The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-14 00:00:00

but is soon compelled to lament the extravagance
and Coarseness which follow. Mr. West, a preacher
whose homeliness of language, and familiar illus-
trations are very similar in style to Mr. Spurgeon's,
is also cited as a sample of the popular extempo-
raneous school. After considering the styles of
preaching most likely to attract the general atten-
tion, the writer comments upon the dangers which
attend any attempt to introdue a more popular
style. A paper entitled " France," takes a careful
review of the political tendencies and position of
that great nation ; the national characteristics that
have aided or retarded her advancement, and the
nature and prospects of the English alliance.
Mr. Fitzball's " Thirty-five years of a Dramatic
Author's Life" furnish an interesting paper on " The
Drama of the Day," which also takes a review of the
drama and dramatists of other days, and the causes
of the present decline and deterioration of the stage.
The following passage gives a list of the principal
causes which the writer considers have affected the
position of the drama :
,4 The change in our social habits has borne the blame of
impairing the taste for the stage. But it is only one of the
causes that have contributed to this result. There are
many offsets of the drama that affect the parent stem. Ist.
There is what may be termed the comedy of the drawing-
room, differing from theatrical entertainments only in being
performed in a room, and by one or two actors in place of a
company. Mr. and Mrs. German Reed, Mr. and Mrs-
Howard Paul, Mr. Woodin, and others, though deservedly
attractive, both diminish the available forces of the theatre,
by standing apart from it themselves, and draw thousands
yearly away from it by the popularity of their representa-
tions. 2ndly. Lectures OA every imaginable subject gratify
the taste for the drama without contributing to its welfare.
3dly. The influence of club-life militates no less against
the influence of tragedy and comedy than the old coffee-
houses, where wits and templars used to congregate round
Dryden and Addison, directly advanced them. From those
incommodious rooms it was agreeable to migrate to the
comparatively spacious playhouse. Whereas gentlemen
once comfortably ensconced in well-padded sofas and arm-
chairs, and well provisioned for the evening with news-
papers, periodicals, and novels, or discussing with congenial
minds the fall of ministers or of stocks, the prospects of the
grouse season or the opera season, are reluctant to imprison
themselves in stalls and boxes, even if well-graced actors
invite them. 4thly, Be it said, with all respect to plays
and their providers, that they flourish best in times when
the spectators have fewer resources in themselves. When
the reading of a country gentleman seldom went beyond
Baker's Chronicle,' and the ' News Letter,' and when
linendrapers bold rarely opened a book except the Bible
and the ' Whole Duty of Man,' the most flimsy of farces
possessed a charm which it is almost impossible to realise
in this much-reading, if not deep-reading generation. sthly.
The more general cultivation of music has materiallyaffected
the drama. Mr. Hullah and Exeter-hall, and the hun-
dred and one singing-rooms in London, are powerful diver-
sions from pit, gallery, and boxes. Music for the million'
is one of the drawbacks on his receipts on which every
manager must reckon. And the opera itself has added to
its proper attributes the further attraction of excellent
acting. The descriptions of an opera libretto, by Addison
or Thornton, in the ' Spectator' Connoiseur,' are as
inapplicable to Lucrezia Borgia,' or the Huguenots,' as
Hone's or Collier's account of a morality or mystery is to a
play of Shakspeare or Sheridan. It is on record that Addi-
son's sketch of the lyrical drama of his day, when trans-
lated into Italian, convulsed even a pope with laughter, so
utterly absurd we :e the words and sentiments which were
then married to music. But bulls and decretals aro scarcely
mor9 serious matters than ' Rigoletto' or the ' Trovatore,
and affect an audience like ' The Fatal Marriage' or Venice
Preserved.' The opera has indeed long taken its place
among the indirect opponents of the national theatres. It
is notorious, that of the hundreds who habitually are seen
in the stalls and boxes of Covent-garden Theatre, very few
encourage the corresponding portions of the Adelphi and
the Haymarket. It is not considered by the nobility of
this country to be one of their social duties to maintain the
English stage. To the above causes of the partial decline
of the drama in England we forbear to add one that is
usually alleged among the foremost—the religious scruples
which pervade a large class of the community. These we
believe to have always been operative ever since the re-
opening of the theatres at the Restoration, and are there-
fore not material to our present purpose."
Any serial making its appearance at this season
would be incomplete without a notice of the Art
Exhibitions of the year. We have accordingly
.an
article on the subject which takes a comprehensive
review of the chief exhibitions and exhibitors. The
opening remarks on the refining influence of s
national taste for art are correct and forcible. A
paper on the " Campaign in Italy" is written in a
spirited manner, and appropriately concludes a
quarterly which reflects the topics and opinions
of the day.

DEATH OF THE BISHOP OF SIERRA

LEONE.

We have to record the death of the Right Rev.
Dr. J. Bowen, Bishop of Sierra Leone, the third
prelate of that see since its establishment in 1852.
Dr. Bowen was for some years a resident in Canada,
and having come to this country in 1842 entered as
a student of Trinity College, Dublin, where he in
due course graduated. He was ordained by the pre-
sent Bishop of Durham, who had at that time the
episcopal supervision of the diocese of Ripon. In
1847 he went to Palestine and the East, and returned
to England in 1851. Afterwards he visited Nine-
veh, where he formed the acquaintance of Mr. Layard
with whom he was associated during many of his
investigations. He visited the East a second time
in 1854, and came back to England again in 1856.
Through Mr. Layard, who is a relative of Lady
Huntly, Dr. Bowen received from the Marquis of
Huntly a nomination to the rectory of Orton
Longueville, near Peterborough, to which he was
instituted by the Bishop of Ely in 1853. The
parish having but a small population, he obtained
without difficulty a licence for non-residence, in
order that he might indulge in his Eastern travels.
This living he held up to the time he was appointed
to the bishopric of Sierra Leone, to which he was
consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, on
the 23d of September, 1857, by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was assisted by the Bishop of
Peterborough and the Bishop of Victoria, who hap-
pened at that time to be in England. On the 13th
of December, 1857, Bishop Bowen arrived at Sierra
Leone, and on the 28th of May last he died in con-
sequence of a malignant attack of yellow fever.
Three bishops have thus been sacrificed to the ter-
rible climate of Sierra Leone. The see was consti-
tuted in 1852, and the first bishop appointed was
the Rev. Owen Emeric Vidal, of St. John's College,
Cambridge, incumbent of Trinity Church, Arling-
ton, Sussex. He had not pursued his episcopal
duties many months when he sickened and came
back to England for the restoration of his health.
Full of hope, he determined to return to his dio-
cese, and on his passage back he died. He was suc-
ceeded in the episcopate by the Rev. John Wills
Weeks, incumbent of St. Thomas's Church,
whoLarn-
cbteituhr,ch
in was
1855. c o n sHe ce r adt
ieed in
d at hisa m
postbet he a
rplayrisi
in
1857, and was succeeded by Bishop Bowen.
Upon the death of Dr. Weeks in 1857 several
gentlemen holding high positions in the Church
earnestly pressed upon the Government the de-
sirableness of appointing to the vacant episco-
pate what the Rev. Canon Stowell had a
short time previously designated in one of his
speeches " a real black bishop," there being many
coloured African gentlemen in holyorders—ordained
by the Bishops of London after satisfactory exami-
nation—who were accustomed to the climate, and
eminently qualified by their general attainments,
Christian character, and intimate acquaintance with
the native population to discharge the duties o
episcopal office, but their representations were_ un-
heeded. It now remains with the Duke of New-
castle, the Colonial Secretary, to nominate a fourth
Bishop of Sierra Leone, who will have jurisdiction
as his predecessors have had over the coast between
20 deg. north and 20 deg. south latitude, and more
especially the colonies of Sierra Leone, the Gambia,
the Gold Coast and their dependencies. The gross
income of the see is £9OO a year, being £5OO a year
as the bishop's allowance as colonial chaplain, and
£4OO a year from the Colonial Bishoprics' Fund.