The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-11 00:00:00

TZ-12.1 LONDON PRESS.

GENIUS AND MERIT IN DISTRESS.

In this day's Times we have inserted some notice of a•
new literary production front the known and much-adini-
red pen of Mr. Banim, author of Tales of the O'Hara
Family, the Nmelans, the Fetches, the Croppy, the Boyne
Water, and several dramatic performances of distinguish-
ed merit, from every one of which the'public has•derived
an amount of pleasure, and from some among them of
moral improvement, but rarely attributable to works of
modern fiction. There is no living author who has ex-
celled Mr. Banim in 'a striking portraiture of national
manners as exhibited in the middle and inferior clases of
Irishmen. By no other hand have the powers or infirm-
ities of Irish nature been more skilfully develbped,no
eye has measured with more searching sagacity the deep
springs of the most tempestuous movements which char-
acterize the race and agitate the community, nor have
terror, pity, and virtuous sympathy been more success-
fully employed by any novelist of the existing genera-
tion towards the practical accomplishment of that most
useful erid, the exposure of mischievous errors and the
abatement of .national animosities.
It grieves us to be compelled to add, that this amiably
disposed and highly-gifted writer, who has achieved for
his name a distinction so honourable and enduring, and
has-established against society a debt which, so far as
re-
gards himself personally, has never been discharged,
now lies in a situation too likely to .determine whether
his influence over the benevolent sensibilities of English-
Men extends beyond the excitement of a cheap commis-
eration for ideal suffering, or whether among the luxn-
ries of affluent fortune and fastidious taste *all be num-
bered that of ministring to a man of worth and genius,
broken down by disappointment, visited by The Almigh-
ty with severe and protracted sickness, commanded by his
medical friend, on pain of death,. to abstain from labour,
--destitute, helpless, with a wife subdued by long pres-
sure of calamity, and children crying for the unbought
bread. This is no fiction,—this, unhappily, is no novel.
More minute particulars we shall not go into, but we
have heard enough to justify us in declaring that it is
humanity towards our readers which alone restrains us.
Every generous heart will feel the single fact which we
have stated, of Mr. Banim's present condition, to be a
disgrace to the literary and social character of England
if it be suffered to continue for another hour. Appeals
to individuals, however liberal and beneficent, would,'on
such an occasion, be altogether childish. The embarrass-
ments which imminently endanger the liberty of the sick
in a strange country (he is at Boulogne) go at once to
the destruction of life. - To literary men—to the patrons
of literature—to the rich, and noble, and warm-hearted
everywhere, we recommend this case with cordial good
wishes, and not without same confidence. Messrs. Hoare,
in Fleet-street, and Messrs. Hopkinson, in Regent-street,
Waterloo-place, have kindly offered to receive subscrip-
tions. The lady of Mr. Banim is in town, and will give
acknowledgments for the sums contributed, which it is
the sincere purpOse of Mr. Banim, if, through a suspen-
sion of toil and sorrow, his health should be re-establish
cad, to repay in fall.—Tinzes.