The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-12 00:00:00

ART AND LITERARY GOSSIP,

For the Roxburghe Library, Mr. Hazlitt has in the
press a volume of curious tracts on the Stage and Players
of the Elizabethan and Jacobite Times.—A manuscript
of Tyndale's translation of Erasmus's "Enchiridion
Militis Christiani " has lately been found, but it
has not yet been compared with Wynkyn de
Worde's edition of 1853, or "The Handsom3 Weapon
of a Christian Knight in Englysshe," which, Lowndes
states, " is said to have been translated by Will. Tindal."—
It is said that Her Majesty's Theatre will in future be
dedicated to theatrical performances, and will no longer be
used as an opera-house.—As an example of the money
which artistes now-a-days are able to pocket, the Orchestra
states that Mdlle. ArtOt is engaged to sing next winter at
Moscow for £4,400. In connection with the same
subject, a statement of the Athenaeum may be mentioned.
Mr. Sims Reeves and M. Blondin, the rope-dancer,
each receive a hundred pounds, or guineas, for a
performance at the Crystal Palace. Mr. Charles Dickens
receives the same sum for each of his readings in London.
The Echo says that Mr. Joe Jefferson, of " Rip Van
Winkle" celebrity, has just concluded an engage.
ment for two seasons in America at a salary of
one thousand dollars (£200) a week.—The Due
de Massa, who is to lead Mdlle. Nilsson to
the hymeneal altar, is described as accomplished, a mil-
lionaire, and possessing a passion for music.—An American
paper states that when Mdlle. Christine Nilsson
recently sang in London, she lost one of her hair-pins,
which o❑e of the scene-shifters found. He shewed it to
one of the young aristocrats who was behind the
scenes. "how much do you ask for it ?" said the lord.
"'Twenty-five guineas," replied the scene-shifter. Tho
young lord actually paid him the twenty-five guineas, took
the hair-pin, and said he would preserve it as a precious
relic.—A wonderful horse, which rides through the flames
from the stage to the flies, with a young woman on its back,
is to be a forthcoming attraction at one of the metro-
politan theatres.

,DELAY IN FILLING CLERICAL

VANCANCIES.

The Pall Mall Gazette calls attention to the delay which
now so very frequently takes place in the filling up of
clerical vacancies. " Vacant secular offices are, as a rule,
filled without delay ; ecclesiastical appointments almost
always remain unappropriated too long. Bishoprics,
deaneries, canonries, and rectories alike are kept
open as if the search for intellect and administrative
ability in the Church were very difficult ; the true expla-
nation of the delay too often being that ecclesiastical
appointments are regarded as the spoil of political parti-
sans, that conflicting claims have to be nicely adjusted,
and sometimes that even family relationship enters as an
element into such appointments." Our contemporary
calls special attention to the neglect to appoint to the
vacant living of St. Mary's, Newington. It is
valued at £900; and the parish contains a population of
nearly 14,000 persons. Surely these have a right to
a rector without delay. Then, again, there is the deanery
of Lichfield. The Rev. W. W. Champneys, has been
installed as dean, has read himself in,Rand done everything
else necessary to the legal and moral possession of the post.
Yet because of some uncertainty as to whether he can
hold the deanery and the rectory of St. Pancras,
Lichfield is practically without a dean. The Pall Mall
Gazette holds it certain that by what he has done the
rev. gentleman has rendered ipso facto the rectory of
St. Pancras void, and that he cannot hold the deanery
and that rectory likewise. This also is certain, that Mr.
Champneys is not in residence at Lichfield as dean, and
that the parishioners of St. Pancras do not know who is to
be their future rector. The living of St. Pancras is
worth £1,025, with a rectory•house ; it is in the gift of the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and involves the spiritual
oversight of more than 14,000 persons. Air. Champneys
still holds St. Pancras, although he is really Dean of
Lichfield. The Pall Mall 'Gazette recurs to the delay
in filling up the bishopric of Lichfield. When a "certain
noble lady" desired the post for a well-known theologian
and writer, Mr. Disraeli wanted to appoint another
clergyman, Bishop Selwyn being afterwards fixed' upon as
a kind of compromise. The same delay took place in
filling up Peterborough ; and the two canonries, one
of St. Paul's, the other at Westminster, took Mr.
Disraeli a long time to fill up. Mr. Gladstone was much
more prompt the other day in making the Rev. J. B.
Mozley, of Old Shoreham, canon of Worcester Cathedral.
The rapidity with which that appointment was filled up
seemed altogether exceptional. " Cabinets are made up
in less than a fortnight ; surely a less time is required to
settle the appointment of a bishop, dean, canon, or
rector."

The Sporting Gazette states that M. Nanquette refused
2,000 guineas for Nuage, four years old, after his easy vic-
tory in the French Grand National, at Vincennes, last
Sunday. Nuage is by Marignan, and ran twice in England
last season—at York and Doncaster—and at the sale of M.
Lunel's horses, in Paris, in the autumn, was bought by
his present owner for 75 guineas.—N6lusko broke down
at exercise on Saturday last. —The members of the York
and ;Ainsty Hunt have subscribed 1,000 guineas for the
family of Orvis, their late huntsman, in addition to a
further sum of 400 guineas for the Warreners.

The Nottingham Express states that the hoiies of
the unfortunate men who were no doubt drowned by
the inundation of the Molyneux pit in that county,
still lie entombed in the mine ; and, owing to the im-
mense quantity of water which has yet to be pumped
up, it is not expected that they can be recovered
before Sunday or Monday next. All hopes that the poor
fellows may, by having reached the higher workings, be still
alive, have now disappeared. Another engine has been got
to work to assist in pumping up the water from the pit.
At present it is estimated that there is a depth of seven or
eight yards to be removed, and it occupies nearly twelve
hours to lower the water one yard. The new engine pulps
icaszillikkuiiiitiugasliksturtek.