The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-03 00:00:00

THE FINE ART! CLUB.

This distinguished associaticu gave last evening
its concluding and most attuctive conversations
when Miss Burdett Coutts, oneof its members, very
kindly placed at its disposal the spacious and ele-
gant reception-rooms of her residence in Piccadilly.
The club were accordingly enabled to issue invita-
tions to all the leading literery, artistic, and scien-
tific visitors of our capital, as well as to to most of
the notabilities of our own fashionable and artistic
circles, and the result was one of the most numerous
and brilliant reunions of the season. The company
began to assemble shortly after nine o'clock, and
before eleven must have amounted to above a thou-
sand persons. The Fine Arts Club which, we may
be allowed to mention, has no public aim what-
ever, but is simply a society of ladies and gentle-
men, which meets for the promotion of an
artistic taste by discussing questions, and
exhibiting specimens illustrative of art in general,
fulfilled, it will be seen, on this occasion, a very
graceful public duty, in placing itself in harmony
with the immediate
,spirit of the time. tPerhaps,
we ought rather to say, that, in so doing, it obeyed
an impulse which was not more natural to it than
praiseworthy. Art, which is cosmopolitan, cannot
restrict itself on great occasions to any social limi-
tations. The love of the skilled and beautiful springs
out of a general faith, which, however in may in-
quire in secret, always tends to worship openly.
Whilst our religious and political systems have yet
got to devise the syncretic scheme, which shall en-
fold, in one loving family, all parties and denomi-
nations, art,—humanity's great harmoniser, from
the earliest hour that a sense of beauty dawned in
the soul of Greek or Assyrian, has gently, persua-
sively, and increasingly woven the etherial
mental bonds that unite the heart of man,
as a preparation for his highest ties.
Artistic clubs therefore, however private, must
always indirectly exert some general influence.
Each of their members; as he continues to enlarge
his knowledge, and deepen his sympathies, becomes
the centre of a refining action in less artistic circles
than his own, which cannot fail, however, gradu-
ally
to adjust others to his own standard. These
remarks are naturally prompted by the reunion of
last evening, whether in respect to the means it
afforded for an exchange of thought and sympathy
—so much in harmony with the Exhibition—or
whether in reference to the evidence of the superior
taste of the association as presented in their striking
display of articles of vertu about the rooms. A
more valuable or unique collection has rarely been
submitted to inspection, Porcelain—Sevres, and
Dresden, of the most exquisito colours and pattern,
miniatures and enamels of the most perfect finish,
and. cameos of the most striking eharpneee, together
with antiques of various kinds, but all of the
utmost value and rarity covered the tables, and
raised the regret that so little time was afforded the
visitor to do them the justice they demanded. We
may refer to one specimen especially as a tolerable
type of their worth and beauty—a magnificent
cameo contributed by the Right Hon. W. Glad-
' stone—an illustration of Jupiter and Thetis, which,
whether in respect to the size of the figures,
or the sharpness and clearness of their exe-
cution is one of the greatest triumphs of the kind
which we have ever had the pleasure of seeing.
La conclusion, we feel some acknowledgment is due
from the visitors to the refined and hospitable
hostess under whose roof they were enabled to
assemble, and who, by the distinguished part she
has taken in the leading movements of our time,
religious, social, and artistic—nobly devoting her
resources to the noblest of all ends, has done so
much to elevate the character of Englishwomen
in our day. We are unable to append a list of
the eminent assemblage on this occasion, and can
only supply the names of a few we were able to recog-
nise, viz., the French and Turkish Ambassadors, the
Duke D'Aumale, the Marquis D'Azeg lio, the Marquis
and Countess Dell Caretto, the Marquis and Coun-
tess Villamarina, the Count and Countess D'Audine,
the Bishop of London, the Lord Chancellor, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Welling-
ton, Earl and Countess Grey, Earl and Countess
Stanhope, Earl and Countess Egremont, Lord
and Lady Manley, Lord Talbot de Malahide,
Sir George Ellis, Sir Frederick Madden, Sir
John and Lady Bowring, Sir Roderick Mur-
chison, Professor Owen, Professor Huxley, Mr.
Layard, Sir Edwin Landseer, Messrs. Stanfield,
Roberts, Ward, Millais, Frith, and other artists.

DESPATCH OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN MAILS.
—Yesterday the Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia
Company's steamer City of New York, Capt. Petrie, was
despatched from Liverpool for New York, with mails for
the United States, a large number of passengers, together
with cargo, &c. To. day the Quebec and Montreal Royal
mail steamer Norwegian will leave the Mersey for Quebec,
with mails for Canada and the United States. On Satur-
day the Cunard Royal mail steamer Persia will be de-
spatched from Liverpool for New York with mails for the
United States, British North America, Bahamas, and
Havannah.

THE OUTWARD WEST INDIA AND PACIFIC MAILS.
—SOUTHAMPTON, July 2.—The Royal Mail Company's
steamship Atrato, Captain V* oolley, sailed hence to-day, at
3 o'clock, with "the fortnightly mails for the British and
Foreign West Indies, Mexico, the Pacific, California, &c.
She took out 119 passengers, including Sir B. Clarke and
lady, Staff-Assistant Surgeon Ferguson, Ensign Allison,
and Lieuts. Temple and Gavin, for Barbadoes ; Lieut.-
Col. Peady, for Demerara; and Deputy-Commissary-
General Edwards, for Jamaica. The Atrato took out on
freight, English gold and silver coin, value £19,575;
jewellery, &c., £972; French gold and silver coin, value
£5,172 ; jewellery, &c., £6,975, and a general cargo of
French and English merchandise.
THE LATE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY ACCIDENT.
—Mr. Jay, the railway contractor, by the aid of a powerful
pumping engine which he has had at work for the last few
days, yesterday succeeded in clearing the water out of the
railway works, and a large body of labourers were at once
set to work to clear away the pieces of broken timber and
brickwork, preparatory to the rebuilding of the buttery
wall. Messrs. Dethick and Cooke, the contractor and sur-
veyor to the Board of Works, have also had a large pumping
engine placed at the shaft of the sewer, immediately above
where the fracture took place, and which, being kept con-
tinually in action, effectually presents any flow of the
sewage into the railway, by turning it into the new cuttings
or pipes. The effluvium arising from this open cutting is
a great annoyance to the inhabitants in•the neighbourhood,
and the above gentlemen are devising some measures by
which this evil may be lessened, if not altogether removed.
HORSE RAILWAYS IN SWITZERLAND.—The horse
railway from Geneva to Carouge—the first section of the
lines of horse railways to be constructed in the Canton of
Geneva under the concession granted to Mr. Burn, C.E.,
was opened with the greatest success on Thursday, the 19th
ult. The opening of the line was celebrated by a local fete
at Carouge, when 7,000 people were carried from Geneva
and back. The fares on this line are the lowest ever at-
tempted, and amount to a fraction more than id. per pas-
senger per mile. This is the first line of horse railway
that has been laid down on the Continent on the American
system. The rail used is a grooved rail of peculiar form,
which presents no obstruction or inconvenience to the ordi-
nary traffic of the roads.