The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-04 00:00:00

doing to assume a hostile attitude towards the living
spirit--the people of Turkey. It is a mistake to asso-
ciate in the minds of the future masters of Turkey the
name of England with the attempt—the futile attempt—
to preserve an odious and oppressive rule. Along the
southern banks of the Danube and the Save, stretch-
ing from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, lie the cities and
the corn-fields of an almost homogeneous race, which
:s day by day becoming—whether we will or no—
lo masters of these broad lands. Only our indifference
and the remains of the strangely mistaken policy of dead
Cabinets are driving these people into alliance with Rus-
sia. It is true that similarity of language and identity of
origin and religion attract the Serbs of Turkey towards the '
government of the Czar, but that very similarity and
Identity are at the same time powerful motives of repul-
sion. The Serb r..ce, proud of the memory of its past
history, and living amid the ruins of the old monarchy of
Duohan and Nemania, aspires to a career of its
awn, and thirsts for an independent existence.
Every Serb knows that such a career is incompatible
with a close alliance with Russia, which under existing
circumst is but another name for absorption into
the great 61avonic monarchy of the North. For this
reason both the country and people of these provinces
look for sympathy and moral support to this country.
rho very fears which we profess, and which blind us to
a consistent course of action, ought long since to have
compelled us to lay aside our coldness and indifference
to these wishes, and should have led us to cultivate the
friendship of a race which in its thirst for constitutional
government and for education is worthy of our warmest
sympathy and our most earnest support. No firmer bar-
rier can be reared against the ambition of more empires
than that of Russia than the erection of a compact State
which shall embrace the whole Serb race. Against this
not only the ambition of Russia, but the fears and self-
interest of Austria, are arrayed, and hitherto English
statesmen have blindly taken their policy from one or
other of these great rivals. This blindness, we trust, is
passing away, and we have confidence that the present
Secretary of Foreign Affairs is too clear-sighted and pos-
sesses too calm a judgment to be led away by the false
lights which dazzled the eyes of Lord Palmerston. On
the day when English statesmen understand the real
position of affairs in Turkey, and when the English nation
cease to confound the independent existence of these coun-

tries with the preservation of the rule of the Mussulman
caste, the Eastern question will have been well-nigh

solved.

MUSICAL AND DRAIIIAVIC GOSSIP.

Few will be surprised to learn that there i 3 trouble in
our Royal Academy of Music, which will p )3sibly end in
its disruption. Mr. John F. Barnett's " Ancient Mariner"
will shortly be performed in London. The Dean and
Chapter of Chester Cathedral have dared an innovation
which has long been wanted, and introduced female singers
ir.to the service. But then, like the harps at a never-to-
be-forgotten choral wedding in Westminster Abbey, these
heterodox implements of sacred music are screened out
of sight. Among the saddest things which it is the
historian's duty to chronicle are the mistakes made by
those who have been long public favourites, in refusing to
recollect that, be their summer and autumn ever so
long, winter days will come, when they arc best at home.
It is painful to say that Signor Mario's appearance at St.
Petersburg has been disastrous. Something of this may
be charged on the climate ; but considering the present
state of his resources, his ill reception may be ascribeel to
other causes. Artists are too apt to forget that in no
country save England is the public grateful enough for
past delights to be patient with the inevitable ravages of
time. The Parisians threw a funeral wreath on the stage
to the most consummate actress we have ever seen
—Mars—to remind her that she was " supeilluous" on
the stage. It is something new for an English violinist
to travel the Continent as a virtuoso; but our coun-
tryman, Mr. Alfred Holmes, is making a concert-tour
in Holland, to his own satisfaction and that of his
audience. The 300th representation of " Der Freischutz"
has been given at Dresden. The date of the first ap-
pearance of this most popular of German operas taken
into account, this does not seem a very high figure ; and
the less so if compared with that of the operatic " runs"
of modern time, especially in Paris. " Antigone," with
Mendelssohn's music, and " Stale:lsec," with Meyerbcer's,
have been revived in Berlin. Lortzing's " Undine,"
with a Flemish text, has been given at the National
Opera-house at Brussels, established for the especial
encouragement of native talent. The following titles
of new Italian operas are given in foreign journals
La Bella Margherita," by Signor Battista ; " Giunitta"
(what has become of Signor Peri's " Giuditta"?) in Naples ;
and " Clarice Visconti," by Signor Mari, in Ancona.
The only surviving actresses who played with John Kem-
ble are Miss O'Neil (Lady Becher), and Mis 3 Stephens
(Dowager Countess of Essex). In Kc-mble's last season,
among its great attractions were "The Stranger" (in which
the two chief parts were played by Yemble and Miss
; and " Hamlet," in which Miss Stephens warbled
Ophelia to John's wayward Dane. But these are things
of half a century ago- —Athelururn.