Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-09-01 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

RUSKIN'S GENEROSITY AND EXTRAVAGANCE.—I have known for some time that Mr. Ruskin's theories of political economy had so impressed their author with a sense of their beauty and necessity that he had applied them to his own affairs, and that one of his latest convictions was that a man ought to die poor. Nothing can be more opposed to our usual English theory, much believed in also by Americans, that the beauty of dying, and its blessed consolation, is the sweetassurance that we shall "cut up handsomely." "I shall die rich," said a Lancashire manufacturer to inn, with the conviction that it was a leautiful end to look forward to. Far Mr. Ruskin there will be no such bliss. Whatever may be said against his views, nobody can deny that they are more easily carried into practice than these of my manufacturing friend. Topie poor is given to many to die rich is the lot of a few. Even the rich man may die poor if he will only spend freely and be liberal beyond his income. This is what Mr. Ruskin has done and been. His father and mother left him £157,000 in hard cash, and a lot of property also in houses and lands, besides a valuable collection of pictures. Following the advice of wise business men, he invested one-third of the cash in mortgages, whereby he lost .E 20,000. This seems to be the only loss of importance of a quite involuntary kind. A sum of .C 17,000 has been freely given to poor relations ; another of 217,000 has been lent to a cousin, to whom the debt is also freely forgiven. Mr. Ruskin's gifts to Sheffield and Oxford have cost him .£14,000. The rest of the cash has gradually disappeared by the familiar process of fixing expenditure above income, the annual expenditure being £5500, and kept steadily to that figure when the capital had been so reduced as no longer to yield that interest. The most curious thing is, that this year, 1877, is the last of Mr. Ruskin's existence as a rich man, so he allows himself a trifle of £3OOO to be spent in amusement:at Venice or elsewhere. He does not intend to commit suicide next December, but merely to invest money enough in the funds to bring him in a pound sterling per day, or a fraction less. He keeps his house, but gives most of his other properties away. This line of action has from the Hest been dictated by Mr. Ruskin's natural temper, which is not one of carelessness in the tpual sense, but extravagance and generosity on pr:naiples of his own. Perhaps he may rather object to my word extravagance, since bin expenditure hes always been carefully restricted. Well, so it has, but to a sum considerably beyond what he coald really afford, and the beet proof of an extravagant disposition is thiSallowance of .£3OOO for mere amusement this year in Italy.  I need hardly observe that a single Sian might amuse himself during a whole year in Italy for a fifth of that sum, seeing everything, and living at the best hotels. Ido not question Mr. Ruskin's right to do what he likes with his .E3OOO, especially after his gifts of much larger sums to others; but for a man who is to live on a day during the rest of his existence, , such a costly excursion is an odd apprenticeship to , poverty. Again, Mr. Ruskin tells us that be spent £15,900 on his country house, which was certainly extravagant in proportion to his means. I think I have , proved the extravagance; the generosity needs no proving. Mr. Ruskin, after a fashion of his own, is one of the most generous of men, and will still continue to be so, as he reserves his literary earnings for his charities. It seems very doubtful whether, before this voluntary acceptance of comparative poverty, Mr. Ruskin has fully realised its consequences. It may not matter so mush now, but money was a most wonderful help to him during his most productive years. It is a great thing to have capable assistants; to be able to withhold • volume until it is ripe; to be able to reject and destroy engravings which are not quite up to the mark. It is a great thing to have full leisure for the collection of materials, ample time and means for comfortable travelling, so that all the galleries of Europe are within a day or two of your writing-desk whenever you choose to visit them. Besides this, in a country like England a wealthy writer has a prestige which a poor one has not. The advantages which he has are very great, but people imagine them to be still greater, and have confidence in his superior opportunities for information. They are glad to think that he does not Write for money, and no believe in his honesty. The general report exaggerates a rich man's means, and so gets him greater respect. Mr. Ruskin's fortune, before his own revelations, was estimated in London at half a million sterling, and his opinions came with the weight of all that gold behind them. His voluntary poverty will diminish his authority as a writer, not at all amongst really superlor people, but with the vulgar, who are the majority. It is an odd coincidence that Mr. Ruskin's periodical publication should be called Fortune, Keeper of the Keys (Fors (jlam:gem), when we reflect with how little tenacity Fortune has kept the keys of his own treasury.-1 he Internabonal Review. "