The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-25 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

A circular memorandum having been recently issued from
the War-office, containing instructions for the placing of
regimental libraries on a more satisfactory footing, besides
directing apartments to be set apart or ,constructed for sol-
diers' recreation rooms, the authorities of the camp at Col-
chester have placed a hut at the disposal of a committee of
each battalion to be used in accordance with the terms of the
circular. In order to carry out the new system, the Go-
vernment, besides providing furniture for the rooms and
supplying apparatus for various amusing and harmless
battalion £2 10s.
games, grants to each company in every

SENT TO COVENTRY.—That the Shakspere Memorial
Committee appreciate the importance of doing something is
apparent from the fact that they induced the Archbishop of
Dublin to postpone his immediate duties in his new see for
the purpose of presiding at their adjourned meeting on Mon-
day. But even Dr. Trench's grave office, and his skill and
experience in managing a meeting, did notdo much towards
getting the scheme into working order. The first bustness
done consisted in adopting a suggestion - of time_ Coventry
weavers, that all Shaksperians should, on the 23d of April,
wear a bunch of Coventry ribbons, whereupon the Coventry
manufacturers subscribed 25 guineas to the fund. A good
eye to business is always kept by Coventry. Being normally
on the very verge of starvation, the Coventry manufacturers
are always on the look out for national celebrations. Coven-
try made a good thing out of the Princess's wedding, and
because Sir John Falstaff would not march through Coven-
try with a certain ragged regiment, Coventry has got a
sort of literary right to get something out of Shakspere.
This combination of the mercantile with the monumental
and poetical spirit might be carried a good deal further. If
the committee can get 25 guineas by ordering all the Shak-
sperians to wear Coventry rosettes, why should they not
get another 25 guineas by proclaiming the necessity of
Spitalfields silk scarfs? There are plenty of trades-
men who will subsidize the National Fund on these terms.
A Moses coat, or Sy denham trousers, or a Townend hat,
or Tower of Babel gloves—all thee) things are open to the
Committee to recommend, and scrape a percentage out of
them.—Saturday _Review.
A WORD FOR THE MAJORITY WHO REJECTED MR.
THA.CKERAY'S NAME JUST BEFORE HIS LAMENTED
DEATH.—The truth is, we fear, that the lamentable death
of Mr. Thackeray, rendered still more melancholy by its
awful suddenness, has afforded to his partisans a favour-
able opportunity, as they suppose, for wreaking vengeance
upon the " Shakspere Committee" for declining to go on
their knees to a gentleman who appeared to have treated
their special invitation to join in the " movement" with
contempt ;, and hence, the secession and the uncalled-for
publication of the reasons assigned for it.— Weekly Register.
SHAKSPERE'S HISTORICAL DRAI&A.S.—The entire cycle
of them will be performed at the Tercentenary at Weimar.
Richard 11., Henry IV., first and second parts, Henry V.
(never before given in Germany) were produced there, in a
new version by Dinglestedt (with several scenic alterations)
and achieved a complete success.—Atltenceum.
THREATENED COLLAPSE OF THE WHOLE PROJECT.—
To all appearance it is becoming useless to talk about the
matter, or to discuss what form the Shakspere Commemo-
ration had beet assume. Unless there shall be some sud-
den inburst of influential energy to the rescue, fur shame
sake, of a cause to which many more are pledged in senti-
ment than the few that have practically mismanaged it, the
whole business seems to be staggering now to dissolution.
—Reader.

A 000D-HUMOURED JEST AT THE WHOLE SCHEME OF
THE COMMEMORATICN.—Mr. Hepworth Dixon and his
colleagues to march—we will not say through Coventry, by
which road the dissentient Nine would send them—but from
Chtapside to Westminster Hall. There they are to drink
an dEsthetic Tea, to the tune of Shakspere and the musical
glasses, with a recitation of Tupper's Priz3 Ode for this
occasion, beginning-
-46 Three hundred anniversaries
Have gone their empty.round,
But this one the disburser is
Of thirty thousand pound?" _ _ _

We are tempted to quote another stanza of this effusion,
but it will keep till the proper time. It prophesies a com-
bined victory of the expensive Fine Arts over financial Pru-
dence and Good Taste, so often defeated in their resistance
to those monumental designs which encumber the streets
and squares of London. But let that be as it may. The
projected statute of Shakspere, with its accompanying bas-
reliefs and the architectural shrine which is to serve it for
an umbrella, will either be a thing of beauty and a joy for
ever, or else it will be a thing of ugliness and stupidity,
which we may learn to pass with averted eyes, as men do in
Trafalgar-square. In this case, it will do no greater harm
than other unsightly erections, of which nobody complains.
It would be unkind,°, we think ,to deny an tuber of our
fellow•-citizens who might choose to invest £30,000 in a
mass of bronze or marble the usual permission to set it up
anywhere they please out of the way of our street traffic.
Why then should the recusant members of the committee
not content themselves with a simple act of retirement from
these proceedings ? If they do not care for a bit of Coven-
try ribi.vn—if they dont wish to walk in a theatrical mas-
querade—if they would rather not take tea in Westminster
Hall, or batten on the least of sentimental rhapsody and
imbibe the lbw of a prize-medallist's song, which the Exe-

cutive Council will provide for them—why can't they leave
those innocent pleasures for the gentle souls who like them ?
We will not echo the tone of arcrimonious hostility by which
their letter seems to be inspired.—London .Review.