, 1880-03-03

"blOated ~curmudgeOn." Everybody who
has ever given anything, knows how irrita-
ting this particular persecution gradually
becomes, how cordially he learns to dislike
the tormentor, and how heartily be wishes
he had never given away d penny, but had
achieved the delicious immunity from i'm
pOrtunity of his neighbour Ski%nt1int; but
everybody does not realise the feeling of
the millionaire, who is haraSSed at every
turn, waited for on the door step, besieged
in his library, talked at when at dinner,
and who feels at last as if the philall5hro-
pists and claimants actually threatened
him, and publicly announces that he has
turned ayariciouS, and will give no more.
We believe it to be strictly the truth that
there are in London wealthy men perfectly
ready to give, if any free will is allowed
them, out Who AVE been baited out of
giving by the philanthropists and begging
letter-writers combined, and have put on
armour of cynical selfishneSs only to Keep
themselves alive and free. II simply dare
not let people know what I give" said one
of them, the other day 81 did once, and
for year had no peace in my life" Ma
caulay's "Merloirs' tell us a little OF this,
and Charles Dickens's; but neither histo.
rian Tor hUmour;st was d really rich man,
and the Applications increase III lmpudence
as well as frequency, with the scale OF for
tune. Surprising, however, the rich man
to be pretty strOng-willed, unsentimental,
and master of tho kind of sarcasm which
best answers with right-meaning beggar*,
who, leathery as they are, have their own
points of weakness, and for instance, get
angry if you inform them point-blank that
the particular cause they are begging for
say, teetOtalism-iS an incalculaDle evil,
there arises another difficulty, that Of
vnI1,aTvrr gIn ,Nn1-In xA,r w-,nk 10 1a1ve tn
accept anything. Many people believe this
the most insuperable difficulty OF all, be-
lieve that in England a particular kind of
self-rcspact is SO ingrainCd by the nation
alsentiment in favour of individualSm,
that unless the relationship is close, or
there is Guid pro CuO of some kind, such as
a great service rendered, the good will not
receive gifts. Mrs. Ciiphani, who must
have observed English society, and espe-
cially English professional society, very
long and very keenly, believes this SO
strongly that she has made it the basis Of
novel.
In her recent very readable and sugges-
tive, though hurried, story, "Jhe Greatest
Heiress in England" ~ she paints the diff
culties of a young girl with an immense,
but unspecifed, fortune, who is requested
by the ~testat0r, if she likes, to give away
half of it, in Jumps sufficient to do real
good to the objects Of her bounty very
fascinating form Of charity, because it APP
peals to the experience of the majority,
who know that small gifts very seldom do
any good whatever. The ~testator has, we
should say, an impression that the money
was originally acquired by harsh dealing,
and that his legatee, by large and sensible
gifts, would be making an acceptable res
~titution. Lucy Trevor is, though an heir.
ess, a very nice little mouse, full of sense
and good feeling, as well as afectionateness,
and she honestly endeavOurs to carry out
the conditions of the will. She tries frank.
~ three times, and succeeds, as far as she
herself is concerned, only once. In the
first instance, an excellent widow lady,
with a useless SON., and a hard-worhing
daughter, beaten, by a sudden loss OF
pupils, is reduced to the last extremity of
respectable distress. Lucy thinks her
opportunity has arrived, and timidly offers
a gift, to which the widow, who thinks she
intends to give her a hundred pounds, or
some such sum, replies with a torrent of
outraged feeling, and even insult; and
though she proposes to borrow a hundred
pounds, rejects the gift of the money con-
tumeliously. Lucy, however, explains that
she intended to give a permanent provision
$4,000 or $4,000, in short, and the widows
resistance is dissolved away
"The idea of an income had unned this
astOnIshed woman, had almost had upon
her the effect of an opiate, soothing away
her cares and troubles, wrapping her III a
. TIe Grpntesf Heiress in Ea0Idnd Bv Mrs.