The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-20 00:00:00

THE THEATRE. ROYAL.

Last evening the French company of comedians commenced
the term of their engagement at this theatre. As a company,
they are weak, the whole corps dramaique consisting only of
eight persous. The pieces they represent, however, being mere
vaudevilles, do not require a very numerous company. Ni. Ber-
nard, the manager of the corps, played the part of Renneville
in a one act vaudeville, entitled " Les Pmnieres Amours," and
also of M. Jovial, a jovial Cliansonnier, filling the office of a
Hussier. He is possessed of considerable comique powers, and
sings well. Both pieces possessed but little incident and plot,
and were almost wholly conversational between two or three
of the characters, enlivened continually by the merry sallies of
M. Bernard. Mdlle. Clemence and Madile. Aline, the female
part of the corps, are pretty looking Frenchwomen, but indiffer-
ent actresses. The performance, however, is a novelty, and
attracted a good house, and we doubt not will continue to do so
during the stay of the company. Many will attend for the pur-
pose of hearing the language, and putting to the test their
knowledge of lelingue Francais. Miss Adelaide O'Bryan and
Signor Saxoni are most beautiful and elegant danseurs. Their
performance was loudly encored.

MR. SUTTON'S EXHIBITION AT THE LIVER THEATRE.—
This is Mr. Sutton's last week of exhibiting his extraordinary
performances. The houses since his commencement have been
both crowded and respectably attended. We have before no-
ticed his clever feats of legerdemain, and his talents as a ven-
triloquist, and we can only repeat our former advice, to those
who wish for an evening's amusement, that they will most as-
suredly find it at Mr. Sutton's exhibition. Its variety baffles
our descriptive powers; we cannot, however, say too much in
praise of his ability.

LINTER. THEATRE.—This theatre, under the management of
Messrs. Raymond and Hammond, will commence its season at
the usual period. As the Theatre-royal is also to he kept open,
for a season, some apprehensions are entertained by the friends
of the smaller, but equally attractive establishment, that the
contention with its more powerful rival will result iu an unpro-
ductive season. For our own part, however, we cannot see why
a town like Liverpool should not be able to support two theatres,
while in London a plurality of them, out of all proportion, are
successful. An excellent company of performers has, we un-
derstand, been engaged, and the spirit with which the managers
have conducted their former undertakings is an earnest that the
present season will not be barren of interest. The season com-
mences on Monday next.

SERMON OF THE REV. HUGH M'NEILE AT ST.

MARK'S CHURCH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STAND4RD.

Ste,—On Tuesday evening last, according to previous an-
nouncement, a sermon was preached at St. Mark's Church, by
the Rev. H. M'Neite, after which a collectien was made to de-
fray expenses incurred by the purchase of a new organ ; and
never perhaps at any period did the church present a spectacle
so truly animating, being densely crowded in every part, even
to the Ailing of all the aisles ; it was with no small difficulty ad-
mission could be obtained with convenience for hearing after
the time appointed fur divine service. Passing over any re-
marks upon the choir, so admirably arranged, and the noble in-
strunient which gave to the performance all the grandeur and
magnificence of harmony and song, and to those present every-
thing that could possibly enchant and delight the ear, I would
briefly Avert to-one or two particulars of the sermon, and
which, I fear, from the mode of treating adopted by the rev.
gentleman, will have led some to infer 'that sacred music is a
subject with him rather to be discouraged than countenanced
in any of our temples of worship; than which nothing could be
farther from the design of the learned preacher throughout the
whole of his discourse. The portion of scripture selected for
this text was taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, 33
chap. xxxii v.; and, as will be seen, highly appropriate to the
occasion. The preacher first adverted to the state of the Jewish
people in the days of the prophet, and to the reception he met
with, as also the mode invariably adopted by them in hearing
the solemn warnings, rebukes, and admonitions which at that
time seemed the subjects of his high and holy commission ; and
here, the learned gentleman drew the striking parallel between
the conduct of the Jews then, and that exhibited by a great por-
tion of the professing christian world flow expressing, in their
outward demeanour, much apparent deep anxiety about perso-
nal holiness, yet destitute of the principle of active virtue.
That music possesses many and pleasing attractions, all ca-
pable of administering to the enjoyment of the more refined and
sensitive parts of our nature cannot be denied; but the rev.
gentleman maintained as an objection against this, that it also
possessed over many minds an influence tending to create fal-
lacious ideas respecting its character, as though it stood closely
connected with religious principle, than which nothing can be
farther from the truth ; for if it be affirmed that music greatly
augments our spiritual enjoyments then may it also be affirmed,
that our organic powers partake of the oneness with the imma-
terial existent part of our being, and that, therefore, there can
be no real distinction between the
_perceptions of sense, and
that principle of the soul relative to its connexion with essen-
tial holiness; and there lay the danger of misunderstanding the
rev. gentleman's argument; it was on this part of his subject,
where many, I fear, would be likely to draw an incorrect infe-
rence; but so manifestly did he make it appear by pleasing and
familiar illustration, that-enjoyment of our sensitive organs ter-
minated with the occasion which first provoked them; that I
wonder to find, as indeed I have found, any who could so far
misapprehend the design and scope of the entire subject, which
evidently went to show the unhappy consequences resulting to
those who mistake excited feeling for religious principle; and
not, as is reported, in anywise to discard all music as a mis-
chievous accompaniment of religious worship. It was ob-
served by some who were present, that the rev. gentleman
did not expatiate upon the merits of musical performances
quite so largely as appears to have been anticipated, but simply
adverted to it, more as accidental than intentional; in reply to
such, it may be observed, that had he done so, in terms of the
most lavish commendation, where would have been the advan-
tages—nay, rather where not the disadvantage?—far there is
reason to fear that had such been the case, to gratify the few,
many would have left the church under feelings of grievous
disappointment, instead of deriving spiritual edification from a
well digested discourse. It was not, I presume, the preacher's
intention, when invited to the pulpit of St. Mark's, to com-
mence a laboured disquisition to the musical world, either to
prove his knowledge of the enchanting art, or his skill in its
performance; far otherwise—pulpit eloquence busies nut itself
with objects of mere sensitive enjoyments, whether it be music.
vocal, 'or instrumental, or' anything, in short, which merely
forms an accompaniment, and is not essential to religious wor-
ship; the great business of a divine, is to watch with all care
and vigilance for the spiritual well being of his hearers, to
" rightly divide the word of truth," and so leave all subjects of
less vital importance, to those only whose inclinations lead to
admire, and whose ove of practice induce to action. How
then did the Rev. Gentleman in question treat the subject of his
discourse ? Truly, by calling the attention of his hearers to the
fundamentals of religion. All his energies were directed, and all
his eloquence employed in poinling out and setting forth the
character of deity as exhibited in his word ; a subject so well
calculated to excite the better feelings of our nature, and to
bring into active exercise those affections of the soul, which in
their operation result in communicating a rich source of spiri-
tual enjoyment to their happy possessor. Thus did he preach
the paramount importance of the message sent, and, while ex-
patiating on God's love—contrasting the same with the unde-
servedness of man even in a state of the most exalted piety—the
loftiness of his style, and the grandeur of his imagination, ap-
peared so to rivet the attention of his hearers, as at times
to produce a stilness throughout the vast assemblage, a
solemn silence, characteristic only of the grave. It may
reasonably enough be anticipated—as such I have been
informed is the case—that the columns of some of your
esteemed contemporaries are to contain observations of an
inflammatory nature against the conduct of the rev. gentle-
man in question, and in the abundance of their liberality, as we
have seen, are liberal even to profuseness, in fulminating out
their bitter invective, because, forsooth, the organ, with all its
internal machinery, &c., did not form a leading feature of the
learned gentleman's truly Scriptural discourse, and that there-
fore the object for which he was invited proved a complete
failure. I much wonder whether the amount of money pro-
cured, £llO, on that occasion would not have fallen far short of
what it did, had the whole musical world been particularized in
detail. If the object of those in attendance, who were so unfor-
tunate as to mistake the subject of discourse so ably and elo-
quently gone through, was only for the purpose of gathering
information touching the construction of organs, &c. then.
I can well enough appreciate the awry feelings and dis-
appointed hopes of the unenvied few ; with such anticipa-
tions, the Messrs. Bewsher and Fleetwood were the fittest
persons from whom to gather the required knowledge, and
not from a professed minister of the Gospel, whose duties
are of a more sacred character, and whose province it is
to intermeddle not with secular concerns only so far as it is
needful for the common purposes of life. Whenever, therefore,
the same gentleman is invited to occupy the pulpit of some one
of his respected fellow-ministers, let me advise the more petulant
and fastidious hearers, first to satisfy themselves, if possible, as
to the course likely to be pursued by the learned divine, which
is, according to truth, that they presume not to retire from the
temple appropriated for religious worship, under feelings the
most unchristian, and with disappointed and blighted hopes.
Dec. 15th, 1836. J. L.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Sirt,—You being a friend to the culture of science and litera-
ture, and also a friend to the moral improvement of the lower
classes of the people, allow me through the medium of your va-
ltfable and widely circulated journal to make a few remarks on
the. subject of the Brougham Institution, which is now under
process of formation. I attended one of their preparatory meet-
ings the other evening, and from what I then heard., it seems
that one attic' principal features of the institution is, the este-
biistiing of i news-room, to be in conjunction with a library,
and the delivery of lectures I think, sir, it is a great pity that
a news-room should be connected with this institution. Y can-
not conceive why politics should be introduced at all into an in-
stitution where the object is, or ought to be, the moral and in-
tellectual improvement of those classes of society for which it is
intended, and how these great desiderata can be accomplished,
by the mechanics amusing themselves by the perusal of all that
low and vulgar abuse of persons, which characterises too many
of our local papers, I cannot divine. It is not right, and it
gives me a very miserable opinion of the sense of the originators
of this institution, that young men whose whole education barely
comprises reading and writing, should be entrusted with poli-
tics, and thus taught to hate their neighbours, because they do
not agree in some points of a political character with them-
selves. Besides the ill-educated man, by habitually reading the
newspapers, is liable to fall into errors, which, by giving him a
false notion of his consequence, may make him eventually a
curse to society, and prove the cause of his own ruin. Again,
sir, I do not think that a news-room will have the effect, as an=
ticipated by some, of preventing young men from frequenting
the ale-house; it is said that the object of their meeting to-
gether is for the purpose of enjoying each other's company,
true, but can they enjoy erch other's company in a news-room?
—No. The news-rothu, by not imposing any restraint upon

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their minds, as a lecture would do, would meritly be made a
place, if attended at an, of appointment, from whence they
would repair to the neighbouring public-house, and spend their
evening, as they do now, in riot and dissipation. Such, sir, I
conceive %%11l be the effects produced by establishing a news-
room in connection with this institution, and I would earnestly
recommend that this part of the design be entirely abandoned.
If the money which would necessarily have to be laid out on the
news-room was appropriated to the expense of an increased
number of lectures, I think it would be put to a much wiser pur-
pose: and I am sure, if V is continued, the institution will never
have the support and countenance of those who are friendly
only to the lower classes having a moral education.—l am, sir,
Four most obedient servant, E.
Liverpool, Dec. 19, 1336.