The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-21 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP—Jan. 18.

There is little new in the political world. The arrange..
ment which I mentioned a week ago has been c:•nfirmcd.
Lord Cairns will continue to lead until Easter. By that
time it will be seen if Lord Derby will consent to
lead, and the High Church Conservatives, some fifty
in number, will consent to follow him. Government,
as I mentioned some time ago, intend at present to
push on the Irish Land Bill to a third reading in the
Rouse of Commons before Easter. The remarks of Mr.
Bright about the impossibility of driving six
omnibuses abreast through Temple Bar have had the
' effect (probably the intended effect) of exciting much dis-
satisfaction among the Liberal party, and urgent appeals
have been made to Mr. Gladstone by the Liberal
journals not to slacken his hand. Government waited to
test public feeling, and see how far it will support them
in the many measures which they propose to pass at some
time or other. Four years ago Mr. Gladstone seemed to
have outstripped the popular wishes, and he fell. He will
not make this mistake again. Hence it must be very
satisfactory to him to see that the incimatien of the Irish
land bill being the only measure of the session is received
with anything but satisfaction.
The inconvenience caused by not filling up the vacant
English judgeship has been greatly felt this week. Mr,
Justice Ilannen has been sitting in the Full Court of
Divorce. Another judge has to be at Chambers, and
thus it becomes extremely difficult to obtain the
presence of three judges in baneo. They are so sitting to-
day, and the nisi Arius cases intended to be heard to-day
have to be postponed or abandoned, either alternative
being very vexatious to suitors. The Lord Chief Justice
has already pointed out the inconvenience arising from
this state of things, and as the Solicitor-General was
present at the time, it is to be hoped that he will report
the remarks to the Lord Chancellor.
The new Junior Conservative Club is making gr...;
progress. The number of members joining is very large,
and, although the subscription is only five guineas, as
much as .£3OO has been received in a single day.

There is likely to be another great nunnery case before
long. Your reAers will remember Mr. Arthur Wagner,
the High Church clergyman of St. Paul's, Brighton, who
was instrumental in inducing Constance Kent to confc.,;
that she was the principal in the Road Murder. At the
time of her confes,ion 871^ was an inmate of his Arri;lican

ber of the H-aL~

the oft

b,,uest c

a I

11 the ground ti

already been ente-i•ecl in the Probate Court.
There was a distinguished ainlienee last night at
King's College to hour Dean Goulburn read his paper on
" The existing mode of electing bishops, and any alteration
that may be made therein consistent with the union
between Church and State." Mr. J. G. Talt,i, 1.P.. for
We. 4 Keat, was in the chair, and Sir John Pakington, Sir
John Hay, and other well-known gentlemen were present.
The Dean held that Parliament would not consent to any
fundamental alteration, but that the Act of Pramuni: e
ought to b repealed, inasmuch as it was a usurpation by
Henry VIII. Sir John Coleridge, the !..ii.olicitor-General,
reads a paper on freedom in the Church at Sion College
to-night, and it is eagerly anticipated by Churchmen.
"Nothing is sacred to a sapper" or to Mr. Cook. He
has already organised an excursion through the Suez canal.
Mr. Cok,fils, started on Monday with a party of tourists
for the Nile, and in February, Englishmen who find
politics a bore will have an escape offered them on the
very eve of the Parliamentary session by Mr. Cook, pine,
who starts for Lower Egypt, the Suez Canal, Palestine,
Asia Minor, and Greece, for seventy-five days; or for
a forty da3Y H) to Alexandria, Cairo, and the Suez canal.
Theatrical matters are becomingmore lively, though the
first item I have to mention is the reverse of cheerful.
The Holborn Theatre is closed, and it is understood that
the house has involved Mr. Barry Sullivan in a heavy loss.
He had been assisted professionally by Mr. and Mrs. Her-
mann Vezin, who had done their best to support the legi-
mate drama against the modern sensational and realistic
school. The best modern plays, Lytton's, Sheridan's, and
others, had been brought out in a style that Charles Kean
might have envied. The failure is another illustration of
Mr. Boucicault's assertion that while there are plenty of
persons who talk about the legitimate drama,they do nothing
to support it. To-morrow night will witness the produc-
tion, at the Queen's, of Mr. Tom Taylor's new historical
play, "'Twist Axe and Crown." A large outlay has been
made upon fittings, properties, and dresses. Mr. and
Mrs. Wybert Rousby, well known to theatre-goers at
Plymouth, Hull, and Jersey, are to have two of the
principal parts, and Mrs. Rousby's dress alone has
cost £5O. While writing this play Mr. Taylor
went to Jersey to see Mr. and Mrs. Rousby's style
of acting. That he was well pleased with it may be
gathered from the fact that the success of his piece will be
dependent upon their rendering of it. Mr. W. S. Gilbert
(son of the well known novelist) has produced at the
Olympic a burlesque on Tennyson's " Princess." Mr.

Robertson's new play "N:htingale," at the Adelphi, is
severely criticised. There is a talk of Laving no fewer
than four grand opera houses in London, and it is said
that the funds aro already forthcoming for a very large one
over which Sir Michael Costa it to preside. Another opera
is to be devoted to the works of Offenbach, and that most
outree of actresses, Mdlle. Schneider. Meanwhile Her
Majesty's remains closed. Nilsson is gradually travelling
west, and has come as far as Paris. The Parisans, in
spite of their political difficulties and excitement, have
found time to give a very hearty reception to the prima
donna, who has appeared as Ophelia in Thomas's Opera.
Wagner's "Lohengrin," is to be brought out at Brussels,
and immense are the preparations for it.
Art has sustained no slight loss by the death of Mr.
Aaron Penley. He was one of the best known members
of the Water Colour Institute, and his sunsets were
equalled only by the late Francis Denby's. The two last
weeks have been a busy time for artists They have been
sending in their pictures to the exhibitions, which will
shortly be opening their doors. Amen; these are the
the water-colour exhibition at the Dudley Gallery, and
the Ladies' Exhibition. The opposition to the Royal
Academy, who, it will be remembered, held an exhibition
in Bond-street last year, have split into two sections, and
are holding rival exhibitions. This is rather costly work,
as the rent of one suite of rooms is £3OO for the season— r
sum that will need a good many shillings to cover it.
Mr. Story is now in Rome, and another equallywell known
American sculptor, Mr. Power, is at Florence. Perhaps
nst even itsCf otters a livelihood to so many artists
as Florence does. There are in the Italian capital a
hundred copyists el ys at work in the Uffizi Gallery
alone. Many ' f then spend titer whole lives in paint-
ing the same sieture over and over again, on
the principle that practice makes perfect. Among
them are eight or ten ladies. Ono of the
pictures most frequently copied is the tryptich of Fra
Angelico, with its border of angel musicians. Four artists
aro always copying this work. It takes them a week to
copy an angel, and the week's work brings in about
£3. At the Pitti Gallery Raphael's Virgin Ia the favourite
picture. It takes two months to complete a copy of this
work, and so popular is it that artists have to enter their
names ten or twelve years beforehand. The greater
number of the artists are Italian, some are French, some
German, but there are very few English.
Mr. William Rossetti's long-announced " Life of Shelley'
is out at last. It has been published by Moron, who also
has brought out a volume of poems by Lord Teignmouth.
His lordship's appearance in the literary world will sur-
prise most persons, for he has been known hitherto only as a
Dissenting preacher. Dr. Pusey has written another letter
to Dr. Newman, which forms a continuation of the "
Eireni-
con,"and discusses the possibility of a "Healthful Reunion"--
a rapprochement which Archbishop Lycurgus, of Syra, will
hardly be likely to favour. The author of the "Annals of
an Eventful Life '9 is, I am told, a writer on the staff of
the Times, although his colleague, Mr. Edward Walford,
when reviewing the book in the Times on Monday, appears
to be ignorant of that fact. Mr. Walford, after having
oscillated several times between the Anglican and Roman
Churches, has lately set up an iron meeting-house on
his own account. Another Times writer, Dr.
Dasent, the well-known Northern scholar, has just
been appointed by the Government to the post of Civil
Service Commissioner. The writers in the leading
journal have been fortunate in promotion for many years.
Mr. Steinmetz has written a "History of Gambling in All
Countries," whioh ought to be " a caution," as the
Americans say; and Captain Burton, whose book on
Dahomh readers of travels will remember, has just brought
out a book on Paraguay. A new periodical, the Club
Magazine, is announced, and claims to be the " Suez Canal
between the Europe of the reading public and the Asia of
contributors." Whence it would seem that writers are
m-)re numerous than readers.