THE LAUREATESHIP.
uniformity granted to poetry byA.he State, The Laureate is appointed for life, and his office is now vacant. ,:.I therefore desire, through the medium of your influential columns, to suggest what T conceive would be a considerable improvement upon the system hitherto pursued ; and that is, that the appointment should be made an annual one, instead of continuing for life. It so happens, for instance, that at present there is no person upon whose claims to the office the public are by any means unanimously agreed. Some claimants are already in independent circumstances ; some, leas fortunate in their worldly position, are yet considered not quite deserving of the poet's permanent crown : and yet heti inte'of these two classes,: if the old system continues, theLaureate will be selebted; whilst perhaps, 'as "poeta naseitur, near fit," just as the vacancy iii filled up for life, -a Goldsmith or a Kirke White may startup, to astonish, .to charm us, and to starve ! But if the office were every year at the disposal of the Crown, which might have the power of reappointing, when advisable, the old occupant, not only might several of the present somewhat second-rate claimants enjoy it in turn, but hereafter, probably, many a young Said struggling poet might, by the pecu- niary assistance and public position which would -accompany one year's pos- session of the Laureateship, be enabled to face with courage and ultimate success the difficulties which but for this timely aid would have over- 2211 Noy 1850.
Sin—Although in the article upon the " Artists' Benevolent Fund "-in the last Spectator, you mainly refer to painting, yet you also call the attention of your readers to the undoubted fart, that the necessity placed upon artiste in -general to use their artii chiefly for subsistence, has, among other injurious eftbets, the reaalt of almost 'altogether =riving ns of true poets. As far as I am aware, the Inusea -p is the only Sid avowedly and
whelmed him at the outset of his career. S. P. Y.
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