Colored News. — London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

br 4:nst TUrrk. sth.—Thomas Gainsborough died 1788. This very eminent artist, and one of the most distinguished ornaments of the English school of painting, was born in 1727 at Sudbury, where his father was a clothier. Like all the great favourites of genius, he dis covered very early a propensity to the art on which his future and imperishable fame was to be founded. Nature, says one of his contemporaries, was his teacher, and the woods of Suffolk his academy, where he would pass in solitude his mornings in making a sketch of an antiquated tree, a marshy brook, a few cattle, a shepherd and his flock, or any accidental objects that were pre sented. From delineation he got to colouring, and after painting several landscapes from the age of ten to twelve, he quitted Sudbury and came to London, where he commenced portrait painter. To education Gainsborough owed little. He was for some time under the instructions of Gravelot and of Hayman, whom he soon eclipsed ; and he was one of the few artists of eminence this country has produced, who never were indebted to foreign travel. His whole life was spent at Sudbury, Ipswich, Bath and London. He took up his final residence in the latter in 1774, where his fame increased with astonishing rapidity. His excellence appeared in portraits and landscapes. His portraits, it has been justly said, •vill pass to futurity with a reputation equal to that which follows Cie pictures of Vandyke; and his landscapes will establish his name on the record of the fine arts with honours such as never before attended a native of this isle. These subjects he painted with a faithful adherence to nature, and it is to be noticed that they more nearly approach the landscapes of Rubens than those of any other master. Gainsborough died of a cancers and was interred, at his own request in Kew Church yard. In his last moments he paid a tribute to his great master; almost his last words were " we are all going to heaven and Vandyke is of the party." Gainsborough was rather capricious and 'unsteady in his social connections. Although chosen a member of the Royal Academy, he never associated with the members. At the same time it is due to his memory to say that he was a mau of great generosity. If he selected for the exercise of his pencil, an infant from a cottage, all the tenants of the humble roof generally participated in the profits of the picture, and some of them frequently found in his habitation a permanent abode. His liberality was not confined to, this alone : needy relations and unfortunate friends were further incumbrances en a spirit that could not deny : and owing to this generosity of temper, that affluence was not left to his family which so much merit might promise, and such real merit deserve. 6th.—Prince Alfred born 1844. 7th.—Queen Caroline died 1821. It is worthy of record that the legal advocates of this unfortunate woman rose to the highest judicial honours, viz., Lord Chancellor Brougham, Lord Chan cellor Truro, Lord Chief Justice Campbeil, Lord Chief Justice Denman, Lord Chief Justice Tyndall, and Mr. Justice Williams. It is also a gratifying fact that posterity is rendering some small share of justice to her memory. 7th.—Bacon died 1626. Lord Bacon was born in 1561, and was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, fur more than twenty years keeper of the great seal. He was elected at Trinity College, Cambridge, after leaving which he entered himself a student of Gray's Inn, with the object of following his father's profession of the law. In this profession, and in public life, he rapidly rose to the highest eminence; and in 1619 he was made Lord High Chan cellor of England, and created Baron Verulam, to which title was added, the following year, that cf Viscount St. Albans. Bacon's political course, up to this time, had nut been very remarkable for disinterestedness or independence ; and it was destined to terminate suddenly in disgrace and sorrow. In March, 1621, he was impeached by the House of Commons for corruption in his high office ; and his own confession soon after admitted the truth of the accusation in nearly all its force t on which he was imme diately deprived of the seals, and sentenced to be fined, imprisoned during the King's pleasure, and for ever excluded from parlia ment and all public employments. He afterwards obtained a remission of the hardest parts of his sentence : but he only survived till the Gth of Augu-A, 1626, on which day he died suddenly at the Earl of Arundel's house at Highgate. Intellectually considered, he was so great a man, that his character and conduct, as an historical personage, are commonly, as it were by general consent, in a very considerable degree overlooked and forgotten when we mention the name of Bacon. It is worthy of notice, as a curious evidence of how little the delinquencies and misfortunes of the politician, memorable as they were, were some time after his death known or noted in those parts of the world which were most filled with the fame of the philosopher, that Bayle, in his Die tionary, published in 1695, and again in 1702, has given us an article on Bacon, in which lie does not so much as allude to his lamentable fall, being evidently ignorant that such an event had ever taken place. Bth —Death of George Canning 1827. Among those statesmen whose political conduct and personal talents have promoted the national glory of old England, few can claim more exalted distine. tion than this highly gifted and illustrious individual. He was born in 1770, was educated at Eton and Oxford, and commenced his senatorial career in 1793. From 1796 till 1827 he was with some few interruptions connected with the administration ; and on the illness of Lord Liverpool he succeeded to the premiership. The auspicious prospects, however, which had been entertained by the nation, from his principles and abilities were soon clouded by his death which occurred on the 7th of August. As a politician Canning displayed the most liberal and enlightened views; and as an orator he excelled in all that can convince the understanding or captivate the fancy. He was the author of a mock heroic tragedy, called " The Rovers," which caused a prodigious sensa tion in the political world when it first made its appearance. Bth.—Lord Duncan born 1731. This distinguished naval officer was born at Lundie in Angashire, in 1731. He entered the navy at an early age, and in his 30th year became a post captain. He distinguished himself at the siege of Havannah, and in 1797 shared in the victory of Rodney over the Spaniards. After rising gradually through the intermediate ranks he became Vice Admiral of the White in 1794• His subsequent victory over a Dutch squadron, was rewarded by the title of Viscount and a pension of £2OOO per year. He died in 1804. Mt.—Birth of John Dryden. Dryden was the father of criti• cism and the great improver of English versification. He was born at Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire 1631. Having received a liberal education he soon began to cultivate poetry, and published some encomiastic verses on the death of Oliver Cromwell. tht the restoration of the Monarchial power in 1660, he, with the parasitical spirit natural to those who intrigue for patronage, exerted himself and talents in eulogising the new-sovereign. This soon recommended him to royal favour, by which he obtained the appointment of poet laureat. He published various dramatic peices, which stamped him as the first poet of the age, though the licentious allusions with which they abound expase him to the severest reprobation. He enjoyed high reputation to the period of his death which occurred in 1700. His numerons works were unrivalled for merit and fame during his time, and still con tinued to be highly popular. Dryden was buried in Westminster Abbey in a grave next to that of Chaucer. 10th.—Gre(nteich Observatory founded 1675. Captain Ifarryatt died 1848. THE COLORED NEWS. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. *** Our limited space will deprive us of thepleasure of answering many correspondents at great length, but we shall always make a point of attending to questions connected with literature and art. PRISCILLA ORNON, (BAYSWATER.)—Many books have been printed concerning the language of flowers, and in many parts of the country certain colors have still a proverbial significa tion such as blue, true; yellow, jealous ; green, forsaken, 8;c. A quaint old author makes a short dictionary of them as follows : Ash colour Repentance Black colour Mourneful Blue Truth Carnation Desire Crimson Cruelty Green Hopeful Mouse colour Feareful Murry Secret Love DRAMATICUS (THETFORD.) There are many passages in Shakespeare which admit of two readings, but we cannot see the exact point of your question. You ask if " All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players," who constitute the orchestra and audience ? lYe have no particular• wish to chop logic at our time of life, but surely amongst the " players" somebody must be able to scrape the violin, and in that case part of the orchestra would be formed at least. AN AUTHOR, (ABERMARLE STREET.)—We may say of your volume, as the cockney said of the pyramid at Eyypt—it is very big. If its merit was commensurate with its size, how clever you would be; but—truth must out—the work is trash Orange colour Spitefulness° Purple Nobility Sky colour Heavenly Tawny Forsaken White lnnocency Willow colour Despaire Yellow Jealousie. POST FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE COLORED NEWS. 3 months months 12 months By Post-office order on the Chief London Office, made payable to FREDERICK ILtitwooo, 163, Fleet-street, Cotoreb fieWs. SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1855, BEFORE our next publication is issued, the Session of Parliament will have been brought to a close. We may, therefore, fairly ask what has been the result of eight long months, deliberation ? What legislative result has emanated to the country from sittings protracted far beyond their usual length. All Englishmen take an interest in public affairs, and they are naturally asking, with very great anxiety, what measures have been passed—what imposts removed—what evils have been remedied—what obnoxious statutes repealed—and what, to sum up all in one short sentence, the ministers and parliament have done for the people ? Numerous as are the interrogatories, the responses may be uttered in a few intelligible words. The most astounding of which would be that the collective wisdom of the three kingdoms has increased the national debt by • twenty millions sterling ! Added to this it has made Eng land security for Turkey to the extent of an additional five millions. It has also sown, in all human probability, by an ill constructed convention, the seeds of prospective mis understanding both with Turkey and with Prance. Can we close account with these items. No ! The repre sentatives of this happy country, have unscrupulously added two pence in the pound to our already doubled income tax, and that John Bull should have a fair taste of the thumb screw of taxation which is preparing for him, they have unblushingly advanced the price of his tea and his . coffee, his sugar and his spirits, by the imposition of heavy and exorbitant additional duties. Long before the session was half got through our sapient rulers had squandered or misappropriated all the money which their tax-gatherer had been instructed to levy, or the stock market had consented to loan. " Supplementary estimates " popped up their hideous heads and with snake like fascina tion cajoled into their capacious jaws two or three millions more. To this end the parliamentary folks have been busy —very busy indeed, but for results which would have benefitted the tax payers there is " a beggarly account of empty measures " indeed. Eight weeks have scarcely elapsed since . the Premier first " cried havoc, and let loose the dogs of war," but in that short space of time the first Lord of the Treasury has thrown over, without the smallest symptom of compunction, every important measure which his government introduced plausibly and promised faithfui;y. It is true that his lordship reserved a sprinkl e o f enact ments as especially necessary to mollify the beast whilst placing the burthens upon its back. But what even became of these sops in the pan ? The Scotch Education Bill, the pet measure of the principal law officer of the Crown, after being before the lower house from the very commencement of the session, was sent with all its imperfections on its head to the upper house at last, and there even the Duke of Argyll, with that flippancy which is his general char acteristic was ready to undertake any crusade from which a cautious man would shrink, he even declined to enter the lists in its defence, and it was walked out of the arena pre ceded by a majority of one. Another was the Irish Tenants Compensation Bill, the reinsertion of the retro spective clause in which was the price demand e d an d promised, for the votes of " the Brigade" when a question of confidencewas impending, and the Ministry was in danger of defeat, but which was withdrawn when the danger was over, in spite of the remonstrances of the gulled and innocent dupes. But far above all these in nothingness and insincerity, stand the limited Liability Bill which was introduced with a flourish of conciliatory trumpets from the Board of Trade, the vibrations of which had scarcely died upon the ear when a herald in the person of Mr. Cardwell blew a blast so shrill and discordant that every. one stood aghast. Pursuivant Cardwell's notes were to the effect that it was " far too imperfect a measure to be allowed to pass this session," and so it shared the fate of the others. In noticing the final exit of all or either of these measures, we are far from saying that we regret, or that there is really anything to regret in, the loss of these measures, but we must recur to them to show what business men are entrusted with the destinies of a great commercial nation. With reference to the time also, which has been [AUGUST 11, 1855. expended in voting the supplies (admitted absolutely ne cessary to the vigorous prosecution of the war), it is not with that or the amount of the supplies we would cavil, far from it, we feel only that it is our duty to point out; we have throughout the session been hampered with a government which undertook to "settle" vital questions, but which was either so negligent of its duty, or so weak and incapable, and unable to so utterly command the con fidence of Parliament, that it found itself compelled to abandon one bill after another so rapidly that the session was brought to a most unsatisfactory termination. Finally, whilst censuring Parliament f o r w h at i t h as left undone, let us give it all due praise for what it has done. Amongst the latest abandonments of the session, we noticed, with extreme satisfaction, Sir William Clay's Church Spoliation Scheme, and Mr. Heywood's Bill for unsettlino. the Law of Marriage. F or th e a lt erat i on effected in the Sabbath a Beer Bill the people have to thank themselves. They spoke out with an eloquence more touching and effective than has been heard since the days of Lord Liverpool, but we sincerely hope that concession on this hand, may not be attributed to intimidation. 3.lnta Irnr. During the parliamentary session Palmeison has gone through more work in the talking line than during any other d ozen ses sions of his lif e si nce t h at o f Waterloo. ie has made upwards of one hundred speeches of his own, and, what is far more trying, he has listened to a thousand of other people; listened, not like the mere logs and blocks on the official benches about him, but listened so that not a point shAuld escape him, nor did: it. He has outset, upset, talked down, and out laughed everybody, sometimes outright, but occasionally in his sleeve ;—and that is as destructive a species of eacchi nation as the American merriment which consists in grinning the bark off a tree, or outgrinnin g a gentleman's weight in wild cats. Disraeli only carried the brains of the Derby Cabinet ; but Palmerston has carried both body and brains of a couple of Cabinets, a live and dead one and Aberdeen's. Worse than that, he had to resist the doubly detremental operations of seceding friends and adhesive enemies ; to bear down irreconcilable animosities within his Ministry ; to purge it of traitors to himself and to their own professions ; to shake off a perhaps honest auxiliary whose aid was ruin ; and to give ever-ready Lattle to a motley and multitudinous foe the mere recollections of whose several grounds of " action" was a tax upon memory that Mr. Bidder when he was the Calculating Boy Nv mild have been puzzled to recollect. A " lady of rank," whose husband and several near relatives are serving in the Crimea, advertises to the effect that she wishes to find some other ladies similarly circumstanced, who may be desirous of proceeding there immediately to pass the winter, and who would be willing to join her in procuring a suitable yacht for that purpose.,..We sincerely hope her inten tion may be accomplished. Among the " notions" imbibed by the Emperor Napoleon the Third, during his residence as an exile in England, was a very decided preference fur the principles of free trade. Those who are in his confidence are of opinion that he only awaits a favourable moment in order to Introduce that system into France. Absolute though the Emperor is said to be, he nevertheless is obliged to proced with the utmost caution in realising his schemes. Monopoly is fearfully strong in France; so much so that, under the constitutional system, which the enemies of Napoleon so hypocritically affect to deplore, any attempt to introduce reciprocity between nations would have been utterly futile. The first great difficulty in the way of the realisation of the E m p eror ' s sc h eme is to be found in the character of the French people, who are liberal enough in theory, and when liberalism costs nothing but the enunciation of sounding abstract principle., but who are deficient is that largeness of mind, and that faith in themselves and in the future, which enabled Sir Robert Peel to try his grand experi ment. That the Emperor has not abandoned his purpose is evidenced by the Monit4tir, which contains an elaborate article, emanating fro c. the minister of commerce, containing an analysis of the effects of free trade in England, showing how certain classes who expected to be ruined have, in fact, been gainers by the system, and also that the revenue has enor mously increased. The brace of popular baronets, who respresent Southwark and Marylebone respectively, have been before their consti tuents, and their reception has been cordial —we might say flattering ; of Sir William Molesworth every one speaks hand somely. lie has bravely earned his honours by a long cou rse of manly pat r i o ti sm . P opular principles, aided by fine talents, forced him into the cabinet of Lout Aberdeen, and Lord John Rt.sseirs political suicide has made him Colonial Minister. He has plenty of work in him, is stimulated by a healthy ambition, and the theoretical colonial reformer will not lack the energy to prove that he can be a practical statesman. Sir Benjamin Hall has not the sante force of character nor the same commanding intellect; but he is a good man of business, and has fairly won his spurs. To the natives of the Princi pality his rise must prove to be gratifying. The advocates of a stringent Sunday legislation have sus tained a defeat. The Committee of the Ho.:se of Commons appointed to trace the working of the new Beer Bill Report, is unfavourable to the bitter observance of the Sabbath. In a word, the Hyde-park rioters have triumphed. Lord Robert Grosvenor has lost his Sunday Trading Bill, and the door for Sunday tipling has been opened wider. This is the result of pushing matters beyond prudence—the defeat of men with good intentions but afflicted with weak heads. The committee recommeud that houses of entertainment be opened at one and closed at three o'clock—re-opened at five and closed at eleven —in all an extension of two hours and a half. The bona fide traveller, whose existence has been a puzzle to police maois trates, is to disappear from the statute book, and the place that once knew him will know hum no More. The law of last session, hastily taken up, and harshly carried out, is virtually repealed, and the repeal is an enforced concession. It has been wrung from the Legislature. The lesson is one on which our law-makers may ponder. They have tardily ascertained that they cannot make good and sober citizens by act of parlia ment, and if they are made wise by this discovery, all may rejoice. But annoy i ng symptoms appear in other quarters. The state of publie feeling evolved by the Hyde. park demon strations has aroused the torpidity of the Chartists. Those terrible fellows, Mr. Ernest Jones and Mr. Bronterre O'Brien, are before the world once more, clamouring for manhood suf frage, and denouncing as monstrous and atrocious the fact that millions of men who contribute towards the expense of the war in which we are now engaged ha ve no voice in the representation. The sp eec h es and exhortations of these vehe mmt orators will sink deeply into the minds of the classes