128 
The fund, at this period, is indeed, in 
little need of the aid of subscribers, for 
it seems rather in danger of becoming a 
rich and powerful society, endowed with 
x patronage, which may be fatal to the 
interests, in other words, to the freedom 
of literature. Let those who feel any 
concern on the subject, judge. Added 
to the English subscriptions, the fund has 
drawn ample sums from India, and has 
still larger in expectation; His R. H. the 
Prince has given a freehold house, and a 
gentleman has lately bequeathed a consi- 
derable fortune. ‘The society’s funded 
capital must be considerable, and as, if 
wy information be correct, the distribu- 
tion of their bounty, is most studiously 
and systematically, economical, and ac- 
cumulation the chief object; compound 
interest must, in the course of a few years, 
produce great effects. 
In a. view of this subject, it farther 
ought not to be omitted, that during Mr, 
Addington’s administration, which seemed 
not to neglect any possible aid to be de- 
rived from the press, it appeared in va- 
rious public prints, thatthe Literary Fund 
was to be taken under the especial pro- 
tection of his Majesty, and that it was to 
be enabled to grant annuities, .and to be 
invested with, I know not what privileges. 
' The subscribers to an institution of this 
kind, will do well to reflect, not only on 
the probable consequences of wealth and 
power, namely, whether they give their 
bounty to the wants of the existing race 
of authors, or to those of the next, or 
to which of the future generations, The 
laying out of asurplusindeed, to good use, 
would surely be meritorious ; but if to fa- 
your such end, the meritorious authors of 
the present time, who in fact have a real 
property in the fund, must be neglected, 
the former would be an improper and un- 
just application of the money. In the 
interim, are there no literary gentlemen 
in England, in needy, or distressed, cir- 
cumstances, who may, or do pretend to a 
fair claim! Are all authors rich now, 
and is the speculation just and rational, 
that their successors are to be the reverse, 
since such ample provision is making for 
them? Sorry Tam, that my experience 
does not confirm this, and that men within 
my knowledge, whose educated talents 
and useful labours I hold in veneration, 
are at no rate in those circumstances in 
which every trae son of liberality would 
wish them, ‘There is also a most neces- 
sary caution on the case of accumulating 
funds or capitals, originally dedicated to 
On the Management of the Literary Fund. 
[Sept. 1, 
any particular purpose. In the course 
of time, they usually become diverted, 
from their original, to very different pur- . 
poses. ‘The first managers and trustees 
find themselves in warm and comfort- 
able births. Their successors progres- 
sively increase their comforts, until, 
with the lapse of time, the lawful purposes 
of the estate have also lapsed from the 
public remembrance, and it becomes the 
actual property of the lawful succession 
of managers. Who does not see, the de 
plorable case of the poor, in these obser- 
vations, who have been invariably robbed ~ 
and swindled out of their inheritance be- 
queathed to them by weak, but benevo- 
lent men? And in a country boasting of — 
the equality and excellence of its laws! 
surely some British patriot will start up, 
and gain immortal honour by an attempt 
to avenge the cause of the poor, oppressed, 
and trodden under foot, in all umes. No- 
body, however, need suppose that I am 
levelling observations of this kind at the 
Literary Fund, to whichthey are so totally 
inapplicable ; or that I suppose, the gen- 
tlemen who.act under that: institution, 
take more to themselves than is warranted 
by the strictest justice. All I mean to in- 
culcate, is the necessity of a popular su-— 
perintendance, so to express myself, of 
public trusts; and the extreme caution 
which ought to be used, lest such trusts 
become the property, as being under the 
arbitrary management, of a succession of 
Juntos. 
The magnificent picture of the gene- 
rosity of the fund, blazoned forth in glows 
ing poetic strains, in the Society’s book, 
and in their newspaper accounts, I must 
own, always struck me with admiration 
of “ seeking the author in his 
lonely shade, when by all deserted, raise 
ing his bright hopes and stimulating him 
to fame.” I was never more convinced, 
how little it is the business of poetry, to 
deal in realities, which indeed would mar- 
its legitimate effect, and reduce it to the 
level of plain prose. And thus does Mr. 
F—fully establish his claim to the in- 
spiration of true poetry. When the Fund 
descends to plain prose, how quickly the 
illusion vanishes, We have been in- 
formed by one of the newspapers, which 
appears to have had the most authentic 
account of late proceedings, that the ma~ 
nagers of the fund find the advantage of 
distributing small sums: an advantage 
indeed which cannot be doubted, granting 
the money subscribed, to be intended 
chiefly for posterity. But surely these 
cannot 
