Star.
London, England, 1831-06-03 00:00:00

?IT OF THE JOURNALS.

TI M RS.— Already sufficientre;;;;. has i237afforded us
for the conviction that we did no more that justice to his
Majesty's Ministers, in expressing our total disbelief of any
cencern or priority on their pert in the harsh and tasteless
discontinuance of the. pensions bestowed during the former
rap on gentlemen distinguished by their eminence in the
literary world. We arc now assured, and on the best infor-
mation, that " his Majesty's Ministers are entirely guiltless
of the act. Iv is further known that Lord Grey, on finding
that Mr. Coleridge had lost, thrlugh the exercise of an au-
thority distinct from that of the King's revous;ble servants,
the pittance on which he bad hitherto existed, has agreeed to
grant hi n an annuity equal to thnt witinlmern from him,
though issuing out of e fund which is but teinporary.This does
honour to Lord Grey. and we trust that his lordship will
have nerve anti generosity to put the colleagues of Mr. Cole-
ridge also on some less miserable footing than that to which
a treatment similar to what he has experienced must ere
now have reduced them. The truth is, that the pensions
were supplied by order of George IV. from the privy
purse, over which, as it is well understood by parliament,
no person has authority but the Kicg himself. However,
if we are not mistaken, the act, which was a blunder, will
in one way or other be repaired. The press is a powerful
protector of the destitute, and an honest—if not always a
welcome—friend to those whom it reminds of lapses in thir
duty.
HERALD.—It seems hardly credible that government
could meditate the withdra.sal of the small pensions which
a few eminent literary and scientific men have derived for
some years past from the bounty of the crown, while they
preserve, in all its unpruned luxuriance, the "charity" of
the pension list, which " corers a multitude of sins," and
leaves but a small part of its wide mantle to spread its fos-
tering protection over eminent virtues or meritorious public
services. It has indeed been positivtly and publicly stated,
that intimation has :teen given to the ten associates of the
" Royal Society of Literature," who have hitherto re-
ceived one hundred guineas front the King's annual
bounty, that " they must expect their allowances very
shortly to cease." The authority for this statement is
the " Gentleman's Magazine," which asserts it without
qualification, owl which, if it be not true, could not have
made P more defamatory attack on the character of the pre-
seot Administration. %Ve consider this matter quite distinct
from any question touching the alms of the" Royal So-
ciety of Literature" to public estimetion or royal patronage.
We must leave that society itself to show what it has done
fur the promotion of the real interests of literature since its
establishment; but, whether it succeed in making out a
good cue or not, I' is certain that the greater number
of the ten individuals who ,eceivc the annual hundred
guineas from the Crown pre men who, before that society ex-
isted, had rendered eminent service to the commonwealth of
letters. When we mention the names of Roscoe, Coleridge,
S.Turner, and Matthias, tee think it not too much to add that
the minister who would counsel the monarch to withdraw
bb annual bounty from such men, at a time when the vi-
cious profusion of the pension list is thought too sacred to
be touched by the pruning-knife of reform, would mistake
a paltry raid disreputable parsimony for that judicious eco-
nomy which knows how to wisely save, and honourably
expend, the resources of a nation. We thought the govern-
ment committed r great error when they defended the
whole profligacy of the pension list on the pretext of charity
--for. by so doing, they greatly shook the confidence of the
country in the sincerity of their professions of putting the
principle of a just retrenchment into practice. But great
would be the public indignation if the double injustice were
committed of sacrificing the humble stipends of a few men
of genius and learning to the preservation of the whole ob-
scure horde of sycophants, titled paupers. and vicious fa-
vourites—to pamper whom, at the public expense, the royal
bounty is degraded. But we cannot anticipate any thing so
inconsistent with political prudence, or so offensive to
moral taste.

POST.—There has been'some rioting at Whitehaven, on
the occasion of political dinners held on the same day by rho
two parties respectively, of AnU-Reformers and Revolution-
ists, in which it appears dirt the latter, being the weaker
party, sustained the most damage. Upon this occurrence
the ministerial press has unanimously adopted a tone of fiery
Indignation, which we can scarcely regard as tither sponta-
neous ov sincere, when we recollect the equanimity of tern.
per with which this same press attempted first to deny and
then to extenuate, if not to eulogise, the riutons excesses of
the radical mub in the metropolis, on the occasion of the
Lord klayor's illumination. and the nibble brutalities which,
during the late election, overawed or coerced the emus in so
many part of the country, in the exercise of their legal and
constitutional right. The very vehement expressions of in-
dignation uhich (laity meet our eye upt.n the tumult in Cum-
berland contrasts so remade:l:lly with the language which
proceeded from the same sources, on every other recent oc-
casion of die irder (that they hare been neither few nor tri-
vial we need Hot state), that we should have been comp-Lied to
surmise some iiew and secret motive for a vigor of reprehension
at once so unnatural, so prouirt, and so combined, had we
been left, which fortunately we are not, entirely to our own
conjectures upon the subject. The ministerial press are
not sore unanimous in their unwonted severity of ani-
madversion upon this case of riot, than in their ICCOM.
mendation to his majesty's government of the course
by which, in their judgment, riots in Cumberland may
hr. most effectually prevented for the future. The ad-
vice is short and pithy enough. It is the unanimous ad-
vice of the daily organs of the administration—" DinDifil
the Earl of Lonstiale from the Lieutenancy of the
County"—although not one of them pretends that the noble
earl, who for a great number of years has represented the
Sovereign in that part of the kingdom, with hooout to him-
self and advantage to the community, could have prevented
the riot, knew any thing of tho riot, or had recently been
within 100 milesof the place where it occurred. We suppose
there is nobo.ty so dull as not to comprehend from all this that
Lon' Brougham has at lean one very good friend in each of the
counties of Cumberlandand Wee mordant], whom he thinks
eminently fit .O. the office of Lord Lieutenant. W suppose
also that the Lords Lieutenant and the Magistrates likewise
oterery other county in Unglant', such of them we mean who
are not revolutionists, will now begin tojperceive that under
the present Administration they hold their commissions by
a very precarious tenure.
TIM F.S.—'l'he Lord Charcellor's decision in tie case of
the School or Ashby-de-la-Zouch is one of much importance
to the, diffusion of general kroeledge. His Lordship, in
confirmation of the Master's Report in 1806, decided th..t the
school was not for instruction iu the learned languages only,
but for the communication of the minor branches of science,
"jureses pueres infamies to rarvulos" being mentioned in the
foundation act—persons, in fact, too young to be taught
Latin, and nothing but Latin. Every body knows that in
the reigns of Edward VI. and Quern Elizabeth, the age for
founding grammar-schools, many such' were established for
the exclusive purpose of teaching the reamed languages, in
cider to supply the means of education which had been lost
by the destruction of the monastic establishments, and also
to counteract the advantage which the Popish clergy (still ex-
isting in large numbers) possessed, from the knowledge of
ancient literature. But it is also known that many schools, es-
tablished for mere general instruction, have since been raised
into the rank of grammar schools, by which the poor have
t ern deprived of the advantages originally intended for them
rind it is most desirable that all establishments of the lute
character should be restored to their original destination,