Punch (12.1847)

210

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

BAINES, THE LEEDS MERCURY, INSTRUCTING YOUNG ENGLAND.
After Cokregio's Picture of '■•Mercury instructing Cupid in the presence of Venus."

lUterarp dFunii ana tijc (Gentlemen of ttje ^ress.

The authorities of the Literary Fund Society are evidently actuated by a fine
spirit of patronage towards literary men, if we are to judge by the manner in which
the representatives of the Press were received at the recent dinner. We find from
the reports—or rather from the non-reports—of the morning journals, that the
gentlemen deputed to attend on behalf of the newspapers were placed at the very
end of the hall, opposite to a continually-opening floor, and out of the hearing of
everything. It is certainly very becoming in the managers of a Literary Society to
intimate, as strongly as possible, their opinion that '-persons belonging to the Press
ought to be kept at a distance " It is quite true that the Literary Fund Society is
instituted to pension literature, but not to honour it; and it was therefore considered
perhaps quite allowable to treat the humble individuals belonging to the literary
fraternity with indignity. The poor devils <"ot a dinner j and, what more could they
be justified in looking for ?

It seems certainly a little ungracious to treat the Press in this manner, the very year

—a sum that we think might have purchased some con
sideration for even the humblest mt-mbers of the journalist
community. Of course, however, amidst the number of
Bishops, Right Honourables, and Baronets, whom it
was thought expedient to honour by the best places and
the politest attention, it was impossible to think about a
set of diurnal scribblers, who ought to have been satisfied
with getting a meal wnere and how they could, without
presuming to look for anything further. If any authors
of eminence were present, we suppose they were left to
squeeze themselves in at any side-table where there
happened to be a vacant place, for the aristocracy of
birth was, we find, accommodated very extensively,
though we find mention of very few names belonging to
the aristocracy of talent. It is, however, as we have said
already, a charity for literary men, and they have no right
to expect any better treatment on such an occasion than
is awarded to mendicants. Perhaps next year some of the
representatives of the literary class may be called upon
to attend, for the purpose of walking round the room
and bowing to the guests, for the purpose of acknow-
ledging the subscriptions.

TESTIMONIAL TO CAXTON.

The Rev. H. Milman has written a letter to Lokd
Morpeth, proposing the erection of a monument to the
memory of Caxton ; and his Lordship, like the Captain
in the romance of Billy Taylor, " has werry much applauded
wot he has done." It is needless to siy that we concur
cordially in Lord Morpeth's approval of the Rev. Mr.
Milman's suggestion

We need not enlarge upon the immense obligations
under which every civilised person lies to Caxton. From
the child with his horn-book to the scholar with his Homer,
from the peasant with his Penny Magazine to the philoso-
pher with his Plato, the name of Caxton must be univer-
sally venerated. The statesman for his statistics, the
politician for his paper, must bless the memory of Caxton.
The little milliner has Caxton to thank for her St. Clair
of the Isles, the school-boy for his Robinson Crusoe ; indeed,
to Caxton we owe everything in literature, from Jack
the Giant Killer up to Hamlet; from the poetry of Byron
down to that of Bonn ; from the minstrelsy of Moore to
that of Moses and Son.

But of all and sundry who are bounden to the great
Caxton, his deepest debtor remains yet to be mentioned
—one whose pages have penetrated into every abode, from
the palace to the cottage—the perusal of whose writings is
more than co-extensive with the distribution of the Anglo-
Saxon race. WelL therefore, may that individual appeal
to his readers (more numerous than farthings in the
national debt) to come forward with their subscription
to Caxton's monument. And thus " like Katterfelto,
with his hair on end," wondering at his own wonders,
astonished at his own tremendous circulation, and pro-
portionally grateful for it to the inventor of printing, does
Punch swell the cry for a testimonial to Caxton.

Something' Incredible.

The Duke of Cambridge, when he was told of the
scarcity of money in the City, exclaimed, " Money scarce 1
Pooh ! can't believe it! I never have difficulty in getting
money. Fiddlesticks ! Money can't be scarce. Ridiculous !
Never heard of such a thiog ! Pooh ! scuff-a-nousense I "
and his Royal Highness laughed at the notion — as he
did at the scarcity of potatoes—as " the best joke he had
heard for a long time."

"another MAGNIFICENT ADDITION."
Madame Tdssaod is in treaty for the six houses
adjoining her Exhibition, in Baker Street. This increase
of room, it is said, is required to do proper j ustice to the
growing importance of the Group of the Royal Family.

after the Times journal gave to the lund the handsome donation of a hundred guineas [ English Opera."

MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE.
We understand Mr. Beale is about to bring out an
English Opera, in which Madame Viahdot and Herr
Fischer (who are now studying the English language for
the purpose) will be the principal singers. We suppose
this will, by way of distinction, be called "the Broken-