The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-04 00:00:00

THE LITERARY FUND.

A paragraph has recently gone the round of the
newspapers, to use a current and significant phrase,
professing to inform the public of the nature and
object of the negotiation lately opened with the
Literary Fund by Mr. Charles Dickens and the
Rev. Whitwell Elwin. According to this para-
graph, which speaks with an air of authority, Mr.
Charles Dickens, acting on behalf of a friend whose
name has not yet transpired, has made to the Lite-
rary Fund the " noble offer" of a large library of
books, and the sum of £lO,OOO, on condition that
certain changes shall be adopted in the institution.
The Spectator, improving upon the statement, goes
into some circumstantial details. The library con-
sists of from 15,000 to 17,000 volumes : the dona-
tion in money is not £lO,OOO, but £17,000, of which
£5,000 is to be derived from the Guild of Literature,
being the amount lying dead in the hands of the
surviving managers of that enterprise, and the re-
maining £12,000 is to be contributed by an anony-
mous benefactress, who is conjectured by our con-
temporary to be Miss Burdett Coutts ; and the con-
dition which it appears Miss Coutts, or the benefac-
tress, whoever she nay be, requires is, that the
Literary Fund shall carry into effect the views of
the "Reformers." Lord Chesterfield has very judici-
ously observed that whatever is worth doing is worth
doing well ; and it may not, we think, be ill to
apply this practical maxim, with a slight alteration,
to the functions assumed by the authors of news-
paper paragraphs. Whatever is worth relating to
the public is worth relating accurately. Now, in
thisinstance, notwithstanding the special informa-
tion which the writers seem to possess, the state-
ments they have but forward respecting Mr.
Dickens's negotiation with the Literary Fund are
utterly erroneous. We certainly should not have
considered the matter, while it is yet in abeyance,
a legitimate subject for discussion ; nor shall we
enter upon any. discussion of the question at pre-
sent ; but, as it is important to prevent a false im-
pression from being made on the public mind before
the time for discussion shall have arrived, we feel
it due to the interests of truth to correct the grave
errors into which the journals have fallen. The
" noble offer," which looks in the paragraph as if
a benefaction of £lO,OOO, or, as the Spectator has
has it, £17,000, were about to be added to the
capital of the fund, really consists in the offer of a
library, accompanied by a sum of £lO,OOO to be
spent exclusively upon its maintenance. In consi-
deration of this gift of books, it is required of the
fund that it shall, it its own cost, procure a new
charter, for the purpose of making certain organic
changes in its constitution. The time when it is
proposed that the books and the £lO,OOO shall come
to the fund is remote and indefinite, being dependent
on the termination of two persons' lives; but the
condition insisted on is that the new charter shall
be obtained at once. Upon the character of this
proposition we will make no observation. We
desire only that the public should understand what
it is; and that, instead of offering a donation of
money to the fund, it requires the fund to incur a
positive outlay for an alteration in its constitution,
the advantages of which are at least problematical.
We understand that the opinions of the council
and the vice-presidents have been taken upon the
proposition, and that it is now under the considera-
tion of the committee,—Literary Gazette.

THE NEW LIBRARY IN THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.
—Since the foundation-stone of this large building was
laid, in August last, very considerable progress bas been
made with the works, although the walls are being all con-
structed of stone, and most of the windows—some of which
are on a large scale, and to be filled with elaborately-
moulded tracery—together with all other portions of orna-
mental -
and other masonry, are to be executed in the sam
material. The walls are now carried up above the sills of
the second floor windows, and their embattled transoms are
being fixed. The circular stone staircase at the north end is
in an advanced state, and the sill of the great northern win-
dow is already set. The timber roof, which, w
also nearl
hen complete,
will be a fine example of carpentry, is y
in readiness, being in preparation at the contractor's
extensive premises in the Belvedere-road, and will, we tui.
derstand, be ready for fixing as soon as the walls are raised
to the proper height to receive it, so thatno time will be lost.
We are informed that the bookcases will range all round the
principal library, to the height of about nine feet, above
which the walls %vill be faced with Bath stone, brought to a
fine face. The large principals of the roof will rest firmly on
large moulded and enriched stone corbels, of very effective
design. When completed, the new building will form one
of the largest and handsomest libraries of the kind in Lon-
eris; tmher. arnchiowtelacnt
df,orththee
asetrurkettiofrew;orMksr;
Lon-
don, in the Don2estic Gothic style of architecture. H. It.
Myers the
and dr. Sims, the practical foreman for the contractor; both
of whom act under the special supervision of the architect.
—Building News.