The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-20 00:00:00

in this instance means very plainly that he
will not interfered with, and despite the disguise
of ingenious language in which its unpalateable
truths are enveloped, the unwelcome truth is only
too apparent, and the ungracious meaning is clearly
evinced. It is not the right way to propitiate a
people to refuse to hear any statement of grievances,
whether they are well founded or groundless ; and
it is not the way to illustrate the merits of a new
system to maintain a dogged silence and an impene-
trable mystery and haughty reserve. The Emperor
evidently looks upon the nobles with a jealous eye,
and is determined at all hazards to resist their power
and curtail their privileges. This he will find a very
dangerous game to play out ; and, indeed, it is to
be questioned if he will not find that he is reckon-
ing without his host in the hazardous venture.
There is one peculiarity in the language of
the Emperor NICHOLAS which is by no means
a favourable one, or likely to win him respect.
He becomes almost profane in his perverse endea-
vours to prove himself in the right, and when he
is at a loss for a new argument he falls back upon
his Bernier resort of declaring himself under the
guidance of Heaven. Thus in the present document
we find he mentions that the " right of initiative"
belongs to him alone, and " is indissolubly bound
up with the autocratic power entrusted to him by
GOD." It is very convenient for these tyrants that
all things work for their ends, and that all laws,
human and divine, concur in sanctioning their
cause and furthering their plans. It shows a total
want of reverence in those who utter such phrases,
and it is to be greatly deplored that the practice
prevails in so many quarters. The more unjust
the cause, the more vehement are the appeals to
Eternal Justice—the greater the scandal to the
nations of the earth, the stronger the claim that is
asserted upon the favour and protection of HEAVEN.
The two extremes of tyranny and democracy seem
to unite in pursuing this course, and the Emperor
of RUSSIA, for his part, only adopts the tactics of
Federal Generals and Washington statesmen.

After declaiming upon his sacred rights and im-
mutable privileges, the CZAR goes on to determine

the duties of others. He gives a very wide scope to
himself as to what he may do, but he confines the
powers of others into very narrow limits indeed.
Thus we hear that " Nobody is privileged to inter-
cede with me in favour of the general interests and
necessities of the State." It is very likely, indeed,
that there is considerable truth in the intimation
that in no case whatever will they be able to attain
their objects. None, after perusing this Rescript,
can believe that the representations of any class
will weigh at all in the balance of Imperial policy,
or that any influence will be exercised upon the
Government by the wishes of the community.
A very broad hint is conveyed towards the con-
clusion of this document, doubtless calculated to im-
press upon those referred to the utter uselessness of
their present efforts, and also the impolicy and in-
convenience of their ever again renewing the ven-
ture or looking out for a more favourable oppor-
tunity. The EMPEROR entertains the firm convic-

tion that he will not henceforth " encounter similar
obstacles upon the part of the Russian nobility."
Surely the Russian nobility cannot be so obtuse as
not to see the meaning of this paragraph so ingeni-
ously introduced into the intimation, and they have
good cause to regret and resent the manner in which
they have been treated. There is no consistency in
the course of the EMPEROR ; he professes to have the
welfare of his subjects at heart, andto be hard at work
in the great project of emancipation, and at the
same time he denies in toto the right of any class to
express its opinions upon the effects produced by
a change, or to advocate its claims to consideration
on account of any grievance. This is not the manner
in which constitutional principles are carried out in
any other part of the world, and the Emperor
ALEXANDER will find that he fails egregiously in his
one-sided plans of freedom. It remains to be seen
if the haughty nobility of Russia will submit tamely
to this virtual denial of their prerogatives and sup-
pression of their power ; but whether openly or
covertly, a decided and determined opposition is
sure to be made to the future furtherance of the
EMPEROR'S schemes, and the sentiment of unity, so
necessary to the success of any great national work
is certain to be wanting, while one class is divided
against another and the ruler only seeks his own
selfish ends.

The ,‘ Turkish Bath;" Its Advantages and

Dangers•

FINE ARTS.

General Exhibition of Water Colour
Drawings.

DUDLEY GALLERY, EGYPTIAN HALL: PICCADILLY.

A most successful inauguration has here been
achieved of an enterprise long felt to be desirable.
Until now the Water Colourists of this country
have had no adequate opportunity of ensuring the
exhibition of their powers, unless by, first of all,
becoming members of one or the other of the
two eminent associations, devoted to the culti-
vation of this branch of the art, in Pall-mall.
The Old Society and the New Society—the
one in Pall-mall East, the other in Pall-mall
West—have, in this way, shared between them,
heretofore, almost the whole of the exhibiting
powers of the metropolitan galleries, as applied
to Water Colour Drawings. For, the walls of a
single room at the Royal Academy, and that
room one of the smaller ones, and even the sur-
face, there, such as it was, monopolised by minia-
tures—might almost be set down as nil, or, at any
rate, as " next to nothing," in the way of affording
intendingwater-colour-drawing-exhibitors the smal-
lest chance of accommodation. Between the two
societies, Old and New, therefore, no more than about
a hundred artists (or say a hundred and thirty at the
very outside) could hope to obtain an opportunity of
competing for public favour by an exhibition of
their capabilities. Remembering this, and remem-
bering also that that restricted group of merely, one
hundred, or one hundred and thirty water-colour
painters, does but very inadequately indeed represent
the actual number of the cultivators of that beauti-
ful branch of the graphic art—it must be manifest
upon the instant that precisely the very enterprise
now formally inaugurated at the Dudley Gallery of
the Egyptian-hall, in Piccadilly, was really and
truly a " case in point," for once, of what is called
in the commercial slang of puff prospectuses, a desi-
deratum. On the walls and screens of the gallery just
mentioned there are, in fact, now hanging as many
as five hundred and nineteen proofs positive (more
or less convincing, according to their merit)
—519 proofs positive of the fact here in-
sisted upon. The present year, remember, is the
First Year of this (as it is now intended to be)
annual General Exhibition. The notion was only
called into working operation within the last twelve-
months. And, here, is the inaugural result ! A
Result so satisfactory of its kind, as to be already
a complete justification of the scheme now happily
set agoing (with the fairest possible prospect of suc-
cess) by its projectors. Five Hundred Water Colour
Drawings of genuine and unmistakable excellence
now adorning the walls and screens of the Dudley
Gallery, constitute this effectual justification.
But, while saying this, it may be notified by
us at the same time, that more than thrice five
hundred water colour drawings were actually
sent in for exhibition, and that only one-third
of the number could by possibility be selected,
(as far as possible according to their merit of
course), by reason of the restricted space afforded
by the Gallery for Exhibition. The General
Exhibition is announced by its managers to be
—not in any way that of a new Society. The
managers even go beyond that where they assert,
rather oddly, as it appears to us, at starting,
that it is not intended in any way to rival existing
Exhibitions. At any rate, whether so designed
or not, it certainly does rival them, even at start-
ing. Such at least is the distinct impression pro-
duced upon us as the result of our saunter two or
three times round the crowded apartment on Satur-
day afternoon—that being the occasion of the Pri-
vate View ! To-day (Monday) being the occasion,
consequently, of the first throwing open of the doors
of this " General Exhibition of Water Colour Draw-
ings" to the Public at large. Upon the whole, we
repeat the Exhibition is really remarkable for its
excellence. As a First Exhibition, in fact, it is
most remarkable. It is so much of a success
that it appears to us to be only fair (upon the
principle, so far as the management is concerned,
of palmam qui meruit, &c.), that we should particu-
larise by name—
THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE.
C. R. Aston. 11. J. Johnson.

R. Beavis,

George

H. Brabazon.
W. S. Coleman.
T. Cooper.
Frank Dillon.

Thos. R. Mcquoid.
H. Moore.
J. Needham.
H. Pilleau.

Charles Earle.
W. W. Fenn.
G. F. Glennie.
H. C. Herries.
G. L. Hall.
Edmund Hawkins.
E. Hamilton, M.D.

E. J. Poynter.
W. Severn.
Simeon Solomon.
Tom Taylor.
Field Talfourd.
S., Vincent.
Frank Walton.

Several among these, by the way, as, for example,
Messrs. Aston, Coleman, Dillon, Earle, Johnson,
McQuoid, Poynter, and Walton, hold high rank
among the number of the actual exhibitors. Be-
yond the central group of the committee, however,
—it being, here, as with the enlarging ring upon
ring, caused by the dropping of a stone into deep
water—there spreads forth circle beyond circle of other
accomplished cultivators, both male and female, of
the exquisite art of Water Colour Drawing. An
art, so far as atmospheric effects are concerned far,
far beyond that of oil painting ! An art giving, in
fact, to the painter who uses the materiel of it with
anything at all like genius, a subtler power for the
portraiture of Nature in landscapes and sea views,
than any otherwise accessible to the grasp of the
artist ! _Hence, in effect, the very themes selected
—as, for example, in this very exhibition—for por-
traiture by our water-colourists ! Here, Wind
and Rain (100), here, Shade and Sunshine
(124)—now a Sunny Afternoon (126), now
a Cloudy Day (209)—yonder a Fresh Breeze
(154), yonder, again, a Sandy Lane in the Spring-

time (296)—one while a Misty Morning (279),
another an Autumnal Afternoon (303). Almost
immediately on crossing the threshold of the Gal-
lery—the eye notes, with a sense of gratification,
three or four charming little street-scenes at Caen,

in which the architecture of Normandy has been
most truthfully and, therefore, most picturesquely
delineated by the pencil of T. R. Macquoid. One
of them, a sketch that would have gladdened the
heart of Sterne (13) La Remise ! Distributed more
widely through the Gallery, and not grouped thus
in a cluster, are several noteworthy drawings by
Arthur Severn. A wonderfully impressive, imperial,
pontifical view of " Rome" (23)1, and a noble, even
in some sense a singularly daring representation,
upon a large scale, in (65), of—what ? Sea and
Sky, or rather Sea and Cloudland entitled,

"Waves by Moonlight !" A giant breaker, swelling,
heaving, rolling, booming—shorewards ! A pic-
ture, pausing before which, we recall to mind almost
involuntarily that thunderous echo from the verse
of Chatterton descriptive of Winter, when—
" Rising whirlwinds, blasting shrill and loud,
Roll the white surges to the sounding shore 1"

Twilight has seldom been pourtrayed more felici-
tously than in Jose Tapero's " Ite Domum—vemt
Hesperus" (32). Even among the minor contribu-
tions, such as those of fruit and dead game, there is
much discernible that is highly meritorious--as in the
colouring of John Sherrin's
L 6 Woad Pigeon" (129),
or in Miss H. Coleman's " Hazel Nut" (148), with
the crinkling leaves just beginning to be autumnally
tinted ! Passing along the gallery, on a first visit,
one has, here and there, many a casually noted
inducement to pause even before seeming trifles—
the pretty animation of " Girl and Butter-
fly " (210), the voluptuous Greek profile of the
" Autinoiis Dionysiacus" (239), or let us say, again,
before a little diamond gem of a picture (as of a
landscape seen through the small end of a telescope),
such as " Autumn's Golden Leaf " (269), by R.
Redgrave, the Royal Academician. That old fami-
liar friend of the million, Phiz, by the way, is
noticeable, here, among the number of the Exhibitors
—under his proper name, however—as Hablot K.
Browne : his most spirited contribution to the gal-
lery being, beyond a doubt of it, the helter skelter
Harry-Lorrequer, Jack-Hinton, Charles-O'Malley
sort of a steeplechase leap of a Pooka, at once over
the head of a Paddy and the edge of a precipice !
One word—before closing our notice of this brilliant
and varied Exhibition of the outsiders among our
many-gifted Water-Colourists—one slight passing
word we would here offer by way of suggesting
that there may be a trifle more care taken ior the