The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

Messrs. WILLIAMS, Fox, PELLATT, DUNCOMBE, and other members having spoken, Sir F. KELLY, by a stirring appeal, brought up most reluctantly Lord J. ltessELL, who professed unmitigated IT- • probation of the motives which had actuated the hon. mover, and equal detestation of electoral corruption, hut exonerated the Government from any responsi bility in prosecuting the case. on account of the " am biguities" in the report of the committee who inquired into the incidents of the Chatham election. The Sot,tcrron-tiENEum. added his legal authority to the conclusion that such a prosecution was inex pedient, because it would most p.obably be unsuc cessful. 11r. 11. Mem WIND denounced the hypocrisy of the motion. Looking through society front the highest ranks to the lowest, he found bribery everywhere. The Nadler was bribed with three and sixpence to kill hares against the law. and an earl was bribed with a marquisate to vote against, his conscience. The House of Commons was a mere place-buzaar, where offices were bought and :Ail to the highest bidders. Such was the only principle on which government could be carried on. Purity motions, like those on the paper for the night respecting India, were nothing but so many " squeaks of a pig who had got no teat." Upon a division the motion was negatived by ItSB votes against 74 ; majority li ft . ELECTION INTELLIGENCE. Colousstomi Isoviter.---Itelanaling to the ad dresses of the Legislature, her Majesty lias appointed a commission to inquire into the charges of corrup tion at Kingston-on-Hell and Canterbury. New Alintur.u.---'Taunton election terminated on Tuesday in the return, by a much narrower majority than had been anticipated, of the Liberal candidate. At the close the numbers were—Sir T. Ramadan, 878 ; Mr. 1-1. Badcock, 366 ; majority, 7. ELECTION CO3IMITTEES.---TllO Bolton committee has decided that Messrs. Barnes and Crook were duly elected, and pronounced the petition of Mr. tireenhalgh frivolous and vexatious.— For the I wrong!, of Tonnes the cotnmittee have found Mr. Mills duiy electe4.---The petition against the city of Dub/in election was withdrawn after its committee had been nominated. MINI ST FRIA T. INTERPELLATION.V The CuANeema,ou of the EXCHEQUER, questioned by Lord A. Vane, said that no distinction would be made, in extending the legacy duties, between property under settlement and property under trust. By Mr. PAeltr...--Woubl consider, but could not. pledge himself to, a scheme for commuting the seven years' income tax, when desired, into a single payment in the lump. Viscount PAtanats . rox, questioned by Mr. Phinn, denied that any instructions had been given to the Postmaster-General to inspect or open any letters addressed to Inreign refugees in this country. Nor had any such letters been meddled with, BO far as he was concerned, since he took office. Sir .1. GRAHAM, replying to Mr. T. Baring, said that. discretionary instructions had been sent out to the admiral on the East In(iia station to take precau tionary measures for the protection of British com merce against piratical attacks on the coast Borneo. Orders wer.' also given to the admiral to obtain due evidence of piratical intentions before re sorting to force. Replying to Mr. Mas . ey, the CHANCELLOR of the ExenEQueu stated that Government, during the session, proposed to introduce a bill giving better security to the depositors in savings banks. In answer to Sir J. Shelley, Mr. S. HERBERT ex plained that newspapers we:e admitted to the soldiers barrack libraries, and full permission given for their perusal, with the exception of :mei' journals as habitually indulged in religious or military contra vasies. THE PEA( s CoNFERENcE sent a deputation to the Foreign-office on Wednesday. .Mr. Cobden, as spokes man, said that they came ia consequence of learn ing that important treaties were now being negotiated between England and America. and they wished to seize the opportunity of ttr , itet the introduction of .ome clause binding both contracting parties to settle all future differences by arbitration. The Earl of Clarendon felt equal interest in the object of pre serving intact our ftiemlly relations with the United States, but doubted whether an arbitration clause was the surest means of 'wearing it. He misted more to the spirit of the age and the better feeling and sense of mankind. A o)3l3mm:from the Consemative Land Society has been visiting I:oil:shin , , t.) e‘plain the objects and extend the operations of the society. Public ineetinpt have been held in Yo:ic and Halifax, and the committee were taking measures for the pur chase of an estate at the place last mentioned. Branches of the society, with influential local corn mitees, are in course of formation iu the principal towns in Yorkshire. THE PRESS. fine 4tts. THE ROYAL ACADEMY. THE exhibition of the Royal Academy of 1853 may challenge comparison with any of its recent prede cessors. We doubt whether any European capital could produce so creditable a collection of modern art---we feel confident none could surpass it. The standard of excellence has been raised, and the average of attainment proportionably advanced. It is now no longer •" the portrait of the year" that is the object of general attraction, as in the days of Sir Thomas Lawrence. The portraits of the present year (we know not whither, indeed, the declaimers against portrait-paint ing will consider this as a proof of general improve ment) are rather below the usual average merit. Mr. Grant, we think, if not less careful than usual, shows less power ; his heads want the spirit we once admired in them, and the accessories are painted with less vigour. His portrait of Lord Campbell (ls 4), never theless, has truth and a strong resemblance to re commend it; that of the Duke of Portland (370), painted at the request of his tenantry., exhibits the dignified simplicity and courteous good humour of that noblemates character, with all the health and vigour of unabated manhood, even at a period of life advanced beyond the usual age of man. A small full-length portrait of Lady Londowlerry (89$), by the same artist, is carefully finished and neatly executed, but the attitude is ungraceful, and the choice of the colours in the dress is far from happy. A likeness of Sir Charles Napier (70), leaning on his Arab charger, by Mr. E. Williams, is amongst the portraits that struck us most as preserving truth of resemblance with great merit in execution. The Misses Elwes, painted as peasant girls by Mr. Eddes (88), is a pretty picture; a:td the portrait of Mrs. Philip Crawley (331) and her numerous lapdogs (for an undue prominence is given to the four-footed favourites), by Mr. Buckner, shows careful study and brilliant execution. Mr. Hiram Power, the clever American sculptor, by Mr. H. W. Phillips (858), is obviously painted eon amore. The subject is a happy one, and Mr. Phillips has alone it justice. The portrait of Lady Be Blaquiere (271), by Mr. Swinton, seems to have engaged his greatest attention. It has the grace and air of breeding for which his portraits are distinguished, but the background occupies a space important, enough to require more care anti study than he has bestowed upon it. His portrait of Lord Malden (565) has perhaps higher merits and greater defects. It is bettjr painted and has more effect; but a broad-brimmed hat casting a shadow over the upper part of the face, and a pink tittentsey jacket, give a masquerading air to the picture---a piece of bad taste too common in every age, and against which we are not unwilling to avail ourselves of the opportunity of protesting. The landscapes are numerous, and many of them of a high order of merit. Mr. Cooke is happiest in his home subjects. His views of Venice, in spite of scrupulous exactness of detail and admirable draw ing, are so deficient in local colour, in brilliancy, and in atmosphere, that there is no spot of earth which they recal less to us than the glittering towers of ' Venice, glowing and inciting between the two . eleuients of air and water. Mr. Roberts has several pictures, and no work of his can be devoid of merit ; but we do not under stand his slight and careless outline, hardly covered by a thin coating of colour, leaving the canvas be neath quite visible. His drawing is coarse and inac curate, and the public has been too long and too thoroughly acquainted with buildings of Venice to for give Mr. Roberts his total neglect of local colour. His picture of "The Opening of the Great Exhibition lion-room of 11451 " (415) is a subject we can easily be lieve he undertook unwillingly, and in which the diffi culties were great ; but we cannot congratulate him on having overcome any of them. His picture is gaudy and tasteless; it suggests spare perhaps, but aerial perspective is wanting, and he seems to have relin quished all attempts at subordination of parts and general effect. An "Affray in the Pyrentes with Smugglers" (325), by Stanfield, is clever and spirited, but the figures are too large and too important to the subject to be totally sacrificed, and the landscape requires the support of the figures to give it interest. "The Victory" ( 571, with the body of Nelson, towed into Gibraltar, is a grand national subject, and is handled with the affecting solemnity that properly belongs to it. but the charm of a tine effect is wanting with atmosphere and distance. " A Summer Sunny A:let-noon" (306), by Mr. Cooper, is an agreeable picture ; and " The Wild Seashore at Sunset" (155), by Danby. has merit of the romantic interest which that imaginative artist knows so well how to spread over his works; but there is a mistake in his conception of the scene : at sunset the light is derived, not from the red orb of SATURDAY, the sun, but from the pure white sky, and thus the whole of the sea would have been illuminated. " The Monarch Oak" (4SO), by Mr. Anthony, forces it-elf upon our attention by its size and its absurdity. When he painted it, the artist must have been pre pared to bear, and probably to defy, the hostile criti cisms which he challenges : we shall leave him to his own reflections, which, we think, must soon convince him of the faults of a style almost universally con demned. "Night"and "Morning" (46 4: 60), are among the most striking and poetical of Sir Edwin Landseer's works. In the first, two deer, with their horns interlaced, are engaged in a death struggle with each other, each ready to sink in the extremity of rabid exhaustion ; a misty night closes on their enmity; and in the next picture morning dawns on the same spot and discovers their bodies cold and still; but undivided in their enmity, even in the last agonies of death. The vulture hovers above, ready to dart upon the prey which a stealthy fox approaches with an eager but cautious audacity. Where the sentiment is so finely rendered, we are ashamed to dwell on mere technical merits; we should otherwise direct attention to the fidelity of each detail, the beauty of parts, and the wonderful skill displayed in the manipulation. The " Twins" (291) is a picture of inferior merit, though parts are excellent, and each separate animal is of exquisite execution: there is a total absence of effect, of distance. and of atmosphere. A small picture of deer, by the same artist, which he calls "Children of the Mist" (170), has much of the merit none of his works can be without; but why affix a joking title ? and one, too, which would be quite as applicable to London citizens in a fog ? "Ruth Sleeping at the Feet of Boaz" (127 ), by the amiable President, ha, all the solemn and sober tone which he always diffuses over his sacred subjects ; it has much harmony of colour and much delicacy of sentiment. The scene is in the tent of Boaz, in which the ordinary utensils of a wandering Arab are scat tered, perhaps with an over-profusion. Ruth reposes on draperies, happy equally in the contrast and in the harmony of colour, but her attitude is one in which she could hardly have lain, and certainly could not have slept. Boaz, lost in solemn contemplation, seems unconscious of any feeling but the sacredness of the trust confided to his forbearance. We cannot but regret, however, that Sir Charles should have represented him resting his arm on a copper sauce• pan, a solecism which his models, the old Venetian masters, would never have been guilty of;---and why should Boaz be made a Turk? "Othello Relating his Adventures" (174), by Mr. Cope, has met with much attention, and perhaps de servedly. The head of Desdemona is pretty, but the gesticulating Othello is grotesque, and we are tempted to join in the surprise of the lady's kinsfolk at her perver e preference for the Moor. "The Execution of Montrose," and "Josephine Signing her Act of Divorce" (390 & 512), !by Mr. E. M. Ward, are among the most attractive pictures in the exhibition. In the first, the noble and loyal Montrose is exposed to the base and coward y outrages of his republican conquerors : he accepts their insults as a homage, and walks to the scaffold with the air of a bridegroom entering his nuptial chamber. The subject is a noble one ; we regret Mr. Ward has not treated it with all the sentiment of which it is susceptible, and which we are sure he is capable of rendering. Josephine consenting to the act of her own degra dation is a subject equally painful and unpoetical. It is true that the unfeeling husband exacted this act of compliance, and it is true that the sacrifice was completed in public ; but Mr. Ward has given it a melodramatic air that destroys the effect. The visi ble agony of the principal sufferer may be very natural, but her daughter would have suppressed the outward and somewhat theatrical exhibition of sorrow which the painter has attributed to her ; she was in the presence of those who regarded the Humiliation of her family as their trimnph, and, before the ma jesties and highnesses of the mock court, etiquette, if not pride and self-respect, would have imposed some restraint. In historical pictures truth and pro bability are frequently lost in the endeavour to ex press trio much. This scene is by candle-light, and the lurid light casts a strong and black shadow over the group below, who scowl and start like the villains in a melodrama, and who, in despite of stars and collars, satins and ermine, look more like bandits m a cave than nobles and councillors surrounding their rince in his cabinet. Mr. Severn has displayed imagination and in genuity in conceiving an unhackneyed incident in the lite of Mary Magdalen (215). No painter that we know of has yet represented her in the act of purchasing the ointment with which she bathed the Saviour's feet. The size of the figure is that of life. The Magdalen, in laying the money on the counter, turns her head towards the skies, which open and disclose a vision of the Cross, borne aloft by innumerable cherubim. Her whole figure is in shadow, cast, we suppose, by the somewhat substantial clouds which