The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-12 00:00:00

Political Assassination.

The Unita Cattolica gives the following curious
list of all the attempts at political assassination,
abortive or otherwise, that have been made since
1850 :
THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND.—Queen Victoria can count
four attempts on her life. On Juno 28, 1850, she received
a violent blow with a stick from one Robert Pate, a retired
lieutenant of the 10th Hussars.

TILE KINGS OF PRUSSIA.—In May, 1850, the late King
of Prussia received, as he was mounting a railway carriage,
a shot from a holster-pistol of large bore in the forearm ;
the assassin Sefelage, of Wetzlow, cried out as he fired,
" Liberty for ever!" The life of the present King of
Prussia was in danger at Baden on the morning of July 14,
1861. Two pistol shots were fired at him by Oscar Becker,
a law student of Leipsic. The regicide declared that he
wished to kill the King because he was not capable of
effecting the unity of Germany.

THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.—On Feb. 18, 1853, at
Vienna, Francis Joseph I. was struck with a knife in the
nape of the neck. The intended murderer's name was
Libeny, of Albe, in Hungary, aged 20, resident at Vienna,
and a tailor by trade.

THE DUKE OF PABMA.—On March 20, 1854, Ferdinand
Charles HI., Duke of Parma, returning from an excursion,
was hustled by an individual, who at the same time stabbed
him in the abdomen, left the poniard in the wound, and
subsequently escaped. The duke expired in cruel torture
at the end of 23 hours.

THE QUEEN or SPAIN (a second attempt).—On May 28,
1856, as Queen Isabella was passing in her carriage along
the Rue de l'Arsenal at Madrid, a young man named Ray-
mond Fuentds drew a pistol from his pocket, and would
have discharged it at her had not his arm been caught and
his weapon taken from him by an agent of the police.

TEE KING OF NAPLES.—On Dec. 8, 1856, whilst Fer-
dinand 11. was reviewing his troops at Naples, a soldier
named Agesilas Milano struck him with his bayonet, and
at a later period Garibaldi honoured the memory of the
regicide.

NAPOLEON October, 1852, when Napoleon, who
was on the eve of becoming Emperor, was at Marseilles,
there had been prepared an infernal machine, for.ned by
250 gun-barrels, charged with 1,500 balls, intended to
go off all at once against the prince and his cor-
tege. But the attempt was not carried out. On July 5,
1853, a fresh attempt was made to assassinate him as he
was going to the Opera Comique. Twelve Frenchmen were
arrested as concerned in the 'conspiracy. On April 28,
1855, Jean Liverani fired two shots at the Emperor in the
Grand Avenue of the Champs Elysees. In 1857 Tibaldi,
Bartolotti, and Grilli came from England to Paris to as-
sassinate the Emperor ; but were discovered, arrested,
tried, and punished. On January 14, 1858, Orsini, Gomez,
Pieri, and Rudio threw their murderous shells at the Em-
peror of the French, and shed the blood of a great num-
ber of honest citizens in Paris. On Dec. 24, 1863, Greco,
Trabucco, Imperatore, and Scaglioni, who had come over
from London with the intention of killing the French
Emperor, were arrested in Paris.
THE QUEEN or GREECE.—On Sept. 18, 1862, the Queen
of Greece, directing public affairs during the King's ab-
sence, was returning from a ride on horseback, when she
was fired at without effect, near the palace, by Aristide
Dousios, a student, aged 19 years.
VICTOR EMMANUEL 1858 an attempt Was' made on
the life of this Sovereign, and Count Cavour gave an ac-
count of it in the sitting of April 16.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN.—On April 14, 1865, at the theatre
of Washington, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States of America, was assassinated by Booth.

THE PROBABLE SUCCESSOR TO ADMIRAL FITZROY.
—Our readers will be gratified to know that there
is every reason to hope that her Majesty's Go7ernment will
confer on Mr. Glaisher the superintendence of the Meteoro-
logical Department of the Board of Trade, vacant by the
lamented death of Admiral Fitzroy. We believe that Mr.
Glaisher at present holds an appointment in the Observa-
tory at Greenwich, under the Astronomer Royal, the duties
of which he discharges with zeal and efficiency quite suffi-
cient to merit promotion. But it is the vast amount of
extra official and gratuitous labour which he has undertaken
for the pure love of science which has rendered his name
so tit ly a household word- amongst us, and which demands
some public recognition and reward. Besides doing his
own work, Mr. Glaisher lends a hand to assist every other
metereological worker, by his services in correcting instru-
ments and comparing them with the standards, and by his
collation and publication of results. We say nothing of the
balloon ascents, or of the element of danger to life which
they superadd to Mr. Glaisher's other assiduous and inte-
resting labours ; but, feeling, as all medical practitioners
must, how many unsolved problems there are of the influ-
ence of weather upon human, liie and upon the production
of food by agriculturists, and upon the production or trans-
port of epidemic disease, who hope that the man who has
done so much to advance our little stock of knowledge will
be rewarded with a position which we feel sure will be to
him an incentive and opportunity for researches still more
laborious and fruitful.—Medical Times and Gazette.

COLLIERY EXPLOSION.—EarIy on Wednesday
morning a great explosion occurred in one of the
Dowlais Iron Company's pits, known as Vochriw, nearly
five miles distant from Merthyr. It appears that the men
resumed work at 8 o'clock, as usual, and they were about
to begin their daily labours, when the pit was lit up with a
vivid flash, and instantly the fire damp, the destroyer cf so
many a poor labourer in Wales, was casting them in all
directions, and with terrible power. Those who could
rushed to the mouth of the pit and gave the alarm, and it
was not long before the unmaimed were rescued. Then,
howe ger, was seen the force of the dire calamity. Seventeen
men and boys formed the total of the injured, and of these
four or five are burnt so severely that recovery is almost
hopeless. The cause of the explosion is stated to be the
negligence or rashness of one of the colliers, who ventured
with a naked candle into one of the headings, though the
warning board was placed in front, and could not have
been passed unseen. The first announcement of the list of
sufferers was 14 ; but we learn on the eve of our despatch
that 17 in all have been taken to their homes. Dowlais,
the residence of most of them, is a scene of wailing and
mourning.

FINE ARTS.

Holman Hunt's Pictures.

Now ON VIEW AT 16, HANOVER-STREET, W.
Another new and very wonderful Picture has
now been added to this collection. Two of the
earliest and most famous works from the hand of
of Mr. Holman Hunt have at the tame time en-
hanced, and that moreover very considerably indeed,
the already conspicuous attractions of the Gallery.
Consisting as the little cluster of pictures in this
Gallery did originally, of " The After-glow in
Egypt" and of "London-bridge on the Night
of the Marriage of the Prince and Prin-
cess of Wales"—pictures still (as the nucleus
of the collection) retained on view, there,
together with Mr. Martineau's attractive re-
presentation of a tragedy of domestic life, entitled
" The Last Day in the Old Home"—there have been
now also placed upon the , walls of the gallery both
the " Awakened Conscience," and what we still
regard as ,Holman Hunt's chef d'ceuvres, " The
Light of the World." It is to neither of these rare
additions, however, to the treasures of this most
choice collection of paintings, that we are here de-
sirous of directing the more particular attention
of the art-loving public. With the merits of
those well-knowh, and one of them we might
even say world - famous, productions of the
artistic genius and manipulative skill of Holman
Hunt, the vast majority of the students of modern
art are already perfectly familiar. The mere sheen
of that green-glazed earthen pot in " The After-
glow," if it but once shine in upon the retina of the
eye, can never surely pass away altogether (upon
being at any time just momentarily thought of)
from the retina of the memory! And if it be thus
with regard to that crock borne aloft in the palm of
the Egyptian woman's hand how immeasur-
ably more vivid than that will be the all
but visible remembrance of every minute
particular in regard to that other picture, that
marvellous typical limning of the Lord of Life, The
Light of the World! That lovely shadowing forth
of the Prophet, Priest, and King—the Christ—the
Redeemer ! Swathed in royal, sacerdotal, mystical
robes of a golden tissue, blazing with a very powder
of jewels woven into the surface, almost into the
substance, of the raiment—crowned with a double
crown—with a crown of golden spikes, that is, inter-
twined with a crown of thorns, burgeoning, this lat-
ter (in among the thorns) with leaves of a tender
green " for the healing of the nations !" Christ
in the garden, in the starlight, in the dark-
ness—bearing pendent from one hand (His left)
the lantern, symbolical of the light of the human
conscience—that other, higher, diviner light, the
light ineffable, the Light of the World, shining
luminously above His head, in a holy nimbus, or
beatific aureole ! Christ—knocking with His other
hand (His right) . against the closed door of the
human soul—that un-used threshold, haunted by the
bat, meshed in trails of ivy, tangled about with
rankly redundant weeds and nettles and fruitless
brambles and seedless corn ! A sermon, it is, in
truth, compacted together upon a few square feet of
canvass—and one most enthralling and persuasive
in its voiceless eloquence, in its visible rhetoric,
as we may say, of form and colour and lights
and shadows. Viewing the Picture again—and we
have a vivid remembrance of it from the very
earliest date of its exhibition—namely, when, eleven
years 'ago, it was first displayed to view upon the
walls of the Royal Academy at the Private View in
the early spring of 1854—viewing this marvellously
beautiful and impressive work of art yet once
more, as it is now again revealed upon the
walls of the Hanover-street Gallery, we can hardly
wonder so much, on reflection, at Mr. Ruskin's
outburst of enthusiasm in regard to it, when he
pronounced it as, in his estimation (in these em-
phatic words) " one of the very noblest works of
sacred art ever produced in this or any other age."
As an indication of the rise in the value of the picture
since then, and, of course, the simultaneous
advancement and enhancement of the reputation
of the artist himself, it is worthy of note
that this picture—the original payment for
which was five hundred pounds, or guineas—
has recently brought the owner of it an offer to
purchase it from him for two thousand ! An offer
firmly declined, by the way—but still, a bona fide
offer (declined or not) having its especial signifi-
cance. Neither, however, to the " Light of the
World," nor to the " Awakened Conscience," any
more than to " The After Glow" or " The Night of
the Marriage," are we here so particularly desirous,
as we have said, of directing,,just now, the atten-
tion of the general public to the Hanover-
street Gallery. It is to a less ambitious, but
to an equally remarkable picture in its way,
from the hand of the same master, that we
would here direct, so to speak, an index
finger. A picture that is nothing more, after all,
than a simple portrait picture, and yet one we do
believe; that—simply regarded as such—is about the
most wonderful portrait group that has ever been
painted. It represents a scene, an al fresco
scene, in a park of lustrous greenness,
with an avenue of chestnuts in the background
—the occupants of the foreground being a mother
and her five children; one of them, the eldest of the
group, fondling the household-favourite, apet spaniel
or blenheim. The human figures in this group, as
already intimated, are no more than half a dozen in
all—and yet, within that narrow bound of half a
dozen, the artist has contrived to afford us glimpses
of a very world of character ! The scene, as he
has here depicted it, has been aptly entitled
" The Children's Holiday." All that can be said
to be wanting in it as a domestic scene, in order to
complete the picture of the home-happiness it repre-
sents, is—that the paterfamilias himself should have
been represented as participating in that illustration
of the dolce far niente, of genuine, thorough-going,
sunny, mid-summery enjoyment 1 The paterfamilias
here referred to, by the way, being Mr. Fairbairn,
the eminent engineer, who is only so far hinted at
in the picture itself, we believe, inasmuch 'as his
features are there shadowed forth through
the countenances of some of those happy chil-
dren ! By any mere description of the picture
it is next to impossible to afford anything
more than the vaguest notion of the general
effect of it—and quite impossible to indicate by any
written or printed words the astonishingly artistic
effect of the mere details or accessories. The lady-
mother occupies the centre of the canvass—standing
there in all the bravery of a rich ribbed or striped
greyish-white silk dress (how marvellously painted !
so marvellously that we could almost, mercer-like,
snap it 'twixt finger and thumb by way of testing
its quality 1) —a smile upon her lips, the sunshine
upon her face—pendant from her ears and
fastening the neck-band of her high stomacher or
bodice, the well -remembered prize brooch and ear-
rings of pale coral and gold filagree ! Presiding,
as she does, over The Children's Holiday, this
same happy maternal elder of the group is just
replacing the silver embossed teapot on the table,
upon which stands the al fresco banquet—the
simplest fare—currant buns, for example (but such
currant buns !) and fruit, and what not—ranged
almost anyhow in rich profusion round the centre-
piece of the table, a silver urn shining like a mirror,
and reflecting in its convex surface the various
articles strewn about it over the white damask table
cloth ! Between the china breakfast cups, there
peeps up a sprig of scarlet geranium, giving a very
gleam of glory (in colour) to that part of the picture.
In regard to the mere distribution of the colouring
in this painting, the artist, confident in his great
powers, has displayed, here and there, what we
cannot but consider a really extraordinary temerity I
As, for instance, where he places in immediate
juxtaposition, the greyish-white silk dress, already
particularised, and the milk-white damask table-
cloth ! Or, again, as where the red rose-berries
making that necklace of baby's, are put side by
side with the red-brown blossoms of the wallflower
in baby's lap! That same chubby, blooming
baby, by the way, we are almost tempted to
select as the most admirable portion of the
whole painting. He is sprawling back in his
little sister's arms—the very picture of chubby
contentedness—a very model of a prize baby—
necklaced about, as we have said, with (as a fitting
chain of honour a string of rose-berries 1 Another
wonderful morsel of the picture—one, to our think-

ing, very noticeable, indeed, in its way—is the fore
shortened hand of the eldest boy, who is just going to
pat his old friend the white and liver-coloured spaniel.
The lady's hat and pheasant plume lying on the
table—the boy's straw hat filled with chest-
nuts—the girl's brown osier basket with its
store of rose-fruit---the two other children (of a
more frolicsome age than those already particu- '
larised) the two who are romping together in the
back ground—the trees, the turf—all deserve and
in a manner demand a minute and quite separate
examination. Altogether—homely though the sub-,
ject of the picture is, appealing though it does solely
to our appreciation of the domestic affections, to our
sense of truth, and nature, and life, in form and colour
precisely as we may see them around us or about us
any day in the year—this Portrait Picture of
" The Children's Holiday" is, as a work of art in
Holman Hunt's own peculiar school—in the midst
of which school the artist stands, of course, facile
princeps—as remarkable a picture in its way as any
he has ever produced. While saying which—let us
add, however, that we must always, as it were, stand
uncovered before the mere thought of his Light of
the World" and of the " Finding in the Temple 1"

ce
Cult liar.
Tort

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, May 11.
The Queen and Princess Helena walked and
drove in the grounds yesterday.

The Rev. G. Prothero had the honour of dining
with her Majesty and the royal family.
Dr. Jenner arrived yesterday, and returned to
London this morning.

41-

The Princess of Wales.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess
de Nemours visited the Princess of Wales at Marl-
borough House yesterday.

Her Majesty, accompanied by the junior mem-
bers of the royal family, and attended by the ladies and
gentlemen of the Court, will leave Osborne House, Isle of
Wight, to-morrow (Saturday) afternoon, and return to
Windsor Castle. The Queen will, on leaving the royal
yacht, land at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, Gos-
port, and proceed by a special train furnished by the Lon-
don and South-Western Railway, on that line, and by waY
of Bishopstoke and Winchester, to the junction with the
Great Western Railway at Basingstoke, whence the royal
journey will be continued to Windsor, where her Majesty
will arrive in the course of the evening.
The Duchess of WellingtQn gave a grand ball at
Apsley House on Wednesday, which was honoured by the
presence of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess
d'Aumale, the Duke de Chartres, and a large number of
the diplomatic corps and the nobility.
The Duchess (Emily) of Beaufort has arrived in
town from visiting Lord and Lady Londesborough at
Grimston-park, Yorkshire.
- -

The Duke and Duchess de Saldanha have left the
Clarendon Hotel for Paris.

---
The Marquis and Marchioness of Bristol and
the Ladies Hervey are still in the south of France. Thel
are not expected home till late in July.
The Countess (Frances) Waldegrave and the
Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P., have issued cods
for a dinnei party on Wednesday next, to meet the Cowl'
and Countess de Paris, at their residence in Carlton-gar-
dens. There will be an assembly after. dinner.

Lord and Lady Southampton have taken the
Earl of Warwick's house in the Stable-yard, St.James's, for
the season.

Lord and Lady Egerton of Tatton had a dinner
party yesterday evening at their residence in St. James's"
square. There were among the guests his Excellency the
Saxon Minister, the Earl and Countess of Effingham, the
Earl and Countess Amherst and Lady Constance Amherst,
Viscount Hood, Lady Rolle, Lord Aveland and Hon. glee
Heathcote, Lord and Lady Colchester, Mr. and Lady Mar'
Egerton, Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus, &c.

Lord and Lady Petre and the Hon. Miss Petra
have arrived at their residence in Portland-place for the
season.

The Right Hon. Sir George Grey, Secretary of
State for the Home Department, has issued cards for 0
State banquet at the Clarendon Hotel on her Majesti'ls
birthday.

Mr, and Mrs. Charles Kean in Amerio.

(From the New York Herald, of April 27.)

After an absence of many years from America,
Mr. Charles Kean, the last of the great English
actors, and his accomplished wife, made their first
appearance last night at the Broadway Theatre, in
this city, before a large, fashionable, and highly
appreciative audience. Although the house was ns9t
crowded to excess, it was comfortably and suO"
ciently filled. The pieces selected for represents'
tion were Shakspere's tragedy of " Henry the
Eighth," compressed into three acts, and Colman e
popular comedy of " The Jealous Wife." As Car-
dinal Wolsey, in the first piece, Mr. Kean exhibited
some of the most finished and perfect acting that
has ever been witnessed on any stage. His stYle,
was vigorous and intellectual, as well as chaste and
polished to the highest degree. Some of the ran°
touching passages of the tragedy were transcend'
ently grand, and utterly sets rivalry or competition
at defiance. Mr. Kean is indeed the last of the
illustrious race of actors whose accomplishment
have made the drama famous in their own countri
and throughout the world. He stands to-day Col-
fessedly without a peer in his profession in EurnPe'
Mrs. Kean was very effective in the part of Queen
Catherine, and frequently moved the audience to
tears by the deep pathos and tenderness which she
threw into her words. In the scene in court with
the King and Cardinals she was greeted with wad
and cordial applause.
When the curtain fell, at the close of the trart
ed
the audience loudly called for the distinguish
e:
artists. Mr. Kean then made his appearance, leant
ing his wife by the hand. The applause was there;
upon redoubled, and some ladies threw bouquets °
flowers at the feet of Mrs. Kean. She gracefullf
acknowledged the compliment and retired ; but, On
Mr. Kean attempting to follow, loud cries e
" Kean," " Speech," &c., arose. Mr. Charles Sean
responded to the invitation in the following
words :
Ladies and Gentlemen—Accept, I pray, the warmest
thanks of Mrs. Kean and myself for the cordial reception
and for the brilliant assemblage with which you have thie
evening honoured us. We return to this great city Ilu;
r
the influence of strong and various emotions, as our visi
brings to us a train of thoughts and feelings, recalling o'll..
interesting associations and awakening many grateful IT
membrances. Years have elapsed and not a few of my or
acquaintances have passed away, since, almost at the tom
;
mencement of my professional career, I landed, a friendless
youth, on your hospitable shores, there to receive that ar
plause and encouragement which kindled within no ti'e
first glow of hope that I might one day attain euccesre
That career is now drawing to a close, and I once 0°
.ea
come among you, for the fourth and last time, accororniso
by my wife, whom, as Ellen Tree, you regarded with id
much favour and encircled with so many friends, to b,.
farewell, before we shake off the care and toil of publicll
for the calm enjoyment of rest and retirement. Ladies 3113
gentlemen, once again permit me to offer our heartfc
acknowledgments.
heir
ae
The afterpiece was admirably performed, gi
h
Mr. and Mrs. Kean a fine opportunity to show
talent in comic parts. On the whole the perf°ll:l3‘
ante was a perfect success in every way.

A WORD ON CLOCKS.—lngenious men of all agent
from Archimedes, 200 years 8.C., to Wallingford, 9'o
the commencement of the 14th century, have been cited;
the inventors of the clock. The fact is that the clock, lito
almost
every other useful implement, gradually gr°Wthe
perfection : ono man suggested wheelwork ; another
another the
weight for maintaining or driving power , • wer
balance for regulating the expenditure of that P° oad
another the dial and hands ; another the striking Parts' -„es
so on ; and at last one man combined all together in
machine, and gained the credit of making the first clr
°ede
o
This man appears to have been one Henry de Wick'Wick'e of
Vick, who placed a clock in the tower of the
Ltp lac
ise t.O
Charles the Fifth, about the year 1364, which clock
most ancient of which there exists any particular des`
ors
tion. The principles upon which lit was constructed
ent
essentially the same as those of the clocks of the Prestt
log
day ; that is, there was a moving power and a regs,t, s
power. The moving power was a weight hung 13' by
cord, wound round a barrel, the unwinding of wbich,,'
the fall of the weight, gave motion to a train a wi
a
that moved the hands around the dial. The reg°
ci 1
power was a balance-wheel, swinging backwards ati_ilisr
wards after the manner of the watch-balance, so fa'''
to us all.—The iShilling Magazine.

ibited
that
style
43 and
most
,end'