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three of the council, deputed for the purpose, who should report to their body the names of such members only as they might consider fairly entitled to the privilege, but by the council itself, consisting of no less than twenty-six persons at present, and which for anything that appears to the contrary may be indefinitely increased: and the loan, when granted, may apparently be reclaimed at any moment. Few, indeed, we should think and hope, would be the members who would submit to a canvassing of their necessities thus public and degrading. If, according to an old saying, two persons are too many to keep a secret, what is to be said of six-and-twenty? Yet to the fund, from which such loans are to be made, every professional member of the Guild, to the extent of five per cent. on the premiums of his policy, is compelled to contribute!

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Upon one condition, as we have intimated, permission is given to effect an Assurance with other and less costly companies than the "National Provident; and it is one which really does infinite credit to the ingenuity of its contriver. A candidate previously assured, or choosing to assure elsewhere, may become a member of the Guild by the production yearly or half-yearly, or it may be quarterly, of his receipt for the payment of his premiums: that is to say, in every case, and unfortunately it is too common a one, where a man has borrowed money on the deposit of his policy, and where, as it commonly happens, the lender, for his own security, pays the premiums upon it as they fall due and adds the amount, if need be, to the debt-or in the case, more frequent still, where the policy is included in a deed or settlement for the benefit of the wife or children of the assurer, the persons for whose sakes it is desirable that such a provision should be made, and a man's trustees, not himself, may be the parties who pay the premiums and take the receipts-the doors of the Guild are closed, or can be opened only by the infliction of trouble, very disproportioned to the object to be obtained.

If the Guild, in consideration of its five per cent., were to covenant with every professional member to hold his representatives harmless, in the event of his policy being disputed, or against insolvency on the part of the company, we should think that the assurer was paying very highly for protection against most improbable risks; but it would have indicated a spirit of commercial fairness in what we must consider a commercial body. At present the commercial spirit is manifest enough, but the fairness is quite a different question.

The next professed "object" of the Guild is a "Provision for its members during Sickness." This it is intended to accomplish on the principles of an ordinary Benefit Society, such as is to be found in every village. The only difference is this-and a somewhat important one it is -that the terms of the Guild are such as exist in no Benefit Society in the

kingdom, and which would have the effect, were a Benefit Society attempted to be based upon them, of preventing any man or woman, in their senses, from belonging to it. One of them, moreover, we will venture to add, is of a very questionable legality, and a good deal more than questionable honesty.

characterize but state.

While the rates of payment to be made by the members subscribing to what is called the "Sickness Fund" are certainly not less than the usual ones, no member is permitted to subscribe to it unless his state of health be such as to show that there is very little likelihood of his becoming a claimant upon it at least for many years; a member must have been a subscriber for two years before he is entitled to any relief, and no illness is considered to deserve that name unless it has continued at the least six weeks! The other condition is one which we will not "The Council," says the prospectus-we prefer upon such a matter to give its own words-" reserves to itself the power of reducing the amount of the Provision in the event of its Funds, from whatever cause, being too low to admit of the payment of the claims in full.” We sincerely hope this extraordinary proviso, in a public Society, will not escape the notice of the directors of the Assurance Offices, and of our legislators of the lower house. If the former were only permitted to act upon this rule for a few years, we know not who, except an honest man, would not desire to become a shareholder; while honourable members, wearied as they have been through a long session by sterile debates on "Limited Liability," must be inexpressibly grateful to a Society that puts an end to the necessity of settling the question, by negativing the existence of any sort of liability at all! There is really nothing, under this rule, to prevent some future Mr. Secretary Wills addressing an unhappy professional member, who may come hobbling in from a bed of sickness, to make a claim upon the funds, in some such terms as these: "It is quite true, my respectable friend, that you have subscribed to the Guild fund for the last five-and-twenty years, and that you have made your payments, during that period, with a most commendable regularity; it is also perfectly correct that your state of health, which I am really very sorry to perceive, entitles you to an allowance of one pound per week but it is 'Hard Times' just at present with us, our till is low, and our credit with Messrs. Bullock and Hulker by no means so flourishing as could be desired; we cannot, in fact, conveniently make our payments in full, which if you will have the goodness to refer to our prospectus-here it is, page 27-you will perceive we are not bound to do. Perhaps, in a few years to come, if you should live so long, we may be better off; in which case we will do the handsome thing. Meanwhile take this sixpence, and go your ways in peace."

One more "object" remains to be noticed-the great and distinguishing one of the "Free Residences," which are to be built and endowed "at some future time." Upon such a subject our readers will not, we do think, expect us to dwell very long. No man, not a thousand times worse broken in spirit than in fortunes, would condescend to accept such degrading benevolence. Nor would the locality which we have heard mentioned as being that in which it is intended to erect these eleemosynary dwellings be particularly recommended, we fear, by its contiguity to the abode of the donor. "Dr. Johnson," said Mrs. Thrale, "would always express himself with horror about it, whenever he alluded, which was very rarely, to the time he spent in the neighbourhood of his patron Sir Wolstan Dixie's seat; yet he had a house rent-free, with a salary attached to it, and the duties of instruction one would have supposed to be congenial to his disposition."

All that is passing in a man's breast, Dr. Johnson himself might say, it is impossible to know, and we can only conjecture as to any part of it. Whether the founders of the Guild really contemplate carrying into effect this part of their scheme they alone can tell. Many circumstances would seem to indicate that if they ever seriously entertained such an intention they are now, to say the least, very doubtful about it. Its fulfilment is deferred for seven years. We are nowhere told in the prospectus where the houses are to be; whether they are to be furnished or unfurnished; whether their size and accommodation are to be such as might make them suitable dwellings for persons who have other means to live upon than the "endowment" attached to them, or whether they are to be proportioned only to the purses of annuitants of eleven pounds six shillings:

"Parva sed apta mihi domus."

We have no intimation as to what is to understood by the misconduct, being guilty of which is to be punished with eviction from house and income. We are left in darkness as to whether these "nimium fortunati " are to be distinguished by any particular dress: a sky-blue coat and silver buttons, for instance the costume of an alms-house we are acquainted with, whose inmates have an allowance of twelve pounds a year-with the letters L. B. on the collar, which might imply, at the discretion of the public, "Literary Bedesman or "Lytton Bulwer." Above all, we are

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"And in case any Annuitant shall, in the opinion of the Council, be guilty of any misconduct, the Council shall have the power to vacate the Annuity and remove the person, thus misbehaving himself, from his Free Residence."-Prospectus, page 16. Perhaps, after all, it may only mean that the "Free Resident," if a gentleman, must not omit to take off his hat, or, if a lady, to drop a courtesy, whenever they meet a councillor.

left to our own conjectures as to the nature of the "duties connected with popular instruction" which are to be required from them. Perhaps upon this latter point the founders of the Guild, like a certain new proprietor in Scotland, mentioned in one of Scott's letters, "are just being ruined for want of hints." The house and the dress are deep matters into which we will not endeavour to penetrate, lest we should incur the imputation of rushing in like fools where angels fear to tread. But with respect to the "duties," we would venture to suggest that a joint essay by this "council of ten "—for at such we have calculated the number of the recipients of the munificence of the Guild-on "The Nature and Principles of High Art as illustrated in the modern novel, with a particular reference to the doctrines laid down, upon that subject, in the novels of Sir Lytton Bulwer," would be a fitting inaugural exercitation. This the "literary men" might appropriately recite, on the occasion of a dinner at Knebworth, standing in a line behind the chairs of the distinguished baronet and his colleagues, each repeating a passage of it by turns, like the ancient chorus or shepherds in an eclogue. Such a sight, we are quite positive, would be at least as attractive, if the public were admitted to view it, as the "comedy" and the "farce;" and the proceeds of the exhibition might form a handsome addition to the "endowments" of the performers.

But enough, and more than enough, upon a subject which is too serious to be treated with levity, and too ridiculous to be treated seriously. For the bright genius and the warm heart of one of the founders of the Guild we have the sincerest admiration, though we have the ill-fortune of being obliged to differ in opinion from him much oftener than we should desire. For his sake, and for the sake of every author and artist in Great Britain-whose true interests can never be promoted but may be seriously injured by such a scheme-we trust it will quickly find its way into that limbo where such myraids of more hopeful and, we are compelled to add, more honest schemes have gone before it. When it is dead and comfortably interred, with no hatchment above intends to rise again, we who write this (in lieu of the five pounds we would have contributed to a more rational and hopeful project, in the unostentatious name of The New Monthly Review,) will promise to celebrate its memory in lapidary lines, that shall be worth almost as much as the annual subscription, to the living Guild, of "H. T. Roberts, Esq., of Manchester."

its head to tell the public it

SOMETHING ABOUT CHARLES LAMB.

There is no one but knows Christ's Hospital; if not by sight, at the least by name. The Londoner is familiar with it; and country sightseers, on their road from Holborn to St. Paul's, generally catch a glimpse of the chubby boys in their queer garments, as they play in the court-yard. The long blue coat, with the tiny bands surmounting; the leathern strap around the waist; the yellow stockings; the high-lows; and the capless head;who does not recognise the "blue-coat boy?" Very pleasant it is to stay one minute, as you pass the railings, in Newgate Street, and to hear, amidst all the bustle and traffic which is going on around, the hum and shout of boys' voices. What matters it to them that butchers' cars, and Pickford vans, and weltering oxen, and loaded omnibusses, and cabs, and carts, and men, and women, and children too, are all crowding, and jostling, and knocking one another about in their haste, outside the railings. What is all this to them? The hockey-bung is almost over the goal, and a great struggle is there. The almost defeated side fight bravely. Huzzah! They have saved themselves from being vanquished, and a square-shouldered youngster is driving the bung triumphantly towards the other goal. Now this is of importance, if you like! What matters the impatient crowd outside, when such excitement is agitating their young hearts? Surely this is good to look upon. Let us stay awhile and refresh ourselves with the sight and sound of these fresh and hearty boys. It is akin to getting away into the country, to hear their careless turmoil. Dreams of green fields, and sturdy hedges; of high-spreading trees, with nests in snug corners, and squirrels leaping from branch to branch; of pools of dimpling water, far away in quiet nooks, where low boughs hang down and help the weakened swimmer; of who knows not how many the delights of summer in the country, stream across the mind as we hear their jolly shouts. But on a sudden they all vanish—the court-yard is left empty, in all its gravelly bareness. We watch the last of the little urchins, as he scurries away fearful lest he be late for school: there is nothing more to see now, but yet we linger. The shouts and jollity awoke one train of dreamy thought, the stillness has now given rise to another. We cannot help thinking how many boys have played and shouted here since the first blue-coat boy set them the example. What generations of boys since then have grown up into men, and flourished

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