Loan 96 RLF 5/20

Contains documents relating to reform of the Royal Literary Fund’s charter and bye-laws in 1840s and the 1850s; records regarding attempts by a group led by Charles Wentworth Dilke, Charles Dickens and John Forster to reform the Fund; and documents regarding the dissolution of the Guild of Literature and Art. The documents are divided into folders as follows:

1: Regulations and Bye-Laws 1840-1853

Contains documents and correspondence relating to the reform of the Fund’s charter and bye-laws, including notices of committee meetings; printed reports; a joint opinion from the Attorney General (John Jervis) and Hugh McCalmont Cairns, dated 5th November 1847; letters from correspondents including J R Major, Edward Gandy, Patrick Fraser, John Griffin, Henry Ellis, William [Brockidon?], James Prior, William Tooke, Henry Alworth Merewether, George Payne Rainsford James, William Highmore Rosser, W A Chatterton, and Octavian Blewitt; drafts of alterations signed by Edward Foss, Richard Harris Barham and Thomas Gaspey; and a document detailing the Newspaper Press Fund’s policy on pensions.

2: Agitation for a New Charter, 1855

Contains documents and correspondence relating to further attempt to reform the Fund’s charter during 1855, including letters from Robert Bell, John Forbes, Charles Wentworth Dilke, William Tooke; a legal opinion by Henry Alworth Merewether; a copy of the Will and Codicil of Thomas Newton; a legal opinion by the Attorney General (Alexander James Edmund Cockburn); notes by Octavian Blewitt on the history of the Charter and the bye-laws; an account by William Henry Harrison refuting a negative comparison between the management of the Literary Fund and the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, supplemented by figures prepared by Octavian Blewitt; printed notices of Committee meetings and an 1848 copy of the Charter.

3: Printed Pamphlets on Reform of the Literary Fund

These include multiple copies of a report by the Special Committee on the reform of the Charter and Bye Laws, ‘The Case of the Reformers of the Literary Fund’ stated by Charles Wentworth Dilke, Charles Dickens and John Forster (London: Bradbury and Evans, March 1858) and ‘A Summary of Facts drawn from the Records of the Society, and issued by the Committee in answer to allegations contained in a pamphlet entitled The Case of the Reformers of the Literary Fund stated by Charles W. Dilke, Charles Dickens and John Forster, together with a Report of the Proceedings at the last Annual Meeting, Mar 12, 1858’ (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1858). Also contains a single printed copy of an extract from a letter to Charles Dickens dated 22nd March 1858, which offers to donate a library in return for the Fund’s taking up the 1855 reform proposals.

4: Dickens Letters and Reports, 1855-1859

Contains documents and letters relating to Charles Dickens’ attempts to reform the Literary Fund, including letters from Charles Dickens, principally addressed to Octavian Blewitt (some originals, some photocopies); an appeal to summon a special general meeting signed by petitioners including Charles Dickens, John Forster, Bryan Waller Procter, William Makepeace Thackeray, Robert Bell, John Murray and Mark Lemon; the Report of the Special Committee on the question of a new charter, in the hand of Charles Dickens, its chairman; report of the sub-committee convened to recommend improvements, in the hand of Charles Dickens, its chairman; a printed copy of the special committee’s report and a letter from Whitwell Elwin on the proposal to donate a library should the Literary Fund institute reforms.

5: The Case of the Reformers

Contains correspondence and press cuttings on the reforms of the Literary Fund proposed in the 1850s, including printed notices; notes on the Fund’s application procedure by Octavian Blewitt; and letters from Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Newton Crosland and William Henry Harrison.

6: Press Cuttings relating to reform proposals

Contains a large volume of press cuttings relating to the proposed reform of the Literary Fund, including articles from Household Words, Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, the Times, the Morning Herald, the Morning Chronicle, the Morning Post, the Daily News, the Morning Advertiser, the Daily News, the Athenaeum, the Literary Gazette, Lloyd’s Weekly News, the Illustrated News, the Illustrated London News, the Examiner, the Leader, the Spectator, Bell’s Messenger, the Globe, the Bulletin, The Press and the Welcome Guest. These give extensive details regarding the controversy.

7: Papers relating to the dissolution of the Guild of Literature and Art

Several of those who wanted to reform the Royal Literary Fund and were confounded instead set up their own organisation, the Guild of Art and Literature. Ironically, when this organisation was wound up in 1897, the Literary Fund was one of the main beneficiaries. This folder contains extensive documentation regarding the winding up of the Guild, including the bill on the dissolution; press cuttings; minutes; accounts; descriptions and floor plans of the properties owned by the Guild; and letters from correspondents including Farrer & Co, Douglas Gordon (Secretary of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution), George Warren, Arthur Llewelyn Roberts, Edmund Dicey, Gaskell & Co, Edgar Buttanshaw, Charles Dickens Junior, Sir Theodore Martin, Joseph Charles Parkinson, William James Farrer, William Fraser Rae, Frederick Clifford, Frank Richardson & Sadler, W C Sydney, Reginald J Smith and John Manners.