The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-07 00:00:00

COMM HRCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

There is little change to notice in the money
market at New York ; the demand continues quiet,
and rates are unaltered. Stocks are freely pur-
chased for holding over, but few cash sales are re-
ported. Foreign exchange has a tendency down-
wards. London quoted 109 a to
Cotton has been favourat,ly influenced by the
Persia's European news. Br;?adstuffs were also
higher in value. Provisions rather easier. Freights
languid, with moderate engagements.

THE LITERARY ANn ARTISTIC PENSION

FUND.

Twelve hundred a year, as Finance Ministers
continually assure inquisitive members, is the pre-
scribed limit 'to the pensions annually granted by
Government for the relief of distress among the
classes devoted to literature and art. The scope
of this definition is wide, and the body of indivi-
duals whom it comprises present at all times, we
fear, only too many instances of misfortune. The
allotted margin, howeVer, is never overpassed. To
every claim preferred, wlien the list for the year
is filled, the Minister replies by quoting the statute
1 Vic., cap. 2, and declaring that however de-
serving the object, or unmerited ttie distress he is
asked to assuage, the law is inexorable in its pro-
hibition. The national purse is closed, and the
worthiest applicants are sent empty away.
While the law is interpreted thus rigidly against
the claim of literature and science, a similar strict-
ness should, in common justice, be exercised in its
favour. Perhaps 1,2001. is sufficient, or ought to
be made so, to relieve the poverty into which
" men of genius"—to use the ordinary phrase—
or their families, are likely to fall. The Act says
so, at all events, and must be obeyed.
But if the limit is thus narrowly pre-
scribed, the fund appointed by Parliament
should be religiously set apart for the
specific perpose, and not to Fe trenched upon in
order to make provision for State pensioners be-
longing to other classes. The grant at best is nat
so liberal as t ) justify excision. Yet the actual
allotment of the pensions for some years past has
shown how slight is the attention paid by the Exe-
cutive to the claims of literature, and how large a
part of the limited sum at their command is given
away, by her Majesty's Ministers, to recipients
who have no pretensions to the literary or artistic
character. .The list of pensions granted in the
year ending on the Ist inst, which has j Ist teen
officially pub!i-led, is no better than its predeces-
sors in this respect. The sum at disposal has been
thus distliblited. We venture to alter the order of
names for the sake of classification

CLASS I.
Alexander McCogan, in consideration of his
literary merits
Richard Ccrt, in consideration of his desti-
tute condition, and of the useful and valu-
able inventions of his father Henry Cort,
applicable to the manufacture of irin
Mrs. Mary Anne A'Beckett, in consideration
of the literary merits of her husband—the
late Mr. Gilbert A'Beckett.
Philip James Bailey, in consideration of his
literary merits
Dr. Charles Richardson, an additiogal pen-
sion of 251. a year in consideration of the
valuable additions which he has made to
works of standard literature
I Dr. William Pultenev Alison (late Professor
of the Practice of Physic in the University
of Edinburgh), in consideration of his
scientific attainments
Mrs. Anne Waghmn, in consideration of the
valuable cervices of her son, the late
Lieutenant NNTgliorn' iu establishing the
overland route to India, and of her pre-
sent narrow pecuniary' eins
Charles Swain, in consideration of his lite-

rary meriti.
Mrs. Mary Philadelphia Merrifield, in con-
sidi-raton of the valuable services she has
rsnderel to literature and art, and the re-
duced circurnsi ances in which she is placed
Mrs. Lydia Falconer Miller, in consider ation
of the eminent services rendered to litera-
ture and science by the works of her late
husband, Mr. Hugh Miller, and the
straightened circumstances in which she
is placed by his decease
Mrs. Mary Haydn, an additional pension of
251. a year in consideration of the eminent
services rendered to literature by her late
husband, Mr. Joseph Haydn, and the
straitened circumstances in which she is
placed by his decease

£3O

100

100

100

£7OO

CLASS 11.
Eliza Doyle (sister of the late Colonel Sir
John Miley Doyle, K.C.8.) ; in consi-
deration of the distinguished military ser-
vices of her brother, and of the destitute
circumstances in which she is lift by his
deo •aie £s
Mrs. Jane Margaret Backhouse ; in consi-
deration of the distressed circumstances
in which she has bt en left at the death of
her husband, Mr. George Canning Back-
house, who was murdered while discharg-
ing the duties of her Majesty's commissary
judge at Havannah
Mrs Margaret Gavin ; in consideration of
the distressed circumstances in which she
Iris been left on the death of her husband,
Dr. Gavin, who was accidentally killed in
the Crimea while employed in the public
s rvi. 30
Mrs. Anne Thompson, in consideratio❑ of
the gallant services of her son, the late
Capt. Thompson, C. 8., who died of the
wounds which he received at the memor-
able siege of Kars, and of the straitened
circumstances in which she is now placed:
Ellen Maria Hay and Fanny Anne Hay, its
consideration of the long and faithful ser-
vices of their father in the Admiralty de-
partments, and of the straitened circum-
stances in which they are now placed
Anne C.thcart, in consideration of the emi-
nent military services of her late father,
the late Lieutenant-General Sir George
Cathcart, K.C.8., who was killed at the
Battle of Inkerman, and of the narrow
pecuniary means in which his family have

100

150

been left

100

£5OO
We have nothing to say against the grants al-
lotted in any case. The publics gift was well be-
wowed and richlrdeserved. All that we plead is
that the pensions in the last category given above
should have been awarded from another fund.
Ample provision for the bereaved sister of Colonel
Doyle, mother of Captain Thompson, widow of
Mr. Gavin, or daughter of General Cathcart, was
due flora the nation to the services of those late
gallant officers, but clearly belonged t 3 the vote for
miht try pensions, and should have been defrayed
out of the artny estimates, instead of being drawn
from the pittance alloted by Parliament for the
relief of dis,ressed "Genius." The debts were
richly due, and ought to be paid. But the pay-
metit would have been wade with better grace if
not accompanied by a robbery upon a fund osten-
sibly devot-d to another branch of the national
liability to i's servants and benefactors.—Morning
Chronicle.

The Presse of yesterday states that a Baron de
8., who lost his fortune by speculations on the
Bourse, and who subzequently raised money on
bills, drove yesterday from the Rue de Rivoli,
where he occapied a hands me apartment, to Notre
Dame, where he committed suicide by throwing
himself from the tower. He held.in his hand a
summons which he had received from the Procur,ur
Imperial, t answer a charge of forgery. His body
was etinveyed t the Morgue.
Information has reached us of some disturbances
which have broken out in the South of Spain, but
they appear to have 1 een without importance, and
were egergetically suppressed,