The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-21 00:00:00

CHARLES DICKENS.

In the evening the Rev. B. Jowett, Regius Professor of
Greek at Oxford, Fpreached. He said :—He whom we
now mourn was the friend of mankind, a philanthropist
in the true sense, the friend of youth, the friend of the
poor, the enemy of every form of meanness and oppres-
sion. I am not going to attempt to draw a portrait
of him. Men of genius are different from what we
suppose them to be, they have greater pleasures and
greater pains, greater affections, and greater temptations,
than the generality of mankind, and they can never be
altogether understood by their fellow men. We do not
wish to intrude upon them, or analyse their lives and cha-
racters. They are extraordinary persons, and we cannot
prescribe to themwhat they should be. ut we feel that LI
light has gone out, the world is darker to us, when they de-
part. There are so very few of them that we cannot afford to
lose them one by one and we look vainly round for others who
may supply their places. And he whose loss we now
mourn occupied a greater space than any other writer in
the minds of Englishmen during the last 35 years. We
ead him, talked about him, acted him, we laughed with
him, we were roused by him to a consciousness of the
misery of others, and to a pathetic interest in human life.
The workhouse child, the cripple, the half-clothed and
half-starved inhabitant of a debtors prison found a
way to his heart, and, through the exertions of his
gethus, touch to our hearts also. Works of fiction would
be intolerable if they attempted to be sermons directly to
instruct us ; but indirectly they are great instructors of
the world, and we can hardly exaggerate the debt of gra'
titude which is due to a writer who has led us to synll,3"
thise with these good, true, sincere. honest English cha-
racters of ordinary life, and to laugh at the egotism, the
hypocrisy, the false respectability of religious professors
and others. To another great humourist who lies in this
church the words have been applied that the gaiety of
nations was eclipsed by his death. But of him who 1188
been recently taken I would rather say, in humbler
language, that no one was ever so much beloved or so
much mourned. Men seem to have lost, not a great
writer only, but one whpm they had personally known.
And so we bid him farewell.

ST. JAW'S THEATRE.
evenipelgoole' e ebrated comedy of "Paul Pry
was revived at this theatre in its original form, and in Pre-
cisely the same manner in which it was first acted at the
TEnarket Theatre in 1823. On that occasion Madame
Vestri‘appeared as Phoebe, Mr. W. Farren as Col. HardY,
Mrs. Waylett as Harry Stanley, Mrs. Glover as Mrs.
Subtle, Mr. Pope as Mr. Witherton, and Mr. Liston as
Paul Pry. In the representation last evening Mrs. John
Wood enacted Phoebe, Mr. William Farren his father e
character, Col. Hardy, Miss M. Brennan Harry Stanley,
and Mr. L. Brough that of the inquisitive Paul Pry.
The acting of this old comedy gave groat satisfaction,
as Mrs. Wood infused a great deal of spirit into her part,
and sang " Cherry Ripe" with so much taste that it
called forth an enthusiastic encore. Mr. Farren was
hardly at home in the character of the peppery 01,1
Colonel, and Mr. Brough's Paul, although it called forth
much laughter, was nothing more than a complete photo-
graph of the late Mr. Wright. His " make-up," by-PlaY,
and objectionable habit of talking to the audience, Were
all strictly followed out, and we cannot help thinking that
had Mr. Brough depended more on his own talent the result
would have been equally, if not more, successful However
the comedy, as we have already said, went off with the
greatest eclat, and gave promise of equalling, if it does
not exceed the success, of Mrs. Wood's revival of " Silt°
Stoops to Conquer," which ran on a successful career 01
160 successive representations. The lively and still WI
attractive burlesque of " La Belle Sauvage" concluded
the evening's entertainments. There was a very full an
brilliant audience.
To-morrow evening Mr. E. P. Hingston, the energeti°
and untiring acting manager, takes his benefit. The ee:
tertainment provided contains a variety of novelties, but
the urbanity of Mr. Hingston, his great exertions t,eo
secure the comfort of the visitors to the St. James
Theatre, have renderedhim such an especial favourite tha.
the public will, we feel certain, only be too happy to i
on
him a tangible acknowledgment of the high estitaat4
in which he is held.

HORSE DIITY.—Mr. Milbank, M.P. for the Nor
Riding, in acknowledging a petition from the Nato
Riding Chamber of Agriculture, promised to supportcit" 14,,,"
Gregory's clause for exempting farmers' horses from
when drawing materials for the highways. b-
We understand that Mr. Effingham Wilson, P
lau
Usher, of the Royal Exchange, is about to issue a well,
in a prologue and four acts, entitled " Oliver Croravo"
fiort 119's
dedicated by permission to T. Carlyle. This e -or,
received the flattering approbation of that groat been
who has pronounced his opinion that full justice haa
done to the essential character of Cromwell. Other en,.l„
petent critics have declared that the drama is erain°llLA
suited for stage representation, and it is to be being
that the author will give it a fair chance of %
acted before it is published. We should like to hear tkae
Mr. Phelps is about to make his reappearance en
stage in such a character as Oliver Cromwell. This iO.`"J
no means the first time that the well-known publisbnl
house of the Royal Exchange has given its imprint t°l,.
work so totally disconnected from its usual style of stn-',
jects. The maiden volume of Tennyson was pulishen".
by Effingham Wilson, as well as many distinguished cod
tributions to the Belles Lettres, in poetry, the drama, 14'11
romance.

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Strand, W.Q.