National Honours and their Noblest Claimants. By Robert Bigsby, LL.D.
(J. E. Taylor and Co.)—Dr. Bigsby writes in the interest of the literary class, and demands that men of letters shall be no longer ex- cluded from rewards and honours. The principle thus advocated seems to us sound enough, bat what are the details of the plan proposed, and what is the actual grievance ? No light is thrown on this subject by Dr. Bigsby. Ho says, indeed, that the higher employ- tnents in the Civil Service ought to be open to men of letters. If so, what is to become of the men who devote their lives to the Civil Service ? He says that literary men ought to be independent of publishers. We should have no objection, but how are books to be made known to the public, who is to find the capital for the venture of printing and advertising, and who is to manage the business details which absorb so much money ? If this could be done by the Civil Ser- vice itself, and the sale of books published at the expense of the nation could be made to contribute to the public revenue, there would indeed be a golden time for authors. But then everybody would turn author, and there would be a universal demand for the State support while a hundred new "Paradise Losts " and ten thousand "Hamlets" were being written. This can hardly be Dr. Bigsby's object. Wo do not think it is our fault if we have failed to apprehend him rightly.
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