The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-05 00:00:00

THE UNITED SERVICE.

The United Service Magazine opens with the
commencement of an article on a subject of very
general interest, " The Recent Arctic Expeditions."
For the benefit of those cautious persons who deride
the expedition for its seeming impracticability we
quote the following very judicious remarks:—
" Regarding therefore the problem of the North-West
Passage as a matter of science, and allowing it little
weight as a practical object of commercial navigation,
we are inclined to consider it as by no means barren of
great moral consequences, and as be fitting the character
of a great maritime nation. If we were to appreciate
the value of geographical discovery generally by the
amount of physical benefit it confers upon the species,
we should find perhaps that it holds but a low place in
the scale of the arts of life. The discovery of America,
and of the modern passage to India, have added little to
the condition of the mere physical man. Men are by
no means more virtuous, and probably in no degree hap-
pier, because they command the spices of India or the
tobacco of America. The wants of man are rather
relative than absolute; the luxuries of India would never
have been coveted, had they never been enjoyed. But
the discovery of America, and the facility of reaching
India, were events which conferred immense advantages
upon mankind. Society has gradually but steadily been
exal'ed in the scale of being, not because these dis-
coveries lin navigation have pampered the fastidious
appetite with costly viands, or modified and changed the
culinary propensities of man; but because his moral
nature has thereby been more fully developed, because
his energies have thereby found 'resh food for employ.
ment, and his functions and capabilities more ample
means of use and exercise. The opening of a new world
awoke a fresh source of dormant energy in man, the
sphere of his existence became expanded, his moral
stature was exalted, and his mental horizon extended
beyond its ancient limits. Thus is it with this long
vexed problem of the North-West Passage, which has
perhaps done for geography and navigation what alchemy
accomplished for chemical science, or what the vain search
for the philosophers stone and perpetual motion effected
for medicine and mechanics. Though the problem
itself may never be entirely solved, and although nothing
that has been accomplished leads us to hope that we are
nearer attaining our object, still it has already rewarded
its followers with important benefits. Naval energy has
received a series of impulses which will not fail in due
season to produce ample fruits; the spirit of enterprise
has been awakened, end the love of knowledge and ad-
venture, has been disseminated: men have been taught

to a truggla with tho stern And tovere diugaro-411
Bored winter, aud to regard pith an unflinching a'
dauntless spirit, the storms, the snows, audieppallag
dangers of the north."
Tile " Hungarian Campaign" is ancluded in a I
spirit with which, it is needless to say, we heartily
sympathise. " That Hungary," says the writer-OX
the United Service," 14 ill yet have der day of
bution is as sure as that the sun of shines is
Heaven. The empire of Austria as LV44.09-1',4 PPir
stituted is, and has long been becomiag,4*-110.oesi
-
bility. Based upon political and social fraud. and -
violence, no empire of such heterogeneous elements
ever held long together, even under a more fagourablo
limitation of the human mind than that of the present
century."

THE JOURNAL OF DESIGN.
We have repeatedly commented on the elegance
and excellence of the pictorial and pen-and-ink con-
tents of the Journal of Design. The perusal of
such works is eminently calculated to exalt the taste
and, consequently, to add to the comfort of the do.
inestic circle. As a specimen of this property of the
Journal of Design, we quote the following passage :
`• It is by no weans an easy matter for people occupy-
ing the usual run of town houses, consisting of dining-
room, study, front and back drawing-rooms, to know
what to du with their 'art properties.' There are but
few people in the middle rank 01 life who do net now
possess some of these matters.
" Let us imagine, in addition to all his furniture, that
a man's stock consists of 4 dark-looking old familypor-
traits, in handsome frames; 6 modern brightly-painted
ditto, in handsome gilt frames; 3
„great unwieldy old
pictures, so-called Luca Giordanos, Snyders, Porepcio
Battonis, &e.; 4 good old pictures, deck, and rather
heavy in colour; 9 odds-and-ends in oil, some good, some
bad; 10 engravings, consisting of 2 Landseers, 1 Frank
Stone, 2 utter Raphael, 1 Una and the Lion, 1 portrait
of the Queen, 1 of the Duke of Wellington, 1 desk old
Woollett after Claude, 1' angelic Guido head; 6 or Ei
water-colour drawings, all pretty good; and some dozen
miscellaneous things in frames, being partly old samplers,
black silhoucttes, children's drawing-dtaster drawings, &c..
"Now we have supposed a by no means uncommon
collection, but one which it is by no means an easy task
to fittingly dispose of. However, kt us try. We should
begin by bringing into the dining-room all the portraits,
incheling that of her Majesty and the Iron Duke. We
should not bring in any of the other pictures, since they
would load the room, and be seen probably by candle-
light only. We should not admit either of the three
unweildy pictures into any of the living rooms, since
they would infallibly make them look small; but we
should hang the best in the entrance-hall, the second+
best halfway up the stairs, and send the worst up to tha
second-floor landing. The Una and the Lion we should
send up to the spare room, since it is only occupied now
and then; the Frank Stone print would suit the bedroom
of the lady of the house; the Guido head the dressing-
room of the proprietor; the two Landseers, the Raphael',
and the Woollett, the study; the miscellanea, the nursery
and the bedrooms; the water-colour drawings, the front
drawing-room. There arc then left only some thirteen
oil pictures to dispose of. We should send the three
worst up to the spare bedroom for reasons aforesaid, and
hang the remaining ten all in the back drawing-room,
which we should fit up as a comfortable room to sit in of
winter evenings, warmer and more cheerful than the
larger room; being lofty in proportion to its size, and lit
by a pendant lamp (one of Messengers' or Winfield's),
the pictures would be well seen, and with small book-
cases, &c., R ould pretty nearly cover the walls. For
several reasons we should not put our oil pictures into
the front drawing-room. In the first place, they would
interfere too much with the lines of the paper-hanging
or decoration; in the second, they would only look
blacker from contrast with the large masses of light tint
about them; in the third, they would appear probably as
holes in the wall unless the entire attention was con-
centrated upon them, unmindful of the general effect of
the room, the object of primary importance; and in the
fourth, from the sizo of the room, and their distance
from the central point of illumination at night, they
could not fail to look dark and uncomfortable and im-
perfectly lit up. One other most important reason for
excluding them is that they would, from their size, heavy
flames, and striking tints, necessarily so approach'
the eye as to materially diminish the apparent size of the
room, an effect that would be almost completely neu-
tralised by massing a number together, as we should
have done in our back drawing-room. Having now dis-
posed of all our properties,' and so got over this puns
asinorum of our own erection, we must leave the further
record of our 'experiences' until a future time, when
nous reviendrons it nos moutons egares, and to the dining-
room and its fittings•up."
The utility of this periodical to the artist and artizma
is too obvious to need exemplification.