LITERARY PATRONAGE. ., itt2Dr:Rootr'sRePort - to the-Royal Society, it was - stated , as a
riabject of congratulation, that they had -been able to-select Mr. etizzi for the.purpose of preparinga scientificcatalogue of:their Library. He is undoubtedlyreferredto, not only as an extremely At person, but as :possessing • an-aptitude not to be equalled: aMong
Englislimenewhoseserviceecorild have been had. -
I Theiappeintment,ii thuo--eamplainet of a certeSpendent: 'of " Perceiving in the public prints a notice that the Royat:Sbigety had Seleeted Mr. Pamizzi, the Italian Professor at thelondonlJfikersity, and an assistant in theBritish Musains,as the most-petent, person -ter compile; a classed cats- legveiffuteri vititialat-Ilititary, valeta nac;akisethera-tathlata-an' etinally Issas this Itklian:eould not tfrettfoinide:isibiograpliers and Neel Mesta& singervP1,.atigrew, Upcott, Millard, Motile, Moss, Black, Evans, Bohn, Wood, Lowndes, Holmes, Glover, Stewart, Martin, &c. ?"
We quite tigrfeo with the Writer, -that thereiremitny English, men em11343ter4 to the task ; though we Should make many excep- tions to this,. list, —and first of all to mere bibliographers like Dr. are for the most part utterly incapable of forming a classed catalogue of a scientific and general library. Many welk-informed, and indeed highly-qualified Englishmen, might
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. nave been hit upon, who would not Only-have performed the task honourably, but to whom the employment would have been an invaluable boon, and repaid them in sterling coin for much literary, labour of a higher kind, but of much more' uncertain return. Posseseing none'Of the illiberal feeling which, would object to the admission of foreigners into fair competi- tion with Englishmen,' we still think, eels?* paribus, our countrymen should be preferred ; especially literary men, who are so villanously rewarded for expenaive education and hard and anxious mental occupation. Our Government having _been hitherto' solely aristocratic, literatiire has. never been gene- rally rewarded except when in connexion with the Aristocracy, or perhaps the Church : there are very few appointments, very few places ever given to them, and:those 'never qua literary men. Of these few,the offices attached to the British Museum are the na- tural andnational rewards of 'meritorious members of the literary profession. They are, however, like every thing else, in the gift of aristocratical officials ; who appoint their retainers,' and, sin- gularly enough, -very frequently foreigners. To the list of PLANTAS, NoCHDENS, and others, who have been attached to that most happy and comfortable retreat, it seems 'now that we must add the name of PAXIZZI : why ? what has he dome, or what is he fit fur, that English litt&rateurs have not:deserved the place before him a thousand times over ? While the author of Caleb Williams, at the age of -eighty, is dependent-on the labour of his pen, now feeble and trembling, your PANIZZI, a man scarcely in the middle of life, and other foreigners, without a single peculiar claim, are preferred, not to one single, comfortable appointment, but to A plurality. We shall see whether this, among other abuses, is to proceed. Let us hope something from a Reformed Parliament : such is the chorus with which we find every thing must now be concluded.
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