The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-20 00:00:00

IRELAND.

Draux. Avo. 10

The directors of the Dublin and Kingstown Rail-
way and the Board of Works arc co-operating in
expediting the preparations for the reception of the
Queen at Kingstown. The following on the sub-
ject appears in .Saanders' .Y( ass Letter:
The covered way from the landing jetty, the gentle asceot
by a Hight of stairs to the esplanade in front of the railway
station- house, the convenient entrance through the fine
waiting-room, and the descent to the platform, along which
tiers ot scats will be arranged—all alike as upon her Ma-
jesty's late visit, and which gave such general satisfaction
—will be carried out, and with all the improvements ter
comfort and convenience that experience can give. The
chairman of the company, A. Kane, Esq., with Alderman
George Roe and Willjem Ilatighton, Esq., directors • the
secre.ary, James riM, lisq.; the engineer-in-chief, Wilfred
Naughton, Esq.; the architect, J. Mulvany, Esq., were
yesterday on a visit of inspection to see that their intention
to honour her Majesty and accommodate the public in toe
best possible manner shall be completely carried out.
Yesterday there was a committee meeting of the
corporation for the purpose of making preparations to
receive her Majesty in the City, but the result of the
deliberations has not transpired. The Royal equi-
pages will arrive in Dublin from London on the 2tith
inst. The artillery force in this garrison will amount,
during the Queen's visit to one troop, consisting of
four ti-pounder howitzers, and two 12-pounder
howitzers; one field battery, consisting of four 9
pounder howitzers, nod two 24-pounder howitzers.
Some hitch would appear to have arisen in the
relations of Mr. J. F. Maguire, who accepted the
Chiltern Hundreds last week, with his late constitu-
ents, the electors of I)ungarvon, an out-and-out
"Brigadier" having um xp :ztedly come forward to
contest that borough agamst him at the approaching
election. This unlooked-for opponent is Capt. Hugh
Brabazon, who contested Tyrone on extreme liberal
principles at the general election ; and the objection
to Mr. Maguire is thus hinted at in Capt. Brabazon's
address:
Whether the explanation ctfered by your late member
and present candidate of the unusual and strange circum-
stances connected with his retirement be satisfactory, it is
for you, not for me, to say ; I come before you uncontami-
nated by any transactions or agreements calculated to dis-
qualify me from representing you in parliameot, or likely to
i endanger your right to return a representative.
Yesterday the telegraphic wires connecting the
northern with the southern lines were laid down
through the streets of this city. The wires were
ten in number. The connexion between Cork and
Belfast, and thus via I'ortpatrick to London, by
electric telegraph, will thus, when the whole is in
working order, be complete.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

THE PURCHASE OF THE " BOAR HUNT,"
BY VELASCLUEZ.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXVIMPS.
Sin,-1 stated in the Times, as tar back as the
30th of December, 1846, that the trustees of the Na-
tional Gallery and Sir C. Eastlake, their keeper, had
been entrapped itr.o the purchase of •he " P.oar
Hunt," by Velasqucz, at the enormous cost of 2,2tt01.,
by a disreputable trick. I said that at the very time
when the agent of its late proprietor, Lord Cowley,
was giving them to understand that it was on the
eve of being exported to the King of Holland, a
great purchaser of pictures, this same person had
but just reimported it from Holland, rejected by tho
King. The impression that they were saving it
from exportation to the King of Holland spurreo the
trustees to purchase it. From the above date to the
commencement of the recent inquiry this statement
was, on various occasions, publicly repeated, both by
myself and by others, without any one venturing
openly to contradict it.
In my evidence on the purchases, on the 22nd of
July, by way of illustrating the prepostcious grounds
upon which pictures have been occasionally pur-
chased for the Gallery, I repeated this statement,
when Mr. Feiner, the agent above mentioned, who
was present, emboldened by the sympathy he no
doubt knew he would receive from the intelligent
and impartial half dozen of the committee assembled
on the occasion—for they had made no secret of their
predetermination to treat me in a hostile manner—
suddenly interrupted the proceedings by declaring
that my statement was false, and that "if it came
from a person whom he thought would be believed,
he would take it up." This audacious interference,
so far from meeting with rebuke, was received with
symptoms of favour, and yet I may make bold to say
that the majority of those present believed in the
truth of my statement. The obvious course for the
committee to have pursued under the circumstances
was to summon all the parties in any way connectet
with the purchase of the " Boar Hunt," from
the trustees down to Mr. Thwaites, and re-
quest each to state categorically under what
impression that picture was bought ; but they con-
fined themselves in their search after truth to a pal-
pably hostile cross-examination of myself. Vet not-
withstanding this and the far greater disadvantage
lay under of being unable to produce on the spot the
witnesses I had named as capable of corroborating
my assertion, by Mr. Farrer's own statement to
themselves, the impression still remained that the
trustees had been the dupes of a wilful misrepresen-
tation. Tho following letter, which I have just re-
ceived from one of the witnesses I quoted before the
committee, will help to repair the disadvantage under
which I laboured.
1 remain, sir, yours obediently,
MORRIS MOORE.
r, Soho-square, August 18.
Rochefort, August 16.
My dear Moore,—Fartunately, I am fully able to
corroborate your statement respecting the purchase
of the Royal Boar Hunt, by Velasquez, before the
select committee on the National Gallery.
A few days only before the purchase of the
Velasquez was completed by Sir Robert Peel, Mr.
Ferrer, in Wardour-street, directed my attention to
the case in which it was inclosed, addressed to " Sa
Majesth le Roi des Pays Bas," and informed me
that, unless a purchaser were speedily found, he
should send it over to the King of Holland.
This statement, you will perceive, coincides
entirely with that of Mr. Baring Wall ; but tho
circumstance occurred, not, as Mr. Farrer states,
before the Velasquez had been sent to the Hague,
but after it had been rejected by the King of Hol-

land.
You are at liberty to make any use you please of
this letter.—Yours faithWfullLL,
IyIAM CONLNGIIAM.
Morris Moore, Esq.

INCREASE or TRADE.—Tito Poole Herald gives a
very Antigens account of the increasing traffic in that
port. So large a number of foreign trading chips have
never before been teen in Poole. The cattle trade is ex-
tending, and a marked increase in the clay trade is obser e.
able. For the past two or three months eighteen or
twenty vessels have cleared the Custom-house weekly. la
ISM there were upwards of 60,06 U tons of clay shipped to
the manufacturing districts of the north. The present
year will be likely to add a third more.
THE ACCIDENT .tT SYDENDAM.—EIoquent praise
of " boldness" and "daring" in the daily journals roses
very pleasantly, but it should be remembered that these
qualities of themselves do not always deserve it, and may in
truth be culpable. To arch over a span of 120 feet, at a
height of 102 fret from the ground, is a work of no cowmen
difficulty, and the mode proposed by Messrs. Fox and Hen-
derson of forming the staging for it is ingenious and beau-
tiful. But no oue can abut his eyes to the tact that it 11.3%
exposing the men engaged to a frightful risk, which has un-
fortunately become a certainty. Far be it from us to say
anything which would tend to discourage the introduction
of new modes scientifically conatived and carried out ;
although it is of course our first duty to insist upon arrange-
ments which may lessen the risk to human life. We must
necessarily return to the nut jtet ; but at the present
moment we will simply say, that we hear with gratification
that, whatever may be the result of the inquiry, the con-
tractors intend to have a scaffaldiag nixed from the ground
to complete the roof of the transept.--. The Budder.
FOREIGN CATTLE.—Tho returns of the importa-
tion of live stock during the past week from the continental
states of Eurai,e, show so great an increase on even the
largest Previous suplies of the kind as to be quite remark-
able. Upwards 01p17,000 bead of live cattle ot various kinds
were imported in the week into the port of London from
equalforeign
thactatneusm, ebeonrap:isf..iraigiant eahralley lgurllsyhee, beenp woh
eic h altnlamest
?e
supplies of the whole quantity of stock of every kind, in Han
time, from abroad on previous occasions. Several
hundred head of oxen and cows, and a large number of
calves and lambs, completed the whole quantity brought
on this occadon, which, we halm, exceeds by at verat
hundreds any former supply of the kind from abroad. As
usual, the principal portion of these importations w is iron
Iltdland, the remainder being from the Hermetic St.ttes,
and, to a small extent, from Belt:turn ; and they nixed have
formed en important portion of the supplies to the metro-
politan markt t.
MALT.—Yesterday a return to the Mute of Corn-
monsestabliohed the fact that in ear ended the fiefi July,
1852, there were 5,05,043 qu of malt made, whilst In
the year ended the bth July quantity was 5,237,062
quarters.