The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-29 00:00:00

CUYP AND BE.RGHEM.

The lovers of the Dutch School of Art will thank
us, we are certain, for recommending them to look
in, en passant, during the next few days, should
they chance to have the opportunity, at the Picture
Gallery of our many-years' neighbour, Mr. Barrett,
on the opposite side (369) of the Strand. For there
are now on view in that gallery—fugitively, of
course, and, we will add, gratuitously—
two very charming and, indeed, remark-
able specimens of the Dutch School : a Cuyp and
a Berghem. The Berghem especially, to our think
ing, is really exquisite. It is a cabinet picture, in

the centre of which a young peasant lassie is seen
wading across 'a stream carrying under her left
arm a kid, the offspring of the old goat, plasn-
ing through the water by the girl's side, looking
up into her face the while, and bleating. It is the
prettiest little incident, and the way in which
it is rendered throughout by the artist's hand,
is as charming as the incident. The lim-
pidity of the water alone is a refreshment to
look at in this hot weather. The superior impor-
tance of the Cuyp—at once in value, in subject, and
in treatment—is as manifest, of course, as its larger
size, or as the greater name of the artist from whose
hand it has emanated. It is only less to our liking
by comparison with the little Berghem by
its side—which latter we, at the first
glance, take to heart as a gem. Liquidity
there is here, too, sparkling and diaphonous
in the early breath of the morning. A boat is
bringing ashore with a slow and measured beat of
the oars, a Cavalier, whose horse, richly capari-
soned, waits for him on the bank, together with the
horse of his dismounted attendant. Both of these
valuable works belonged, it appears, to the late Mr.
Birch, a connoisseur of rare taste, well-known
in artistic circles, as having " collected" for various
❑oblemen and gentlemen his contemporaries, among
them for M. Des Fons, the original owner of the
noble Gallery of Pictures at Dulwich. For it was
M. Des Fons who bequeathed that superb coliec •
tion to Sir Francis Bourgeois—the nation raceiving
it afterwards as a magnificent gift bequeathed to it
by Sir Francis Bourgeois.

Lady Emily Peel is still at Ems, and is recover-
ing from her recent indisposition. On leaving Ems, Lady
Emily will go to Geneva, where she will be met t y Sir
Robert Peel, who departs for Switzerland after the proro-
gation of Parliament.

THE HARVEST IN FRANCE.—New wheat made
its appearance in the Paris Corn-market on Wednesday
last. Farmers show a great desire to profit by the present
high prices, from which fact his inferred that they are satis-
fied with their crops—those, at least, who reside in the
neighbourhood of Paris. They offer to sell a large quantity
of wheat for delivery in the course of the month of August,
according as they can thrash it, but the millers who attend
the Paris market will not buy more than can be delivered
within eight days. Several lots were sold for immediate
delivery at 37f and 37f 50c the sack of 110 kilogrammes for
choice samples, and at 36f to 36f 50c for good utility.
There was no new wheat of inferior quality offered for sale.
Choice samples of old wheat are quoted at 37f 50c the sack
of 120 kilogrammes. First quality, 37f; and inferior, 35f
50c. Several farmers from the neighbourhood of Lyons
sold new wheat in the Paris market at 36f 50c, and 37f to
be delivered before the 15th of August, and at from 35f to
35f 50c for delivery up to the sth of September. The buyers
were chiefly millers from the north of France and from
Picardy.

PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON MUSIC.—At an exarni•
nation last week of Mr. Douglas's school, Great King-
street, Edinburgh, Professor Blackie, when about to dis-
tribure the prices, said, I consider the proper soul of a good
school is evidently here--I mean music, and nothing but
music. We Scotch have neglected music very much in
our schools. (Hear, hesr.) We seem to think it is no
thing but a sort of very elegant thing, by which young
ladies may amuse stupid gentlemen in stupid drawing..
rooms after stupid dinner parties. (Laughter.) I hope
we are getting above that idea, which I know was per-
fec, ly common in Scotland some thirty or forty years ago.
I hope you have got above that idea, and know now the
great harmoniser of the soul, without which everything
else in man is apt to get into a state of disobedience and
revolution, in things sacred, and in things profane, if,
indeed, there can be anything profane about that noble
and divine art. I doubt very much whether music ever
can be profane; and I'll give you two tests to find out
whether. you are in a good state of mind, morally and
religiously. If 3ou are jealous or discontented, or spiteful
in any way—if the devil has got hold of you, or about to
get hold of you by the back of the neck, I tell you there
are two things you cannot do. You cannot pray, and you
cannot sing. No person when his mind is out of tune can
sing with his throat in tune—that is impossible. You'll
never commit murder singing a hymn. As the Germans,
the best mus:cians in the world, say—' Where you hear
people singing, there sit down in peace and quiet; bad
men have no song.' I say I must give myself vent in this
affair to express my great delight in having found the
great harmoniser music so predom nant in this school. I
have been in schools very learned, where a great deal of
Greek and Latin are paraded, and never heard music at
all, and yet the Greeks made music the half of their edu-
cation. In the English universities, I am glad to say,
much more attention has been paid to music, and I hope
in all schools, academies, and college, it will in ten years
have become as universal as it has long been in Germany,
the most musical• and philosophical country in the world.
(A.pplatuse4