Floyer Sydenham, the ingenious translator of Plato, a profound scholar, revered for his knowledge, and beloved for his candour and gentleness, died in consequence of having been arrested and detained for a debt to a victualler, who had, for some time, furnished his frugal dinner.

At the news of that event, every friend of literature in the society felt a mixture of sorrow and shame; and one of the members proposed, that a plan should be executed, which had been some years under consideration, to prevent similar afflictions, and to assist deserving authors and their families in distress.

The plan, though applauded, was not unanimously adopted; but the spirit of the proposer not being discouraged, another Society was formed, consisting at the first only of eight persons : meeting of which the annexed consti tutions and an advertisement were produced, and approved.

The subscription for the purposes of printing the constitutions, and inserting advertisements in the publick papers, amounted only to eight guineas; but at the next meeting the number of subscribers was increased, and the subscription renewed.

That little faithful band steadily continued its operations; and without waiting for the result of yearly subscriptions, proportioned its contribu tions to the objects immediately in view; and sustained the expense of printing the constitutions and advertisements nearly two years,

In that manner the Society gradually acquired stability; and the first general meeting was appointed on the 18th of May, 1790; when officers were elected, a committee was formed, and the annual subscriptions were so increased, as to admit of the application of small sums monthly to the purposes of the Institution.

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4. Presidents, vice-presidents, registrers, and treasurers, are by their offices members of all committees, and when they decline their re-election, are eligible into the council.

5. Subscribers residing at considerable distances from London,' who interest themselves for the so

ciety, and, while in town, attend the committee, may, at the end of three years, be elected into the council.

6. All these regulations imply, that the parties continue their subscriptions, or are subscribers for life.

7. The ordinary business of the society is transacted by the general committee on the third Thursday in the month, consisting of its officers and members. Five constitute a quorum. All extraordinary occurrences and measures are to be referred by the general committee

to the committee of council, or to a general meeting of the subscribers.

8. All assemblies and committees are directed by the president, a vice-president, by a member of the council, or in their absence, by a chairman appointed for the time. The council must be directed by the president, vice-president, or a chairman from its own body.

9. At all assemblies of the subscribers, councils, or committees, the decisions are by a majority;

and the president, or chairman, gives only a casting vote on an equal division,

10. The meetings of the General Committee are open to the members of the Council; who may, on all occasions, assist by advice, but not vote on debates, unless necessary to make up the quorum. If any irregularities or abuses appear, or be supposed, to arise, two members of the Council, by directions to a Registrer, or by letters from themselves, may assemble the whole Council, to consider the measures in question, to obviate or approve their effects, and to suspend the operations of the Committee, of the Registrers, Treasurers, and other officers, until the sense or opinion of the subscribers be taken at a general meeting, which must be within a month, of the time of suspension. All general meetings to be summoned by advertisements.

11. Temporary vacancies in the committee, or in the offices, may be filled up at the discretion of the council.

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12. All the subscribers must be summoned annually, by advertisement, on the third Thursday in March, to choose officers, and to supply the vacancies, by rotation or any other circumstance, in the committees and council; or such as may happen in the offices of president, vice-president, registrer, and treasurer, These officers are recognized or appointed annually but the offices may be continued in the same persons as long as the society may think expedient or ne

cessary.

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13. The pecuniary appointments for collectors and messengers (all other offices being discharged gratuitously) must be assigned and approved at their respective elections. These officers may be suspended or discharged by the general committee, on a complaint properly supported by a member of the committee, or of the council, or a subscriber. Security may be taken, by the committee, for the execution of their trusts.

14. All applications or claims of

relief must be to a registrer; who may immediately summon a committee, if the cases be urgent; if not, he shall present them at the first meeting.

15. All the stock, property, and revenues, of the society, must be invested in the public funds, in public and competent securities, or deposited at a banker's. No money must be drawn for, but by an order of the committee: no securities charged; nor any part of a capital, whether in estates or funds, be disposed of, but by consent of a general meeting of the subscribers.

16. The assistance afforded to authors in distress, or to their widows and children, shall be at the discretion of the general committee; and may be transmitted by a treasurer, a member of the committee or council, or by a subscriber, according to its order; for the receipt of which he is to produce an acknowledgment.

17. Books of accompts by a treasurer, and books of transactions and occurrences by a registrer, are always liable to inspection by the committee and council, or by any of their members, They are open to any subscriber, applying to the proper officer.

17. As in the business of the society, cases may occur, requiring more enquiry, and more secrecy, than are consistent with the proceedings of the general committee; and some deliberation may often be necessary, previous to the proposal of measures, or the nomination of officers, &c. to the general committee, or to the society at large:

The president, two of the vicepresidents, five members of the council, or of the committee, one of the registrers, and one of the treasurers, shall be annually nominated, and constitute a committee of council; the whole to be summoned on business, but three to form a quorum.

19. To this committee of council all applications made to the general committee, and all other matters, requiring investigation, shall, at the request of two members, either

of the council, general committee, or of the society, be referred.

20. It shall particularly enquire into the situations of authors, reported to be in distress, whom modesty, or pardonable pride, may have prevented from preferring their applications or claims, and give in its information to the general committee, in a manner that shall not expose such authors to any mortification.

21. The said committee of council, if the president should be prevented from attending it, may communicate with him, by one or more of its members, and take his opinion on matters to be proposed at any committees, or to the society at large.

22. It shall also, previously to all elections by general meetings, form a list or lists of persons, in its opinion, fit to be elected, and submit the result of its deliberations to the electors; not, however, precluding the nomination of another person, or persons, by any member of the society.

23. The said committee of coun

cil, acting only in cases provided for by the constitutions, shall have no power of granting relief to authors by its own authority; but all its members, like those of the vice presidency and council, may supply, deficiencies in the general committee, when unable to form a quorum. It shall not interfere with the power of the society, in establishing general and permanent rules, or do any act already provided for by the constitutions.

24. The said committee of council shall be open to all the vicepresidents, to all members of the Council, and all the officers of the society, when specially summoned, at the desire of two members of the committee.

25. These constitutions, or any article of them, may be revised, corrected, or altered, at the annual meeting of the subscribers, or at a general meeting regularly summoned; provided a requisition be previously made, to that effect, by the majority of the council or of the

Remarks on cases, in which relief has been administered from the Literary Fund, to July 1801.

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THE Society for the Literary Fund, during nearly 12 years, which have elapsed since its first institution, has administered relief in 196 cases of distress the number of persons who has experienced its bounty is 105; and the sum distributed amounts, in the whole, to 1680/. 8. sterling.

It has been usual to print short accounts of these cases, and insert them in a book, distributed to the subscribers and other respectable persons, who might become patrons of this institution.-This mode, however, experience has shewn to be liable to strong objections. If any author relieved had been expressly named, or the circumstances of the case set forth at large

(which, in many instances, would in effect be the same), the feelings of unfortunate persons would be wounded, and, in some cases, their consideration in life lessened, and their future pros pects destroyed. It was, therefore, thought fit to publish the cases anonymously, and without such distinct references as would guide a stranger to the knowledge of the persons relieved. This, however, appeared to most readers uninteresting and uninstructive.

On the present occasion, therefore, it has been thought fit to examine the books anew; to describe, as instances, a few cases in which, owing to the death of the parties, or their known circumstances, delicacy to them is out of the question, and to offer some gen eral remarks on the rest.

The very first case of a meritorious scholar and author, in distressed circumstances, which attracted the notice of the committee, was that of the learned, but unfortunate, Dr. Harwood; a

man whose perfect knowledge of the learned languages, and laborious dili. gence, both as an oral instructer and writer, scarcely procured him a scanty and precarious support.

In the infancy of this Institution, and when its funds amounted to little more than was required for the expenses of printing and advertisements, this deserving object repeatedly received assistance, which if it did not place him in affluence, rescued him from misery and despair. Other authors, moral and political, of great merit, and a few of great and deserved celebrity, received assistance from the committee, to the utmost of its powers; but these, being still alive, and it being an inviolable rule of the committee, not to publish the names of living objects of their attention, those Members of the Society, who wish to be minutely informed, have recourse to the records of the committee, which they have a right to inspect, and which are always open to the examination of any subscriber.

In this early period of the Institution, Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, a lady well known for several works equally amusing and instructive, being in narrow circumstances, was enabled, by the assistance of the Society, to place her son in a situation that promised a provision for life. Thus were some distinguished persons assisted from the Literary Fund, while its sources were scanty, and its powers necessarily limited. But several deserving, though less eminent, writers, received great alleviation in their distresses; one in particular (a very industrious and useful author) was, for several years, during which he sustained the most excruciating and incurable malady, preserved from the aggravated misery of want, and when relieved at last by death from his cruel sufferings, received a decent interment, chiefly by the bene volence of the Society.

Of late, as the funds of the Society have increased, and the claimants become more numerous, in proportion as it was more known, its benefactions have been more numerous and liberal.

Amongst the cases relieved, during this latter period, are several writers of distinguished eminence, whom it would be a gross indelicacy to name, or particularly allude to; especially since some of them are now in circumstances, that not only prevent their being objects, but may enable them to

become supporters of the Institution. The number of less brilliant, but useful, writers, relieved within this period, is also very considerable, and the cases of a questionable nature, or where the vigilance of the Committee may have been deceived, few. They will be fewer in future; as all cases that appear doubtful, may, by a late regulation, at the desire of any two Members, be referred to a Committee of the President, Vice-Presidents, and Council, appointed for that among other purposes.

It may, however, be satisfactory, and not uninteresting to the publick, to know, that, among the cases during this latter period, was a son of the late ingenious and spirited translator of the Lusiad; towards the expense of whose education the Society more than once, contributed by donations for that purpose, to the gentleman under whose care the youth was placed. Another interesting case, which may be mentioned, was that of the widow and children of that distinguished poet, and original genius, Robert Burns. wards the subscription for their relief and future establishment, the committee contributed a large sum, considering the amount of the funds then at their disposal, and have since made an addition; so that the whole amounts to 45 pounds.

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The above are the only cases, which it is conceived can, consistently with any regard to delicacy, or even humanity, be particularly set forth. Many of the others would, if it were proper to make them publick, prove that the Society, in distributing relief, have not only had regard to the talents and wants of the objects, in behalf of whom it was solicited, but also to the nature and utility of their works. Writers, who have contributed to the instruction of the rising generation, to the advancement of morals, or the support of religion, have, uniformly, obtained its countenance and assistance; while the authors of slanderous, of immoral, or of impious works, have, in general, been speedily detected, and ignominiously repelled.

WILLIAM BOSCAWEN,
Member of the Council.

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ERRATA.—In a part of the im pression of page 525, line 5 from bottom, for of poverty read and poverty ; p. 546, third dine from top, for has read have.