The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVE SING, MAY 5, 18G2.

which this country wishes to occupy among the

nations of the world ; that is the position which we
are all endeavouring to acquire, and which I trust
and believe we may say we have to a great ektent
attained. (Cheers.) But in addition to the reasons I
have given for believing that the service with which

I am connected is not altogether distasteful to those
who cultivate the arts of peace, I cannot help ob-
serving in the various rooms in this building that
the artist has largely laid that service under contri-
bution. (Cheers.) We see around us, both in the

shape of portraits and general pictures, many sub-

jects connected with the military profession ; and I
must say these subjects have been most agreeably
and satisfactorily treated. It would be very ill-timed
on my part, a mere ignoramus in such matters, to
attempt to express any artistic opinion as to the
merits of the pictures which decorate these walls;
but as a simple member of society I cannot but ex-
press my congratulations on what appears to me to
be a most successful exhibition—(cheers)—and even
in the presence of illustrious foreigners I must say
the representation of the arts of this country has

been most creditable in that Great International

Exhibition which was opened two days ago. I
cannot help thinking that our portion of the Ex-
hibition will bold its own with any other country.
(Cheers.) I cannot sit down without expressing my

strong approbation of the noble sentiments we have

ust heard from the illustrious Prince on the other

side of the chair. (Cheers.) I believe I may say,
without the slightest flattery to my illustrious re-
lative, and that the sentiments he has expressed

have been most acceptable to this distinguished
company, and that they will be most cordially re-
ceived and echoed by this entire great country with
which he is proud to be associated. (Loud cheers.)

_ The Duke of SOMERSET said—Sir Charles East-
Lake, your Royal Highness, my Lords and Gentlemen,

I have great pleasure in thanking you in behalf of
the British navy, who will duly appreciate the hon

our which has been paid to them by this distin-
gu;Ahed assemby. It has been my fortunate lot
often to attend meetings annually here, and I must
say they are the pleasantest public meetings I have
attended in the course of the year. (Cheers.)
Knowing the number of toasts that have to be given,
and the speeches that have to be made in reply, I
think I shall best express to you my thanks by thus

briefly acknowledging tho honour you have done to
the navy. I have observed in going round these
rooms that there are not many pictures relating to
the navy, and I believe that in future years it will

be found more difficult still to immortalise the deeds
of the British navy in pictures. (Cheers, and a laugh.)
How you are over to produce pleasing pictures of
vessels with no masts and no sails, low hulls, creep-
ing along, mere black objects in the water, I know
not; but I have Ho doubt the skill of the Royal
Academy will get over that difficulty. I must say
I look forward with no little interest and pleasure
to seeing those pictures immortalised in future ex-
hibitions. (Cheers.) I beg again to thank you for
the honour you have done to the British navy.
Lord ELCHO also responded to the toast on be-
half of the Volunteer service.

The PRESIDENT proposed "The Health of the
Noblemen who this day honour the Academy with
their presence." (Cheers.) In proposing this toast
the president spoke of the encouragement given to
the fine arts in this country, and expressed his opi-
nion that it was likely to receive a still further im-
petus from the International Exhibition.

The toast was drunk with all the honours.
The LORD CHANCELLOR responded to the toast.
He concluded by proposing the health of the Presi-
dent and members of the Royal Academy.
The PRESIDENT responded and proposed the
health of her Majesty's Ministers.

The toast was drunk with loud cheers.
Viscount PALMERSTON, who was received with
much cheering, said—Sir Charles Eastlake, your
Royal Highnesses, my lords, and gentlemen,—lt is
needless, I am sure, we should say her Majesty's
Ministers feel the deepest interest in the promotion
of the fine arts in this country. (Cheers.) It is no
merit:on our parts to entertain that feeling, because
it is impossible that any public men charged with
the conduct of the affairs of a great country should
be insensible to the advantage arising from the pro-
motion of the fine arts. It is a pursuit which dig-
nifies and ennobles both those who practise it and
those who admire the productions of those by whom
it is practised. (Cheers.) Like the quality of mercy,
it is doubly blessed—it is blessed in those who
themselves display the genius they possess, and it
enlarges the sphere of enjoyment on the part of the
public, who are taught to understand, to value, and
admire the works of genius. And lam sure we
must all of us feel highly gratified, not merely by
the display which these walls now afford of the
works of British genius, but by the records of the
same kind which are now exhibited in that larger
building larger certainly, and perhaps better
adapted for the purpose than that which we have
now the honour to assemble—an Exhibition in
which, as his Royal Highness the Duke of Cam-
bridge has well and in good English idiom expressed
it, the artists of England hold ther own. (Cheers.)
It is needless to say that the cultivation of the fine
arts is a kind of cosmopolitan freemasonry ; it
acts as a bond of union between different nations,
who are taught by rivalry in these arts a gene-
rous spirit of emulation, and also mutual and
reciprocal admiration. (Cheers.) I said that
her Majesty's Government must necessarily
entertain the strongest desire to encourage and pro-
mote the flue arts ; but I am aware that there is
one charge to which we are liable, though I think
there is a defence to be made against it. Wo may
be said in one respect to be enemies of the fine arts,
for it is well known that there are no subjects more
inspiring, none that give greater scope to the de-
velopment of creative genius than the events of war.
We have seen examples ; I need only remind you
of that magnificent work of Mr. Maclise which is
now adorning the walls of that building in which
the great issues of peace and war are perpetually
debated. (Cheers.) We are therefore so far, I
admit, apparently the enemies of the fine arts, be-
cause it is the study, the object, and the desire of
her Majesty's Government to avoid war and to
maintain peace, so far depriving the arts of some of
the best opportunities of illustration. But we trust
that past history will yet afford sufficient unex-
hausted subjects for the creative genius of all living
artists. It must be remembered that peace has
her victories as well as war, and that peace also
may afford subjects for the pencil and chisel of the
artist quite as inspiriting and ennobling as any of
tho events that are recorded in the annals of hosti-
lity. I don't wont to detain you, but I must advert
to two circumstances which are peculiar to our pre-
sent meeting—one is the circumstance which has
been alluded to by the Duke of Cambridge—the
presence, namely, at our board of one of the most
distinguished princes that Europe can boast—a
prince happily connected with the royal family of
this country by a union which I trust will be pro-
ductive of happiness to all parties concerned—a
prince as illustrious and ennobled by the sentiments
you have heard from him as he is by the distin-
guished lineage from which he is sprung. There
is another circumstance marking this day, though
of a different character, which was adverted to by
Sir Charles
he
had Eastlake,
the president, in one of the
propose. We have lost one of the
toastst
most distinguished patrons of the fine arts
in this country. That eye which was ac-
customed with discriminating Power to perceive
merit where other parties would not have found it,
to follow out the workings of genius in all their de-
tails—that eye is now closed. Those lips, which
used with the utmost judgment to award praise to
the successful efforts of genius, to give encourage-
ment to struggling talent not yet brought into the
full blaze of fame—those lips are now closed for
ever ; and that hand which used to dispense largely
encouragement to art in all its branches is now life-
less and cold. That is a melancholy reflection which
it might not perhaps have been seemly for me to
introduce on the present occasion, but the manner in
which the president adverted to the loss sustained
makes me feel that that loss will be felt by the artists
of this country as deeply, permanently, and sincerely
as by any other class of her Majesty's subjects.
(Cheers.) I beg again, on the part of my colleagues
and myself, to return you our best thanks for the
honour you have done us, and to assure you that
we feel highly gratified for having been permitted
to aesist on this occasion. (Cheers.)
The PRESIDENT proposed "Success to the Inter-

national Exhibition and the health of her Majesty's
Commissioners." (Loud cheers.)
Earl GRANVILLE responded to the toast.
The PRESIDENT proposed " Prosperity to the City
of London, and the Health of the Right Hon. the
Lord Mayor," observing that this was the second
year of his lordship's official labours, a circumstance
which, as the result of the universal satisfaction he
had given, must be regarded as a peculiarly honour-
able distinction. (Loud cheers.)
The LORD MAYOR responded.
The PRESIDENT then proposed, as the last toast,
" The Interests of Literature," connecting it with
the health of Mr. Charles Dickens. (Cheers.)
Mr. C. DICKENS responded, and the company
then retired to the middle room, where tea and
coffee were served, after which the distinguished
visitors broke up,

THE INTERNATIONLL EXHIBITION.

On Saturday there was a very large attendance of
visitors, and during the whole time the building re-
mained open the number of season ticket holders
who passed in at the various doors was estimated at

not less than 12,000. No accurate return, however,

was issued by the authorities, for the register turn-
stiles appear to be scarcely yet in working order,
and either give no returns at all, or numbers known
to be utterly at variance with the truth, Many also
pass in at entrances at which there are no turnstiles
whatever, so that until all the doors are protected with

efficient machines of this kind the daily number of
visitors can at best only be guessed at, At two of the

,urnstiles under the western dome on Saturday the

commissionaires in charge made every person who
entered sign his or her name and address in full,
and the adoption of this precaution caused such a
check to rapid entry that visitors avoided these

me turnstiles, and passed through those on

either side of them. where, singularly enough,

they were not required to sign anything. There
are, of course, certain exceptional cases likely to
occur where the name and address may fairly be
asked, though what purpose they are likely to serve
when got we are at a loss to imagine; but, if insisted
on as a general rule for all visitors, it will become a
preposterous nuisance, against which the Com-
missioners may be sure the public will certainly pro-
test.

One of the earliest visitors was the Crown Pr ince
of Prussia, who, having first inspected the Austrian
court and some portion of the Zollverein which had
escaped his royal highness's notice on his previous
visit, intimated to Mr. Nottage, the principal mana-
ger of the London Stereoscopic Company, his wish
to have photographic portraits taken of himself and
some of the Prussian commissioners. His royal

highness was first taken alone, seated on the throne,
and afterwards as one of a group with the commis-
sioners, and both pictures were taken, notwith-
standing the dulness of the day, with great celerity
and capital elect. Shortly after his royal high-
ness had left, another illustrious stranger, namely,
Prince Oscar of Sweden, also presented himself to
the camera, and his royal highness was taken in the
same way—namely, first alone and seated on the
throne, and then as one of a group of three or four
of the Swedish commissioners. The company had
on the previous night completed their views of the
opening, taken by express order of the Queen, which
were at once forwarded by cabinet messenger to her
Majesty at Balmoral:
At a very short interval from the opening of the
doors, the general visitors began to pour in in such
numbers as to surprise any one who remembered
that they must be either season ticketholders or
persons who had paid a guinea for the day's admis-
sion. There were, in fact, people everywhere ; and
when we say "everywhere," in the Exhibition, it
may be imagined that we contemplate a very con-
siderable space. Dropping first into the " colonies"
in the desultory manner which, as yet, is the gene-
ral practice amongst the visitors, who will not,
most probably, settle down for some time to an
orderly inspection, we were surprised to find New
South Wales, although with its resources as yet
only half developed, densely colonised. A group
of ladies surrounded a painting by a Sydney ar-
tist, a Miss ironsides, and were in raptures with
its bright colour and irreproachable neatness of
execution. However, as its merits as a work of
art will be treated in another department of
the paper, we shall pass on to another admir-
ing group—ethnologists of the rougher sex, who
w ere equally intent on some photographic por-
traits of the aborigines, some preparing for war,
others evidently making attitudes for the manipu-
lator, and a third group dancing the national
" Corrobery," It was a wonderful instance of the
value of the new art. Here were, almost alive,
people living 15,000 miles away, and to know all
about whom must be of immense importance and
interest to every Englishman. Then there was the
group of Llamas, which may become more profit-
able to Australia than all its gold mines ; cotton of
the much-prized " Sea Island" staple, precious
woods, and coals, and last, though not least, the
gold. The auriferous column,which is to represent
one ten years' hard digging and washing, has not
yet been set up, but it will be in a few days, and the
court will be doubly attractive with its Lions d' Or.
Bons vivans looked wistfully at the bottles of Ca-
tawba wine, and observed on the absurdity of
showing people a vintage without allowing them to
taste it. In the absence of the experimentunz crucis
they decided, off-hand, that it could not possibly
be equal to Sillery nousseux. But the policeman,
one of the new X's, the creation of the Exhibition
year, says " Move on ;" so we pass through a world
of splendid furniture, of which we beg to call at-
tention to a very novel gilt screen, containing a
most ingenious arrangement of stuffed humming-
birds, the production of some Sheffield artist, who,
but for the Exhibition, could probably never have
made his bow to the great world; and rest for a
moment at the lonian Islands, where wo should
advise the general visitor to pause. In that sunny
region of the Grecian Archipelago, which, how-
ever, looked rather dull on Saturday last, a bright
intelligent young Greek, and a dignified and sen-
tentious old one, combine to give you, in excellent
English, full information about the gold embroi-
dery with which their case is filled, from neat
tobacco pouches up to the really gorgeous mitre
of the septinsular archimandrite. Here are also
Byzantine paintings, executed last year, but ex-
actly in the same styles as those of the times of the
Comneni pipes of ineffable suggestiveness, and all
sorts of modern Attic bric-a-brac. Here will be
found a case the size of a small drawing-room, con-
taining a brilliant group, ladies and cavaliers, in the
picturesque national costume. You see the whole
thing at a glance, and conclude that human vanity
is the same everywhere, and that crinoline is uni-
vereal. To Japan and China is but a step, and be
sure you go as fast as possible past that vestibule
leading into the Horticultural Gardens, for the east
wind comes in cutting like a razor, so as to make
you almost fancy it makes Durham's fine Shakespear
monument shiver like yourself. Everyone had
made for Japan, with a vague notion that it formed
part of the recently-arrived embassy, but so far it
was not pronounced as coming up to expectation.
Great things however are promised. China was
close at hand, but it could be "done" in a few
minutes, for we had.long been familiar with its rari-
ties in Fenchurch-street, and in its immediate neigh.
bourhood, Russia. How the visitors rushed to where
they saw this name printed over a court. They
remembered the gates of malachite, the caskets of
jasper, and the diamond sprigs of 1851 ; but Russia
now takes a different line. She shows her gaudy
pocket hankerchiefs *which you buy for forty kopeck
each in the market at Moscow, under the walls of
the Kremlin her malachite in the lump, and her
blankets which on Saturday, at least, had a grateful
effect on the eye. Not without substantial, albeit
somewhat barbaric splendour, is however her pre-
sent show. At the back is a tall picture of her pa-
tron saint Nicholas. Nobody looked at it at first,
but when the attendant stated it was one of those
extraordinary mosaic paintings in which the Rus-
sians delight, and the British policeman added that
its weight was seven tons, there was quite a fever
of anxiety to examine it. The great point of curi-
osity seemed to be its alleged weight, and several
gentlemen booked bets on the spot to be decided by
an appeal to the Russian commission. Even, how-
ever, if it should be short a few pounds. we advise
people to look at this picture. It is 4 beautiful

specimen of a beautiful art, and the face em-
bodies with wonderful truth the Russian idea of

holiness of expression in the countenance. Then
there is in the glass case, the " Golden Bible,"
from the Izaak church, valued at £4,000, printed
in the old Sclavonic, which even the patriarch
Philaret himself finds it almost impossible to read,

and bound in precious metal, studded all over with
turquoise and diamonds and Siberian amethysts.
Beside it lies a Greek cross, said to be worth double

he money in the market, but of inestimable worth
:o the curious ecclesiologist. Norway contrasted

humbly, with her peasant bride and bridegroom,
and her bottles of cod liver oil ; and Holland ap-

pealed to the passers by with her beams and scales,
emblems of the national love of honesty and justice.
In the nave we found that the comparative
merits of the Koh-i-noor and the " Star of the
South,' had already risen into a party question
The partisans of the former said it was of the
purest water, but the exhibitor of the latter affirmed
that his gem had the most fire, adding, the truly
British proof of excellence, that it was worth a
million. Ile did not say whether florins or pounds
sterling, and hence we imagine that some misun-
derstanding has arisen. The" Star of the South"
is certainly a wonderful brilliant, but it has a yel-
low tinge, whilst the sparkle of the Koh-i-noor is
purely prismatic. The star weighs 125 carats, and
has been for six years in the possession of the great
house of Costar of Amsterdam, the cutters of the
Koh-i-noor. There is much to be said on both
sides, and the debate may go on harmlessly until
October next. Going a little further on, we found
that there was something in the candle trophy
after all, for we ascertained that'it had been erected
by the house of Brandon of Amsterdam, which can
afford to export the best stearine candles, equal to
spermacetti in appearance, to London, and thence
put them on board, free of all charge, for Austra-
lia, at the rate of lls. 6d. the dozen pounds of 16
oz., a fact which, knowing as we do that a con-
siderably worse quality costs is. Bd. the lb. with
us, wc commend to the wives and mothers of Eng-
land. The French show consisted on Saturday
principally of Frenchmen in various stages of ex-
citement. There were a few ladies, who looked on
anxiously as the cases were opened, and the rich
velvets, grenadines, and mousselaines de sole, were
being opened and hung up. Our gallant neighbours
with all their national politeness seemed to con-
sider their company as rather in the way ; and per-
haps it would be better to postpone further inspec-
tion of this court until its contents have been pro-
perly arranged. The gold and silver and precious
stones, in the English court, we found in the full
tide of success. It was impossible to get near
either Garrard, or Hunt and Roskell, or Hancock,
so attractive were their wares found by the com-
pany. We noticed a distinguished member of the
clerical profession lost in admiration of the Shaks-
pere Vase, a triumph of Monti's art, which Mr.
Hancock has had made at a cost of £6,000, espe-
cially for the Exhibition. It is in oxydized silver,
a beautiful adaptation of the metal, which we have
to thank the French goldsmiths for introducing
amongst us, and will amply repay a careful inspec-
tion. In this court will also be found some speci-
mens of the new metal, aluminium, so celebrated for
its lightness. It is said to be very valuable, but in
appearance it strongly resembles pewter.
It will be hardly necessary to say that the series
of ship models sent by the Admiralty was a centre
of attraction. Everyone's thoughts now run on
Merrimacs and Monitors, and the best means of
resisting them. Let them go to Mr. Piercy, the
the intelligent expounder of nautical mysteries,
and their minds will soon be set at ease. He will
show them the queenly Northumberland, of 6,500
tons, plated :all over with 41-inch plates, and,
unlike the Warrior, invulnerable both at stem
and stern. In juxtaposition to her, the last tri-
umph of the shipwright, stands the quaint old
" Great Harry," a dreadful sea king in its day,
and, in the same range and in progressive series all
our great ships from the time of Mr. Penn, the
master shipwright of the Merry Monarch, down to
the present time. There are cupola ships, and
rams, and double screws, and amongst other things
a very beautiful model of the Victoria and Albert
yacht, constructed by Mr. Piercy himself, and as
accurate as it photograph. And why should we
not be interested in everything that relates to our
ships, and foster everything that tends to their im-
provement ? Putting war out of the question, we
lost 60 war ships and 11,000 men in nine years,
solely because we were content with iron fastening;
for from the moment the use of copper bolts was
discovered, all danger of " the pitchy seams" being
"rent" in the storm disappeared.
Towards the end of the day the two picture gal-
leries became inconveniently crowded, but all we
have left ourselves space to say of either is that the
English one had comparatively a clear atmosphere,
but that the French suffered under what the Aus-
tralians call a regular " brickfielder," which made
the place unbearable beyond a few minutes. A
suggestive commissionaire was of opinion, that a
few watering pots well charged would have laid
the dust. Let us hope that thin simple idea may
some time or other, be adopted by the managment.