The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1850.

Whether or not it may be advisable to abolish the
old office of the Poet-Laureateship remains of course
a matter of consideration for the Government. No
system so entirely harmless in its operation, and at
the same time so honourable by its antiquity and its
associations, can be abruptly foregone, and this, too,
merely at the flippant behest of those whose
sympathies are impervious to the charms of literary
celebration, without exciting among the multitude
some sentiments of regret, or, at the least, of sub-
dued disappointment. The people at large, and
especially the more reflective portions of
the community, are sensitive to the last de-
gree in regard to the diminution of the
means of publicly honouring their intellectual
benefactors, those means, surely, even now, being suffi-
ciently restricted. It is, moreover, altogether beside
the question to talk of the particular office referred to,
as of one only comparable to that of the King's Jester.
To speak of the Poet-Laureateship as leading to the
degradation of a man of letters by his acceptance of
such as appointment is, in fact, to talk sheer non-
sense. Was BEN JONSON, we should like to know,
degraded in this wise ? And were not the exquisite
" Masques," perhaps the most precious of
all his poetic effusions, in a great measure
the result of that nomination ? Was JOHN DEYDEN
degraded after a similar fashion ? And was the royal
coronation of him in the Gazette detrimental to the
play of his superb and resplendent genius—a genius
which possibly shone the most brightly in his inimi-
table " Hind and Panther ?" Was the conference of
the Poet-Laureateship on ROBERT SOUTHEY, again,
one step made in the way of his degradation ? Or
was there any degradation visible—any degradation
moral, personal, or intellectual—in the selection,
as his successor, of WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
In the estimation of his individual ad-
mirers,• and of his countrymen generally,
Mr. WORDSWORTH was, we are bold to say, as esti-
mable, as venerable, as worthy of veneration after
his acceptance of the office as ever he may have been
prior to the appointment. Yet we must not be mis-
taken. Far be it from our intention to imply that in
the maintenance of the Poet-Laureateship—there is
involved any prerogative or title of the slightest im-
portance to the higher and nobler cultivators of our
literature. The honour in this respect redounds alone
to the " powers that be"—not, in the most fugitive
particular to
.the rank of Authorship, and, least
of all, we would herein imply to that
fattiest which partakes somewhat of the character of a
Priesthood. While, therefore, we are resolute in the
opinion that the Poet-Laureateship should not be
lightly abolished, we argue in favour of its mainte-
nance simply because of that narrow capacity for the
encouragement of intellectual achievements which is
retained in the possession of the Government, and of
the diminution of which, in every respect what-
ever, the Government should be most chary and
jealous.

Satisfied, therefore, that the office, in it-
self a , sort of court trifle, and one invest-
ing the recipient with a merely honorary
distinction, should not be carelessly abandoned, the
only consideration remaining is as to the most suit-
able party to be selected for the appointment. For.
tunately, in the making of this selection, there is,
apparently, at the outset much reason for embarrass-
ment. Fortunately, we say in spite of those
individuals who perversely and foolishly proclaim the
present age to be one decidedly unpoetical. Among
the young poets of the present generation
the partialities and predilections of the many
may disport with an amusing diversity of
of opinion ; but there are happily left to us a few ve-
terans of that poetical phalanx in the almost post-
humous homage of which the intellect of the country
may recognize the means of exciting the truest appre-
ciation of genius, and the noblest source of emula-
tion. It is true that the lovers of English poetry
may still exult in those propitious abilities from which
have emanated works like that fantastic " Prin-
cess," which abounds with so much of idyllic
beauty and lyrical inspiration, as that meditative
" Paracelsus," which is fraught with strains of ethic
eloquence and metaphysical harmony, or as that
eccentric " Festus," which reveals the riches of a
most daring and precocious imagination. It is true
that among the many gifted men whose reputations
have already ripened into large and permanent celebri-
ties, we may enumerate with a feeling of natural,
and we may add, too, of even national pride,
the names of BABINGTON MACAULAY, the
bard of the impassioned and classical " Lays
of Ancient Rome," scarcely less highly reputed
through them than through his labours as an essayist
and an historian ; of BULWER LYTTON, the poetic
celebrant of the glories of "King Arthur," hardly
less admired for the variety of his scholarship than
for the ardour, the industry, and the versatility of
his Protean ambition ; and of SAVAGE LANDOR, the
writer of the elegant and refined " Hellenics,"
barely the less indebted to them for his literary
mhoisre surprising
renowngenious tehxaonellteoneetheof
inthe
Conver-
sations."the
wise, It is true, moreover, t" hat Imaginary
wise, the gentle, and the eloquent Christopher North
we can recognise the poet of the "Island f
e ‘
Palms," as well as the critic of th o
Amhrosianae." but apart from all these,
nnd‘ Noctes
others
not enumerated, there are three men to whom
stinctively turn as the most appropriate we 1
-
successors of
SOUTHEY and WORDSWORTH, the venerable •
relics of
the last poetic generation. Can it be doubted
for an instant that our allusion is made to
the author of the " Irish Melodies," to the
author of the " Pleasures of Memory," and to
the author of the " World before the Flood"--t 0
THOMAS MOORE, to SAMUEL ROGER 9, and to JAMES
MONTGOMERY ? From the known generosity of his
character, the wealth of
ROGERS would alone be'
sufficient to preclude him from the acceptance of an
office which might be more acceptable to some poet
not similarly surrounded by the gifts of opu-
lence. From the unfortunate debility with
which years have at least damped the phy-
sical and intellectual animation of Mr.
MOORE, and which threatens even to terminate in the
total decay of his constitution, it is certain that his
appointment to the vacant post would be little less
than a mournful and miserable unckery. From