The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

CAMBRIDGE.

The election of a Professor to fill the vacancy in the
Univeraity Council occasioned by the resignation of Pro-
fessrr Sedgwick took place on the 10th instant. The
Regius Professor of Greek and the Plumian Professor of
Astronomy were made candidates by their respective friends,
and the former was elected. The votes were—Professor
Thompson, 56 ; Professor Challis, 42.

MR. H. OTTLEY, who has lung been connected
with the metropolitan press, delivered on Wednes-
day night the first of a series of lectures on Painting
and Painters at the Marylebono Literary and Scien-
tific Institution, Edward street, Portman-square. He
commenced by alluding to the impression that pre-
vailed regarding the humiliating state of the fine
arts in this country at the period of the Great Exhi-
bition in iB5l, and then briefly adverted to the efforts
that have since been made to remove the imputation,
pointing as the result to the recent Exhibition at
Manchester, which, for extent, variety, and beauty,
was perhaps unequalled at any period of our history.
He next gave a highly interesting sketch of the pro-
gress of painting and sculpture amongst the Greeks,
and explained the position of Christian art during
the dark ages. He described the revival of the art
of painting in Italy in the thirteenth century, and
traced its progress and development from the times
of Giunta, Pisanc, Cimabue, and Giotto, down to the
days of Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael,
Titian, and Coireggio. lie gave lively sketches of
some of the prominent masters, and, by reference to
engravings and copies, enabled his audience to form
an idea of the beauties of some of their celebrated
works. He declared that it was not the object of his
lecture to criticise living artists, or to institute a com-
parison between them and the old masters. His
object was to speak of the old masters of the thir-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, and not of the young
masters of the nineteenth century; but at the same
time he suggested that it was well to consider bow
far the movement of the thirteenth and sixteenth
centuries was like the movement of the present day,
and whether it was probable they would produce
similar results. The leeture was gracefully and
effectively delivered, and frequently during its pro-
gress, and at its close, Mr. Ottley received the ap-
plause of his audience.
CHARLES MATHEWS made a humorous speech in
Boston three weeks ago. He said :—" I am some-
what unlucky in timing my visits to America. In
1838, some nineteen years ago, I first crossed the
Atlantic, and popped upon a pecuniary crisis in New
York, and now, in 1857, I have had the luck to pop
upon another. It seems as if my presence were
doomed to bring a panic with it—(great laughter)—
but I am happy to find at any rate that it has not
had the effect of frightening you out of the theatre.
(Laughter and applause.) Indeed, ladies and gen•
tlemen, I think the best you can do is to come into
it as often as possible, and to divert your mind for
an hour or two from the cares of real life. In times
of difficulty, so far from its being an expensive
luxury, the theatre is about the cheapest mode you
can adopt of passing your leisure moments.
(Laughter.) During one of our hardest winters in
London, a poor man was observed almost every
night, to the surprise of the money taker, paying his
3d. to the gallery of the Surrey Theatre. At last,
out of curiosity, he got into conversation with him.
How is it,' said he, 'that you, who appear to be a
very poor man, can afford to come and pay your
money here night after night, when one would think