The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

(Stamped id. Additional.) [TWOPENCE.

ART TREASURES EXHIBITION AT MAN-

The accumulated results of much labour, many
and complicated arrangements, alternate hopes and
fear; and, lest and best, of unparalleled liberality
on the part of those who have sent theirprecioas and
fragile treasures hundreds of miles, in order that
their countrymen may have a sight of them, will in
a day or two be thrown open to the inspection of
the public. While these lines are being written,
every railway that leads directly or indirectly to
Manchester is hurrying its hundreds northwards ;
and Manchester itself, the traditional ?detropolia of
Toil, is preparing with a good grace to be, for some
months at least, equally famous as a city of art and
• Congress of connoisseurs. And yet, judging
from present appearances, the great calico colossus
is not very much frighted from its propriety, nor
moving much beyond its ordinary steady rate of
motion, under the stimulus of the approaching event.
While a revolution rages at Old Trafferd,Pircedilly,
junior, exhibits its usual eager crowd of baimen
non, saving time by Wal&g, so they Ay
past, the mastication of the sandwich which
they have just snatched at some neighbouring
bar. Market-street continues to be blocked up with

vane and waggons, much as usual, and so trade
plods on its heavy but never weary way through the
heart of the great city, while at one of the extremi-
ties art is displaying its stores, taste is summoning
its votaries, and wonder preparing for her untutored
children types of beauty, forms of grace, and combi-
nations of colour, the first glance of which must
. . .

arouse them to the consciousness of latent faculties,
and the luxury of new sensations. The Art
Treasures Exhibition of Manchester is now an
accomplished fact, the gates are about to be
thrown open ; and the labours of generations
of the gifted dead will soon be made fami-
liar as household words to many thousands of
her Majesty's industrious subjects. It would seem
as if the time were ripe for such a step in advance,
for already had Manchester exhibited symptoms of an
uneasy consciousness that her vast population might
without detriment to their industrial force be taught
that men congregate together in large communities
for other purposes as well as turning cotton into
gold so unceasingly as to have no time for any. other
occupation. Statues had begun to appear in the
public places, fountains to cast their pleasant spray
over the dusty flagways, and the gaunt, gloomy,
angular blocks of naked warehouses of the Bwotian
period, to be superseded by modern edifices of pala-
tial pretensions, thus showing that wealth had
reached that stage when it relieves its plethora by
indulging in a little taste and luxury. It is true
that the normal condition of the Manchesterian
climate is said to be inimical to the development of
the finer organisations,or of that acuteness of percep-
tion which makes a relish for the rare and beautiful
a natural and ordinary appetite. Day and night,
winter and summer, ten thousand tall chimneys
" lift their heads and "—smoke, perpetually manu-
facturing fogs, to which even our " -London parti-
cular " is no more to be compared than is the fashion-
able bitter beer of the present day to the stout,
honest October of our ancestors. The illustrious
Mr. Barnum, it is said, once proposed to take away a
small block of the Manchester fog for his museum; but
even if it ever were dense enough for that purpose,
the sun of enlightenment and progress is now at last
cheerily peeping through, and—a good omen for art
and its admirers—we have here at the present
moment a transparency of atmosphere which, I am
informed, baffle* the reminiscences of the oldest in-
habitant. It is a matter of curious speculation to
anticipate what Mr. Macaulay's friend from New
Zealand will say of Manchester in some twenty
centuries or so, particularly if any recognisable frag-
ments should remain of those huge omnibuses which
now stand in portentous file, like the elephants of
Pyrrhus, ready fur the passengers who, during the
next few months, will require conveyance to the
exhibition building. Talk of our London "saloons,"
or the Great Eastern steamship, or Noah's ark, or
the menagerie vans, or any other
recognised type of
magnitude- Manchester omnibus is greater in its
way than any of those famous leviathans of vehicu-
lanty. It is, in short, a Crystal Palace on wheels,
with colour enough about it to satisfy Owen
Jones, and offering ample travelling accom-
modation to a migratory parish. By the
help of sealing ladders ingeniously stuck all
over the outside, the more adventurous por-
tion of the population mount the roof, till it looks
like the garrisoned tower in a Nineveh fresco, and
prove that Mont Blanc would be mere child's play
to your Manchester man after a moderate course of
domestic omnibus travelling. In the interior, pas-
sengers perpetually drop in, but they are soon lost
in the vast expanse, while the conductor promenades
loosely up and downArosses from one side to the
other at his leisure to take the money, or carelessly
throws himself along a seat to read his newspaper
or the last number of the Edinburgh Retina. The
little boys along the road seem instinctively to know
when he is thus studiously inclined, for the moment
he has opened his favourite journal they spring up in
dozens on the tail-board, and often contrive to ride a
mile by the time he has finished the Neufchatel
complication. It will hardly be believed that this
moving house is drawn by two, or at most three mo-
derate-sized horses, and that it does the distance
between Market-street and Old Trafford in little
more time than a London 'bus would take to go a simi-
lardistance. Let the projectors of the Exhibition then
have no fears for their vehicular facilities—a few such
omnibuses as may be seen here at any hour in the day
would enable the whole population to pay them an
occasional visit. But besides—and this is an impor-
tant: feature—the building is within easy walking
distance of the centre of the town. It is theoreti-
cally supposed to be placed beyond the reach of the
urban smoke, but I fear that, with the wind setting
in that direction, a cloud will occasionally hover
over the realm of art. By way of contrast, it is to
be supposed, to the congress of bright colours to
which it leads, the whole of the footway is laid
down with smithy ashes, and the effect is certainly
sufficiently lugubrious. To-day it is covered with a
constant stream of people, the fairest portion of
whom incessantly crack nuts, a supply of which
seems to be au indispensable appendage to every
young lady's promenade toilette. It is said that
it will take two millions of visitors to make the
Exhibition remunerative ; but what with these pro-
menaders and the huge omnibuses aforesaid, I do
not think there is much doubt that within the speci-
fied six months even more than that number will
have easily and profitably visited Old Trafford.
With respect to the building itself, people at a dis-
tance must discard all their reminiscences of Hyde
Park or Sydenham Crystal Palaces in forming their
conception of its character or extent. In size, and
more especially in altitude, it stands in the same rela-
tion to those monsters as does a piccolo piano to one
of Erard's "grands," but for its size it is as handsome
and as well proportioned as either, although the first
impression it will convey to the visitor from London
will certainly not be one of immensity. On the other
band, if he came prepared to look upon it merely as a
picture gallery, it would be hard to surpass it in ex-
tent, while it will be found exceedingly well adapted
for its purpose, and most admirably lighted on the
principle originally introduced by Sir John Benson
at the Dublin Exhibition. The extertor is unpretending
enough, and it is perhaps better it should be so, for as
good wine needs no bush, neither does the accumu-
lation of art treasures to be found here require any-
thing but a fan-light and good hanging room to
wake it the most attractive of exhibitions. Of
the value of this collection it would be chimerical to

attempt any estimate, for ilsio hardly to be repre-
sented by money; but it maygive some slight notion
to O&M that the Marquis of Hertford's contribution,
which' numerically forms but a small proportion of
the whole, is said to be worth 100,0001., while Lord
Carlisle sends one picture for which 6,001. has been
refused. Then there are the heirlooms of families and
corporations, each with its history or tradition giving
to it a peculiar and sacred value, the tangible proof
of old descent, the artistic title-deeds of lengthy
pedigree and the gems which are alone of their
kind in the whole world, and which nothing bat a
noble feeling of patriotism and public spirit could
ever have induced their possessors to allow for a
moment out of their own keeping, so that, taking
everything into consideration, it is hardly too much
to say that such or so dainty a meal has never
before been prepared for that insatiate hungry
monster, public curiosity. To attempt any detailed
account of the arrangements, or offer any criticism
on the merita of such a mass, after one hurried visit,
would surpass the feat of that celebrated writer, who,
having visited Paris for a week, " did" France his-
torically, socially, and statistically, from the invasion
of the Franks to tho secession of Louis Philippe. As
well might C. ism Ifaba commence a numismatic
dissertation over the sacks of sequins in the cave of
the forty thieves, as for year co cot to
attempt, In this letter, more than the slightest pos-
sible glance at the Art Treasures pictures, or
their arrangement. I believe M. Scharf 's lead-
ing idea, with respect to the ancient nes-
tent is to arrayse them as far as possible at
once chronologically and geographically, that is to
say, by ranging German art according to date along
one side of his gallery, and Italian on the other.
In the earliest period of art the materials for this
classification are abundant enough, but, in the later
and palmier days, Italy has the field to herself ; and
here, as well as in the German and Flemish schools,
will be found in abundance pictures on which cri-
ticism has been exhausted, and whose fame has tra-
velled all over the world. The " Three Marks"
from Castle Howard, the " Rainbow," Rubena, a
whole gallery of Raffaelles, one or two undoubted
Michael Angeles, the famous Quentin Matsys from
Windsor Castle, in short, masterpieces of every
great name, from Giotto downward- may be men-
tioned at random, as a few amongst hundreds which
at some future day must receive more careful atten-
tion. In another department will be found a collec-
tion of English art, which will flatter the patriotic
feeling as well as gratify the taste of the visitor*.
Hogarth and Reynolds, Wilson and Gainsborough,
Thornhill and Lawrence—all the great names, down
to our irreat living celebrities, are here represented in
rich profusion, and in such characteristic specimens
as to fix their respective styles permanently on the
memories of the spectators. Then there is the beau-
tiful gallery of water-colours, including an immense
array of Turner's ; and last, though not least, the
wondrous collection of portraits which decorates tho
great central promenade. This is not the time nor
place to enter into their merits as works of art; but,
viewed from the historical point of view, it would
be impossible to conceive anything more suggestive
or interesting than this long gallery. The portrait
—one of the oldest extant—of Richard 11. tells the
whole story of that poor king ; and one might
almost write a character of Bluff Harry from the
canvas of Holbcin. To look at Francis I. as he lives
again in the work of the same master were more in-
structive as to his life and failures than whole
quartos of the old memoirs. In another picture of
Holbein's stand Luther, Melancthon, Zwinglius, and
a crowd of the early heads of the Reformation, with
such marvellous intrinsic evidence of the fidelity of
the portraits as to explain at once the reasons of
that divergence in doctrine. Our " Good Queen Bess,"
too, in girlhood, in her prime, and in old age,
her dancing chancellor, and her various suitors, may
all be made acquaintance with at Old Trafford, and

on much easier terms than if any of them were alive
in the body. When I add to this rough railroad
sketch, the Soulages collection, the almost innumera-
ble works of art, and the unique collection of ancient
armour, I hope I shall, to some extent, have relieved
public curiosity and prepared it for the great
event which Prince Albert is to inaugurate on Tues-
day next.

During the past week an extraordinary collection
of rare and curious books and manuscript*, was submitted to
the hammer by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, and realised
prices worthy the moat abeurd period of bibliornania. The
sale produced 4,8601. 14s. One manilla ript, " Dioseoridis
Opera Grano," a manuscript of the 12th century, on vel-
lum, with numerous paintings of plants, animals, &c.-*
beautiful specimen of Byrantine ealignsphy and art, realised
6901.

MB. THACKERAT AT BRIRTOL.—Mr. Thadterny
delivered one of his lectures on the " Georges," at the Vic-
toria ROOM., lest (Friday) evening. The attendance was
not large. The reserved seats were fairly 81hd, but the saloon
and great gall although the tickets had been offered at a
reduced prioe, exhibited a large proportion of vacant sesta.
This is much to bo regretted, and we cannot help suspecting
that had it not been for bad management in the preliminary
arrangements a much logger audience would have been pre-
sent to welcome the popular author of " Vanity Fair." It
was most certainly disrespectful and uncrie gal in those to
whom the arrangements were entrusted ,that Thackeiay
was allowed to ascend the platform alone and unannounced.
The cheer which greeted hie appearance seemed halfiresz
preened by the doubt as to whether the recipient wae
the hero for whom it was intended.—Briseal Advertiser,

OPENING OF TEE BASINGSTOKE AND SALISBURY
RAILWAY.—This important link in the South-Westernscheme
for a direct railway to the West of England wee opened for
=r traffic on Friday—lessening the distance between
and Salisbury twelve mike, and opening up a new
end important agricultural district hitherto uusuophed with
facilities for railway locomotion. The line from Baahmatulte
to Andover—shout sixteen mike—hos been worked for nearly
three 'var.., noel the extension of this branch to the city of
Salisbury—about seventeen miles—constitutes the new rail-
way. The lino traverses throughout the chalk formation,
the prevailing geological poculiarity of this district of Eng-
land. Without presenting any remarkable engineering dif-
ficulty, it her some rather heave earthworks, which have
heed admirably executed by Mr. Eramey, the eminent con-
tractor.—Salisbury Journal.

AN INDIAN FORTUNE.—HEIES WANTED.—n.
Oreetteek Telegraph lately published a paragraph relative to
the discovery of a fortune of a million end n half having
been left by a deceased Calcutte merchant. to be divided
among all his relatives who could be traced out. The ram*
paper now says:—The parties who believe themselves con-
cerned in the vast fortune, now suppneel to be nearly double
the rum we have stated, held a meeting in Glasgow last
week, and have resolved to nee every passible means of
realising the golden rise. Upward. of a hundred
en-
ppeeccttasnts were present. The name of the nabob was
WCauslend. He is said to have been born in the parish of
Itoseneath, Dumbartonehire (not ltothesay), about ninety
years ago, and bad been sbeent from his eafioo place for
seventy years, although from certain circumstances him
name aetill traditionally well-known in the place. He had
many relative. of the name of Campbell; and all that in a
prob.& elan in the west of Scotland, a considerable number
of the name are among the elainnuate. At the meeting
there were repnaentmives of alleged heir. from Greenock,
Paisley, Glingow, Gareleehnide, Dumbarton, Helensburgh„
and vinous parts of Argyllshire and Stirlingshire; and an
eminent London elicitor has been retained by the parties.—
Irma6arterf Herald.

'TIE LABT OF THE GLENGARRY ESTATES.—The
extensive estate of Knnydart, bordering upon the wild loch
Homo, in the West Highlands, in, we obee announced
for sale. The fact in interesting, for it in synonyinnus with
the extinction in the highlands of the old Chief, of Glen-
garry, who, for many eenturien, held ewsy in thin country.
The Glengarry family were confirmed in their brae estates
by King Robert 11. in 1373 but their hi,.tory goes
back to the days of Somerled, the king or lord of the mien. In
the eleventh century. In all the elan feudn and Jacobite
risings of the West Highland. the Glengarry banner wee
ennapinintut, and their war-cry, " Cremona an Shitich "
The Rock of the Raven—was baud in many a bloody fight.
The chief who died in 1828 attempted to revive the Ancient
importance of the don, hut the power was gone. The popu-
lation bad been chiefly transferred to Canada; part after port
of the extensive possessions was Add—the principal portion
la wow the property of lord Ward, and the Right How.
Edward Ellice in also pros Teter of a eouniderable
with the sale of Knoydart will deport the lent of t etrt-e-tres
bald by this once powerful family. Sir transit. Ice. Ks
dart is • rough pastoral district—a wide estent of mono
loch, and glen—with some acmes of stspiesing beauty
solitary grandeur. It will wholly ?* puerMard by some
wealthy iiporteman, es aSmding admin. Willies for that
84141111 of the Eighth nobles, dameeedting.—jimeesee
.irrrwr.