The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-12 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY ft EVENING, JULY 12,_1847..

FINE ARTS.
JOY'S P01?71?.-11T OP REAR-ADMIRAL 811?

PIP -P, • P.,
\Ve were on Saturnay admitted to the private view of
Mr. T. M. J 937's r(eently painted portrait of Admiral
Sir Charles Napier,•at nr.-I\leeson's•lianover Galleries,
33, Georg.l“treet, Hanover-square. It is a full length,
and the r,,allant hero is represented •in.full• uniform, in
the act of mounting the broach at the -siege of Acre, •
cheering any leading on his men,
and animating them
by his example. As a portrait it is unmistakeably like.
It is the very hero of Acre himself, features; figure, atti-
tude, expression—it is the very man as -
.he it.
As a work of 'art it is very fine. The
artist has managed his lights and shades beautifully, so
as to bring out the figure strongly, and it is paintud in
that broad style that is exactly suited fur a public gal-
lery. The picture is intended for the Hall of Greenwich
Hospital, and when placed there it will constitute one of
the principal objects of attraction in that celebrated naval
portrait gallery. Her Majesty, to whom it has been
submitted, has expressed herself much pleased with it,
both as a portrait and a work of art. Mr. Mecson is
about, we understand, to publish an engraving of this
portrait, from the burin of Mr. Carlos. It is one of
those pictures that is exactly suited for " black and
white," and we have no doubt but that the engraving of
the portrait of the " gallant old Commodore' will be
sought after by persons of every degree throughout the
United Kingdom, from the peer to the peasant.

THE HEROINES OF SHAKSPERE.
Purl XIV.
The mere enumeration of the names appended to
each engraving in this inimitable serial is in itself a
panegyric upon the genius of our great Shakspere.
Those names so fraught with the remembrance of
passion and of interest, so allied to the recollection of
poetry, now tender and now sublime, nowsparkling into
wit and now dissolving into pathos ! Thirteen numbers
have already appeared, each containing the imaginary
portraits of three of the female creations of the most
wonderful of all poets, each portrait representing a
character complete in its individuality, and more
familiar to the popular imagination than the heroines
of any other dramatist. Still is the theme any-
thing but exhausted ; in the part just pub-
lished, for example, there are sketches of charac-
ters not less conspicuous than Cressida, Portia,
and Katharine, the first by Kenny Meadows, the
second by T. W. Wright, the third by A. Egg.
Katharine, though somewhat too sombre in attire, is
almost scornful enough to freeze the heart of the
jocund Petruchio, when he is bantering her thus by
playing on the pet abbreviation of her name
" You are call'd plain Kate,
And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst ;
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom,
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,
For dainties are all cates."

We can fancy how Christopher Sly stared for the
nonce, how he wagged his frouzy head in his
velvet frill, how he called a second time, and with
more gusto yet—" For God's sake bring me a cup of
small beer !" when he looked on the tart visage of
Katharine and heard the saucy gibes of Petruchio.
Portia is the worthy daughter of Cato, and what is
much the same, the noble wife of Brutus. She is
saying to her lord gently and beseechingly, " D+Nell
I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure."
Cressida is a graceful limning of a face yet more
gracefully drawn on wood already by the artist of
Tyas's Shakspere. She seem,
l s not likely to be num-
bered amongst those whom Troilus derides as—
" - scanted with a single famish'd kiss,
Di. tasted with the salt of broken tears."
Cressida has evidently just been correcting the
knuckles of the old demirep Pandarus, and is gazing
into the amorous eyes of Troilus.

THE ART-UNION JOURNAL.
As usual, here are an abundance of embellish-
ment, an abundance of criticism, and an abund-
ance of artistic information. The leading article
is written in commemoration of that glorious edifice
which is still in progress on the banks of the
Thames at Westminster structure which will for
centuries be a memento of the enterprise and genius
of the age of Victoria. A bold likeness of Eugene
Neureuther, with sketches of some of his fantastic,
but most imaginative designs, and an effective biogra-
phical notice will be examined with interest, as
will also the portraits and miniature memoirs
of Edward Mathew Ward, the painter of the cele-
brated picture of " Dr. Johnson reading the manu-
script of the Vicar of Wakefield in the lodgings of
Oliver Goldsmith ;" and of E. H. Bally, the sculptor
of that incomparable gem of art, which has gained a
name like Thomson 's " Seasons"—Baily's Eve at
the Fountain. Pyne's " Letters on Landscape"
and Mrs. S. C. Hall's fairy-tale are both continued,
the latter with, as usual, the most lavish illustration.

LOCH LAGGAN—THE QUEEN'S
VISIT.
(From the Inverness Courier.)
The scenery of Loch Laggan, amidst which our gra-
cious Queen is about to pass a portion of the summer,
is among the most remote and grand in Scotland ; and
yet it is not so bleak or wild from its position as many
would suppose. Ardverikie (King Fergus's Mount),
the shooting-lodge cf Lord Abercorn, which is to be the
temporary residence of her Majesty and Prince Albert,
lies on the south side of the lake, and is about sixty
miles in a right line south of Inverness. It is sur
sounded with beautiful woods of birch and oak, and
belts of young and less hardy forest trees, from
which deflect on all aides interminable heaths and
corries, the abodes of multitudes of the roe and red
deer, of the blackcock, red grouse, and ptarmigan.
In the copses along the lake side may be seen some
of the largest aspens, mountain ash, and birch trees
in Scotland, and the adjoining moors abound with
enormous roots and stems of oak and pine trees, the
relics of an ancient forest. A most excellent road, with
good country inns, traverses the district from Fort-Wil-
liam to Kingussie in Badenoch (a distance, in all, of
54 miles), and the peculiar Highland features of the
scenery are often relies ed by considerable patches of
corn land, and by long terraced batiks of the greenest
pasture. The mountain screens all round are grand in
the extreme, and varied in their outlines, from the bare
mural Alps of Ben Nevis, Loch Treig, and Glencoe, to
the round-backed, desolate, and undivided ranges of the
Monaliadh and Grampians, while over the whole is
cast much of that stern and solemn stillne-s so
generally felt in passing through the solitudes
of Skye and, Sutherland. Human associations, however,
are not wanting to give additional interest to this
locality. There is Inverlochy Castle, whose history is
lost in high antiquity—Glenroy, curious alike in its
wonderful natural roads and terraces as in its name and
Celtic recollections —Corryarrick, by which Prince
Charles's army passed on its march to the low country
—Keppoch, the residence of a branch of the Clan Coils,
that can trace back its lineage to Robert the Bruce—
Craig Dhu,
Macphersons, guarding their Chief's Castle, beautifully
the high beacon and gathering hill of the
nestled on its western slope—and Loch Laggan
with its island, its ruined castle, and all its surrounding
homesteads—the undoubted earliest scats of the Scottish
monarchy—and deriving their names from Fergus
and other kings and heroes who had there their
hunting• grounds, and whose feats are still handed down
in the Celtic songs of other years. A more romantic
and spirit-stirring district for the Sover_eig.n and her
royal household to repose in does not exist in all Scot-
land.
dell, Commander of the Forces
An official return has been ordered by General Rid-
neesmmoda,tbredoirndiFnaorr3t,
in Scotland, of the
number of soldiers that can be
await of her
ald it Augustus.has rr h ereturnaccordingly
ewasen trr ea qo us
ni r
tdt e
dt be immediate,
gi?mal:rmer
iersdeoitnautroc .11.1
about 300 can be temporarily accommodated in the Fort,
though the buildings are in a dile.pidatef:l condition
Tmm oiol
military
probably
yra
or
btpeaurbrl
purposes
oo
sl
refers
esi
feerrs
s wouldit no Fthireta-ahAps
app
rrgodut
:se that
ihsneg
Majesty.
-- -
DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
Symptoms of the conclusion of the session and of the
Parliament continue to increase and multiply. It is now
evident to the most casual observer that the days of the
desirous to bring to a con-
They no further practical results
Parliament of 1841 are numbered. Even if the Govern-
ment were desirous of prolonging the session, it appears
to be quite evident that all their powers would enable
them to do so much longer. But in reality they are not.
clusn
can be expected, and they are no less anxious to shorten
aaresesnsai
the excitement and the distraction of time from useful
and necessary occupations, which are engendered and
kept up by the now known and ascertained approach
of a speedy dissolution. Government was—and is
naturally a
fromlly
—most anxious to bringthe session to an end as
soon after the 15th instant (Thursday next)
• in order to get over the elections,
as possible,
completely before the harvest operations shall have begun.
To this end the House of Commons has sat in the morn-
ing as well as in the evening, _almost every day for the
last fortnight. To this end, al 0, Ministers have con-
sented to abandon, or rather to postpone, every measure
that was not in their opinion one of paramount, or of
pressing, emergency To this catalogue of useful mea-
sures —postponed from necessity—we are sorry to be
obliged to add the Bill for the Improvement of the
Health of Towns, which we regard as a most useful and
neeessary improvement, and which we know the Govern-
ment were most desirous to pass into a law, in spite of
the imperfections to which it was necessarily subjected
by the fact ( f its being an attempt at legislation in
a new channel, as by the activity of the fac-
tious and interested opposition to which it was
subjected from first to last. Whatever may have been
the reluctance of a dying Parliament to deal with such
an unprincipled and unscrupulous opposition, we feel that
a new Home of Commons and one less apprehensive of
the hostility of local interests and of vested abuses, will
be able to second the efforts of the Government in car-
rying out a general and well considered, and a perfectly
matured system of sanatory reform. Whilst we express
this hope, we confess that we are not without some feel-
ings of disappointment that a beginning has not been
made—a commencement in the right dir •
ectson, which we
know that the ministry. of Lord John Russell were most
anxious to effect,
The mere routine business of winding up the session
will occupy the coming week—after which the proroga-
tion, followed by an immediate dissolution, may be con-
fidently looked for.—Observer. •

The Russian squadron left Elsineur on the Ist, for
the Cattegat, Whence It would pass into the North Sea.