The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-01 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY-EXHIBITION.

The annual exhibition of the Royal Academy was opened
this morning at the new building in Trafalgar-square. As
want of room was, we suppose, one of the chief causes of
its removal from Somerset-house, we were somewhat sur-
prised to find that the same defect still partially exists.
The picture-rooms are few in number, and this is not
atoned for by their dimensions, which are nearly, if not
quite, as limited, as they were in the Strand. What we
had hoped to have seen was at least one magnificent apart-
ment, if no more, which should at once have impressed the
spectator with a striking idea of the grandeur of a
National Gallery. But we saw nothing of this ; but
on the contrary, four or five ordinarily sized apart-
ments, the defects of which were rendered the more
prominent by the approach to them, which is by far the
most imposing portion of the builning we have yet seen.
The Sculpture-room in particular is a miserable failure,
being thrust aside in a corner, and possessing little more
space or dignity than a cupboard. We fear that jobbing
has been at work, and that the wishes of the public have
been sacrificed to the interests of the Society. We may
possibly return to this subject, but at present must content
ourselves with a brief notice of some of the more prominent
pictures, the immense crowd having prevented us from doing
more than just glance hastily at them.
No. 48. Portrait of his Grace the Duke of Wellington,
by Briggs, is a correct, though too flattering, likeness. The
face and figure are full ten years too young. The attitude
however is remarkable for ease and grace.
No. 68. Portrait of the Queen, is by the President, Sir
M. A. Shee. The resemblance is good, but by no means
striking. The drapery is very skilfully painted.
No. 122. The Syrens and Ulysses.-1 his is one of
Etty's most ambitious productions. The Syrens in the
front ground are well grouped but there is a too lavish
display of skulls and bones, and such-like physical hor-
rors. It would have been better to have given less to the
eye, and more to the imagination. The colouring also of
the back.ground, with its staring blue tints, is too tawdry
and artificial. Parts, however, of the picture—especially
the figures on deck—are painted with considerable vigour.
No. 268. Poi trait of his Grace the Duke of Wellington,
as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, is from the pencil of
Lilley. It is a capital likeness, possessing just the right
sort of expression.
No. 365. The Brothers, by Lance, is well coloured, par-
ticularly the sleeping figure of the old monk.
No. 396. Kin? George the Third and the Dying Gipsey
Woman in IVindsor Forest is. by Salter. It is a 'striking
production, but justice has not been done to it, for it is
hung in the worst possible light, and so high, that is it very
likely to be passed by unnoticed. The expression of the
gipsey's countenance is not to be mistaken. The damps of
death are on it, and the eye is slowly settling into the last
fixed, stony gaze. The figures of the children, who are
standing beside the wretched couch; and of the King, who is
consoling the dying outcast, and pointing to the heaven to
which she is fast journeying, are in the highest degree
effective. But the great charm of this picture, apart from
the simplicity with which the subject is treated, is the
chaste and quiet beauty of the colouring. There are no
glaring lights—no harsh melodramatic contrasts ; effect is
produced by the strictest adherence to the truth of nature.
The woolly coverlid of the bed ; the dock-weeds in the
fore-ground ; the sylvan character of the back-ground—
these minutiae are worked up, and turned to account, with
singular skill. In the whole Exhibition there are few finer
paintings than this, which would besides attract notice, if
only for the extraordinary likeness of his Majesty George
the Third.

No. 403. The Deluge is of course by Martin, as any one
may see at the first glance. It is full of his usual man-
nerisms, splendidly coloured, impressively treated, but too
much in the style of some of his former paintings. On the
whole, the painting with its blue, ghastly lightnings, its
spectral groupes, its sombre clouds, and red fires, affords a
striking illustration of what, for want of some more appro-
priate term, we may call the material sublime.
No. 50.5. The Battle of IVorcesler, by Woodward, is
spirited, but strains too much after effect. The counte-
nance of Cromwell is not animated, but grotesque.
No. 508. Portrait of Sir Edward Bruce, is one of
Pickerskill's most animated paintings.

No. 1161. Marble Statue of Si; John Malcolm. This
is one of Chantry's most expressive productions.
No. 1183. Mural Monument to the Memory of Mrs.
Cole. Graceful and pathetic. It is by Sievier.
No. 1'248. Marble Bust of A. Amos, Esq. This is a
spirited bust by a promising young sculptor named Riley.
No. 1271. Marble Bust (f Southey. The best like-
ness we have yet met with of the Poet Laureate.

On Friday night the Members of the Reform Asso-
ciation, and of the Tradesmens' Reform Association, met at
the Concert-room, 80ld-street, in order to hear the report of
their respective committees, recommending Mr. Elphinstonc to
the Liverpool Reformers, as one of the representatives of the
town, at the next election. As the result of the meeting, we
confidently anticipate a most numerous and respectable requi-
sitionito Mr. Elphinstone, without which a gentleman of, his
acknowledged good sense and experience cannot be reasonably
expected to allow himself to be put in nomination.—Liverpool
Mercury.

So great is the love of place that the situation of
hangman for the city and county of Chester, which became
vacant during last week by the death of that important func-
tionary, has been applied for by no less than four persons. The
sheriff seems quite at a loss how to fill up the appointment ;
some wags in the city have written to him to apply to the Go-
vernment for a commission to inquire into the duties and emolu-
ments of the offic.—Chester Courant.

Sir Andrew Agnew, in defiance of common sense,
as well as parliamentary experience, has given notice of his
intention to re-introduce his Sabbath Bill, which he has hi-
therto signally and deservedly failed to get passed into a law.
It is the peculiar propensity of dulness to attempt to regulate
the conduct of others by compulsion, which it wants ability to
effect by reason and fair argument; and when fanaticism is
added to stolidity, it is amazing what would-be tyrants the
combination makes of otherwise well-meaning men.—York
Courant.

A correspondent informs us of a curious circum-
stance which occurred very recently at Eton Wick. A shoe-
maker had broken his leg and was confined to his bed. Dur-
ing his confinement a duck that had been sitting on some
eggs died, but the good wife, unwilling to let any hope of
having a progeny of ducklings escape her, placed the eggs
in the bed with her sick spouse, and the man has actually
hatched three eggs, and the brood is doing well.— Windsor
Express.
On Saturday morning,. as a fleshcr was attending
his business in the market at Glasgow, he suddenly drops
d.wn and expired. . . _

An opulent farmer, residing in the High Peak, has
100 tons of hay to sell, but is waiting till a further advance
of 21. per ton has taken place, the present price being 101.
Average price of hay at the undermentioned places :—Derby-
shire, 101. to 121. per ton ; Sheffield, 71. to 81. ditto ; Man-
chester and Stockport, 71.105. to Si. ditto ; Uttoxeter, 131.
ditto.— Sheffield Iris.
•
A Commission of Lunacy was held at the Km 2- s
Head, Ross, on Monday, to try the state of mind of .Slr.
George Bennett, of Dason, a gentleman of large property and
estates. On the third day of the inquiry the solicitor for the
petitioners abandoned the proceedings, hut the Commissioners
determined to carry on the inquiry. On Thursday the Jury
returned a verdict of weakness of mind, and consequent in-
ability to manage his own estates and affairs, which verdict the
Court refused to receive, declaring that the Jury must decide
whether Mr. Bennett were of unsound mind or not. When
the Jury returned they gave the following verdict :—" That
Mr. George Bennett was unable, from unsoundness of mind,
to manage his various manors, &c., and had been so since the
year 1832, but that the said Mr. Bennett was capable of
managing himself."—Hereford Journal.
On Wednesday Mrs. Bull, of Whitehall Croxton,
the wife of a most respectable farmer, got up and churned the
butter as usual, and then deliberately mixed poison in the food
of two of her children, one two months, and the other two
years old, afterwards taking a dose of poison herself. Mrs.
Bull lingered only a few hours, but the children did not die
before night. The wretched woman had been long in a de-
sponding state of mind, and had once before attempted suicide
by hanging herself. She has left three children and a husband
surviving her. On Thursday an inquest was held on the bodies,
and a verdict—" That the children came to their death by
means of poison administered by their mother," and a verdict
of Insanity, as to Elizabeth Bull, was returned.—Bedford
Mercury.
REPRESENTATION OF HEREFORD.—Hereford
has become, in the present week, the scene of election activity.
After a long and painful course of " begging and praying,"
our Tory neighbours have at length succeeded in prevailing
upon Mr. Higford Burr to enter the field of opposition, and to
encounter that defeat which we look upon as certain to be
sustained by any Conservative, whose ambition so far obtains
the mastery over his reason, as to lead him into an election
struggle, where the majority of the electors hold political opi-
nions at variance with his own. The majority return two Re-
formers as their representatives in Parliament, whereupon the
Tories, or Anti-Reformers, express their astonishment that the
minority does not return a Member. This feigned astonish-
ment reminds us of an anecdote, which affords a homely but
an apt illustration of the Tory surprise :—A loving couple,
who had lived all their days within the sound of Bow Bells,
accumulated a fortune by their industry; so they left London,
and, after an English tour, they finally settled in Shropshire,
where they purchased a pretty box, and a small portion of
land. A cow was purchased, and the Cockney couple were
quite enraptured at their farming prospects. A maid-ser-
vant, with the rural name of Betty, was engaged mainly on
account of her dairy qualifications —Shortly after the couple
from Cockaigne had domiciled themselves in their new estate,
a neighbouring lady called upon the mother of the maid-ser-
vant, when the following dialogue ensued:_" Well, Dolly,
how does your daughter Betty get or: with her new master
and mistress?"—" Lawk, ma'am," replied the dame, " these
Lunnoners be the queerest folks I ever heard of; they use
all the cream for their breakfast and tea, and they have
scolded and turned Betty away, because she could not make
butter without cream !" The illustration is complete.—
Hertford Times,