ADVERTISEMENT. THE writer of these Observations was entirely ignorant, when they were sent to the press, that the subject had been undertaken by the Rev. Mr. CLARKE, a Fellow of Winchester, whose examination by Mr. BROUGHAM is before the public. Had this circumstance been known previously to the sheets being printed, the vindication would have been left to one, who, having access to the Statutes of the College, was more capable of doing it justice. To him I must leave those points which his knowledge of the Statutes can best explain: but I hope what is here offered will dispose the public mind to a dispassionate view of the subject. To prevent the possibility of misconception, and misunderstanding the object I had in view in detailing an account of the exact receipts and expenditure of a Fellowship of Winchester in the year 1756, and also in introducing an anecdote apparently trifling; I beg it may be kept in mind, that Mr. Brougham had excited an impression in the public, that the income of the Fellows was superabundant, and the expenditure such as ought to be curtailed, and that the boys were subjected to unnecessary privations, to increase the funds of a few Fellows, who were not better than robbers of the poor. This was the impression made, or attempted to be made, on the public, by insinuations as false as they were cruel. The shortest and plainest way of showing the utter falsehood of these charges, was to avail myself of a document in my possession, and to show, by a fact, what the income of a Fellow was in 1736, what were the exact items of expenditure, and what was the heart and disposition towards the boys, of that character who possessed these funds. The anecdote is introduced to show how remote from every feeling "or thought of robbery" that heart must be, (and the applition is obvious) which to the last felt the greatest anxiety for the happiness and welfare of the "threescore and ten."-A very futile piece of criticism has made it necessary for me to premise these things. With respect to the introduction of some illustrious living characters, the fault must not be laid on me, (if a fault it be) but on Mr. Brougham, who made the mention of those names almost necessary; and so mentioning them, I should have thought myself deficient in feelings of respect and gratitude, if I had not spoken of them as I have done. "Hoc tribuisse Parim, non tribuisse scelus!" With the deepest sense of gratitude I received the following testimony:- Winchester College, Dec. 3d, 1818. "At a meeting of the Warden, Fellows, Masters, and Subpreceptors, of Winchester College and School, it was unanimously resolved, that the thanks of this Society be given to the Rev. Mr. Clarke and the Rev. Mr. Bowles, for the zeal and ability with which they have vindicated the College of Winchester." ANSWER. Bremhill, Dec. 12, 1818. To the Warden, Fellows, Masters, and Sub-preceptors of My Lord and Gentlemen, The public testimony which I have received of your approbation will be a source of pride and satisfaction to me as long as I live. I trust, whenever those honored walls, in which so many good and great men have received their education, are attacked, they will never want defenders from among the grateful sons of the Founder Wyckham. An arm more effective in their defence may be raised, as in the case of the consummate Vindication by Mr. Clarke, but they cannot have a heart warmer in anxiety to repel unjust and illiberal aggression, than my own. I am, my Lord and Gentlemen, Your obliged Servant, W. L. BOWLES. VOL. XIII. Pam. NO. XXVI. X A LETTER, &c. SIR, IF I presume most respectfully to recal your attention to some points, connected with the inquiry into the Abuses of Public Charities, which, to judge from your letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, I think you have neither seen yourself, nor placed before the public in a just light: I hope you will not consider my addressing you on the subject, as arising either from want of proper deference to yourself, or a disposition in the remotest degree adverse to the great and benevolent undertaking in which you are engaged. The prominent and active part you have taken, in dragging into light concealed frauds, and in pursuing, both with zeal and firmness, the great object of inquiring into the abuses of Public Charities, does you honor as a man, a legislator, and ▲ CHRISTIAN; and, I believe there, are few, (except such as may be implicated,) who are not interested in the cause, if more silently, yet not less ardently or anxiously, than yourself. You have acknowledged the promptitude and alacrity with which the PAROCHIAL CLERGY, as a body, have answered all inquiries transmitted to them, respecting the existence and administration of Charities, in the places where they reside. But in your examination of some gentlemen of this valuable class in society, connected with the large establishments of public education, may I be permitted to ask, whether you have shown as far as these schools are concerned, a fair, dispassionate view of the subject, without predetermined opinions or partial bias ? Your letter to Sir Samuel Romilly is before the public; and although I would not detract from the candor which distinguishes those parts in which you speak of men of different political views from your own; I am almost tempted to believe, that when our great national institutions of public education are the subject, that spirit of impartiality and candor forsakes you. As some misunderstanding seems to have gained ground, and as a very great share of odium, on account of the language you have held, is likely to fall with full weight on those establishments, which I verily believe least deserve the imputation; may I venture to solicit your pardon, whilst I call your attention to some circumstances, from which it appears to me you have misunderstood the nature, intention, and character of those munificent national foundations. In the first place, when there were many instances of most flagrant and gross delinquency in the abuse of public trusts, it seems extraordinary, that those venerable institutions on which no particular obloquy had hitherto been cast, (however they may have been assailed, as they always will be, in an age tending to fanatic feelings,) should be brought into the VERY VAN, if I may say so, of inquisitorial scrutiny; as if the front of their offending had been the most conspicuous, and their abuses most flagrant. Why was this? Could it be intended, when the public mind was excited to a state of irritation, and when an idea had gone forth of the poor being robbed, that they should be led to believe that even the places destined by ancient piety and charity for their especial advantage had been unjustly wrested from them; and that thus a vague feeling of some monstrous misapplication and fraud should be studiously kept alive against these establishments in particular? When the enquiry was first begun, every honest and independent heart was with you: "They wished you good luck in the name of the Lord;" and the whole nation hailed you, not as the orator of a political party, but as the great and noble defender of the cause of humanity, in which all minor feelings were merged and lost. But when ingenuous minds observed how eagerly you seemed to fix your first stern look on those institutions, which they had regarded with well-founded, or, if you please, "romantic," attachment;-when they remarked gentlemen and scholars, as well educated as yourself, subjected to a mode of sarcastic scrutiny, as if they stood before the Attorney-General Noy, in the Star-Chamber of Charles the First; or rather like the students of Oxford, at the inquisitorial visitation of the Earl of Pembroke, under Cromwell; -when eagerly pouncing (as it were) on these great objects, you almost seemed to verify the proverb,' if not that part of it, dat ve"Dat veniam CORVIS, vexat censura COLUMBAS. niam corvis, at least that in which it is said, " verat censura " coLUMBAS;" (for in comparison with some of the grosser abuses of charity, the public schools may be considered as "doves" compared with "vultures;") then it was the dispassionate and well-informed less readily went with you. Nay worse; for, if it was then, and not till then, that the government turned round, and, as you complain, not only in part defeated your plans, but, passing by such a character as the Marquis of Lansdowne, "absolutely substituted some who were esteemed unfriendly to the cause in general; if they dared to add one more abuse to those already existing, by giving large salaries to their friends, to undertake what they had no wish should be undertaken; if they had thus sought to turn into the greatest ABUSE the very investigation of ABUSES; if it were in consequence ordered, that "none shall be asked QUESTIONS without THEIR OWN CONSENT," and the measure, according to your opinion, in great degree thus rendered ineffectual; may it not be said that the blame lies ON THE CONDUCT OF ITS AUTHOR! Before I speak more particularly of the points relating to our great establishments of education, on account of which I have taken the liberty of publicly addressing you, allow me to say, that those who have received an education at either of our universities, and who perhaps have been sent there from some of our great public schools, cannot forget, that these illustrious seats of learning, for many years, had been objects of invidious but impotent attack in a literary journal, with which, it is generally understood, you were connected. Those attacks, particularly on the university of Oxford, were repelled by a scholar and a gentleman, now one of the greatest ornaments of that university, in an answer equally convincing and dignified, worthy the cause and the place. All the world had admired the caustic satire and sonorous declamation of the Edinburgh Review. Few considered how many? positions, with a parade of literary dictatorship, were confidently advanced, which could not bear the discussion of a man of sound judgment, or correct intelligence. Nevertheless, all tongues repeated, "How clever!" and all eyes were turned to admire the dazzling brilliancy of sarcasm, to which an obnoxious and shrinking author was exposed. But, alas, "all these things availed nothing," while the illustrious seats of learning towered pre-eminent in a neighbouring country. Sister Peg,' with all her real talents, (and should envy, "Seek from her brows the wreath to tear, • Scotland. |