THE PENS ION FUND—CASE OF PHILOSOPHER WALKER'S DAUGHTER.
TO THE EDITOR OF TIlE SPECTATOR.
SIR—The Civil List Fund being founded as a national reward for benefactors to science and to their country, and as a benevolent means of provision for their orphan and portionless descendants, it is ad- mitted, that to be consistent with the legitimate object of its establish- ment, the claim of national services, or of real merit alone, should' entitle any individual to participate in its benefits, but that such a claim should always be sufficient to obtain the well-merited reward.
Your characteristic advocacy of justice, and liberal extension of your powerful aid to those who need and deserve its beneficial influence, encourage me to hope for your generous assistance to make known a peculiar instance of partiality and injustice in the administration of the Pension Fund, as exemplified in the neglect of the interesting case of the late Mr. ADAM WALKER'S only daughter, (a woman of refined education and unexceptionable conduct,) whose claim being founded on the universally acknowledged services to society, of her celebrated and revered father, needs but the wide-spreading publicity of your valuable columns, to obtain the influential sympathy and attention it so welL deserves.
To Mr. ADAM WALKER the British nation is peculiarly indebted, for his zealous and disinterested advancement of the sciences, arts, and' manufactures, and for his many essentially valuable inventions. Among' these are "The Revolving Lights," originally constructed off the coast of Cornwall, on a principle so efficient in the preservation of human life and property, as to have been imitated on other dangerous coasts, and to have proved an invention of vital importance to the maritime in- terests of Great Britain and her dependencies. Also Mr. A. WALKER'S beneficial improvement in the construction of the Royal. Mail-Coaches—greatly increasing their speed and safety. His " Fu- migating Lamp," (as used, by authority, on board his Majesty's ships.) The " Warm-air-stove," originally erected in the King's Theatre; the celebrated " Eidouranion," or transparent orrery; various improved corn, paper, and other mills, wheel-carriages, locomotive engines, ori- ginal plans, and models of projected railways, steam.carriages, &c.; which having been practically carried into effect, bare founded many of his successors' fortunes. Mr. WALKER'S various literary works, espe- cially " A Treatise on Natural and Experimental Philosophy," 4to. ; and those talented and comprehensive philosophical lectures, to which the present enlightened taste for scientific inquiry maybe chiefly traced. But neither from the Trinity Board (although it was on their applica- tion that Mr. WALKER invented the revolving lights), nor from Govern.. ment, did he ever seek or receive any pecuniary reward whatever. A memorial of his orphan and widowed daughter's claim, was so favourably distinguished by his late Majesty, as to have been trans- mitted to the consideration of the Lords of the Treasury, by the King's express command and gracious recommendation of the case to their Lordships' attention. But successive Ministerial changes oc- curred ; and although every effort has since been repeatedly made, through all the regular official channels of approach, to bring it under the paternal consideration of his present Majesty, in the hope that some means of subsistence, or the long sought situation of Housekeeper in one of the National Institutions might be granted to her, (and her fitness for which, can be testified by the highest references,) yet, not possessing the influential passport of Ministerial or other favour, her appeal has not reached his Majesty ; and the liberal and enlightened instrumentality of the public press is therefore now heronly hope of being relieved from the painful dependent situation in which she has for years past been suffered to languish—the victim of family injustice, of unmerited neglect, and severe adversity. lir [This is surely a case for the benevolence of the SAILOR KING ; who, in bargaining with his Minister for the Pension-list, expressed a desire that it might "last his time,"—only for the pleasure, doubtless, of per- forming kind offices to the needy. What are his Majesty's almoners about ? We are informed that the lady is qualified for a housekeeper's situation in an assurance or other public office, or an employment of the pen. Her address is "49, Grosvenor Place, Pimlico."—En.)
Previous page
