The Sun. — 1851-04-17 (London, England)

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1851.  Fresh illustrations are continually forcing themselves on our notice of the inequality with which the nation remunerates its benefactors. Possibly we should not have written " remunerates," but rather recognizes the conduct of those who in any manner contrive to benefit the community. Within the last few days, on going over the various items pencilled out in the Committee of Supplies, the Commons of England, agreed among other things, to vote no less an amount than 14,6061. for distinguished services, and just 88,500/. for the compassionate list of allowances, pensions, and gratuities ! Bearing in mind that the former sum has, according to the ,  statement of the Right Hon. Fox MAULS, been reduced since 1834 from 18,0001., it cannot, of course, he said that that item is calculated in any way to stmetkAttpiblic by its magnitude. And considering, again, that the moneys required for defraying the allowances made in the compassionate list are carefully watched in every detail of their distribution, it can scarcely be said that they reach a total in any way exorbitant. ' Especially when it is remembered that so many unfortunate and deserving applicants for relief through the intervention of that bounty are dependent upon the accident of its sufficiency. We are not desirous of inveighing in any manner against the liberality thus displayed to the meritorious members of the military profession. In this liberality we can perceive no reprehensible extravagance. It appears to us to be only befitting the known wealth and munificence of the country that regard should be thus be had for the wants of those individuals who have dedicated their energies to the advantage of the empire. What we would insist upon, however, as most reprehensible, is the inadequacy of the amount set aside by the nation for the pecuniary assistance of another class at least equally, we are bold to say, deserving of the title of public benefactors. For the aid of authors and scientific philosophers, for the help of those who have struggled arduously in the cause whether of art or of literature, the Legislature puts by annually-14,6061., as in the case of distinguished military services ?—or, 88,5001., as in the case of the compassionate list of the soldiery ? No ! but a little, paltry, despicable sum of merely twelve hundred pounds sterling 1 This is the generosity of England to her men of genius ! This is the munificence of Great Britain to those who adorn its annals by more splendid and less perishable triumphs than an achievement by the cannon or the bayonet —the triumphs of art, of science, and of letters, the fruits of labour at the desk or at the academy, at the easel or in the laboratory ! No marvel can it be, when we bear in recollection the miserable pittance set aside for the assistance of our poets or our experimentalists, that the history of English science and of English literature is filled with so many melancholy biographies ! No wonder now that the fate of so many victims of the lyre have attested the parsimony of the land they have each in some way glorified while suffering ! It is easy of comprehension under this view to trace the origin of so many woful deaths by suicide or through inanition. Aided by the light of this reflection, we can understand how it was that OTWAY was strangled while swallowing a crust of bread in the rage of starvation ; we can see how it was that CRATTERTON came to destroy his inestimable life by poison in an attic near Holborn-bars ; we can perceive how it was that BUDGELL drowned himself in the Thames, that BLANCHARD cut his throat with a razor, that HAYDON shot himself through the brain with a pistol ball ! The whole ghastly catalogue of calamities becomes, when looked at through the lens of our national nig gardliness, comprehensible at a glance even to the most unreflecting observer. And what inconsistency in all this! 88,500/. for the compassionate list of the army, and 1,2001. for the unfortunate toilers in art, science, and literature ! 14,606/. for men of arms, and 1,2001. for men of genius No wonder the Muses are mere starvelings, and BELLONA a dame of such jovial proportions. No wonder MARS is so plump and MINERVA so lanternjawed. The sword can reap down, as it were, a hundred fields of corn, ripened by the sun of glory, and nourished with the blood of battles, while the pen is bringing down some wretched little tomtit of a remuneration. So it has been undoubtedly in all ages and in all climes, but never so lamentably as in this our England. A melancholy consideration, when we remember fhe abundance of the national resources and the greatness of the achievements of those intellectual benefactors of the country, men who have, among other things, demonstrated the capacities of our language by adorning the annals of our literature. No country, we may aver with safety, has more reason to feel a generous pride in her authors, her artists, or her philosophers, than England—a country that can boast of a BACON, a HoGARTH, and a SUARESPERE, besides a multitude of other illustrious labourers at the pen, the brush, and the crucible. Yet, of all nations, ours is the one which has most systematically ignored the toil of those children of genius, has most consistently shown towards them a parsimony without excuse as without parallel, has most pertinaceously and wilfully overlooked the miseries accruing to so many of her noblest and bravest benefactors from their endeavours to diffuse those benefactions. Assuredly it is time that this poverty of spirit towards men of genius in England should be corrected. At first it may appear to be rather daring to demand an increase of supplies even in this direction and with this benevolent purpose in view, at a period when efforts are being made to inaugurate a regular system of retrenchment. So satisfied, however, are we of the justice of the great claims we would here advocate, that we count with all reliance upon those very persons who are the most energetic in requiring a reduction in the amount of our national expenditure, as the most certain to coincide with us in demanding the increase of this particular disbursement. To those, more than to any other individuals, perhaps, in the whole Legislature, we look, most confidently satisfied they are the beat qualified to appreciate the real economy lurking in this apparent munificence. When next the item referred to, the miserable item of 1,2001., put by annually for authors, artists, and philosophers, is brought under the notice of the House of Commons, we earnestly trust that some effort may be made for the removal of this blot of meanness from the national scutcheon, and we are sanguine that the most conspicuous promoters of the effort will be discovered in the persons of the Financial Reformers.