The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-28 00:00:00

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS.

The following petition, signed by a number of 010
was presented to the House of Commons on Monday for
20th inst., by Montagu Chambers, Esq., member the
Greenwich, and was referred to the committee 011
National Gallery :—.

" Your petitioners humbly prayeth, Ito
" That your honourable house will institute inquity 10
the management of that part of the National Uoile"'„0111
which the members of theßoyal Academy of Arts AO" 01l
exhibit their pictures, in order to ascertain whether Oa
annual exhibition as now conducted by the Royal Actl4,
has a tendency to encourage the fine arts in this eettri":„'Oar
Your petitioners beg to call the attention of 00
honourable house to one of the conditions entered Lt";ive
the part of the founders of this institution 0
viz., " 1°1)00
and annual exhibition of the works of living artists, the
to all productions of merit whether by the members of eat
Academy or not." But though such an arrangel9a it
might have suited the exigencies of art 811 yeav3gc;en"
obviously fails to do so in the latter half of the 19
4-,;0011
tury, where the space provided in the National Li vie
for the annual exhibition is insufficient to admit one v
tare from each artist in the metropolis alone. tli
"But should your honourable house be of opinion >n
is not necessary for the advancement of the fine
England that exhibition accommodation should L'o,:ient
vided by Government for more than a tithe of the pre no-
number of English artists, your petitioner urges t'-` pie'
cessity of some other mode being adopted of selectteugat at
tures to be exhibited in the National Gallery thAni,t-ooer
present resorted to ; for it will be obvious to your ''°„hibi-
able house that where works of art are selected for !?" 1011
tion by artists who are themselves exhibitors, 10011
sometimes occur that pictures painted by those artiste
find a place in the exhibition though others of super
merit be excluded.
er
" Your petitioners would not have intruded th.'!,,-thei
vation on the attention of your honourable house (blotter
not believe themselves in a position to prove that better
pictures are systematically excluded from the nenubibited•
bition in the National Gallery than many therein ,oese
Into this fact your petitioner begs your honourah2!?_tionel
to institute, inquiry, believing as they do that the i"`boild.
Gallery is not only national property, but the ontY_,fitod
ing in England provided by Government for the
exhibition of the works of living artists. tten.
" In conclusion, permit your petitioners to call the e
tion of your honourable house to the parliaments4l,ol
now proceeding respecting the manement of the ail be
as regards the works of the old masters, to be
mit to your honourable house that such inquiry
0", that
incomplete unless extended to the management,
1100 of
part of the National Gallery devoted to the exlu
the works of living artists.
"
" And your petitioners, &c., &c., will ever POP

TURKISH ARMY AND NAVY.—We extract the folloW
ing notice on the army and navy of Turkey fromit' the
eently-published work, entitled "Turkey and a
Cabinets of Europe," by M. Francisque Bouvet, e
is
f'
representative of the people. The active army
divided into six great cors, correspondirw with the SP-
military divisions of the territory. Eachbof these call
or ordous is
composed of from 25,000 to 30,000 men :0
all arms. It is no longer kept up, as formerly, by t
arbitrary pressure of the governors of the provinces, or
by levies en masse, but by ballot. Mussulina,ns only are
liable to serve, and this is now the only distinction that
remains between them and the Cnristians. A few °ln_
.
panics of workmen for the ships and the arsenals are
however, composed of Armenians. The liability to active
service begins at the age of 18, and the period of service is
fixed at 7 years, but at the end of this time the men ar.
ble
liable to serve in the army of reserve for 5 years. T!
reserve is called rddifs ; its organisaton is the same A.;
that of the troops in active service ; all the arms and
equipments are kept in the arsenals of state, and are
supplied to the troops when they are called out. Every
autumn after the harvest, the redifs are assembled in
the provinces, and exercised for a month, during which
they receive pay. By this system the Porte, although
keeping up a standing army of only 150,000 men, eau
at any time increase it to 400,000. This organisation of
the army is the work of Riza Paella a man of great in-
telligence and patriotism. The Turkish navy is still re-
spectable even after the disaster of Navarino. It owe
its revival to the famous Tahir. There are sixty WO
of war afloat, several of which are steamers ; and at
Constantinople everybody believes that the Turkish
navy has nothing to fear from the Russian fleet in the
Black Sea."
ROUEN.—The letters from Rouen state that the mar:
ket for manufactures was heavy. Although prices had
not exhibited a further decline, the small attendance 01
buyers checked the usual course of operations.