The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

AUGUST 043, 1856. that on the right the Archangel Raphael, with the young Tobias. This picture, with other less impor tant accompaniments, was formerly in the Church of the Certosa, near Pavia, for which, according to Vaeari, it was painted. For the last seventy years the principal portion above described had been in the possession cf the Melzi family, of Milan; it was pur chased from the present representative of that family in February last. There is some ground for sup posing that Raphael co-operated in this work ; the opinions to this effect of good authorities, founded on internal evidence, are corroborated by the existence of a drawing by the youthful Raphael, now in the Randolph Museum at Oxford, of that portion of the work which represents Tobias and the Archangel. With regard to the state of the picture, it is evident that a small portion of sky has been formerly added (with good effect as regards the shape, though it has darkened in colour) in the upper part of each of the compartments; but the repairs, properly so called, apparently made some years since, are minute in ex tent, and do not affect the impression of the work. A committee invited to examine the picture on its arrival unanimously recommended that it should be placed in the gallery without again undergoing the ordeal of restoration. Of four other pictures which have been added to the Gallery, three are inscribed with the artists' names ; they are, respectively, by Bartolommeo Vivarini, of Murano; Francesco Tee coni, of Cremona; and Bartolommeo Veneziano, a distinct painter from the first named. The fourth picture is by Girolamo da' Libri, of Verona. All these are more or less antiquated in style. It is un derstood that several pictures, forming part of a col lection purchased in Venice by the travelling agent in December last, in order to secure a few eligible specimens, now in the gallery, will be sold in the next year, together with a portion of the Minden pictures. This will be the first trial of the effect of the act of Parliament recantly passed, which, on the purchase of an entire collection, provides for the dis- poser of the pictures " not required" for the national collection. EXHIBMON OF HOLLYHOCKS AND DAHLIAS took place at Cremorne-gardens on Tuesday and Wednes day, and the show contained same of the finest specimens ever exhibited. Among the plants most remarkable for richness of colour and the peculiar " guard petal " were " Yellow Model " and Souvenir." The "Solfaterre," sent by the Rev. C. Fellowes, was also the subject of much admiration for the fulness of its development. An exhibition of rare balsams, curious for their perfect symmetry, attracted much attention. Many of them, if cut in half vertically, would have presented two sides exact counterparts of each other. The dahlias exhibited, although displaying most of the peculiar beauties of the flower, were scarcely so fully developed as might have been expected at this season of the year. Owing to the inclemency of the weather and the attractions of the regatta, there were very few visitors present. SIEGE OPERATIONS AT CHATHAM. Suss displays of the military art of attack and de fence are w€ll worth a visit. The authorities on this occasion had permitted the day flxei for the display to be known some time previous, and had the weather been fine, a vast concourse of " people would have assembled. On Tuesday, however, from the thorough November look of the day, very few specta tors were present. His Royal Highness the C•wn minder in• Chief, accompanied by General Sir John Burgoyne 0.C.8., arrived shortly after twelve, and proceeded at once to the lines. The troops about to he engaged mustered some 2,700 rank and file. The operations consisted of the attack and defence of the Redan and Prince Henry's Bastion, and com menced by an advance of troops towards the right face of the bastion, and, in the face of a heavy fire from the batteries, they succeeded in scaling the escarp and connterscarp, and getting into the advanced works and lodgments. At the same time, the Sappers and Miners were engaged in completing some earthworks which had been thrown up, intended for the double sap, the great descending gallery, and two simple saps. These had been so constructed as to approach each other in completion with that of the third parallel against the fortress. As soon as they were finished and reconnoitred, a tremendous fire opened simultaneously against the fortress from the whole of the batteries, parallels, and rifle-pits. This fire lasted for some time, until the troops were withdrawn from the lodg ment in front of the Redan, previously to that portion of the works being blown up by a heavy discharge of 1 4 01bs. weight of gunpowder. The destruction of these positions was complete, and was effected by means of the voltaic battery, placed under the charge of Captain H. Y. D. Scott, Royal Engineers. The timber, earth, and materials of which the lodgment was composed was blown up with tremendous violence and with striking effect. Six men were here injured from not being under cover quick enough, two rather severely, though fortunately no lives were lest. The injured men were immediately sent to the hospital. As soon after the explosion had taken place as was ( nsidered practicable, a portion of the lodgment was THE PRESS. reoccupied by the troops, and the right gun opened fire on the interior of St. Mary's hornwork, the fire from the troops btationed in the parallels being con tinued. A pontoon bridge was then thrown over at St. Mary's Creek, under the direction of Lieutenant Phillips. As soon as this bridge was completed, the rafts having been rowed up under the right bank of the creek, and across the mouth of St. Mary's horn work, a party of Sappers, each provided with bags of gunpowder, and also with bags of sand for tamping, advanced from the lodgment on the extreme right of the attack, followed by a party of one hundred of the troops belonging to the provisional battalion, the whole of whom, having crossed the pontoon bridge, proceeded along the glacis in front of the hornwork until they reached a stockade near St. Mary's Creek. The stockade was immediately blown up with a charge of 120Ibs. weight of gunpowder, the huge baulks of timber of which it was mainly composed being hurled with great violence into the air and scattered to a considerable distance. At the same time a party of Sappers and Miners, pro tected by General Blanshard's iron mantlets, ad vanced from their position and formed on the parapet of the glacis, for the purpose of acting as a covering party to a number of Sappers, engaged in forming another pontoon bridge with General Blaushard's infantry pontoons. This bridge was very speedily thrown across the wet ditch of the right branch of St. Mary's hornwork, and an escalading party pushed forward to cross it. This having been accomplished, two scaling ladders were established against the counterscarp for the formation of the bridge, and also two ladders against the escarp resting on the head of the bridge. After a desperate defence the escalade was effected, and the troops on entering the works proceeded to let down the drawbridge for the passage of the men. Whilst these operations were being performed, another escalading party moved out from the right of the lodgment in front of the Redan, and com menced escalading at that point of the works where the embrasures of the ramparts crossed each other. A party of Sappers, provided with crowbars and axes, now advanced from the bead of the pontoon bridge, followed by the main body at the double, the advanced party being required to clear away the breach made in the stockade, which had been exploded, to enable the troops to pass through. The inside of the works once rained, the garrison retired, and the fortress was won. The whole of the troops were then formed into con tiguous columns, and marched back to their quarters. His Royal Highness then proceeded to St. Mary's Creek, for the purpose of witnessing the troops of the Royal Sappers and Miners form a pontoon bridge, under the direction of Major F. C. Hansard, Royal Engineers. This interesting portion of the opera tions, to be performed by the Royal Engineers, was executed with mat celerity by the Sappers and Miners, and after the bridge had been formed, it was cut, re-formed, and dismantled for the purpose of showing the various operations required in construct ing a pontoon bridge. A subaqueous charge of 100 lbs. weight of gunpowder was afterwards fired by means of the voltaic battery, under the direction of Captain C. E. Cumberland, R. E., the case being at cached to several baulks of timber, which were sunk in the middle of SL Mary's Creek. This experiment was undertaken with the view of showing the method employed in detaching and recovering portions of vessels that have been sunk, and was eminently satis factory. On the conclusion of the siege operations, with which the Duke of Cambridge expressed himself highly satisfied, his Royal Highness lunched at the Artillery barracks and returned to London. THE Bismotruc OF DURHAM would seem not only well endowed but proportionably favorable to lon gevity, for most of its incumbents have lived to a considerable age. Dr. Maltby is about to retire from its stipervi.ion at the age of eighty-seven. The late Dr. Van Mildert died upwards of seventy years old; his immediate predecessor, Dr. Shute Barrington, at ninety-two, after an incumbency of thirty-five years' duration. Since the Reformation the bishopric has been held by only twenty prelates, thus giving about fifteen years as the average tenure of the see. Oat of these prelates, not to mention those already given above, four held the see for nineteen years, one for twenty years, one for twenty-seven years, one for twenty-eight years, and two for twenty-nine years; and one, viz., Nathaniel Lord Crewe, ocenpied it for the unparalleled period of forty-eight years, namely, from 1974 to 1722. Of the first seven prelates after the Reformation, three, namely, Dr. Hutton, Dr. Matthew, and Dr. Montaigne, were translated to York, and one, Dr. Neale, to Winchester ; an instance also occurs of one prelate being translated to Dur ham from the see of London. For the last two hundred years no translation from the see of Dur ham has taken place ; and yet, strange to say, Dr. Van hidden, who died in 1834, is the first bishop since the Reformation whose body has been interred in the Cathedral of Durham. 813 Dlontg Rlarket and tiit ttttiligetta. FRIDAY EVENING. THE return of the Bank of England for the week ending the 18th inst. shows the following ci.anges compared with that for the week preceding : Decrease in Circulation .. Increase in Public Deposits Increase in Other Deposits Increase in Private Securities Decrease in Bullion Increase in Rest 1,904 Decrease in Reserve 5,901 Bullion in Both Departments Circulation, including Hank Post Bills A slight decrease has taken place in the amount of the Bullion and the Reserve ; they are too small to exercise any adverse influence, especially as we know the Bank has been receiving gold in the present week. It is pro bable that the gold hag to a great extent gone to increase the circulation in the agricultural districts, as is usual at harvest time. The Government has increased its balances by a considerable amount; they now stand at 4,6438,2181., and, from the fact of the amount of Public Securities re maining the same as last week, it follows that the whole of the Bank's recent advances upon deficiency bills have been repaid. The increase in the Private Securities show that the demand for money last week was considerable, and that the Bank is enlarging its discounts. The return presents no other features to call for remark ; it is one of an average character, and not calculated to produce any effect upon the Money Market. We hare had bad weather for the harvest during the greater part of the week. Rain has fallen every day, and a little to-day, while the nights have been cold and boiste rous. Fears, consequently, have extensively, bat not universally, prevailed as to the safety of the crops ; and they have been accumpanied by an advance in the price of corn both in Mark•lane and in some of the more impor tant provincial markets, equal, on the whole, to the decline which took place a fortnight ago. Any benefit derived by the consumer from the lower prices of last week is there fore lost, and at the present moment there does not seem to be much hope of regaining it, though, if the weather be warm and genial for the next two or three weeks, holders will probably become somewhat timid. Such being the state of the Corn Market at this critical period, when the yield and quality of the harvest are permanently affected by the vicissitudes of the weather, it might be expected that the effect upon the price of money and the value of public securities would be of an adverse and unfavorable character. But no such thing. On the contrary, the price of money has been steady, with a tendency to lower rather than to higher rates, while the value of public securities has also been steady, with a tendency to advancing quota tions. Of course such a state of things could not exist in conjunction with general and well-founded fears of a deficiency in the crops, and therefore we are constrained to believe that, for the present, the apprehensions of high prices which prevail in some quarters are not generally shared by those who consider the subject trout an inde pendent position, and view it upon a wider scale. Next week, however, will probably enable us to decide for our selves which of the two parties is most correct in their vaticinations. In the meantime we content ourselves with recording what appears to us to be a situation somewhat anomalous. The Money Market has been well supplied the whole week ; and, though there has at times been an active demand, the joint-stock banks and discount establishments have not been able to find full employment for their re serves. The rates in the open market run from 4 to 4i per cent. The Bank, maintaining its minimum of 41, has not done any great discount business, but upon one or two days a considerable amount of bills were sent in. We are inclined to attribute the comparatively easy con dition of the market to the fact that numerous individuals who had prepared good balances at their bankers, in order to take advantage of any speculative undertakings that might rise up about this time, having been disappointed in those expectations, have placed their money where it can be more advantageously employed in good commercial discounts, and so the supply has exceeded the demand. At the same time, another element in the ease is the con fidence inspired by large gold arrivals, the more satisfac tory state of things in Paris, and the steady, profitable, and increasing home and foreign trade of our own country, combined with the general discouragement of all doubtful enterprises. The receipts of specie during the week have been about 500,000/., without including some amounts brought from Constantinople. the value of which is not known. The exports have absorbed about 520,0001., nearly all to Jndia and nearly all in silver, consequently the account is nearly balanced. But, though the account is nearly balanced, the bullion in the Bank, as shown by preceding returns for some weeks past, has increased, and is now at a steady amount. This is partially owing to the retransmis'ion of coin Prom the East; but some of it is also attributable to the indirect return of coin from the Continent. which, not. withstanding the Sow of passenger traffic thitherwarda at