The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-17 00:00:00

measure instead of adapting them to meet the wants
of the public and the exigencies of the time. Sir
F. KELLY has shown a spirit and determination that
deserve success in the prosecution of his task, and
the Government will find it difficult to withstand
his attack.

A very significant circumstance came to light
yesterday respecting the state of public opinion
in Prussia. A very crowded meeting was held
on Sunday, at which it was unanimously resolved
by those present that war between Austria and
Prussia should be denounced as a " national mis-
fortune," and also asserting that a "Liberal Prus-
sian Ministry could alone command the general
confidence required for Federal Reform." No
wonder that this intelligence was not transmitted
with much rapidity, for, of course, it was most
obnoxious to the powers that be. It is
fortunate that this meeting should have
taken place, because it shows undeniably
how very unpopular will be the war into which the
mischievous machinations of Herr BISMARCK are
plunging the Prussians. He will find himself and
the Government in a very different position now
from what they were at the time of the Dano-
German war. Then, to the lasting disgrace of the
people of Prussia, all was considered fair and
right that expedited the conflict, and all attention
was directed from the affairs of home interest in
order to further the cause of aggression pursued
abroad. The Prussians are in general

so apathetic and indifferent that it is quite
a relief to find their asserting something like
spirit at this important juncture. It will now remain
for us to learn if more heed is paid to this popular
manifestation of opinion, in Berlin than has been
gcusolluto g S'einda7 will far to strengthen
Austria, and will give the enemies of Prussia the
opportunity of saying that with all its parade about
Reform in Germany, the Government of Berlin does
not rightly represent the feelings and carry out the
opinion of its own people. There
_is certainly no
earthly reason why the two Powers should go to
war if it is not that Herr Bismarck has
been allowed to overrule influence, and to mono-
polise all power to himself. The question
resolves itself into this : either that statesman must
retire or modify his views, or a general war
throughout Germany will be the inevitable result of
all this turmoil. The difficulty will be to drive so
arrogant and assuming a man from his post and
yet, unless this be accomplished, we would not give
much for any chance Prussia has of extricating
herself from her present subservient position with
dignity to the Government, or interest to the people,
who are so seriously compromised by the turn these
recent events have taken.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Monday Evening.
Here is the comment made to-day by the Consti
'utionnel in reference to its latest news from Ger.

many :—" The news from Germany continues to be
less alarming than it has been for the last few days.
Beyond the Rhine they discuss—that is to say, they
are not ready to fight."
The 3loniteur does not contain any political or
other news of interest to-day. It publishes a very
long report from M. Behic, Minister of Agriculture,
Commerce, and Public Works, relative to the num-

ber of mad people, idiots, and fools in the public
and private asylums, from which it appears that it

has been on the increase up to 1860, the period up
to which the voluminous tables refer.
The Journal des Debats contradicts the report of
Ministerial changes in the Prussian Cabinet, and
says it does not believe the report of the illness of
M. de Bismark.

The Moniteur contains a Ministerial order ap-
pointing M. Emile Perrin director of the opera, an
arrangement of which I informed you some days
agn Tt. Dorhfuls flint the
same privilege was awarded 200 years ago to a per-
son of the same name, the Abbe Perrin. The direc-
tor has a subvention of 800,000 f. per annum, with
the recent addition of 100,000 f. annually from the
Emperor's private purse.
The competition is about to commence at the Im-
perial School of the Fine Arts for the Grand prix de
Rome. The subject allotted to the ten painters
who will compete is Empedocles receiving from the
inhabitants of Salimonte divine honours for having
disinfected a river.
The following story is told of an English lord who
went to the sale of fancy articles now in progress at
the Ministry of War for the benefit of the poor.
The English nobleman first asked the lady at the
stall what was the price of a beautiful cigar-case.
" Two hundred francs," was the reply. " 'Tis
nothing ; I take it," said the lord. " And this
jewel-case ?" " Eight hundred francs." " Nothing,"
again said the lord, handing a note of I,ooof. "Do
you wish for anything else ?" said the lady. " Ali !"
replied he, " what I wish for is not to be compared
with any of these articles, but fix a price." " What
do you wish 2" "To kiss your fair hand." The
lady blushed, reflected, and replied--" Three thou-
sand francs." The lord gracefully kissed the prof-
fered hand, given with some hesitation—but what
will not charitable ladies do for the poor ? " I
want something else," said the lord—" a lock of
your hair." " That will be 6,0001." " That is
nothing," again said the lord, on receiving the lock
of hair which the lady cut off for him. " Six and
three are nine," said the noble lord, and, handing
9,000 f. to the lady, his lordship departed, pleased
with his bargains. This narrative may or may not
be true. It is related as authentic, and I hap-
pen to know that at the Anti-Corn-Law League
bazaar, held some years ago at Covent Garden
Theatre, a gentleman offered £2O to a lady, who is
now and was then the wife of a member of Parlia-
ment holding a high office, to be allowed to kiss her
check. The offer was accepted, and the amount
agreed upon was paid upon the spot.
Gladiateur seems decidedly to be invincible. At
the Boulogne Races yesterday the betting was 7 to 1
against the field for Gladiateur, and 10 to 1 agt.inst
Gontran. For the Cup, value 10,000 f. and 10,000 f.
added, of the 12 horses entered, only four under-
took the contest against him. The following is the
result of this important race :
_

Gladiateur, 4 yrs, 1331bs (IL Grimshaw) 1
Le Mandarin (also belonging to Count Lagrange)
(Mizen) 2
Gontran, 4 yrs, 1271bs (C. Pratt) 3
Ronce, 4 yrs, 1081bs (Chifney) 4
Gladiateur won the race so easily that really all
struggle against him for the future would seem to
be quite hopeless.
One is reminded of the birds in America, which,
according to the American papers, knew that Colonel
Crockett's gun was so unerring that when they
found themselves within its range they considered
themselves shot at once, and gave in. The story of
the coon is known to all sportsmen. An unfortu-
nate, perched on a tree, observed the Colonel with
his terrible gun, and, it being too late to fly away,
said, " Colonel it's not worth while to fire, I know
lam a gone coon, I will come down." This sur-
render at discretion seems likely to be the watch-
wordwith all ownersof race horses where Gladiateur
makes his appearance.
The Prix d'Auteuil of 2,000 f. was won by Scudo ;
Gaulois, 2 ; Henriot, 3.
The Prix des Cars of 4,000 f., for three-year-olds,
was won by Colombo ; Victorieuse, 2 ;

noniere, 3.
In this race, for a wonder, Count de Lagrange
was unsuccessful. His filly la Germaine occupied
but a very backward position.
The Ninth Biennial of 500 fr. was won by Count
de Lagrange's Flcurette, 1 ; Stilton, 2 ;
Etoile-
Filante, 3.
The Prix de Suresnes of 4,000 fr. was won by
Anglo-Saxon, 4 yrs ; Prince Regent, 2 ; Astrolabe,
3. The betting was sto 2 against the winner.
The attendance at the raced was very numerous,

and among the aristocratic assemblage was the
Emperor and the Prince of Denmark. The Em-
peror, as is always the case when he appears in
public, was cheered continually and vociferously.
The discussion respecting the Merchant Navy in
the Legislative Body was not concluded on Satur-
day, and it seems probable that it may continue
for several days longer. Even the Paris papers
seem to be getting sick of it.
M. Welles de Lavalette, who has been appointed
to the responsible situation of Manager of the
Western Railways, is only 32. Tie is the adopted
son of the Marquis de la Valette, Minister of the
Interior, and son-in-law of M. Rouher, Minister of
State. He is a deputy to the department of La
Dordogne, and Secretary to the Legislative Body.
Some of the alarmist opposition French papers,
and one or two of your English contemporaries,
have talked of the early assemblage of a vast camp
at Chalons, drawing the inference that France was
ready, or even desirous, to take part in a struggle
between Austria and Prussia, should it take place.
I have frequent access. to official sources of infor-
mation, and I have full reason to believe that the
French Government will, if events should render it
necessary, take the opportunity of declaring its
intention to preserve strict neutrality in regard to
two great German
tphoewderiffs.erences between the

We have had another midsummer day. At 11
o'clock this morning, the thermometer of Reaumur
in the shade had risen to.the point which indicates
the temperature of the Sevres (hot-houses.) We
have had uninterrupted sunshine all day. There
has not been even an April shower to remind us that
it is early spring.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTE&S TELEGRAMS.)

...v./ a 01.11 1,110
AUSTRIAN NOTE.
BERLIN, APRIL 17.

The Prussian reply to the Austrian despatch of
the 7th inst., which was forwarded to Vienna on
Sunday last, refuses to rescind the order issued on
the 28th ult. for the mobilisation of Prussian
troops.

VIENNA, APRIL 17.

It is positively stated that the Prussian reply to
the Austrian despatch of the rith inst. declines to
accede to the request of the Austrian Government
for the demobilisation of the Prussian troops.

DISTURBANCES AT JASSY.
JASSY, APRIL 16 (Eveßing).

The rioters have issued a proclamation openly
pronouncing for the separation of the Principali-
ties, and declaring the election of a foreign Prince
to be an impossibility.

A battery of artillery has been ordered from
Bacau to this city as a measure of precaution against
any renewal of the disturbances.

SPAIN.
MADRID, APRIL 16 (Evening).

The Minister of Finance is ill.

The committee of the Chamber of Deputies upon
the bill for the New National Bank have announced
that they will not meet until the Minister of Finance
is able to be present at their sittings.

FRANCE•

PARIS, APRIL 17.

The election of a Deputy to the Corps Legislatif
for the Department du Bas Rhin has resulted in the
return of M. de Bussieres, the Government candi-
date, by 19,600 votes. M. Laboulaye, the Opposi-
tion candidate, obtained 9,900 votes.
BOURSE, April 16, Three o'clock.—The market
closed at the following quotations :
q per Cents 97 50
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 67 15
Do. end month 67 05
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month 593 75

Bank Shares 3460
Italian Loan 54 75
Do. end month 54 60
Mexican Loan —
Do. Bonds —
Spanish Threes
Awn° Debt —
Deferred

Unig
Do. end month —

RAIL'

'AM.
Cash.

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern
Western
Eastern

Acct.
825
1105
- 865 -
- ... 542 50

533 75

Sardinian ea• 100
Austrian — 370
381 25
Lombard
North of Spain l4O
Saragossa 195
Ditto to Barcelona 9O
Roman
77 50

The Mystery of Shakspere's Sonnets.

EXPLAINED BY ROBERT H. GILES.
[A gentleman, of the mere fact of whose existence
we were not aware until we happened to see his
name mentioned for the first time in the Examiner
of last Saturday, has just now put forth, through
the columns of our contemporary, a long-cherished

theory of his own in explanation of that hitherto
utterly bewildering enigma, the Book of the Son-
nets of Shakspere. And the suggestion thus set
forth in this most ingenious theory certainly does

appear to us to be not only, as we have here pro-
nounced it to be, most ingenious, but, intrinsically,
in the root idea of it, in the very nature and
form of it, of such really exquisite beauty that we

are tempted here to give the bulk, or at any rate
the gist of the charming paper propounding it, a
paper which we would suggest, moreover, that the
more curious would do well to examine for them-
selves in its entirety, as it is given with all due pro-
minence and at full length in the pages of the
Examiner.

The author of this new and very startling com-
mentary on one of the most remarkable works ever
penned by Shakspere, signs his name Robert H.
Giless, and dates his communication on the 10th of
-April, 1866, from No. 68, Guildford-street, Russ.ll-

square.]
He prefaces his argument by remarking, that—
" The question to whom the sonnets were ad-
dressed has given employment to several ingenious
minds. The Woman has ever remained a complete

mystery, but three or four names have been put for-
ward as candidates for the representation of the

Man. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton,
had a supporter in Drake. Mr. Boaden and others
have taken considerable pains to impose the sonnets
on William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. A [certain]
W. Hughes has been wildly suggested; and still more
wildly Shakspere's own nephew, W. Hart. From

sonnets are a heterogeneous medley of unconnected
love verses, from another that they are not sonnets
at all, but distinct poems. Mr. Armitage Brown
was the author of this theory, but his classification
of the poems is so loose as to defeat itself. For
instance he tells us that us that stanzas one
to twenty-six are written by Shakespere to
his friend persuading him to marry—but all
persuasion to anything of the kind stops
at the seventeenth verse. In fact, Mr. Armitage
Brown was working in a mist. Another and a new
theory some four years ago reached us from Ger-
many, entitled a Key to Shakspere's Sonnets,'
wherein, by an analysis of nearly every verse, the
author endeavoured to prove Shakspere's own Genius
to be the subject of the poem ; this 'was treated as
a German idea,' but I strongly suspect the only
fault of the German lay in the simply confounding
of Shakspere's Poetic with his Dramatic Genius."
Then comes the writer's, that is Mr. Robert Giles's
own suggestion : the new Shaksperian commen-
tator expressing his notion in the manner fol-

lowing :
My own theory," he writes, is that the so-called
sonnets are an entire poem, in two parts—that the
Boy is the Personification of Poetry or Poetic
Genius ; and that the Woman is the Personification
of the Drama or Dramatic Genius. The first
part of the poem is the expression of Shakspere's
religious love of Poetry. The second of his more
familiar but not less absorbing love of the Drama.
The whole is a Psychological Hymn, dedicated to the
Genius which inspired it.
" For those who argue from a material point of
view, and for the sake of argument, we will suppose
William Herbert, Henry Wriothesley, W. Hughes,
and W. Hart combined in the person of one indivi-
dual, whom we will designate by the initials in the
dedication, Mr. W. H., beautiful and accomplished,
but thoroughly mortal, and placing him in perspec-
tive before us ["Tis distance lends enchantment
to the view'] we will open in the middle of the
first part of the poem, and choosing the fifty-third
sonnet or verse, read as addressed to him these linos
of our ever true and wise-speaking poet :
What is your substance, wheioof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend,
Since every one hath every one one shade
And you but one can every shadow lend.'
Millions of strange shadows do not tend on ordi-
dinary persons, but they do upon the imagination
of it Poet. Arldrpscoa tv Mr. W. 11. these lines
have no meaning. Let us substitute the Genius of
Poetry, and read them once more :
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend,
Since every one bath every one one shade,
And you but one can every shadow lend.'
The lines become luminous, more than that, they
become Shaksperian. Now apply the same test to
a verse which to me appears to end the first divi-
sion of a two-part poem. We commence with Mr.
W. H. :-
0 thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour.'
If Shakspere is addressing a Mr. W. H. of flesh
and blood, then is Shakspere not to be depended on.
If, on the contrary, he is addressing a conception of
the Genius of Poetry, then still is Shakspere true
to himself. For poetry can truly be said to hold
in its power Time's glass, sickle, and hour.
Poetry triply shows, reaps, and endures. It shows
the changes of men and manners, it reaps the
beauty of all things past or present, and it endures
when other things have long decayed. It is the
last survivor of a realm destroyed—the one thing
not oblivious.
' Who hast by waning grown and therein show'st,
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grodst,'

Addressed to Mr. W. 11. this is without meaning ;
addressed to Poetic Genius, it is a time-embracing
truth.

' If Nature, sovereign mistress, over wrack,
As thou goest onward still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, 0 thou minion of her pleasure,
She may detain but yet not keep her treasure ;
Her audit, though delayed, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.'
Mr. W. H., or Poetry Personified ? Shakspere the
the Poet, or Shakspere the writer of hyperbolical
and meaningless love-verses ? What shall it be ?
"In what manner of estimation [our theorist
next considers] was the drama in Shakspere's time :
and [he almost asks point-blank] whether Dramatic
Works were considered as much a part of Literature
as P oetic Works. Referring to the history of the time,
we find that they were not. Against the one poem
of the ' Faery Queen,' as recognised literature, all
Shakspere's plays were for naught. Dramatic writ-
ings depended on the stage for perpetuation, for
continual approval, or for public neglect. The stage
at the same time made their fame and was their
condemnation.
" How then if Shakspere, knowing himself [to be]
as great as a Poet as he was a Dramatist, and feeling
assured of the non-durability of his plays, should have
contemplated writing a poem which would live, and
adequately represent to future times how true a
Genius his was ? How if in these lines he is speak-
ing to his Poetic Genius as contra-distinguished from
his Dramatic Genius ? How if this all beautiful, all
accomplished Boy' be the personification of his
Poetic Genius? Would such a conception be beyond
Shakspere,:or is it not such as a great poet like Shak-
spere, whose sole hope to be remembered with
Spenser rested upon his earliest productions, the
Venus and Adonis,' and the Rape of Lucrece'
would conceive?

Thou which art now the world's fresh ornament.'

Was not the Elizabethan Poetry, the world's fresh
ornament, is it not now the cause of wonder and
admiration? Might not Shakspere, knowing the
divinity within him, have embodied his Genius with
Poetry and Poetry with his Genius ? Was such a
conception too great for him, who was all Poet as
well as Dramatist? Is it not possible he may have
experienced a bitter remorse at having expended
all his genius on the possibly perishable Drama, and
neglected the imperishable and higher-estimated
Poetry. Read in this light, does not the first sonnet
read as worthy of our poet ?
" In the second sonnet we read
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, tic.'
Might not forty yearS have exhausted the fame of
his dramas, or have exhausted their popularity ?
Did it not nearly ? Have they not been preserved
to w 3 almost by a miracle ? Did he not well