The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-27 00:00:00

Acting-Manager, Mr. H. Barnett.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Leese( s, Messrs. Lindw and Vining.
THIS EVENING the drama of AURORA FLOYD. 31138
Amy Sedgwick. Miss Henderson, and Mrs. Simpson ; Messrs.
Roxby, G. Melville, G. Belmore, C. Seyton, Wallace, and
Cathcart.
After which, KILLING TIME. Mr. Geo. Vining, Mr. C
Seyton, and Miss Amy Sedgwick.
To conclude with a new 'Whimsical EKtravaganza, entitled
BEAUTIFUL HAIDEE ; or The Sea Nymph and the Sallee
Rovers. Misses M. Oliver, Helen Howard, -Hudspeth, Hen-
derson, and Murray ; Messrs. C. Seyton, G. Belmore, Fitz-
James, Moreland, and Cockerill.

N' THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.-
Sole Proprietor and Manager. Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING JANET PRIDE. Messrs. B. Webster
J. L. Toole, Paul 'Bedford. Stephenson,. Stuart, Eherne,
Sefton, C. J. Smith, Romer; Miss Aroma Jones, Miss A.
Seaman, and Mrs. Stoker.
To conclude with DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Mr.
Toole, Miss Kate Kelly, Miss A. Seaman. and Miss Stoker.
Commence at 7.

TIME THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,"
11 Containing the Latest SPORTLNG INTELLIGENCE,
can be had Every Evening of
G. R. GLENIE, News AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

The Weather—Sun Office, April 26, 1863.

THER-11031ETER.
Highest since Noon yesterday 6O
Lowest during the night
This day at Noon. 5B
Wind—N, Westerly ; fresh, and fine weather.

APRIL 27.
THERMOMETER.

---
Highest since Noon yesterday .. 60
Lowest during the night .. 41
This day at Noon
Wind—N.Westerly ; fresh, and fine weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Thu DAY.—Morning, Bh. 18m.—Afternoon, Bh. 59m.
To-movato-w.-Monting, 9h. 3621.—Afternoon, 10h. 12m.

Tt
(-14 14411 CAD
#w 44.4

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1863.

Our anticipations of the result of the attack on
Charleston have been fully realised. Northern
accounts direct from the scene of action tell us that
the repulse of the Federals was complete and deci-
sive. Nine of the vaunted iron clads, who are to
sweep our commerce from the seas, crossed the bar
on the 7th in single file, and moved up Charleston
harbour towards Forts Sumter and Moul-
trie. In the course of this passage the fleet
encountered a network of obstructions, stretching
in every direction, which completely barred their
progress. Finding it impossible to carry out the
original intention and begin the attack upon the
north-west face of Fort Sumter, the invading
squadron were forced to content themselves with
the nearest point they could reach, and accordingly
coinmenced operations. Then began that struggle
between forts and ironclads, whose probable result
has so often interested and occupied men of science.
Then began, too, that conflict between the North
and South, which has been so long eagerly looked
forward to as the trial of strength and spirit.
Charleston is not in itself a possession of such vital
importance as Vicksburg, but it was felt that, with
the memories of New Orleans fresh in their minds,
the Confederates would never dream of surrender,
while the open threats of the North left little hope
of mercy, even if the enemy cried quarter. The long
delay of the attack was easily accounted for by that
Northern ingenuity, which is always ready to fur-
nish "strategic reasons " for wholesale flight, but
reasonable men justly supposed that while the North
were emulating the boastful school boy, who, with
closed fists, and threatening attitude, goes round
and round his adversary shouting, " I'll fight ye,"
wishing nothing so little as to fight, the South were
employing their leisure in strengthening the forti-
fications surrounding Charleston by every means in
their power, and were procuring every means of
defence which modern science and ingenuity has
placed at their disposal. We learn from the
last accounts that the machine for clearing
the torpedoes had, in consequence of the
want of skill or want of luck that usually attends
Northern manoeuvres, floated ashore and been cap-
tured by the Confederates. But, notwithstanding
these various diecouragements, it was determined
to attempt the assault, and accordingly the nine
ironclads, any one of which would have been a
marvel to our forefathers, opened fire on the forts.
On the equipment of this expedition, neither care
nor expense had been spared. In the construction
of the ironclads every improvement recently made
in those 553 dragons which have first tried their
strength in the American struggle, had been
introduced. The Keokuk, more especially, is
said to have exhausted the resources of
science and skill in her construction ; yet, alas!
for the pride of human workmanship, and the
triumph of Northern skill, she rests beneath the
very waters that was to have witnessed her success.
The engagement, though only lasting two hours,
was of the most desperate character. It was no
feeble or purposeless fire that sunk such a vessel as
the Keokuk, doubled up the turret of another iron-
clad, and after
inflicting terrible injuries on the re-
maining vessels, compelled the whole fleet to retreat
hopelessly defeated. So complete, so overwhelm-
ing was the triumph of the Confederates,
that at a conference of the Federal com-
manders held next day no voice was raised in
favour of another attempt. It was "unanimously
decided that it was useless to renew the attack." It
was felt that to encounter again that tremendous
fire, to come within reach of those crushing guns
was to sacrifice the remainder of the vessels en-
trusted to their care. In striking contrast to the
old feeling which induced the North to throw upon
its Generals the blame of every loss, is the temper
shown by the correspondent of the New York
Times, who, after remarking that the fleet had only
felt the outposts of the enemy, goes on to say it was
solely due to the skill of the commanders that it
was not entirely destroyed. Perhaps it is felt that
it will not do to declare their naval commanders
incompetent, as well as their military chiefs to be
lacking in ability, or is it that the disaster is so
hopeless and conclusive that even Northern effron-
tery can find nothing to say It is a significant
fact that while we learn from Northern sources the
damage inflicted on the besieging force, no explicit
account of the injuries received by the
enemy finds a place in their reports.
A. correspondent of the New York Tribune
tells us that the north-east face of Fort Sumter is
marked with eleven holes of great extent, some
gaps being three feet wide. These scars, however,
were dearly earned, for during the last 30 minutes
of the engagement, the Confederate batteries poured
a concentric fire upon the enemy which is described
as being more than mortal-made fleet could stand.
Some idea may be gained of the nature of this fire
by the account of the shots received. The Keokuk
received 90, her turrets being completely riddled,
and one of them still retaining a steel-pointed

Whitworth shot when she left the engagement.
The Passiac was struck 58 times and disabled, the
Weehawken 59 times, after which her turret
worked with difficulty ; it is certainly a testimony
to the strength of the vessels that they should
have received such a fire. It is rumoured that
the Confederates had ♦ery effective Whitworth
guns. Effective their guns certainly were, of
whatever description they might be, and if they
are of the same calibre, worked with the same
desperate spirit at Vicksburg, the five Federal
ironclads who have attempted running the
blockade may tell the same story. Little
consolation for the defeat in South Caro-
lina comes to New York from Mississippi or
Louisiana. Admiral FARRAGI7T is described as
being caught between two batteries, neither of
which he can pass; while the entire Yazoo expedi-
tion has been forced to abandon the projected attack
upon Fort Pemberton. It is rumoured at New Or-
leans that the Federals intend making a forward
movement by way of the Red River, and commenc-
ing operations on the Atchafaraya, one of the
many small streams in the neighbourhood, which
runs from the Red River out into Atchafalaya
Bay by Pta Fierro. Meanwhile General Foster re-
mains besieged at Washington, North Carolina, all
efforts made to relieve him having proved unsucces-
ful. The Confederates, apparently encouraged by
the failure of the attempted succours, have mustered
27,000 between Washington and Newbern, with a
view, it is said, to attacking the latter place, a town
of some size, on the River Nuse. It is not wonderful
under such an aspect of affairs, that New York
is clamouring for a change in the Administration,
and getting up public meetings to inveigh against
England. We shall probably hear the failure of
the attack on Charleston laid at our doors, on the
strength of the Whitworth guns. Like the old
fable of the wolf and the lamb, America will never
want an occasion for quarrel with England, though
the relative position of the disputants might possi-
bly be reversed at the end of the story. One
thing is certain. By their own showing the
Federals have suffered an unquestionable and
decisive defeat from the Confederates, after they
had exhausted every effort to support their attempt.
Suppose they reserve their lofty indignation against
" Southern traitors, Northern eiders, and piratical
allies," until they are a little more able to carry out
their threats. One thing at a time is as much as
most States or individuals can manage satisfactorily,
and when the North has finally accomplished the
subjugation of a few rebellious provinces, it will
have more leisure to humble that Power
against which nearly every nation of the
civilised world has tried its hand in vain.
In waiting for that day the demand of Lord LYONS
for the return of the unopened mail-bag of the
Peterhoff will perhaps come as a wholesome counter
irritant to the abandonment of the long planned
expedition against Charleaton.

Those who predicted, at the beginning of the
Polish insurrection, that it would be speedily
quelled, have proved themselves false prophets.
They did not calculate on the strength that was in-
herent in a struggle which concerned the liberties
of a people, and despised as that people was
there was sufficient vitality in its constitution to
prolong the struggle for a considerable period.
The last news received from Poland contains intel-
ligenc3 of the defeat of the Hussars of the Guard,
who were pursuing the insurgents; and have been
beaten by them with the loss of 300 killed and
wounded. The determined resistance of the Poles
is proved by the fact that four engagements were
fought between the insurgents and the Russian
troops in one day. It would have been a great
saving to the Russians if they had at the outset re-
cognised the claims of Poland to consideration, and
trusted more to the maviter in modo than to the
fo•liter in re. As it is they have parried
the question and shifted their ground continu•
ally, till they seem at present unable either
to enforce their supremacy or to adopt conciliatory
measures. It is also reported that MOSAROUSKI'S
band has defeated a Russian division near Olknsz.
On the whole, affairs seem promising for the cause
of the insurgents, and while we may feel assured
that this gallant band must inevitably succumb in
the long run before their oppressors, still their long
enduring struggle proves that the cause of the pa-
triots is possessed of an innate strength which was
undreamt of by their enemies, and also that the
mighty legions of the CZAR do not And it so easy to
put down the serried ranks of those who are striv-
ing for a cause that is dearer than life.

M. BILLAULT, in the recent debate on the budget
of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that great
reserve was necessary in speaking of that question.
He added that "Government would give no explana-
ticn that would injure the success of negotiations."
There was some truth in his after remark, that the
sympathy of all Europe must concur in settling the
Polish question ; and the general feeling that has
been evinced by France throughout the course of
this unhappy struggle, bears out her Minister in
stating that they are all animated by a cordial feel-
ing for the sufferings of Poland. It is unsatisfac-
tory for us to reflect that had our Government
taken up the cause, or entered into the wrongs of
Poland to the same extent, and with the same
warmth that the French did, the condition of that
outraged land might by this time have been ame-
liorated, and her people might have a better pro-
spect of future peace. If the policy of England is
to be regulated, according to Lord RUSSELL'S notion
of being subservient to the strong, and bullying to
the weak, we shall lose for our country the proud
distinction that she once possessed of being the
champion of the oppressed, and the terror of the
tyrant. The proclamation of the Provisional Go-
vernment is interesting to peruse. It asserts with
some truth that a " dictatorship does not answer the
circumstances of the time." Therefore the Central
Committee has resumed the direction of national
affairs. This is a wise step, Inasmuch as the election
of a Dictatorship is apt to engender angry feelings,
sconduct
ands
f
and at all events to awaken jealousy in an under-
taking where so much depends on h
unanimity
a good understanding prevailing,
the Wielopolski family is perfectly absurd. The
father is now attempting to defend
frthome sonhis fr
from
the consequences that have ensued
inju-
dicious efforts to screen his own evil actions.
Hence the Marquis has requested the Prussian
Government to impeach the editor of a Posen paper
for an attempt made upon his son in reference to the
challenge. The request has been complied with, and
this double game so far succeeds, but if there is any
truth in the statement that both father and son
have been advised to resign, it will be a benefit to
both sides when that event takes place. The Grand
Duke also has been requested to leave, it is hinted,
and as any change will be for the better in thecon-
duct of affairs at Warsaw, it is to be hoped that
such may be the case. The length of time
that the Polish struggle has continued, and
the spirit with which it has been n-aintained,
must in the end have some weight on their
persecutors, and induce them not again to
rouse the passions of those whom they cannot
subdue in such a hurry as they fancied was once in
their power. Also the united testimony of three
great European Powers have borne witness to the
CZAR that bisproceedings are not favourably looked

upon by those whom he calls his allies and might
not wish to find his enemies, therefore, taking all

things into consideration the prospects of Poland
are not so unpromising as at one time they appeared
to be, and courage and constancy may yet gain
some advantages, dreary as was the struggle in
which they have been engaged.

FINE ARTS;

THE OLD WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY.

On Saturday we had the more than usual gra

fication of attending the private view (at the
Society's Gallery, 5, Pall-mall East) of this really
beautiful and exceptional Exhibition. A mere

passing announcement of the fact of the Private
View having taken place in the forenoon, was all
we had opportunity for in our impression of Satur-
day. The gallery having been thrown open this
morning to the publi3 at large for the rest of this
present season,the justice of our estimate of the gene-
ral merits of the collection may be tested with the
utmost faeility by anyone who cares to note the ad-
vance made in this exquisite art of painting in water
colours, and this simply by means of one saunter
round the Society's Gallery—not on any account for-
getting, before the morning's stroll round the apart-
ment is finished a glance at each of the four won-
derful little screens.
As a whole the collection for the present season
is rather smaller, as it appears to us (numeri-
cally) than ordinary. The pictures now on
view barely exceeding three hundred (304), as
enumerated in the catalogue. But it would hardly
be rash to remark at once, that of these the
majority, more or less earnestly win from us a share
of our admiration. The onward advances that have
been made, in the general development of the art of
water-colour painting, have not for long been more

signally evidenced by any collection, regarded " as
a whole," than they have been certainly just now
come to be evidenced by the Old Soci; ty of
`Vater•colourists, the Society founded within the
first lustre of this present century. Looking
at some—nay we will say at many—of the works
now hanging upon the walls or the screens of the
good old gallery, and then recalling to mind what
the art was, what it achieved, what were its chef
cr ceuvres in the days or at the hands of Girtin or of
Sandby, of Varley or of De Wint, one can all the
better appreciate " the goods the gods have given
us" in these later days, and under the far more
potent and magical manipulation of artists such as
Burton, and Hunt, and Fripp, and Gilbert,
men of mark like Carl Haag, and Frederick
Tayler, and Birket Foster, and Joseph Jenkins, and
Cox, and Evans, and Riviere, with a contemporary
throng still of other variously gifted brother Mem-
bers and Associates. Altogether—in this Society, and
contributing works, many of them numerous, and
some of them really remarkable works, to the present
exhibition—there are fifty-one of these " Old So-
ciety" water colourists, twenty-eight of them mem-
bers, twenty-three of them associates. Among the
most industrious exhibitors in the collection now
on view at 5, Pali-mall East, being Collingwood
Smith, and—we grieve to interpolate here in paren-
thesis (the late)—F. 0. Finch, each of these members
having contributed no less than seventeen pictures
to the present exhibition.
Breaking away from a temptation to indulge in

any further generalities, however, we would now
particularize some at least among the more notice-
able works of art which more particularly
arrested our attention on Saturday, and
several of which lend an especial charm to
this year's collection at the Gal eery. As limpid

and sparkling an English river scene as George A.
Fripp has for some time past produced, " Bisham
Abbey, on the Thames, near Marlow" (9), would
have compelled our footsteps to loiter long, almost
immediately upon crossing the familiar threshold

on Saturday, but that a casual glance further along
" the line" showed us, what it is impossible not to
recognise upon the instant, as John Gilbert's

masterpiece—(lB) " Don Quixote's Curious Dis-
course upon Arms and Letters." The incident as
translated from the stately Hidalgo Spanish of
Cervantes into the drily humorous English of
Tobias Smollett runs briefly thus :—" Don Quixote
went on with his discourse in such a manner, and in
such proper expressions, that none of those who
heard him at that time could take him for a mad -
man. On the contrary, most of his hearers being
gentlemen, to whom the use of arms properly belongs
they listened to him with pleasure."—Book iv., c. 10.
We have never before seen Mr. Gilbert to such
advantage as he appears before us in this picture.
Not a touch anywhere perceptible here of those three
demerits (sins almost), by one, or other of which,
sometimes flagrantly by a combination of them all,
he has so often ere this marred the products of his

really fine genius—Neste, or carlessness, or, Worst
fault of all (because, as this picture proves to abso-
lute demonstration, so easily to be avoided by him
when he lists), an intolerable coarseness. Even

the refined and fastidious taste of the late Charles

Leslie, R.A., might have been gratified by a glance
over this eminently Quixotic rendering of an inci-
dent full of humour, and of a humour too that is

none the less piquant in its way because in many

of the forms and faces of the listening guests
(knights and ladies andservitors they are al in-
tensely listening in their looks!) there is not only
so much of the quaint and odd, but so much also
of the courtly and the gracious. As clever a Bran-
white as there is now in the gallery (and there are

half a dozen there this season) is (46) " Sunset--a
Black Frost," with its level ringing surface of ice-
granite. There: is a little oblong Newton hard by,
there, at that corner of the gallery—it hangs close
to the floor, so that one is almost brought
to one's knees to look at it—the attitude,
however, hardly inappropriate, if regarded as a
tribute to iti beauty—a little oblong view of the

" Madonna del Salute, at Venice" (51) as much of a
poet-artist's dream of the Sea City as the famous
chapter in Dickens's "Pictures from Italy" was a
yet-artist's dream of it in pen and ink. A fine
windy view near Holyhead is (53) H. Gistineau's
" Ascen t from the South Stock Lighthouse," with the
rocky crags" clanged about" by gulls and mews.
Rosenberg's (75)1ccious grapes and dark ripe peaches,
touched into more delicious beauty of colour by the
contrasting bloom of the scarlet geranium, would
seem still as delightful to the mind's eye in retro-
spect, but that wa think since of some far more
wondrous fruit and flowers, some lilacs that Bur-
ton roots of, and some little acid apples known to
W. Hunt, hanging there upon the screen close by !
Further on—at the opposite side of the gallery—
there are two other Newtons worthy of notice;
one (98) a moonlight view of the said " Ma-
donna del Salute" at Venice ; the other
(99) representing a gateway at Rome, with,
as a motto from Byron, in the Catalogue, "Rome
and her Ruin past redemption's skill"—a motto
pointed somewhat ironically in its political signifi
canoe, as it seems to us, by the artist's introduction
upon the scene of a troop of soldiers of the French
Army of Occupation ! One is almost fain to cross
the stile and take a tranquil stroll along the meadow
path across the "Church fields at Reigate" (111),
depicted by C. Davidson. Few grave faces but
will break into a smile before H. P. Riviere's " The
Ready Reckoner." Pat, with his emptied bag of
ha'pence before him, with his goodwife breath-
lessly watching his calculations by his
side, his bit of chalk in his hand, scoring
up the sum on the back of the old pair
of bellows. Alfred Fripp's absurdly-named
watching the Porpoises" (125)—it might be
Watching anything else in the wide world or on
the broad deep—is a bright-eyed cluster of bonnie
little fisherboys, charming to the heart to look at.
A noble specimen of Frederick Tayler is (140)
"Hawking—the Heron brought down on the Skirts
of theVillage"._a bygone sport living there again--
in man and woman, horse and hound, all of a past
age. Not the least, surely, as examplars of nearly
an extinct species of the latter, those dogs with the
canary coloured hair in streaks and blotches. Birket
Foster's picture of " The Ferry" (145), with the
central touch of mauve in the foreground, or rather,
it should be said, in the ferry-boat by the reedy
margin, would almost Win from us our acceptance as
hor happiest contribution for this year bat that we
remember that lovely
at Chiddiogford" (284) English roadside "Cottage
R cottage scene that Birket