The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-14 00:00:00

tion where so much depends upon effect, this passion is,
in some degree, excusable ; and for this reason effect is
the great end desired. She believes in the jewellery of
the Lowther Arcade to a great degree ; that emporium
stands higher with her than ever did the firm of Storr
and Mortimer with its warmest and most wealthy pa-
trons. And herein lies her greatest danger. The hand-
some presents made to some of these girls—who work
so very hard at so very small a salary—might well turn
their heads ; as might the offers of a splendid settle-
ment or establishment, contrasted with their, in most
cases, very humble homes.
" But they have all got mothers, who are the ladies-
patronesses of strange bonnets and abnormal dresses.
The more rigid ones come to the theatre every night to
fetch their daughters home, and are allowed by the
stage-door-keeper to stand inside his lodge, and near the
fire in winter. And in no manner will they permit any
one else to see their young ladies home, unless he pays
them very great attention, or is their proper accepted
admirer. And even then he must, to find great favour
in the eyes of the mother, be somehow or other con-
nected with the profession.
"And indeed the object of the Coryph6e in marriage
is not altogether to be taken out of the theatre—gene-
rally the reverse. A very large proportion of the young
persons now enumerated in the corps de-ballet of the
various houses Miss' Such-a-one, are married. And,
married or single, we speak advisedly in saying that
nothing can be more exemplary than the conduct of the
ballet generally, taken as a mass. Many of them—in
several instances two or three sisters—contribute in a
great degree to the support of their family, either by
their salaries (which may be averaged at a guinea
a week in the more respectable theatres), or by teaching
dancing on their own account. An intimate acquaint-
ance with the internal economy of a theatre, and the
fortunes of those assisting to form its company, enables
us to state earnestly that amongst no other class have
we witnessed more domestic devotion, or readiness at
all times to proffer mutual assistance, in the event of
accident or other misfortune, than in the corps de ballet;
and that in contradiction to the notions of the Gents,
by no others have we seen any transgression against
propriety, or advances even supposed to be questionable,
more effectually repulsed. We do not deny that there
are several who cannot lay claim to a reputation en-
tirely unblemished ; but is as false as it is uncharitable
to suppose that the attributes of those few are alike
characteristic of the entire class."

The descriptions of the domestic and artificial (that
is stage) life of the " Ballet Girl," is as lively as it is
doubtless faithful, from the enthusiasm with which
she listens to the bang-bang of the tambourine in the
hands of the ballet master, to the delight with which
she and you hearken to the "glou-glou" of the cham-
pagne, when poured out in those long and distract-
ingly narrow glasses at the White-bait-house down
at Blackwall. In the masterly picture of Van Am-
burgh, in the den of the great lion, by Edwin Land-
seer—in this year's exhibition of the Royal
academy—may be discerned first at the foreground,
on the ledge, as it were, outside the bars of the iron
cage—a piece of orange peal—a torn play bill—a
scrap of laurel—and a bunch of flowers ! Those little
adjuncts are inimitably introduced, suggesting by
symbols, as they do, the atmosphere in which Van
Amburgh and his tame wild beasts are visible. Hen-
ning might have taken a hint from Landseer, and
thrown a bit of orange peal, a torn play bill, a scrap
of laurel, and a bouquet, into the wood-cut on the
title page, for they equally represent the atmosphere
breathed by the Ballet Girl, and betoken the precise
character of this agreeable volume.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE TEETH
AND GUMS. By William Ward, open.

Mr. Wardroper in his intelligent and remarkable
title treatise upon the structure and diseases of the
teeth and gums, has stricken a severe blow at what
he calls on his title page " the pernicious practise of
indiscriminate tooth-drawing." The purpose of the
arguments employed in this publication will conse-
quently be most welcome to the multitude who
are liable to the excruciating torments of this dental
disease. Mr. Wardrope attacks all the old systems
hitherto practised by surgeon-dentists ; he attacks
them boldly, but, at the same time, he attacks them
with extraordinary skill, and with much apparent jus-
tice. His reasoning is not based upon some crochet
born in his own imagination—it is founded upon the
anatomical principles established by the great and il-
lustrious John Hunter. It will be useless, therefore,
for any one to deride the propositions of the author
as those of a charlatanic innovator. A single sen-
tence extracted from the preface will show the origi-
nality, the keenness, and the common-sense that may
be expected in the treatise. "The only remedy," says
the writer " in nine cases out of ten for the toothache,
especially when the tooth has been affected with
caries, has been extirpation, and that, too, recom-
mended by all the leading men in the profession, as
the only efficacious alternative. This, when seriously
reflectod on, appears to be almost as ludicrous as that a
man should surer amputation of the head as a cure for
the headache.' We recommend the pamphlet to the
notice of all sufferers, and, generally, to the conside-
ration of all practitioners.

FINE ARTS.

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS AT THE 881-

TISEI INSTITUTION.

On Saturday afternoon we were much gratified
with the collection of pictures by Italian, Spanish,
Flemish, Dutch, French, and English masters, tem-
porarily suspended on the walls of this excellent in-
stitution by their munificent proprietors. Every-
body knows that a " private view" implies a more
numerous assembly of spectators than is visible on
what is characterised, by way of distinction, as a " pub-
lic view." We were prepared to find a tolerable at-
tendance of visitors, but we were at once gratified
and disappointed at the number of distinguished per-
sons by whom we had been preceded. Our gratifica-
tion arose from the evidence thereby given of the
appreciation of the master-pieces of true art, and of
the visible denial that English sight-seers are only to
be tempted by novelty—no matter how vulgar and
contemptible that novelty may be. Our disappoint-
ment, on the contrary, originated in a more selfish
feeling, inasmuch as the throng prevented our ob-
taining that unembarrassed view of the paintings
which is so essential to their due estimation. After
the pictorial creation of the artist has left his
atelier—ripe with genius and blooming with inge-
nuity—the most important requisite for the mani-
festation of its beauty, is, unquestionably, the
point from which it is regarded. With one
or two fortunate exceptions we were baffled in our
endeavours to regard the pictures, now hanging upon
the walls of the Institution, in a proper light—and
this, from the number and curiosity of those who,
like ourselves, were engaged in the pleasant task of
inspection. What little, however, we were enabled
to distinguish has satisfied us that the present col-
lection is scarcely to be surpassed in variety or value
by any one of its predecessors. Some of the most
valuable among the private galleries of England have
given up for a time their treasures for the decoration
of the apartments of the British Institution. Among
the proprietors of these paintings, indeed, may be
enumerated her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen,
the Marquis of Bute, the Duke of Wellington, Sir
Robert Peel, Lord Northwick, Sir W. W. Wynn,
the Earl of Ellesmere, the Right Hon. H. Labou-
chere, the Royal Academy, &c. &c. Among the
most striking specimens of the Italian masters is a
Guido (No. 13), being a representation of " St.
Peter," of marvellous inspiration, and of that
bold yet delicate colouring which is the chief
characteristic of that immortal maestro a
" David " (14), of Guercino—a little jewel of
Claude (16), " The Landing of St. Paul, though
somewhat faint and decayed in tone : a portrait of
Ignatius Loyola, by Titian, with a haunting, pensive,
meditative, jesuitical countenance, such as arrests
attention and fastens indelibly upon the memory.
One small picture of an unpretending character (68),
a mere group of cattle standing in the foreground in
a piece of water among sedges and rushes, and backed
by a dingy waste of clouds, is a wonderful represen-
tation of nature, but to say that it is a Cuyp is to
say that it is wonderful. Among the most celebrated
paintings in the collection are the " Ratcatchers," by
IVilkie ; the portrait of " Hunter," the anatomist, by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the portrait of " Lady
Peel," by Sir Thomas Lawrence. An original
Hogarth (149), the property of Mr. John Murray,
being " The Beggar's Opera, with the portraits of
Walker, the original Macheath; Miss Fenton, after-
wards the Duchess of Bolton; the Duke of Bolton,"i
&c., has the stamp on it of the great master. "The
Water-Seller," by Velasquez, is one of the mostextra-
ordinary pieces by that glorious Spaniard ; from
the old ragged, hirsute water-seller himself
to the boy who is going to drink, and from the glass
of limpid water itself to the stone pitcher, with the
drops trickling down its sides—the painting is a
brilliant transcript of reality. Dance's Garrick as
Richard the Third (131) ;" the " Orpheus," of the
same artist (152) ; the " Lady and Boy with Fruit,"
by Rubens (91), a picture of delicious beauty for
colouring ; and a large landscape (22) with figures
and cattle, by Cuyp, are amongst the most conspi-
cuous in dimension, and the last mentioned in merit
also, in the Exhibition. The cool green scenery of
Hobbima; the rich and glowing tones of Sir Peter
Paul ; the quaint odd naturalness of Teniers, espe-
cially in the " Robbers plundering a Farm-house,"
(73), and most of all, in the Clown who is just going
togcel
Claude
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" Battle-piece," (20) where the centre-figure of the
wounded horse evidences the " power" of the master
in a significant manner; and the force and vigour of
Rembrandt contrast in a wonderful way upon the
walls of the Exhibition-rooms of the Institution.
The collection is most valuable and most interesting.

The failure of a very old and respectable house,
Cattley and Stephenson, Russia merchants, was announced
on Saturday, and created much surprise. The liabilities of
the firm are stated at 75,000 L, and the assets are calculated
to yield only 10s. in the pound. It is thought that this
failure will not affect the solvency of the St. retersburgh
firm of Cattley and Co.