the widows of
members, have been awarded to the extent of £139 15s.
Loans amounting to £1,826 10s. have been granted. The
balance-sheet, duly audited, has been submitted to the
trustees.
In pursuance of the resolution of the annual general
meeting, held on the 2d February last, an election of annui-
tants took place on the 31st May, when the following were
elected, viz.:—Ono clerk to an annuity of £3O ; one widow
to art annuity of £2O ; four widows to annuities of £l5 each
—amounting together to £llO per annum. One widow has
married during tha past year, and her anuuity consequently
ceases. Them are now on the fund 10 clerks and 43 widows,
who are receiving a total sum of £945 per annum.
They now recommend that six additional annuities be
granted, viz., to one clerk and five widows of clerks, at the
discretion of the board. A resolution to the above effect
will be irabmitted to the meeting.
In tbair last report the board had to announce with much
regret the retirement from the auditorahip of James w.
Gilbf .‘rt, Esq., F.R.S. Although, however, his official con-
neCtion with tho fund has terminated, Mr. Gilbart has
"iv
,ced his continued k ndly interest in its welfare,
hay ing on his retirement from his important
position by which he had been so long and closely con-
neicted with the body of clerks, presented the fund with the
liberal sum of £lOO, an example which, it is hoped, will be
followed by many to whore the well-being of a fund sta
Toed for the relief of a class so intimately connected ewith.

--N\
the commercial interests of this country shoQ teljggiN-10,
of the deepest interest and importance. ,;- - ,-'- --:-:Atv
(Signed) Jou N A -1.131±i I'M .5.g4,4,-.A:,, 1.7-41"..
The CHAIRMAN, in moving itS,'adoPtion): Cats #l4,
gratulated the meeting on the remarkable: and if-::-1;f
gratifying improvement of their poiitlinn, : Their ,-:.
income this year as compared with the be` '4- --.:'..--`.,--'
of former years had increased £5OO. They , . 2,
now an additional permanent, income of IA 00,
and the board suggested that they should extend
the annuities to the amount of £110; and he bad
long wished that they should increase the annui-
ties when they could do so from safe and fixed
sources. If, indeed, this institution had been lin p .
plrted as it ought to have been, instead of relieving
53 orphans and clerks, they would have what ho
wished to sec-106. The hon. gentleman concluded
by moving that the report be adopted, and printed
and circulated at the discretion of the committee.

The motion, 'having been seconded, was put to
the meeting and carried unanimously.
Mr. WELCH moved a resolution that one clerk
and five widows of clerks be admitted on the 31st
of May next, which was carried unanimously.
In reply to Mr. 11. PARR,
The CHAIRMAN said that the directors would
anxiously consider the possibility of ebtablishiag
an orphan uchool in connection with this society.
Thanks were voted to Mr. Thonnis Baling. M.P.,
Mr. Thomson Hankey, M.P., and the other trus-
tees of the benevolent fund, and the vote was re-
sponded to by Mr. Ifaukey, on behalf of himself
and the other trustees.
The officers for the ensuing year were elected,
and the meeting concluded with a vote., of thanke
to the chairman.

TIU2VG-4RY.

A letter from Pesth, dated Jan. 26, says :

"A deputation of the most distinguished Protes-
tants of Ile--- '•- --ne to Vienna to represent
to the En..L he will incur ifITIT-)r-
-
sista in forcing his hated-patent on the Protestants.
From, however, the scant intelligence and the no-
tori,us obstinacy of the Emperor, and from the
stupidity of his counsellors, the members of the
deputation have not the slightest hope that he will
attend to their representations ; and their only ob-
ject in making them is to prove to Hungary and to
Europe that they have done all that in them lies to
preserve peace with the Viennese ,Government, and
that, in Consequence, they will be in nowise reepon--
sible for the events that may follow from its wicked
and reckless policy.
"I informed you in my preceding letter that the
Austrian Government was resolved, in spite of the
universal and indignant remonstrances of all Pro-
testant Hungary, to carry out the aforesaid patent.
It has begun doing so in the county of Arva, which
is peopled by Slovacks • and the leason why it se-
lects that county in preference to any other is that
for local circumstances it possesses some influence
there, and that the Slovacks not being of the same
race as the Hungarians have hitherto not been quite
so hostile to the Hapsburg family. But even in
Arva it has encountered energetic resistance.
Under the able direction of M. Kubinyi, president
of the superintending commission of the district, the
Protestants of the county have refused to take part
in the election of elders, or to do any other act
whatsoever towards the carrying out of the patent.
I have received a letter from a Protestant clergy-
man
in the county, which says, ''We are surprised
that the agents of the Hapsburgs should presume
to think that we are more disposed than
our Protestant brethren in other parts of
the kingdom to submit to the odious pa-
tent. We are determined, on the contrary, as
they are, to oppose it by every means in our power
short of actual violence. IVe will do so with the
calm that becomes Christians. but at the same time
with the resolution that becomes men.' When such
is the language and such the conduct of the Pro-
testants whom the Viennese Government flatters

itself are the faithful among the faithless found,'
judge what the people of the rest of Hungary hill
say and do.
"In the great crisis into which the Protestant
religion of Hungary is plunged, the eyes of all sin-
cere defenders of the faith are turned towards Eng-
land. The Hungarians feel certain that she looks
with interest on their sufferings, and with sym-
pathy for their efforts, and they are not without
hope that her Parliament will in imitation of her
noble press, raise its voice in their behalf. On this
last point have reason to believe that they will
not be mistaken. I know that more than one mem-
ber of each of the two Houses has put himself in
communication with the leaders of the Protestants
in this country, in order to obtain a detailed state-
ment of the grievances of the Protestant churches
and of the oppression of the Hungarian people, and
know that a political personage of England, who
is familiar with the situation of Hungary, has
written that if the English Government did its
duty it would send some such message to the
Viern .se Cabinet a'lthat which Crotnvall sent to a
Pope—namely, that if he dared to oppress the
people of God, English cannon should thunder at
San Angelo.'

"The...Augsburg Gazette publishes in its letter
of the 24th another long article on the Pesth cor-
respondence in the Times. Of course the cur-
respondence is described as lies, calumnies,
and so forth ; but of course, also not the slightest
serious attempt is made to give proof that it
is false and calumnious. In fact, what the Gazette
chiefly does is to make copious extracts from
these letters, and to cry, What falsehood !
What impudence !"rime was when the Austrian
Government used to reply in that way to all the
observations made on it by the press ; and time
was when the Austrian people were stupid enough
to accept such a reply as sufficient. But times are
changed ; and certainly now nobody in Europe, not
even the dullest of dull Austrians, will suppose that
an exclamation of What a lie ! why effrontery !'
from such a journal as the .Augsburg Gazelle, is an
answer. The articles in this paper are inspired?
by the Press Bureau at Vienna, which is a recent
creation of the Austrian Government."