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

CANADA.

QUEBEC, APRIL 28.
His Excellency the Governor-General has further
prorogued Parliament until the Ist June.
" There is an impression," observes the Toronto
Leader, " that the delegation of Canadian Mini-
sters will ask the Imperial Government to guarantee
the whole of our public debt, thus enabling us to
reduce the interest from 5 per cent. to about 21.
If this proposal be acceded, Canada would be able
to take upon herself the cost of the contemplated
fortifications, without incurring any additional bur-
then. The advantages to Canada would not be
confined to reduction of the interest payable on our
debt of 11 per cent. ; for we couldnot borrow with-
out the guarantee at anything like 5 per cent., pro-
bably not at 6. In this way the views of the Imperial
Government would be more than half met. We
should undertake the defensive works which they
deem desire at our own cost, but England would be
responsible as endorser, not only for this particular
expenditure, but for the whole of the pre-existing
debt of Canada. About £20,000,000 would be the
amount for which a guarantee would be required."
Bishop Bourget, of the Montreal diocese, who
has been for some time in Rome, being desirous of
establishing a university in the mercantile capital
of Lower Canada, applied to the Roman Court for
the necessary privilege ; but its decision has been
unfavourable to the project. The authorities of
Laval University at Quebec opposed the scheme.
It is understood that a branch establishment of the
Laval University will be opened in Montreal instead
of the projected independent institution.

The Institut Canadien of Montreal has sent an
address to Washington, condoling with the Republic
on the assasination of its chief magistrate.
The headquarters of the military department, it
is currently rumoured,. will be removed from Mon-
treal to Quebec during the spring. Arrangements
to that effect will be carried out by Major-General
Sir John Michel, on his arrival next month. This
gallant officer is to replace Lieut.-General Fenwick
Williams. About $3,000 have been subscribed in
Montreal towards the relief of the sufferers by the
flood at Sorrel. A far larger sum is sure to beraised,
as the city is to be canvassed. At Becancour, be-
tween Richmond and Quebec, over 200 buildings
were destroyed by the inundation.

Mr. Cardwell has written to the Lieutenant-
Governor of Nova Scotia, informing him that the
labours of the Fishery Commission, established
under the reciprocity treaty, will be terminated as
soon as possible in consequence of the notice given
to that effect by the United States.
The St. John River (New Brunswick), was
opened for navigation the first week of April,
earlier than for 60 years. In 1846 it opened on
April 9th.
Both Houses of the Legislature of Prince Ed-
ward Island have joined in an address to the Queen
in opposition to the project of Confederation as laid
down in the resolutions of the Quebec Conference.
They observe that, after mature deliberation, we have
arrived at the conclusion that the proposed Con-
federation, so far as it is contemplated to embrace
Prince Edward Island would prove disastrous to the
best interests and future prosperity of the colony.
Trade of every description is extremely dull
dull throughout the province, and bad times seem
loomirrg ahead. The list of bankrupts published
weekly in the Gazette is formidable.

ROME.
THE NEW ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.
RO3IE, May 6.

By the nomination of Dr. Manning as Cardinal
Wiseman's successor, the Pope has rejected the three
candidates presented by the Catholic clergy and
bishops of England. Those candidates were
Bishops Ullathorne, Clifford, and Grant. Dr.
Manning was most devoted .to Cardinal Wiseman,
and in taking possession of the diocese of West-
minster, it is confidently believed, will follow the
policy of his predecessor. The nomination has pro-
duced a great impression here.
Signor Vegezzi left Rome yesterday. He goes to
Turin to confer with his Government, and give cer-
tain explanations it would have been very difficult
for him to give in writing. He has assured
Cardinal Antonelli that in a very short time
he should return with more precise instruc-
tions to terminate the negotiations. It may
not be generally known that, throughout the
progress of the affair, Signor Vegezzi has always
treated directly with the Cardinal, who has shown
that diplomatic skill which has procured him so high
a reputation. Taking into consideration the posi-
tion of the Pope, the Italian plenipotentiary declared
that his Government thought it best to release the
bishops of the old pontifical provinces from taking
the oath, but Cardinal Antonelli pointed out that
this dispensation, if granted only to the bishops of
the Romagna, the Marches, and Umbria, would
place the Italian Government in a very embarrass-
ing position, and that it was also necessary to grant
the exemption to the bishops of all Italian provinces.
By this course the Government of King Victor Em-
manuel would begin to put in practice the principle
it had proclaimed, of "a free Church in a free State."
The Cardinal's opinion prevailed; the Italian Govern-
ment hasagreed to give all bishops possession of their
dioceses without the necessity of taking the oath,
and of submitting bulls to the placet of the King. This
is a Papal triumph, but how long it may endure is
a question. The Italian Parliament will un-
doubtedly do everything in its power to reverse the
step, and the Turinese and Neapolitan press already
begin to inveigh against the concession made by the
La Marmora Ministry. Upon his return to Rome
Signor Vegezzi will be accompanied by Monsignor
Charvaz, the Archbishop of Genoa, formerly the
King's tutor. This prelate belongs to the moderate
party, and enjoys the confidence o both the Pope

and the King. One great source of embarrassment
is Father Ballerini, appointed Archbishop of Milan
by the Emperor of Austria a few days previous to
the-battle of Magenta, and recognised by the Pope.
The Italian Government has not yet given this pre-
late possession of his see, and the Milanese clergy
have openly protested against the appointment.
The matter might be settled if the Holy See could
prevail upon Father Ballerini to send in his re-
signation, but it is thought he would refuse, Milan
being the most important diocese in Italy.
Opinions at Rome upon the question are divided.
The Moderates approve the Pope's method of pro-
viding for the vacant sees ; the reactionists are
alarmed and unable to blame the course adopted in
sufficiently energetic terms. The most vehement
are the Neapolitan exiles, who consider the agree-
ment between the Pope and Victor Emmanuel
inimical to the rights of the King of Naples. They
have even drawn up a kind of protest upon the
subject, which is incorrectly attributed to the in-
fluence of the king. The Pope has, however,
informed both Francis 11. and the ex-Grand Duke
of Tuscany that he shall immediately appoint
bishops to the sees vacant in their former dominions,
and
-that he will be ready to nominate such eccle-
siastics worthy of the honour as they may com-
mand.

The deputation sent to Rome by the Emperor
Maximilian had encountered a very stormy recep-
tion at the Vatican. The Pope addressed the bishop,
who is one of the members of the deputation, in
strong terms, declaring he wished to be no longer
deceived. He added that the Emperor Maximilian
was the worthy successor of Juarez, whose policy
he continued in all things regarding the Church.

FRANCE,

ST. NAZAIRE, MAY 12.

The steamer Florida, from Vera Cruz, on the
14th ult., has arrived here. She brings 233 pas-
sengers and $200,000 in specie.
BOURSE, May 11.—Although no very material
modification has taken place in the prices of the
various Securities, the same symptoms of relaxation
which characterised yesterday's dealings previous to
the close have been generally manifested during the
earlier hours of business to-day. Threes, for the
Account, are now quoted at 67fr. 65c., Mobilier at
805 fr., and Italian Fives 65fr. 70c. The last quo-
tations were as follows :

41 per Cents 95 50
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 67 65
Do. end month 67 65
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month
Bank Shares 3750
Credit Fonder 1280
Roman

75 501
RAILI

Italian Loan 65 55
Do. end month 65 65
Ditto Threes 4l 20
New Mexican
Russian 9l 50
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt

Deferred
WAYS.

Cash. Acct.
Orleans
Northern lO7O ... 1067 50
Lyons and Mediterranean 9Ol 25 ... 903 75
Southern 598 75 ... 601 25
Western 530 ... 530
Eastern
Sardinian 307 50 ... 305
Austrian
Lombard 542 50 ... 545
North of Spain 260 258 75
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona

Political Assassination.

The Unita Cattoilea 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 June 28, 1850, she received
a violent blow with a stick from one Robert Pate, a retired
lieutenant of the 10th Hussars.

THE 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 PARmA.—On March 20, 1854, Ferdinand
Charles 111., Duke of Parma, returning from an excursion,
was hustledby 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 OF SPAIN (a socond attempt).—On May 28,
1856, as Queen Isabella was passing in her carriage along
the Rue de I'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.

TIE 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 lII.—In 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 game 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 OF 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 ll.—ln 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 truly 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 into-
resting labours ; but, feeling, as all medical practitioners
must, how many unsolved problems there are of the influ-
ence of weather upon human Rie 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 oppertunity 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 wore 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.

--411.

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 same 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-known, and one of them we might
even say world - famous, productions of the
artistic genius and manipulative skill of Holman
Hunt, the vatt 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 pictue, 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, a pet 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 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 !) —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 a/ 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 !
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 ! Another
wonderful morsel of the picture—ones 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 mast
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"

eff rt
/11 far
eitn

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.