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

THE SHAKSPERE MEMORIAL.

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 business
done consisted in adopting a suggestion of some 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 these 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.
THACKERAY'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.
SHARSPERE'S HISTORICAL DRAMAS.—The entire cycle
of them will be performed at the Tercentenary at Weimar.
Riehard 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.-21thenecurn.
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 best 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 GOOD-lIUMOURED 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
ChEapside to Westminster Hall. There they are to drink
an „Esthetic Tea, to the tune of Shakspere and the musical
glasses, with a recitation of Tupper's Prize Ode for this
occasion, beginning—
"" 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 ribbon—if they dont wish to walk in a theatrical saes-
querade—if they would ratter not take tea in Westminster
Hall, or batten on the feast of sentimental rhapsody and
imbibe the flow 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.

WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

(From the Illustrated London News.)
The will of Florentia Elizabeth, Lady Nightingall, relict
of Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Nightingall, K.C.8., was
proved in London under £120,000. Lady Nightingall was
the daughter of Sir Lionel Darell, Bart., married in 1800,
and became a widow in 1829. Her ladyship's will bears
date 1861, with two codicils, 1862-3. The executors are the
Rev. Sir William Lionel Darell, Bart., M.A., her nephew,
and Edmund Williams, Esq. There are numerous small
legacies to relatives and godchildren, and to a servant. A
freehold estate which her ladyship purchased at Westhorp
is to be held in the same manner as other estates in the
parish under the will of her late husband. Her freehold
estate at Earl-Stonham Creeting, Suffolk, her ladyshi;
devises to her nephew and executor, the Rev. Sir William
Lionel Darell, Bart., M.A., rector of Tretherne, Gloucester-
shire, appointing him also residuary legatee of both real and
personal estate, leaving a legacy of £5,000 to his daughter
Flora, her ladyship's great niece.
The will of the Right Hon. and Most Rev. Richard
Whately, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Dublin, was proved in
London—under £40,000 personalty in England ; the exceu.
tors and trustees being the Rev. William Law Pope, M.A.,
Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, the Rev. Ed ward
William Whately (testator's son), Jane Whately (his
daughter), and Charles Brent Wale, Esq. (his son-in-law),
The will was executed in May, 1860, and a codicil in July
following. To his eldest child he leaves his books, MSS.,
and copyright ; to his eldest unmarried daughter he leaves
his furniture, plate, &c. To each of his four children a sum
equal to £12,000, divid.ing equally amongst them his real
and the residue of his personal estate:'
The will of Edward Barmester, Esq., of St. Helen's.
place, London, and of Clapham, was proved in London
under £1404000. The executors are his brothers-in-law,
Edward Browne and Henry Cotton, Esqrs., John Coles
Byrnes, Esq., and John Harris, Esq, of Hyde-park-gardens.
His two daughters are the principal legatees under the will.
He leaves to them his real estate, together with the residue
of the personalty, to be divided between them in equal moie-
ties. The presentation plate which he received from the
London Dock Company he leaves to his eldest daughter and
to her male issue; or failure, to his other daughter and her
male issue; but, should neither leave a son, then to his
nearest male kindred bearing his name,to be held as an heir-
loom. The following are the charitable bequests—London
Orphan Asylum, London Hospital, and Marine Society,
each £100; Female Orphan School, the poor of Woodford
parish, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the So-
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, each £5O ; Deaf
and Dumb Asylum, British Orphan Asylum, and the Dis-
pensary, Clapham, each £25 ; and to the Clapham Boys'
Parochial Schools, 19 guineas.

PROJECTED NEW RAILWAY OVER TUE PYRE-
NEES.—In the sitting of the Spanish Cortes of the
12th inst., Senor Carriguiri brought in a bill for the con-
struction of a railway from Parnpeluna to Eguy, with pro-
longation over the Pyrenees to Bayonne, in France. The
hon. deputy stated that careful surveys of the projected
line had been made, and that there were no extra
ordinary engineering difficulties in the way of its
execution. lie asked not fora subvention or gua-
rantee of interest on the part of the Government, but
only an ordinary concession. The proposition was referred
to a committee, and is likely to be reported upon in a
favourable sense. This newly projected railway, it may be
interesting to state, is to pass over the celebrated valley of
Roncesvalles—in French, Roncevaux—where the rear-
guard of Charlemagne's army, under Roland, was defeated
and destroyed in 778. There is to be station at this place ;
and the great Roland, the model of the knight of all ages,
will at last receive a monument, in the shape of a railway
porter's lodge,—Bailivay /Veto.