PRATT’S GLEANINGS IN ENGLAND. 
«©3, And each sheet is obliged to be set 
up at two or three different printing-oflices, 
or it would be impossible to prepare so enor- 
mous an edition within the time! 
«« 4. What is to be published the next year 
begins printing in May!! , 
<< 5. A single bookseller, in his first order, 
takes fifty thousand!!! 
«© 6. A man, high in office in the city of 
London, exclaimed confidentially to a friend 
of the Gleaner’s, ‘ By G—d, Sir, there will 
be no war! Moore's Almanack predicts a year 
“of prosperity! and: at ¢his dime speaks. only of 
peace; and | would sooner believe in Moore 
than in Bonaparte or Mr. Addington! !!” 
Some letters follow upon the misfor- 
tunes of men of letters, and this leads to 
an account of the Literary fund. We 
gladly take the opportunity of stating 
-the real merits of this’ celebrated insti- 
tution, differing indeed from this bene- 
‘volent writer in the view which we take ; 
for we see with our naked eye, and he 
looks through Claude spectacles that cast 
a sunshire upon every thing. 
.. Beyond all doubt, a society for the ad- 
-vancement of literature is wanting in Eng- 
land. Booksellers must regard their own 
interest ; and if occasionally, as in the in- 
stance of Ritson’s Ancient Romances, they 
incur a certain loss because the thing itself 
is honourable, such instances occur so 
rarély that they are indeed honourable 
where they do occur. We have no aca- 
demy,and the indolence of our universities 
is proverbial abroad, even to infamy. A 
literary fund is therefore wanting, which 
should be at the expence of publishing 
such works of acknowledged utility as 
no bookseller would undertake, because 
of their uncertain or slow returns. Such 
a society, employing able men upon 
-worthy pursuits, would be a national be- 
nefit, and would actually prevent the 
want which these associated gentlemen 
profess to relieve. An individual is now, 
_at his own single expence. publishing the 
remains of Cimbric Literature. ‘The 
name of Owen Jones, this munilicent be- 
nefactor of letters, should be menticned 
with that honour which wil! always ae- 
company it hereafter. ‘The funds of such 
an establishment would be well employed 
in publishing a translation of these re- 
mains, and in collecting, aftér his exam- 
ple, the genuine poems, tales, or chro- 
nicles, existing in the Erse or the Gaelic. 
In like manner should they preserve the 
early monuments of our Anglo-Saxon 
and Anglo-Norman ancestors. They 
should republish those valuable speci- 
669 
mens of our old language, which are be- 
come so scarce as to be well nigh use- 
less. They should publish the inedited 
works of those great men upon whom 
England prides herself, and who are in- 
deed the glory of4England, but whose 
manuscripts ‘will be left to moulder as 
long as our universities remain what they 
are. We speak of the works of Roger 
Bacon, of Cudworth, and of Jeremy Tay- 
lor. --They should have recompensed 
poor Richardson, the compiler of the 
Persian and Arabic Dictionary, who 
destroyed himself, because he found no 
reward for that mighty labour. They 
should still recompense the patient and 
modest man who has devoted eighteen 
years to the compilation of a Welsh 
dictionary without the hope of reward. 
We could easily extend this summary of 
what such a society ought to do; let us 
now examine what these gentlemen have 
done, and what they protess to do. 
Mr. Pratt is the encomiast of the so- 
ciety, and he says, “from a statement of 
the sums paid by the committee of the 
fund, since its first establichment, it does 
not appear that any one applicant can 
have received, on an average, more than 
fteen pounds.” We will correct his 
calculation by saying, that the liberality 
of the general committee has extended 
to a donation of twenty pounds. And this 
‘is all that they have done, this is all that 
they purpose to do; no hope is held ont 
for the future, no employment afforded. 
‘The poor author who applies in his dis- 
tress to these literary churchwardens re- 
ceives little more than the parish would 
‘have allowed him in the course of twelve 
months for the support of himself and 
family as paupers. 
Mr. Pratt now opens upon a new sub- 
ject; his correspondent having been gra- 
tified by his verses to « Poor 'l'oby,”’ he 
is led to comment upon dogs in general, 
and the virtues of those “ inestimable ap- 
pendages to human society.”’ A long story 
is related, upon Dr. Duncan’s authority, 
of a dog who preserved his master, and 
was the means of discovering a murder. 
‘The story itself is curious and interest- 
ing, but is sadly diluted with that senti- 
mental water gruel washy stile which is 
the abomination of this book. The next 
theme is cruelty to animals ; and here the 
author, with a proper and Fnplish feel- 
ing, reprobates the conduct of those 
statesmen who deduce English courage 
from the practice of bull-baiting; pre-. 
» 
