The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

THB ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY'S

(raou Tin 00111SPONDIXT OP TDB DULY 11111WO.)
The present, the 29th annual exhibition of the
Sottish Academy, beyond all comparison the finest
'that Edinburgh has witnessed for a very long time.
Some enthusiastic patriots declare it to be finer than
anything of the kind produced in London, and
others magnify the hyperbole by adding that it is
the finest exhibition that has ever been in Europe.
The complacency of our northern cousins may be ex-
eased,: as the collection of pictures is really good,
depends even lees than usual on extraneous ocatribu-
time, and is thus twice worthy of the occasion.
It inaugurates the National Gallery newly erected
on the Mound—a• most unsightly building, by the
way, although, on the other hand, its internal
arrangements are most effective. On the outside, it
has the appearance of a great neervoir or gas-tank,
built on the principle of a Greek temple, with the
pipes does into lonic pillars for the sake of ornament ;
so that thinly tolerable view of it is from the North
Bridge, where' it is seen half concealed in shrubbery.
Ones within, however, there is everything to praise
and nothing to blame, unless, indeed, the peculiar
earthenware red of the walls, which, aithoegh gene-
rally unobservable, is, at least in the sculpture-room,
very unhappy, and suggests what our pale ghosts
would look like in the hot ball of Ebli.. Otherwise
the rooms- a series of six octagons—are admirable,
and approach as nearly to the perfection of a well
lighted gallery as it is possible for mortal building
to reach.

We have maid that the present exhibition is even
more than usually Scottish. The oontributions of
English and foreign artists, however, deserve a pass-
ing acknowledgment. Landseer sends two pictures,
one (107) "The Stag at Bay," with all that concen-
tration of interest which he knows so well how to
heighten by the Twain of the solitude around.
Stanfield sends (31) " Portsmouth Harbour," with
sash a tumbling sea as only himself and Turner could
paint. Millais sends (353) "The Wedding-Cards"
—a girl's face fall of sad meanings as she looks at the
cards : (558) Sketch of the " Order of Release;" and
(557), a Landsespe and Figures—the landscape, as
usual, a foreground, with (unusual for Millais) the
figures in the middle distance, el singularly lifelike.
Poole sends (189)a Scene from the Tempest, so suc-
cessful in colour that one is tempted to forget the in-
adequacy of his treatment of the subject. The
names of Creswick, Pyne, Cooke, Dyce, and John
Phillip can only be mentioned. Linnell sends se-
veral of his yellowing, autumnal scenes—one (296)
" A Thunder Storm " that .calls for re-
mark, as earth and air seem to have no
possible relation to each other. It is very difficult
to understand how that lurid thunder cloud which
fills the upper part of the canvas should have so
little effect on the landscape beneath; although the
remembrance of others of his pictures in which
earth and sky are thus at variance, and truthfully
so, teach one to abstain from absolute condemnation.
We recollect the picture of a potato field, in which
the sky is all bright without a cloud, and the field
below nosenonntably enveloped in shadow; no coll-
ection between the two, and yet all true to the life.
Besides these English pictures there is a goodly
sprinkling of foreign ones, chiefly French, and of these
the two contributed by Rasa Booheur deserve particu-
lar mention. "Dog of LaVendis" (530) is very sp.trited;
(403), " Chalk Waggons in the Limousin," is also
spirited, although it must be added that the vague-
' noes of expression here and there, and the prevalent
haziness of touch, suggest the idea of trickery.

most natural, and delicately rendered—body stoop-
ing, feet gout, and knees timidly drawn to-
gether. Of Harvey's "Columbus* (113) we had better
not speak. Full of thought and noble in sentiment,
it is hideous in drawing—the models having appa-
rently been selected free the surgeon's hospital.
Perhaps the most satistastory figure subject (motel-
bated by a &sottish artist is (313) " The Porteous
Mete by James Drummond. Abounding in en-
treats, it is well toned throeghout ; and the super-
fluity of detail does not destroy the unity of effect.
We have seldom seen a picture with so many epi-
sodes, all so well told, and each--from the blind
piper flying away to the beads
peering out of impos-
sible attics round the corner—with an interest of ite
own, and yet bearing directly on the main incident.
In landscape tip exhibition is less rich than usual.
And here we have especially to notice the increased
influence of pre-Raphaelite ideas. Even in Horatio
Maculloch, a sworn foe to the pre-Raphaelitesi!ea:_d_liz
the way he contributes moral capital leader*
somewhat sharp and cool—one • beautiful view of
Edinburgh from Daleseny)—even in Maculloch we
trace this influence in the minuteness with which he
has painted some of his foregrounds, especially the
pebbles on fife beach in (13) " Knock Castle." It is
curious also to observe in how many landscapes—
nine out of ten—the artists have set themselves to
paint pebbles—pebbles dry, pebbles wet, pebbles
rough, pebbles smooth, pebbles round, pebbles flat—
all the minuteness and anxiety being expended on
the pebbles, as if we were a set of boys looking
out for stones to play at " duck and drake.
Pebbles and leaves: these are the two items of the
landscapes. The pains bestowed on the elaboration
of foliage is marvellous; a pains that is exerted in
utter oblivion at times of every other consideration.
For example (520), "Among the Brambles" is beau-
tifully, lovingly painted—the leaves leaf-like, the
robin robin-like, and the little girl with her chubby
face and snub nose staring at the red-breast with
such a delightfully stupid interest; but Mr. Douglas,
in his zeal to render the bramble leaves suooessfully,
has forgotten that they are in size not to be com-
pared with a girl's head—he has rendered them half
the size of the girl's head. And it is not merely in
minuteness that we trace the influence of the pre-
Haphaelites, but even in their accidental peculiarities.
In landscape, the contrast they are most fond of is a
very decided green with spots of red or pink flowers.
It is such • contrast as we find eternally in Gerald
Massey and some of the younger poets, green gemmed
with red, its complementary colour. In the land-
scapes of the present exhibition we have this contrast
continually. There are the landscapes of Waller
Paton, in some respects the most remarkable in the
rooms, none else so laborious, none else so microscopic
is detail, and yet always broad in effect. He has
made a great stride in advance. And, apart from
these, we can only pretend to mention, without criti-
cising, the river scenes of Mr. Crawford—remarkable
for the lustrous effect of the water ; and the trees of
Winton—one of whose pictures reminded us of Cov-
etable.

In the soulpture room the most striking pieces are
a statue of Corinna, by Brodie—very beautiful.
although not sufficiently inspired; and " Ajax pray-
ing for light," by Calder Marshall—a hero in a heroic
mood.

ROYAL

rON.

Dr. Tyndall resumed, on Tuesday, the oonsidsra-
dos of the action of the Leyden jar, and adopting the
theory of two distinct electricities, he explained the retention
of the charge on one Bide of the glass to be owing to the
attraction of the oppoeite kind of electricity on the other
side. That the charge is held in the glass and not in the me_
tallic eoatings was shown by rem•niog the metallic surfaces
from the inside and from the outside of a conical glass vessel
that had been charged with electricity, end the glace being
then placed over some pith belle, they danced about with
great activity. The glass still retained a large portion of the
electricity, as was indicated whoa the metallic coatings were
replaced by a strong spark when the outside and inside were
connected by a discharge. Dr. Tyndall neat noticed the pecu-
liarity in the passage of sleet mity through wires coated with
gotta pereha and immersed in water, whisk wee first made'
known at t►e beginning of last year, la cassequence of which
the velocity of discharge is impeded. This effect was perceived
when the submarine electric telegraph was completed, and
it was at first a source of greet annoyance in the transmission

Bat now passing to the Scottish artists themselves,
the first thing that calls our attention is the portrait
painting; and here it is the excellence rather than
lb number of the portraits that attracts novice. The
s.etch at present seem to have a peculiar aptitude for
portraiture. In the more imaginative style=
sre outstript by English competitors; in
agape they are far behind English artists;
but in portraiture they are pre-eminent. There
is Grant— Scotchman ; Thorburn—a Scotch-
man ; Sir William Rose, Swinton, Watson Gordon,
Graham Gilbert—all Sootchmen : not to speak otthe
medallion portraits of Munro, and the busts of Steil,
Park, and Brodie. It is characteristic of the Scottish
mind, and is to be regarded in connexion with the
biographical tendencies of the Scottish literature.
There is Boswell—the Columbus of biographers;
Lockhart—whose life of Scott is only second to that of
Johnson; and Carlyle—the very genius of biography.
In the present exhibition the finest portrait by far is
(293) that of Sir John Watson Gordon, the Prosideat
of the Academy, by Graham Gilbert, an artist but
slightly known in London, from his not ch=tot
exhibit out of Scotland. The head of the
is a marvel of fine colouring and noble expremion—
quite Titianseque; while the court dress in whisk he
is represented is not suited to so spare a frame, and
gives one the ides rather of a muter of ceremonies
than a master of art. There is not one of Gilbert's
pictures which is not worth looking at for the purity
and delicacy of treatment, although the only other
which it is at present possible to particularise
is (477) "A Beggar Girl," whose sweet ex-
pression of countenance, hand half-consciously
open for bounty, threadbare cloak, and torn straw
bat, display perhaps more conspicuously than any
ether of his pictures his sense of colour and mastery
et touch. The most ambitions portrait contributed
by Sir John Watson Gordon (188), that of the Lord
Amite General, is, we venture to think, not equal to
his powers. In point of colour it is admirable, as he
bad a splendid opportunity with the scarlet robe and
white ermine of the judge; but, what is very unusual
is portraits painted by the President, the countenance
is bewildered and the attitude uneasy. The Dean of
Faculty (428) is also disappointing. Miss Eleanor
Malcolm (88) is admirable; so also that of (217) Robert
Paul, Req. Thorburn sends two lovely mistime,
sad a portrait (684) of Lord William Thynne, fungi
*wester. Of the two contributed by Grant, the
is uninteresting, and the lady is livid,
fasilaisa as
sbsil ben drugged with nitrate of silver. We
lOW nut hqpt Archer's crayon drawing of Pro-
/swiss Aye's (626)—a first-rate likeness by a
artist who seems to have a special faculty
yesag
portraits, and is yet destined to great
eminence in the higher walks of art. Park
sends his noble bast of Louis Napolson(747), and one of
Sheriff Gordos (761), which, while weeerving the
likeness of the sheriff, represents him ass cog
Apollo, who has all his life fed on the virgin
el
liymettus, and drunk only the pure wave of the
Hippocrene. Brodie's bast of Lord Cockburn (762)
is one of the finest portraits we have ever seen.
_ . _ _

of menages by nuke forms of telegraphic instrumenu. Dr.
Tyndall stated that the effect is attributable to the wife
when coated with gotta perch', and afterwards surrounded
by water, becoming an elongated Leyden jar,:and he com-
pared the action to that of a lake into which a rapid stream
enters. Us said that sapposiog the lake to be empty, the
water as it entered would be detained till it arrived at a
height sufficient to allow it to flow with equal velocity
through a channel oa the other side, and in like me
the icterposition of a Leyden jar in the circuit of an en-
tended wire would retard the passage of electricity. This
was illustrated by placing a Loyd*n jar in such al
position, sad when an electric charge was passed
through the wire so circumstanced the intensity of it was
perceptibly diminished. The instantaneous duration of an
electric spark, and the means ingeniously contrived by
Professor Wheatstone to measure it, were illestrated by the
original apparatus employed by the professor; from which
it was ascertained that the duration of the spark does not
@cooed t►e twenty-five-thousandth part of a second. A

cannon ball, if Illuminated in its flight by a flash of
lightning would, in consequence of the momentary dura.
don of the light, appear to be stationary; and even the
wings den insect that mots ten thousand Wass in a wend
would seem at net. The means by which Profeesor Wheat-
stone also ascertained that electricity is transmitted along a
wire at the rate of 288,000 miles in a mood were also ex-
plained and illustrated by the original apparatus. The fact
that the detention occurs in the middle of the circuit, and
not at either end, Dr. Tyndall adduced as confirmatory
evidence that there are two distinct eleetricities, which
more is opposite directions. The transmission of elec.
trieity in a luminous form through highly rarefied
air wee exhibited by Mr. Cavendish's apparatus of a
double barometer tribe, through the upper portion of which
there was a beautiful etch of purple-tinted light. The same
effect was shown in larger tubes ezhausted of air, and Dr.
Tyndall said that when the light thus transmitted is elonly
observed, it appears to be full of stream. The peculiar trans-
mission of electricity through a vacuum he said cannot be
attributed to the coadacting power of rarefied air, because
an exhausted electrometer continues to act, which it would
not do it the interior space conducted electricity. He said
be was disposed to attribute it to en effect similar to that
produced on heated water when the meson of the
atmosphere is removed, the escape of electricity being ana-
logous to the rapid escape of the steam in a venues.

Of the more imaginative write, that which de-
mands the first attention is (294) "The Pursuit of
Plessrue—a Vision of Hoarse Life," by Noel Paton.
The women mean to like it ; and u they crowd round
it three deep, it is somewhat diMeult to get a viewofit.
Like the pleasure which it depicts, it is very attractive
land very unsatisfying. One gases and gases, does
sot like to leave the picture, and wonders, after all,
that one is so little impressed by the infinite pains of
the artist. Admirable in many of its details, with a
salty of design apparent at a glean, one in anonished
that it conveys so little unity of effect. Confusion is
the besetting sin of allegsey, and it is the besetting
sin of Mr. Noel Paten lan details it is imposeilie
to eater, ablesagh ohjestiew might be made again and
again he Sr. gratin of the Igkess, and one
is weary et dna eternal appiesresn skies.
Only this gamma 'mark may be handed—that
if it be aqsseties him* the painter eight to realise
is his Weider, semi attempt tedmat the eye, there
sea be no queatio!_ that in the isgsetmamt stallegoey
this mmeenation is a peat bleaker. So that
whet Mr. Paten paints the suet arson, with blood
es it, so faithfully that it leeks the real thing, he
emus, the limits of allegory, the treatment of
whisk ought to be much mss symbolic. The same
esseeek applies to Mr. John Fee4Te allegory (401) of
Rosso and Faith." Beaatiful as a composition,
such minutemen in a symbolic picture is
trite oat of place. We admire far more his
two cabinet platers (422) of "Newton blowing
Babbles, and (408) " The PhiMeopher." The
are exquisite, and yet do not interfere with
eels air of contemplation that pervades the
semetmas of the two philoeophem Hie brother.
Thomas Feed, sends three very sperklict Piatranst
one of which (638), the " Slunk of Olivia ant
Sophia," is even finer than the finished picture that
attracted so much notice in:London. The Viola, in
Mr. R, tisett Lender's (223) ‘4 Olivia, 04 VAR," is

SOCIETY OF LETS.

An adjourned discussion on "The value and use
of the sewage of Loudon" took place on Monday evening at
the rooms of the society. It may be mentioned that the
views of the speakers were ea divergent es at the previous
Menace. At the same time it was felt that in the multi-
tude of feet* brought forward by the 'peahen there were
Sufficient grounds for conclusion that at present there Le no
prospect of employing profitably solidified sewage on a eery
large scale, and that the application of liquid sewage to
renal steps is making great progress.
Mr. Scott poised out many of the disadvantages aura&
ins the employment of liquid manure. He observed that five-
sixths of the fertilising properties of snob manure were held
la solution, while wily one-siath was held la suspension,
and that it was only this latter quantity that could be de-
pended an in irrigation. In Italy, whore there was little
rain-fall, irrigation might be employed properly, whereu is
Ragland, on account of the greater rata-fall, such a process
was not so much ended. He enlarged apes the nuisante
which was generated by the employment of liquid manure
in Edinburgh. He stated also that irrigated gram had been
foaad to be prejedioial to the sows who fed upon it, and
supported his sediment by some statistics from the Skittish
lararaLes Company. He smarted that the milk from stows
fed on the irrigated meadows was very prejudicial.
Mr. Caird questiseed the validity of Mr. Settee Neale.
slam es to the umbeelthiesss of the gram es food for cattle.

• Mr. Medd brewed forward fasts to skew that the milk
fromeseissisd os irrigated meadows we* of the Asset d*
scrip**.
Mr. Law's, Professor Way, Mr. Wed, Mr. Haywood,
Mr. Papaw, sod se m,. alteeessd the easstiag he speeches
Vied witb statism, ad hetarestiag to aarisaltariste,'
blet tattle diffeeK tee `widalp to /Haw et a dedactioa of
.6114!IICE# Qt` fah itiOtaluvalsk Otos to the two di-
maces we staled tis &Fe*
Celestl, Ohffilloser Win la limo el*.

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1855.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE:

PreG•sor Christmas pee on Monday Diu second
Inters on The Domestic Life of our Ancestors." Sir John
Boileau waifs the chair.
The subject of the lactate was the aseestral Maim. The
lecturer remarked that much light was thrown apes the
'iodides of $ people at any period by • kaowledge of the
food on which they ted, and their manner of preparing it.
He adverted to the fast that the Angle• Saxons lived chiefly
on perk, as a proof that cattle bushel:dry was not mach
undentecd. The monasteries wore establislimeuts in while&
the art of agriculture was first carried to mach perfection.
In this respect the monastic orders were of imalculable
advantage to the nation. But not only was egriceltare
sunteesfally rinsed by the monks; horticulture
silo reeeived a great share of their anemias. The gardens
of the monasteries were models of the horticultural skill of
the time. Notice was then taken of the Improved state of
the arts in the reign of Alfred. Examples of the manners
of the times were then given from the graphic pages of
Peter of Blois and Fite Stephen. The lecturer then pro-
°ceded to illustrate, from numerous swum, the nature and
promos of cooking of the viands in use amongst our fore-
fathers. Bread, wine, fruit, beer, fish, and other articles of
diet, came suconsively under consideration. The mode of
cookery of the several articles of Maury was profusely Was-
trued by easy apt and occasionally humorous quotations.
The eustams of the dinner table wens then niteutely de
scribed, and the descriptions verified by apt quotations. The
lecture, which occupied an hour and a half in the delivery,
gave great delight to a crowded anateace.