The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-20 00:00:00

PRICE ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

an attempt really to edit ',Shakespeare would have taught
him—his works are all posthumous, and they require to be
read warily. Mr. Dyco seems to us inclined to follow him
to implicitly. Dr. Guest goes to one extreme in his ideas
of Shakespeare's versification ; 'Walker goes to the other,
and would cut and carve the poet's lines with arithmetical
regularity. This is surely a middle course.
Notwithstanding these objections to Mr. Dyce's edition,
it is a great work, worthy of his reputation, and for the
present it contains tho standard text. Two such editions of
Shakespeare in one year as Mr. Staunton's facsimile of the
first folio and Mr, 11)) co's final revision of the text are an
honourable testimony to the regard in which the poet's
memory is hold, and are the bast signs of a Monument
which we can discover.

NATIONAL SHAKSPERE COMMITTEE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—The undersigned, feeling it incumbent upon them
to withdraw from the National Shakspere Committee, are
desirous of stating their reasons for doing so.
Their strong anxiety that a national tribute to our greatest
poet should be worthy of its object, and their equally strong
conviction that those who have assumed the direction of the
movement do not comprehend, and therefore will not satisfy
the expectations of the nation, have compelled them to take
the unpleasant step of separating themselves from gentle-
men with whom they have endeavoured to co-operate.
Without dwelling upon the irregular and unbusiaess-like
character of the proceedings of the executive body, the un-
dersigned complained that more than half a year has been
wasted in procuring a list of names which would have been
given in without solicitation, had a practical and worthy
scheme been laid before the public. _

It was not until December last that the question of the
site of the proposed memorial was referred to a sub-com-
flattop foreanaideration, and the all-important question of
the nature of the memorial was sot taken up until the pre
sent month.

At this moment—within little more than three months
from the 23d of April—the committee is as ignorant as the
public where the memorial is to be placed, and what it is
to be. _ _ .

_
That a monument worthy of Shakspere, and to be reared
by the united energies of the three kingdoms and the 50
colonies, can be devised, discussed, and accepted by the
country within a few weeks, is an idea too absurd to be en-
tertained by a nation of practical men who hold Shakspere
in befitting reverence.
Had the executive a due appreciation of their task, it
might have been possible to arrange some pleasant celebra-
tion for the 23d of April, while taking time to consider the
question of memorial with the care it demands; but the
executive, having wasted so much time, are now endeavour-
ing to hurry matters, and in order to do so have obtained
leave to take a step which must deprive the memorial of a
national character.

The general committee, alter showing its estimate of its
executive by rejecting a draught report prepared and im-
properly put into circulation by that body as the report of
the committee, followed up what was in effect a vote of
censure, by appointing a sub-committee to prepare another
document to be issued to the public. This sub-committee
unanimously decided that it would be premature to address
the public until the site and memorial committees should
have reported. It was agreed that it would be absurd to
make Ouch an appeal in the absence of a definite object.
On Monday last this report was presented to a meeting
of the general committee, and was approved by it.
The general committee, after it had thus decided that it
was in no condition to address the nation, having no infor-
mation to communicate, was induced to stultify that deci-
sion by voting that the public should be appealed to, and
moreover that it should be asked for a definite sum. It
had occurred to somebody that the memorial ought to cost
£30,000, and that this notion should be presented to the
nation, which, however, was to be at liberty to give more if
it pleased, and was to be assured that any surplus should be
laid out philanthropically.
This final blunder, the conclusion of a series, appears to
the undersigned to be fatal. They are therefore compelled
to withdraw from co-operation in a scheme which, as at
present managed, must end in discreditable failure, and
draw down universal contempt upon English prolcesions
of reverence for Shakspero.
Tom TAYLOR. THOMAS WALKER,
THEODORE MARTIN. ROBERT BELL.
SHIRLEY BROOKS. C. L. GRUNEISEN.
J. S. BREWER. HAIN FILISWELL,
T. DUFFUS HARDY.