The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-11 00:00:00

FRANCE.

(rum ova OWN 0031116PONDENT.)
PARIS, THOWIDAT 19110FING.
Mgr. Chigi, the Papal nuncio, at a diplomatic
conference held yesterday at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, raid that the letter recently pub-
lished as having been written by the Pope to the
Emperor of Austria,. was a pure invention. An
article of M. Loma Veuillot, in the Univers,
warrants the supposition that the forgery was
committed by some zealous members of the catholic
church. M. Veuillot, before whose name all the
French bishops tremble, and who has frequently
been authorised by the Pope to inflict jobatione
upon them, says that although in point of form
the published letter betrays, a very ignorant trans-
lator, there is nothing in the substance of it
not conformable to the doctrines of the court of
Rome. The Pope, he says, would apeakmore politely
than the letter makes him do, but would be no
lees firm. It is quite ate to interpret this
glossary of M. Veuillot as meaning that although
the Pope does not want to incur the immurement*
of such an absurd letter as is attributed to him,
he does in reality pretend to interfere, just like the
Popes of old in the most palmy time' of their
power, with the internal government of Austria.
Mixing up the spiritual and the temporal in a way
utterly abhorrent to all enlightened modern doc-
trines, the letter—not authentic, of course, but
still expressing, on the best authority, the feeling
of the court. of Rome--menace' the Empress of
Austria with a bad confinement if her husband
dares to give his assent to the bill authorising
civil marriages. It was reported from Aus-
tria a few days ego that the baited king
had asked his ministers whether he could
not put off his meant to the bill till atter
the Empress's confinement I have no reason to
suppose that Baron de Benet will be weak enough
to make any such concession. The pretensions of
Rome to exercise an influence over temporal go-
veenmenta by the terrors of excommunication are
now dying out. Impotent Spain counts for nothing,
Austria *gone, and the only tabula in nanfreginan
lett to the Pope is the ignorant population of
Frame, which the Emperor may possibly make use
of, with the support of the priests, at the next
general eletitionn
Father Gratry has received from this Pops a
taro= as a testimony of the approbation of
esedsm of the reception speech of the new
iaiso.

.

A VFRY important exhibition of Art Treasures
is to be opened at Leeds about the middle of
next month. Into a noble gothic building, just
erected in that town by Mr. Gunter SCOTT,
there are at this moment being received priceless
gems of art from all pasta of the country and
indeed from all parts of Europe. Her Majesty
the Qum( seems to have placed her entire
collections at the disposal of the committee, and
the galleries at Leeds will be adorned by many
of the most valued treasures from Windsor
Castle, Buckingham Palace, and Hampton Court.
Some of the foreign sovereigns, whose names
appear in the list of patrons, are sending
numerous and valuable works. The King
of the Bsz,orau is especially liberal, and the
Leeds Exhibition will be enriched by some
of the priestess gems that adorn the royal galleries
at Brussels and Luken. Private collectors have
also shown a remarkable willingness to entrust
their pictures in the hands of this Yorkshire com-
mittee. Exhibitions of one sort and another have
been so numerous of late that it might well be
doubted whether collectors who have paid great
sums for pictures to adorn their own galleries,
would any more care to give the use of them for a
whole season, and to run the risk that must ne-
oessarily be run in placing them in an exhibition
building. The result of the Leeds Committee's appli-
, cation to collectors shows that this indisposition to
lend can easily be overcome if reasonable guar-
antees for the safety of the pictures be offered.
The Leeds men have raised • guarantee fund of
over 100,000 i., but the main inducement to col-
lectors to lend is probably the fact that the Exhi-
bition building is a substantial water and fire-proof
structure. The risk run by gentlemen lending
pictures to be placed for six or eight months in a
slight shed, u exhibition buildings usually are, is
by no means inappreciable, and the posueeors of
art treasures have become shy of trusting them in
such plums. The promises obtained by the Leeds
Committee show us that if their exhibition does
not prove a success it will not be through any
want of liberality on the part of collectors.
. .

This exhibition is in its main features a repeti-
tion of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition
of 1857. That memorable collection of works
of art showed that it was possible to hold a
" national " exhibition in the provinces; that en
exhibition held out of London need not be a mere
local display. The subsequent results of the
Manchester Exhibition are well known to the
artists of London, and still better known to the
picture dealers of London. Since that exhibi-
tion Cottonopolia has become • munificent patron
of the arts, and men who never thought of pictures
before now vie with each other for the posesseion
of high class works. But the Leeds Exhibition
differs greatly from the Manchester Exhibition in
some of its most important details. It has not
been originated purely in the interests of art, but
rather in the interests of charity ; and it is to be
held in a building not specially adapted for the
display of pictures. Leeds has built a magnificent
hospital at a cost of 100,0001. It is one of the
finest, if not the finest building of the kind in
Europe ; but, as usually happens in the CAM of
very fine buildings, it has cost more than was
expected, or than the projectors find themselves
able to pay. Under these circumstanoes it
occurred to the infirmary committee that the
new building, before being dedicated to the
relief of suffering humanity, might with
advantage both to the interests of art and to the
interests of the charity, be used wherein to hold a
national exhibition of works of art. An influen-
tial committee was formed, and the result is that
a magnificent collection of works of art will be
opened to the inspection of the northern public
by the Prince of Wares next month. If any
profits accrue, half is to be set aside for the
establishment of • gallery of art in Leeds, and the
other half is to be given to the Infirmary. Both
objects are equally laudable. There are few, if
any, towns of the size and importance of
Leeds that are so utterly destitute of in-
stitutions devoted to the advancement of art,
and it will be an excellent result of the committee's
labours if it enables them to wipe out the imputa-
tion that must rest upon a town of a quarter of a
million inhabitants that has provided no means for
the artistic education of its population.
The building in which this exhibition is to be
held will strike visitors as remarkable. It is is
fact a series of buildings connected by low wings
and corridors, and arranged with the special object
of getting as much light and air as pos.
sible. This will be capital for the
patients when they are lodged there, but
it is questionable whether it will suit pictures as
well. The lights are nearly all easterly and
westerly, and this has been the difficulty with
which the exhibition committee has had to con-
tend. The direct sunshine that is so good for
sick people is very trying to pictures, and nothing
could seem more difficult than to get good We-
titian lights in each a building. The committee,
however, aware tu that they have hit upon a con-
trivance of screens that quite obviate the difficulty.
In other respects the building is admirably united
for the purpose. It has ten finely proportioned
galleries, and six grand stadiums, • number of
small rooms lighted from the roof, arid a grand
central court covered over with glass, so aa to form
a concert hall for the exhibition, and • winter,
garden for the hospitaL

The committee very nearly perpetrated a stu-
pendous mistake. They proposed to exclude the
works of living British artists ; but very soon
public opinion procured a reversal of that fatal
regulation, and we are now promised a very capital
collection of the most modern works of the English
school. To expect a population that has not
hitherto had any chance of acquiring art educa-
tion to crowd to an exhibition of the old masters
is like expecting a boy to write a fine Italian
hand before he has learned to rook. pot-
hooks. This singular expectation has, how-
ever been abandoned, and some excellent
modern pictures will give popular attraction to the
Exhibition, and provide enjoyment and instruction
for those who are as yet unable to perceive the
beauties of a Runny or a TITIAN. It may be ex-
pected that this Exhibition will do for Leeds and
Yorkshire what the Exhibition of 1857 did for
Manchester and Lancashire. There is plenty of
money in the manufacturing towns of Yorkshire,
and if the hole can be created many liberal
patrons of the arts will soon appear among the
woollen lords. But the taste has to be created.
The populations of these Yodohlre towns are sin-