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

r3EATEE-ROYAL HAY MARKET, Whitworth shot when she left the engagement.
Lessee, Mr. J B. Ruckstone. The Passiac was struck 58 times and disabled, the
THIS EVENING, STILL WATERS RUN DEEP.
Mr. and Mrs. A'fred Wigan, Mr. W. Farren, Mr. Chippen- Weehawken 59 times, after which her turret
dale, and Miss Louisa Ange'.
After which, an apropos Dramatic Sketch, introducing a worked with difficulty ; it is certainly a testimony
Panorama of the Tour of the Prince of Wales in the East.
'Co conclude with SORROWING A HUSBAND. Pamela to the strength of the veseels that they should
Miss Maria Harris. Commence at 7.
have received such a fire. It is rumoured that
the Confederates had very 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 FARRAGUT 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
spon Fort Pemberton. It is rumoured at New 01.-
1 leans that the Federals intend making a forward
movement by way of the Red River, and commenc-
ing operations on the Atchafaraya, one of tho
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 Nose. 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 shell 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 finery 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 Charleston.

THEATRE ROYAL LYCEUM OPEN, under
the Sole Management of Mr. FECHTER.
THIS EVENING, at 7, to commence with an Original
Sketch, entitled A SUDDEN ATTACK. Messrs. Shore,
Garden, H. Widdicomb, Mss Henrade, and Mrs. Lee.
After which, at a Quarter to Eight, a New itomantic
Drama, in Three Acts, and PrSlogne, entitled THE
DUKE'S MOTTO, by Paul Feval and John Brougham.
The principal character will be sustained by Mr. Fechter,
supported by Messrs J. G. Shore, G. Jordan, J. Brong,am,
H. IA iddi:ombe, P. Charles, Garden, Raymond, Dawson ;
Misses Carlotta Leclercq, Kate Terry, E. Lavenue, and
Elsworthy.

Those who predicted, at the beginning of the
Polish insurrection, that it would be speedily
quelled, have preyed 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-
ligence 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 suaviter in modo than to the
fo'titer 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 MOSAKOUSKI'S
band has defeated a Russian division near Olkusz.
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 cense 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 find 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-
tico that would injure the success of negotiatiors."
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, anti 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, :nasmnch as the election
of a Dictatorship is apt to engender angry feelings,
and at all events to awaken jealousy in an under.
taking where so much depends on unanimity and
a good understanding prevailing. The conduct of
the Wielopolskt family is perfectly absurd. The
father is now attempting to defend the son from
the consequences that have ensued from his 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 the con-
duct of affairs at Warsaw, it is to be hoped that
such may be the case. Tho length of time
that the Polish struggle has continued, and
the spirit with which it has been maintained,
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 his proceedings 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 grati-
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 cur impression of Satur-
day_ The gallery having been thrown open this
morning to the public 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 facility 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 ac:.ount 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 loug been more
signally evidenced by any collection, regarded " as
a whole,' than they have been certainly just now
come to be evidenced by the Oid Society of
Water-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
d'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-
thusis (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 Gallery. 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-
eourse 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 tl ai tinee,could take him for a mad -
man. On, the contrary, most of his hearers being
gentlemen, to whohe the use of arms properly belongs
they listened to him with pleasure:"—Book iven. 10.
We have never before seen Mr. Gilbert to such
advantage as he appears befoie us 'in this picture.
Not a touch anywhere perceptible here of those three
demerits (sins almost), by one, or othq, of which,
sometimes flagrantly by a combination of them all,
he has so often ere this marred -the products 'of his
really fine genius—haste, or carlessness; or, worst
fault of all (because, as this picture proves to abso-
lute demonstration, so easily to be avoided by him
wizen 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 iu 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—e
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 leok at it—the atitucle,
however, hardly inappropriate, if regarded as a
tribute to its 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
poet-artist's dream of it in pen and ink. A fine
windy view near Holyhead is (53) H. Gastineau's
" Ascent from the South Stock Lighthouse," with the
rocky crags" clanged about" by gulls and mews,
Rosenberg's (75)lucious 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, bat that we think since of some far more
wondrous fruit and flowers, some lilacs that Bur-
ton wots 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
cance, 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
pence beforeßeady Reckoner." Pat, with his emptied bag of
ha'
him, with his goodwife breath-
lessly watching his
side, his bit of chalk ciaulcuhlaistionhsaud,byaeorihoigs
up the sum on the back of the old pair
of bellows. Alfred Fripp's absurdly-named
" Watching the Porpoises" (125)—it might be
anything else in the wide world or on
h
deep—is a bright-eyed cluster of bonnie
Watching t
broadch i n g
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 exemplars of nearly
an extinct species of the latter, those dogs with the
citsthroaul
ltdoubceh
canary coloured hair in streaks and blotches. Birket
Foster's
picture of " The Ferry" (145), with the
en
sosfi, mdaiuovethine f
theerrfyo_rebgoraotubnyd,
tobrerarethedery,
margin, would almost win from us our acceptance as
his happiest contribution for this year, but that we
remember that lovely English roadside "Cottage
at Chiddiugford" (284), a cottage scone that Birket

Ely, the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of S

Pauls and Mrs. Milman, Lady Rolle, F. North

Downing, Sir E:Landseer, &e.

AN OWER TRUE STORY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

joke him about it 2 A sum was raised for others by means
of this benefit, but unfortunately all the poor widow had
was mortification and disappointment—the assets barely
covering the expenditure ! A few friends got up a memo•
-
rial to Lord Palmerston, and again there was hope. That
memorial set forth the public services the husband had ren-
dered as an eminent draughtsman and an engraver—that to
his exertions and abilities may be attributed much of the
present importance of the art—not only in its com-
mercial aspect, but as greatly advancing. and 4timul iting
the intellectual progress of the age, by giving a new and
assisted smore instructive power to literature, and a wider and more
usef al influence to art. It further notified that the follow-
kg
w or
k
, established, or materially
by him were
: _iju n originated, established,
Magazine, Lady s
Magazine, Expositor, and a very I,rge number of works
either
for children. It also set forth that, notwithstanding --'s
industry and irreproachable character, he was unable to effect
and at his death, on
tanyhe lsaving
Oocut otboefr, ,a m:i'clow and family with •
out any provision whatever. The memorial was signed by
upwards of 60 gentlemen well known in the literary and
artistic world, as well as by several members of Parliament,
IpB r6coc, a
he
ieo ul
left his
os
What was the result ? A letter signed C. G. Barrington.
I hare take the liberty of transcribing it :

" Downing-street, 27th March, 1863.
"Sir,—Lord Palmerston desires me to say, in reply to
your letter of the 24th, that he is sorry that he has no means
of assisting Mrs. --, as there is at present no balance
available on account of the Royal Bounty Fund.—l re-
main, Sir, your obedient servant—C. G. Barrington."
It will be sufficient if I add to the foregoing that benevo-
lent persons desirous of knowing the address of the dis-
consolate widow may apply by letter to D. M. A., at
the Spectator office, Wellington-street, Strand.

P &31PHILIUS.

CONSECRATION OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
On Saturday a newly erected Roman Catholic
church in the Wyndham-road, Camberwell, was consecrated
by the Right Rev. Dr. Grant, R man Catholic Bishop of
Southwark. The sacred edifiea is dedicated to the Sacred
Heart, and contains sittings for about 700 or 800 persons.
The service was conducted with great pomp, the musical
choir of St. George's Cathedral landing its assistance. The
Right Rev. Dr. Morris, Bishop of Troy, preached.
During the rehearsel of ROSSiDes " Count Ory"
at the Grand Opera last week, M. Borchardt,
who played Raimbaud, fell dead on the stage, being
attacked with apoplexy. He was only 35 years of age.
BERLIOZ'S last opera, "Beatrice and Benediet"
(Much to do (sic) About Nothing) has met with
great success at Wiesbaden, under his own direction. The
Queen of Prussia, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Nassau,
complimented the composer of " Romeo and Juliet" very
highly. Berlioz went also to Lowenberg to direct a con-
cert at the invitation of the Prince of Hohenzollern, who
made himself the programme from Berlioz's work, namely,

" The King Lear" overture, fragments of " The Romeo
and Juliet" symphony, "The Harold" overture (Lord
Byron), and "The Roman Carnival" overture. Berlioz
is a thorough Shakesperian, his first wife being Miss
Smithson, the once celebrated English actress.—The
Queen.

THE LATE LADY OLIVIA SPARROW.—At the sal.)
Of the effects of the late Lady Olivia Bernard
Sparrow, at Brompton-park, Huntingdonshire. on Friday,
two ivory inlaid chairs, taken by Warren Hastings from
the palace of an Iniian Prince at the tima he was Governor-
General of India, were offered for competition. Mr. Hast-
ings altogether sent six chairs to Ent,land. Two of them
went into the possession of the Princess Charlotte, and,
after her death and the acceptance of the throne of Belgium
by her husband, they were sold to Lord William Bentinck,
and prevented by his lordship to the late Lady Olivia Spar-
row. The other four are in the possession of the Marquis
of Hertford and Baron Rothschild. The competition-for
the coveted chairs was very animatod, and they were sold
for £4lO to Mr. Medland, who, it was understood, was act-
ing on behalf of the relatives of the deceased lady.
The Exhibition of Sculpture in .the Horticul-
tural Gardens will be opened to the public on the sth of
May.

Foster alone could have drawn. Having got
once to this same mention of the Screens, where
so much of the merit of the Old Society's
annual Exhibition again as usual hangs "on view,'
we shall pause now only before one other p.c-
true upon the walls of the gallery. And a very
noble picture it is too—before turning finally to a
survey here of some among the marvellous works of
art suspended on those same four screens. " Pal-
myra" is the subject selected this year by Carl
Haag for the display of his powers as a painter of
Oriental landscapes. And never to our recollection
has that wonderful desert scene been depicted
before now in a manner affording the spec-
tator so vivid a notion of the magnificence
of that vast architectural display, even is
ruin. Turning now to the radiant screens lighting
up the gallery with their array of varied master-
pieces in water-colour painting—we find there con-
spicuously visible among the Exhibitors, two mem-
bers of the
forOd our Society,
who especially vie with
each other admiration. And in such dif-
ferent ways ! Each with such a mastery of his art,
and with such a subtle sense of the true and the beau-
tiful. F. W. Burton now witching the gaze with
his superbly handsome " lostephane,"—(273)—a
mere head (looking of life size), a touch of white
raiment about the neck, the lovely eyelids
downcast, the brown hair sparsely ringed
round with a wreath of purple violets ! Now
with his luxuriant heap of " German Lilacs" (234),
piled on the stool before the kneeling flower-seller
in the old Teuton market place ! Now—" best
beautiful" of all Mr. Burton's three pictures in the
Gallery—a painting without a name, simply en-
titled in the catalogue (239)—
One of a Series of Drawings presented to Edwin W.
Field, Esq., by the members of the Society of Painters in
Water Colours.
This enviable possession of Mr. Field's representing
a sweet-featured, youthful girlish beauty reposing
in an attitude expressive of all the languor of
an invalid upon an apple-green pillow, her golden
yellow hair flowing in loose abundance over it—she
herself gazing with an air of abstraction upon one
faint, trail, delicate sprig of pink blossom in her
hand, type perhaps of herself ! As forW. Hunt's fru

and flowers and bird's•nests--we are beggared in ian-
guage wherewith to describe the beauty and wonder
of them in any way adequately. They are like the
very things themselves. The down upon the bird's-

nest we could almost fancy stirring with our breath-
ing, as we look at it ! The apples, with the
little flecks and spots upon their ripened
rind, we could (it nearly seems to us) eat ! The
primroses tempt us to pull them, not by the sweet
delicate stalks, bat roots and mould and all—to carry
away home with us for the transplanting ! They
are nothing less, as all the town knows by this
time, than very marvels of imitative art.
Many other pictures eminently deserving of

notice, we are constrained to leave here unnoticed

iire should be ungrateful, however, were we to

leave the gallery without one word of cowmen

dation having been first pronounced upon that

singularly beautiful atmospheric Effect which every
one will examine with delight in " Clearing Up "
(157), by Joseph J. Jenkins, the society's gifted
Secretary.
Among those present were the Duchess of Suther-

land, the Marquis and Marchioness of' Normanby,
Earl Grey, Lord and Lady John Manners, Lord
Redesdale and the Hon. Miss Mitford, Lady Char-

lotte Denison, Viscount and Viscountess ehelsea,
:he Right Hon. W. F. Cowper, M.P., Lord St.

Leonards, Sir Robert snd Lady Phillimore, the
Bishops of Oxford, Winchester, Rochester, and

Esq., M.P., Thomson Hankey, Esq., M.P., John

Chapman, Esq., M.P., Charles Du Cane, Esq.,
M.P., Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., the Master of

SlR,—Knowing the deep interest you take in everything
relating to suffering humanity, and how ready you are in
lending your columns to give publicity to cases of indigent
merit—thereby causing benevolence to flow into its legibi-
mate channel—l crave the insertion in your valuable paper
of the following melancholy statement :
" On the 10th of April, 1863! I set out with my wife,
house. hunting. We wandered up one street, down
another. Until at last we observed a cottage, having on it a
placard announcing the sale of household furniture, &,.3.
The door was opened by --- the widow of an old frind,
one of the first artists of the day. It VMS her furniture
that was for sale, the landlord having distrained for rent.
When her husband died, she succeeded in furnishing this
house, and by letting lodgings had fought her way through
with three, children. It had been .a hard struggle. A gen-
tleman who had been in India, and had there received a
sun's 'stroke; which terminated in softening of the brain,
was her principal lodger, the prop of her house—until his
disease increasing in violence, he had
.to be placed in con-
finement as dangerous.: The ' Savage Club,' of which
--'s husband was a metuber, got up a benefit for
her, as they had done for the widow of the late Robert.
Brough. Poor --, by the way (the husband) was the
most illustrious of the Forty Thieves.' How we used to