The Express.
London, England, 1863-05-05 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(now oux owl

PARIS, MOIDAT EV11111270.

As all the journals state that Prince Gortcha-
koff's answer to the French despatch will appear
textually in the Moniteur to-morrow, it is useless
to notice the more or less conjectural accounts of
its contents given in the evening papers. There
can be no doubt that Russia promises nothing
likely to ensure "durable peace in Poland," and
that the only object of the " civility " so much in-
sisted upon by her partisans is to gain time while
she crushes the insurrection. The Pays endea-
vours to neutralise the warlike tone of the Patrie,
but the sum of its argument is merely this, that it
is for the Emperor alone to judge what ought to be
done, and that nobody ought to telt about war till
be gives the signal.
The Bourse is firm, and Rents has risen 10c.
The biennial exhibition of new paintings and
statues which opened on the Ist inst. is not par-
ticularly well spoken of by the critics. In the
grand official saloon a portrait of the Emperor by
M. Flandrin seems to be more remarked than any-
thing else. Another new portrait of the Empress
by M. Winterhalter is, of course, very beautiful.
There are not so many battle-pieces in this saloon
as usual. The Crimean and Italian campaigns,
which furnished such large contingents of paintings
of this kind two years ago, are now nearly ex-
hausted subjects; and the Mexican war is too
young and too undecided to afford much material
for pictorial representation. There is, however,
one picture showing how the African Chasseurs
charged the Mexicans at Orizaba on May 20, 1862.
There are a few reminiscences of the expeditions to
Syria and China, but no artist appears to have
thought of the sack of the Emperor of China's
summer palace, which, with Count Palikao for the
central figure, and some Dutch painting of the
black pearls and other precious plunder, would have
been a singularly interesting and strictly historical
subject. M. Iv= has a battle of Magenta, of
which an eminent critic says that it is "neither
better nor worse than his battle of Solferino." M.
Meissonnier has a very remarkable picture in his
unique style of the battle of Solferino, painted by
the Emperor's command, and at which the artist
has been at work all the winter. Among the official
portraits one of Victor Emmanuel, by M. Fagnani,
is signalised. Out of the state saloon and in the
long succession of galleries right and left of it, the
works of art are arranged according to the new rule
adopted inlB6l, ie., in alphabetical order. Owing
to the decision that no artist shall be allowed to
exhibit more than three works, there are nearly a
thousand fewer pieces exhibited than there were in
1861, the numbers being about 3,000 instead of
4,000. The complaints of the decisions of the jury,
noticed by the Emperor, and attempted to be reme-
died by the sudden order that all the rejected pic-
tures shall be exhibited in another part of
the Palmas de l'lndustrie,are probably well founded
in a great measure. Not that either the capacity
or integrity of the jury is doubted. It would be
difficult to find in France a body of men better
qualified in both those respects than the members
of the Academy of the Fine Arts. But the mis-
fortune is that, for one reason or another, the
majority of the members do not do the work they
are supposed to do. Some who are artists them-
selves will not expose themselves to the odium of
sitting in judgment upon their brethren. Horace
Vernet, for instance, never attended a single meet-
ing of the hanging committee. Then a great many
members are old and rheumatic, and naturally