551 - THE AVERAGE PRICES of NAVIGABLE CANAL SHARES and other PROPERTY, in April 1819 (to the 24th), at the Office of Mr. ScoTT, 28, New Bridge street, London. Coventry Canal, 1080l. Div. 441. per annum. Oxford, 640l. Div. 321. per annum. Grand Junction, 249/. 19s. - Monmouthshire, 1497. 19s. - Ellesmere, 687. - Dudley, - Brecon and Abergavenny, 451. -Thames and Severn New Shares, 351. 10s. Wilts Original Ditto, 177. 10s.-Kennet and Avon, 227. 10s.— Huddersfield, 137.and Berks, 131.Gloucester and Berkley, 481. - West India Dock, 180l. to 1857. Div. 101. per Cent. - London Dock, 761. Div. 3l., per Cent.-Globe Assurance, 125/. 61. per Cent.Imperial, 861. — Albion, 45l.. Rock, 21. 4s. premium. County, 201 premium. ex Div. 5l. per Cent. — Eagle, 21. 5s. Hope, 41. 4s. Original Gas Light, 681. ex Div. 21. Half-year. -London Institution, 461. 4s.-East London Water Works, 87%.-Covent Garden Theatre, 500l. Share, 4651. 10 EACH DAY'S PRICE OF STOCKS IN APRIL, 1819. Bank Ct. Con. Con. Stock. 3pr.Ct. Con. Red. 3pr.Ct. 34 per 4 pr. Ct. (5 per Ct. B. Long|Imp. 3 India |So. Sea 3 perCt India Navy. Ann. p. cent. Stock. Stock. Sth Sea Bonds. 2d. Ex. Bills Bills. Com. RICHARDSON, GOODLUCK, and Co. Bank-Buildings, London. 11 801/ 226 33 3 4335 +45 32 28 30 pr. 3 dis. par. 33 pr. par. 1 dis. 38 pr. par. 3 pr. 20 dis. 20 dis. Printed by J. Nichols and Son, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London. Miscellaneous Correspondence. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Questions, &c. 386 1 Test Act,417.-Ancient Authors discovered418 Wakefi.-Warw. Wolverh. Worc.2 Review of New Publications. Bowdich's Mission to Ashantee...............425 Bp. Law's Sermon.. Scripture compared.427) Webb's Sermons, 428.-Original Dranias.432 Murray on Perusing the Scriptures...........ib. Monk's Defence of Church and Universities433 Blair on Popery, 434.-Lysons' Sermons.435 Chamberlin's Path of Duty, a Moral Tale.436 History of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark437 Rennell on Scepticism.-Owen's Plan......438 Patriot Father.-Parochial Fever Wards...440 CharitableAbuses.--Pet.Bell,441.--Sermons442 LITERATURE, ANTIQUITIES, ARTS, &c. 443-448 Historical Chronicle. dom, 475,-London and its Vicinity.....477 Promotions, &c.-Births and Marriages.. 479 OBITUARY, with Memoirs of the Bishop of Peterborough; J. Giffard, esq.; Rev. D. Rhudde; J. Herrick, esq. &c.............481 Meteorological Diary 494; Bill of Mortality 495 Prices of the Markets,495.-The Stocks, &c.496 With Perspective Views of Part of STANTON HARCOURT HOUSE, called POPE'S TOWER, with the CHURCH, Oxfordshire; and of BANGOR HOUSE, London. By SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. Printed by Joan NICHOLS and SON, at CICERO'S HEAD, Red Lion Passage, Fleet-street, London; where all Letters to the Editor are particularly desired to be addressed, POST-PAID MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. AN AUTHOR, whose "surprize has been excited," may be assured that he will not be overlooked. A. B. T. in reply to B. C. D. p. 194, says, that the Baronetage of Barker is believed to be extinct. There are not only no-male descendants of Robert Barker, esq. of Eveley, but no descendants whatever, as the late excellent Baronet was himself the heir of Robert Barker; but so far from ever coming into possession of any property in any shape, Mr. Barker received an annuity from Sir William, or his father, several years before his death, of 1007. and the same sum from Lord Dumfries. The late Sir William's worthy lady is not dead, as there stated, but now lives in Alfred-street, Bath. Sir William was about 80 years of age. His nephew, Mr. Ponsonby, succeeds to the large estates, and takes the name. Mr. Ponsonby is married to Lady Harriett, gister of the Marquis of Headfort. been kindly pointed out to him by the A Correspondent asks, by whom was the p. 34, says, that Edm. Grindall, Bp. London (afterwards Abp. Canterbury) assisted at the consecration of Hugh Jones, Llandaff, 1566, but contradicts it among the acts of Parker, at p. 15. "A Constant Reader," whose attention was attracted to an account in part ii. of our last volume, p. 107, of the foundations of an antient building, lately discovered at West Blatchington, near Brighton, hopes to be indulged with some further details. A MAN OF KENT requests a copy of the Epitaph on NICHOLAS BATTELEY, who died in 1704, and was buried at Bekesborne, where he was Vicar. G. H. W. communicates the following information. "The Rev. John Alexander, (noticed in page 290) was probably a de cendant of Capt. Andrew Alexander, of Londonderry, whose name appears in the hist of Protestants attainted by James the Second's Parliament, held in Dublin in 1689.-Wiseton Hall, Notts, (page 211) was the seat of the Acklom, not Acktom family. Esther Acklom, Viscountess Althorp, who died without issue in 1818, bequeathed the estate to her husband, John Charles, Viscount Althorp, eldest son of Earl Spencer, K. G.-Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, (page 211) gives the title of Countess, in her own right, to Louisa wife of the Hon. R. T. Grevile, but she is not Baroness of Mansfield. There is in fact no English Barony or Viscounty annexed to either of the Earldoms of Mans-lish) the Work of William De Newburgh, field. The celebrated Peer was created Baron Mansfield; co. Notts, with limitation to his male issue, and consequently that honour died with him; he was created Earl of Mansfield, in Nottingham, with remainder to Louisa, Viscountess Stormont, in Scotland; and Earl of Mansfield, in Middlesex, with remainder to David Viscount Stormont by a subsequent creation. At the time his Lordship obtained the first patent of an Earldom, it was supposed that a remainder to 2 Scotch Peer was not valid, and therefore the limitation was made to the Lady of his nephew Viscount Stormont. When contrary doctrine was established, his Lordship obtained a second patent, with remainder to Lord Stormont." 910 RICHMONDIENSIS, A READER inquires, "If the Rev. Mr. Sharpe has published (or is about to pub alluded to in Mr. Sharpe's Translation of William of Malmesbury ?" JUVENIS would be obliged to any of our Correspondents, if they could afford him any information on the following subject: "Observing," says he, "in the Church of East Brent, near Bridgwater, that the word 'Ixus, signifying a Fish, was on the pulpit, I immediately turned to Dugdale's Monasticon, for I could not possibly conceive what the import of the word was, when, on referring to the book, I found it was this, Ιησες Χριστος Θεου Υίος, Earnp, and that in some Churches a Fish was placed alone over the pulpit, which renders it more obscure." R. U. would be highly gratified by a particular account of the ancient and im parish of Tottino Whose account of the portant office of JUSTICIARY. was evenez errored in #ishes to correct an P. 2 The Communications of ÆGROTUS will which has receive due attention. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, For MAY, 1819. ་ MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. Mr. URBAN, CON May 8. YOMPLAINTS of the waut of Literary patronage are universal; but, like most other universal complaints, they are entirely without foundation: at least they are and have been so within these united kingdoms from nearly the commencement of the last century down to the present time *. Since the introduction of printing, that era in which Authorship assumed, according to Parliamentary language, a tangible shape, the executive power has been successively placed in the hands of men and women, of widely varied dispositions and extent of ability. Some of these in early times were inclined to patronize literature, but from want of sufficient capacity they failed to produce any remarkable effect. It was reserved for the wisdom of Queen Anne, who reigned during the Augustan age of Britain, aided by the advice of her Privy Council, and seconded by the concentrated talents of her whole dominions, to discover and to correct the errors of former times. Until the commencement of her reign, so glorious in Arms and Literature, it had been held, that by the Common Law, every Author possessed a perpetuity in his Works. Perpetuity, however, being but a vague term, her Government, in benevolent kindness to Literary men, determined to give them something more certain and defined. Accordingly, in a Statute of her 8th year it was enacted, FOR THE ENCOURAGE MENT OF LEARNING, that they should possess an absolute term of 14 years, with a renewal of an equal period, provided their natural life, no mat ter for their literary one, should sure vive the first term. But on second thoughts this was considered by her Majesty's advisers as probably leading to plethora, and consequently to idleness, and therefore, in order to counteract that tendency, it was most graciously ordained, that every Author should give nine copies of the best paper of his work, to save opulent bodies of men from the expense of purchasing †, and also the Archbishop of Canterbury, &c. were authorized to put a proper price upon books, if any person should complain that they were too high. Highly indeed ought Authors to esteem this very particular advan tage! which has never been extended to other inventors and makers, who have always been suffered to make the most of the whole of their inventions, and to cloy and ruin themselves I hope and trust that my readers hold opinions totally different from this, as that is the only chance we can have of our ideas ever meeting. If they move in parallel lines they never can coincide; but if they diverge, they must, when the circle is completed, touch in some point or other. The exquisite reason for this was not understood until the year 1817, when it was considerately supplied by a Memorial from one of the Scotch Universities. From that it may be learned, that it is a convenience to have English productions gratis, in order to leave the funds at liberty for the purchase of foreign publications. Now it is certain that nothing can be devised more encouraging to British Authors, nor could any thing have convinced the Committee of the absurdity of the Petitions against the Bill then before them for the promoting of British Literature, if this Scottish reasoning had failed of its effect. The sagacity of the Committee would not suffer it to fail; though some of the opposers attempted to turn it into ridicule, by declaring that it proved to them the veracity of Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan in his famous boast, that little Terence Flaherty O'Brallaghan went over from Carrickfergus, and peopled all Scotland with his own hands. with the profits, without the wisdom of the Legislature troubling itself about them, or their welfare. And, what is still more extraordinary, the welfare of the two Universities was in this respect unprovided for by the Act, and they were left to depend upon the vague perpetuity, to the great annoyance of the one, which, no doubt, would have been gratified by mathematical certainty, and probably without any feeling of gratitude from the other, which must be incapable, on account of the nature of its pursuits, of understanding the extent of its loss from this neglect. This indulgence to Authors was thought amply sufficient for the Encouragement of Literature, until the 41st of the King, which added the further guard against repletion, of two other copies, making the whole number eleven. From the 8th of Queen Anne down to the year 1816, a period of more thau 100 years, the Legislature dealt with Authors as a wise parent does with his children, when he suffers them to play with knives, that by cutting their fingers now, they may learn not to cut them hereafter. Thus incautious or obtuse men were permitted to prefer a perpetuity to a certain period if they thought fit, the only penalty inflicted upon them being the loss of a privilege, which many might absurdly conceive to be of no value. As the number of fools, however, even amongst Authors, always exceeds that of the wise, this was found to expose too many to the inconveniences of the perpetuity, and called, in course, for the watchful attention of a humane Legislature. Accordingly the Parliament, now [in 1818] by the blessing of Providence, and the effects of a dissolution, at rest from its labours, enacted, that no one should have liberty to ruin himself by preferring a perpetuity to a certain and fixed length of time. For this care of their property Authors are, or ought to be, highly grateful. One circumstance, however, in the Statute, has occasioned a puzzle to those who are unacquainted with political arithmetic. On looking into the Act they found that the definite term was enlarged; and from Cocker's Rule of Three direct, they learned that if 14 years ab-. solute, with 14 other in posse, were better than a perpetuity, then 28 years absolute, with a reversion like wise, must be twice as good at the least, as it must extend their interest so much further beyond the perpetuity. So far all was clear; but this inquiry unfortunately led them to make some search into the meaning of perpetuity, and finding that it extended through the duration of the world, provided the British Government should so long exist, they began to question whether any advantage were really given; as their modesty would not permit them to hope that their works would make so near an 1 approach to immortality; or if that could with reason be looked for, they had no means of ascertaining the future value of their copies, as they could have no precise knowledge how trade might be conducted after the perpetuity had ceased. They were also much alarmed by a provision in the last clause of the Bill, which authorized an expectation that the Act might be repealed in the then present Session; as they could not understand why they were to be threatened with the possibility of such inestimable benefits being withdrawn from them. Allowing the deductions to be made which this doubt and this alarm may seem to require, I boldly challenge all persons concerned to come forward, and, if they dare, to deny that the Legislature has granted to Literary characters every advantage which the utmost extent of its wisdom could possibly devise. This, which was written in the course of the last year, has been called forth by a recent application to Parliament for the repeal of a Law which has given so much encouragement to learning, and has so notoriously benefited Authors and all persons connected with them. Having the most perfect reliance on the wisdom of Parliament, I hehold this attempt with profound composure, being confident that improvident men will not be permited to ruin themselves by their folly, and that they will not be suffered to resign invaluable privileges, through an absurd fondness for that which they consider as a natural right. 27 Yours, &c. 2 R. R. |