THE BRIDGEWATER BEQUEST.
THE late Earl of BRIDGEWATER left 8,000/. for the production of a work having for its object the exemplification of the "Wisdom of God in the Creation ;" a noble sum, and a noble object. The money was to be at the disposal of the President of the Royal Society. Our readers are probably aware, that Mr. GILBERT DAVIES, feel- ing thd weight of this responsibility, relieved himself by applying for the advice of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY and the Bishop of LONDON. The decision to which they have come, strikingly illustrates the decided tendency to jobbing in those ranks and classes of men in this country who have long had a monopoly in the disposal of public money. The object of the Earl of BRIDGEWATER was, doubtless, by the greatness of the reward to stimulate the genius of the country to the production of a great and lasting work of utility. He hoped by the exhibition of a motive—no less than that of independence for life—to bring forth some young PALEY, some new WATSON, and thus insure another imperishable work to be added to the im- mortal literature of England. But what have the Bishops done? They have divided the thing into no fewer than eight sons; each job is of a thousand pounds, and is to produce for the author the profits of the sale of a huge quarto at four guineas in price: so that, instead of a work which we will suppose might rival TnomAs-l-lampts on the Imitation of Christ, in size as well as in circulation,—that is to say, in an Elzevir edition, go into the waistcoat pocket without a bulge, and be carried about in the heart for ever,—we are to have eight or ten enormous quartos, price two-and-thirty guineas. Oh, shame upon such jobbery ! If Lord BRIDGEWATER had wished to sink his money in paying parsons and college monks, the means were ready enough—he need not have gone to the President of the Royal Society for' aid. The gentlethen selected for exemplifying this remarkable exhi- bition of "the Wisdom of Man in the Jobbing of Money," are, we are given to understand, the following— . 1.W. 'CHARLES BELL—sabjett, Httaann Anatomy
£1,000 1/r. f(ton.--Comparative Anatoaky 1,000 Dr. I2oc.1.v—Physio1ogv • 1,000
Rev. Mr. KIRRY—Z0141:-
1,000
F10,-. Mr. Wits.wm.=---Astrononly
,n00 Rcv. Dr. Ilves:LAxt..--Geology 1.000
Rev. Dr. CHALHt:RS—to dish up the whole
1,000
'The name of the eighth gentleman we are not in possession of, tor of the subject he is to discourse upon.
Admitting that these are all able men, yet if any of them could produce a work of the kind conceived by the Will-maker, they had already motive enough to do so,—they know their powers; they know the wants of society ; and they mostly are, or might be, men of learned ease.
We wanted no " Encyclopmdiaemoralized," in eight quarto vo- lumes, price thirty-two guineas; and if we had wanted one, we should have been contented with a bookseller's enterprise, who would have made it complete. But here is a work of enormous bulk and cost; and yet, from the necessity of being•diVided into only eight' sufficient jobs, it does not, with all its pay and its pre- tension, go over half the ground. The Earl of BRIDGEWATER, poor man, might' just as well have left the sum to he laid out in masses for his soul. For our parts, we wonder that such illustrious men—Bishops, and Doctors, and Tutors—would have aaty thing to do with the unhappy Earl's money.
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