The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-31 00:00:00

eb"itilirta Atit

LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1846.

Scarcely has the guillotine been cleansed from the
blood of the regicide LECOMTE when Europe is
startled by the intelligence of another and yet more
dastardly attempt having been made at the assassina-
' tion of King Louis PHILIPPE. Thanks, however,
to the interpcsition of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, that ve-
nerable life, which had already been preserved in six
' perils of a similar character, has survived this most
odious and audacious endeavour. France has been
spared the infamy of a crime which, considering the
circumstances attendant upon this occasion, would
have rendered the murder of their SOVEREIGN an act
ofatrocity altogether without any precedent. We con-
fess ourselves to be moved to sentiments more in-
tense and overwhelming than those of indig-
nation by this seventh attempt at the de-
struction of the extraordinary man now seated
on the throne of France. We are oppressed with
feelings of despondency at the intensity of that most
execrable ambition which lures murderer after mur-
derer from seclusion, and places in jeopardy
the existence, with the continuance of which
the destinies of nations are so intimately
and inextricably associated. We are aroused
with sentiments of abhorrence at those
wretched criminals who endeavour to gain a bloody
entrance into history, and inscribe their names upon
its pages in characters of immortal gloom. The in-
famous celebrity which has been conceded to RAVAIL-
LAc, FULTON, CADOUDAL, TYRREL, and that fraternity
of villains, appears to act as a species of incitement upon
every individual misanthropised by misfortunes, or
reckless of punishment. To people of morbid
imaginations, saturnine temperaments, audacity, to
men so agonised in mind, that oblivion would be
welcomed as an exquisite solace ; to men rendered
fanatical either by frenzy or impiety, and to others
goaded on to the commission of such monster crimes,
the execration of contemporaries, and the loathing of
an interminable posterity, appear to be objects of
mysterious attraction. Legislative wisdom is
baffled in its struggle to prevent the recurrence of
these terrible deeds. No punishment seems adequate
either as an expiation of the blood-guiltiness incurred,
or as a preventative of similar catastrophes.
Of this lamentable truth centuries of experience are
an incontestable evidence ; and supposing any indi-
vidual instance .were requisite for its illustration,
none could be adduced more terribly to the point
than the one which has only just transpired. We
have already designated this attempted assassination
as more dastardly than the one perpetrated in the
forest of Fontainebleau ; we will go further, and
call it the most dastardly of the seven attempts at
the destruction of Louis PHILIPPE—as the most das-
tardly attempt at regicide that has ever been recorded
in the annals of crime ! That our estimate is no
exaggeration the facts themselves testify.
These facts are, according to the most accurate of''
the many versions which have been elicited by public
curiosity as folloWs :—ln accordance with a beautiful
custom preserved in the French metropolis, the
Citizen King, on the anniversary of the 29th of
July, from a window of the Tuileries, receives the
homage of his people. Somewhere about half-past
seven on Wednesday evening, the sixteenth anni-
niversary of that glorious revolution which had called
him to the throne of the greatest continental empire
on the globe, 'Lan PHILLIPPE, surrounded by his
august family, presented himself on the Balcony
de l'Horloge. At that moment—a moment almost
sublime,from the recollections which it evoked—the or-
chestra performing the " Marseillaise Hymn," the vast
concourse of Parisians assembled in the gardens of the
Tuileries, welcoming their SOVEREIGN with acclama-
tions, two explosions are heard in rapid succession,
The. KIIKIE points in the direction from which
they have proceeded. His life has been attempted
for the seventh time—for the seventh time
it has been spared. The murderer is found skulking
behind the statue' of Venus ala Tortue ; he is with
difficulty preserved from the infuriated multitude and
placed in confinerneet. These are the simple circum-
stances connected with this calamity, for a most
grievous calamity it unquestionably is. Remem-
bering the solemnity of the occasion during which
it transpired, remembering that the crime was at-
tempted in the midst of a concourse abandoned to
sentiments of joy, frivolity, and exultation, and that
the very moment of its commission was one of
national gratitude to that great national •
benefactor whose existence was thus suddenly
h ar
ge agtee
s can not surely be accused of
x
n in regarding this attempt as more dia-
bolical than the one i
.ntheßoulevjaorsdEsponr the one atif
Fontainebleau, and In regarding'possible,
with
. greater indignation than ALIP.,AUD,
FIESCRI, or LECOMTB. If ever Louis PHILIPPE
required the Ispvitalio of his fellow-ran, it is at this

moment,for the diabolical act of HENRI is an assurance
to the French Monarch that his life is in jeopardy on
any and every occasion, in any or every situation.
He had previously been assailed on a hunting excur-
sion, in his passage to his Chambers of Legislature,
in the midst-of a gorgeous staff of aides-de-camp;
he has now been assailed on a gala day, in the midst
of amusement, surrounded by the frivolities of plea-
sure and recreation. That consideration is sufficient
to embitter the whole existence of this eminent and
good KING, alike illustrious for his misfortunes, his
wisdom and his generosity of heart. Nevertheless, the
criminal must have the benefit of justice as much
as a prisoner guilty only of petty larceny.
The suspicious circumstance of the large sum of
gold found in his possession must be unravelled ;
everything in extenuation of his guilt must be lis-
tened to, and especially the intense audacity of the act—
an act which denied escape, rendered success almost
an impossibility, anl thus offers an emphatic argu-
ment in favour of the murderer's insanity.
Still, in meting out justice to the criminal, and in
presenting a salutary warning against all would-be
regicides, let us tender our sympathies to that noble
and venerable monarch whose life is thus incessantly
jeopardised. And, above all, let the French people
' gaurd the life of Louis Pniurru with their loyalty;
let them, in Gon's name, shield him with their love.

The Art-Unions Bill passed the House of Commons
last night, having received its third reading. We
yesterday showed that its principle did not come
within the mischief occasioned by lotteries, and that
practically every subscriber received the full value
for his contribution in almost every instance, and
that the surplus was divided in the manner
likely to confer the greatest benefit on the artists
themselves, by being applied to the purchase of their
productions, thus supplying a motive and stimulus to
exertion, and affording a market which would not
exist but for such societies. It is well known how
small a sum was annually expended in the
purchase of works of art previous to the
rise and progress of the different societies; the com-
parative amount so laid out may appear, from the
reports of the principal art-unions in different towns,
and it will be found that the increase of private pur-
chases has been more than proportioned to
the sums expended by the unions themselves.
The person who, a few short years ago, would
not have dreamt of purchasing a painting, will, on
obtaining a prize, naturally feel anxious to have a
companion for it, which he will probably procure
from his private resources. He will become
accustomed to see his rooms ornamented with
some of the productions of art, the elegancies
and luxuries of civilised life ; and in a
short period will regularly devote a portion of his
surplus income to the acquisition thereof; thus an
immeasurably greater degree of benefit to art and
artists is produced than the mere amount distributed
by or through the hands of the art-unions commit-
tees. Sir ROBERT PEEL also expressed a doubt
whether the fine arts were encouraged by the esta-
blishment of art-unions—in fact, he said, that they
rather encouraged a taste for cheap and inferior pro-
ductions in place of others which deserved the deno-
mination of fine art. Now, with all respect for the
Right Honourable Baronet, we must express
our entire dissent from the proposition. The
child, the father of the future man, must be content
to creep before he can walk, to totter along feebly
before he can stride proudly in the consciousness of
strength and power. Few, indeed, have the means
at their command which the Right Hon. Baronet
possesses to enable them to indulge a similar taste for
the fine arts, and still fewer so liberally
expend a portion of their means fn the judicious and
generous patronage of the productions of their own
countrymen. The picture collectors too frequently
will expend sums in the purchase of a few works of
deceased masters, which, applied in the fostering and
encouragement of British art, would carry comfort and
happiness to the studio of many a talented and labo-
rious man who has pined in poverty and destitution
before his real genius has been known, before he
has become a fashionable artist, and had a due ap-
preciation given to his works, which, after his
death, may produce an amount ten times exceed-
ing that which, if procured in his life-time,
would have enabled him to support and educate his
family, and perhaps have prolonged a valuable life
which had been prematurely cut short from the
sufferings of distress and the effects of hope de-
ferred. Witness the painful, the harrowing termina-
tion of the career of the gifted Hanson. Had due
and proper patronage been afforded, he would still
be cherished in the bosom of his family, making fresh
exertions for the furtherance and improvement of the
British school of painting. His sufferings have been
those of thousands of his brother artists, who have
perished more slowly, but not less surely, from the
withering influences of bitter disappointment
and blighting poverty. Others have been
obliged to give up the cherished aspira-
tions of their early youth, the brilliant visions
that cheered and encouraged them during their ac-
quirement of the art, and to devote exertions worthy
of better things to the acquisition, not of fame, but of
bread! Whether is it better that such things should
be, or that, perchance, a few pictures of little
merit should be purchased and hung up in the
apartments pf the middle classes ? The taste, too, of
the purchasers will improve, and those, who, in the
first instance were contented with a mere daub, will
soon require a better class of pictures. The prizes
are so divided and apportioned, that pictures
of every price may be purchased. Those of
300/. or 400 g., to which something may pro-
bably be added by the persons to whom
they are allotted, will procure works of first-rate
Merit. The smaller ones will also enable the pos-
sessors to obtain works which certainly will not
propagate an inferior or vitiated taste. They ma.)
be applied as an encouragement to young artists,
who, although deficient in the perfection of the art,
yet show symptoms of genius that would
afford a fair prospect of future excellence, if fostered
and encouraged: • In some of the unions, the prizes
are all selected by the committee, who will pur-
chase nothing which does not evince a fair promise
on the part of its author, certainly nothing of a bad
or inferior school. This may possibly be the better
plan, as the entire amount of the purchases are
so regulated as to give its fair proportion to every
different system. Others (and amongst them the
managers of the leviathan, the London Art-Union)
think the plan of allotting a sum of
money, which in every instance must be ex-
pended in the purchase of a single work, a
better one, inasmuch as the prizeholder will
frequently be tempted to expend a further sum of his
Own, and thus to procure a work agreeable to his own
taste or fancy. We shall not discuss the relative
merits of these systems ; but we are thoroughly con-
vinced that by either a great benefit is conferred, not
merely on the artists, but on the public generally ;
and that a taste for cheap and inferior productions,
in the place of others which deserve the denomination
of fine art, is not the necessary or the probable re-
sult of either course.

Fresh proposals of a commercial treaty with the Zoll-
verein have been made by France. These proposals,
says the Carlshrue Gazette, have been, it is said, favour-
ably received by the Cabinet of Berlin, but it is not
known whether the French propositions have as yet
been submitted to the Conference of the Zollverein.
A letter from St. Petersburgh, of the 15th July, says—

-- -- - _
'• The great topic of conversation here is an incident which
proves how far passive obedience may go in Russia. Some
days ago, the Emperor was proceeding to Cronstadt in a
steamer, and at the same time an English brig was
manoeuvring to get out of the channel. The captain of the
steamer wanted to deviate from the direct line, in order
to avoid a collision with the English vessel, but the Em-
peror ordered him to continue his first direction. The captain
unhesitatingly obeyed, and, the consequence was what might
have been expected—a violent shock between the two ves-
sels, by which the chimney of the steamer was thrown
down, and the vessel itself injured. Admiral Maiden,
who was standing near the Emperor, was wounded, and se-
veral other officers bruised. The officers in command of the
Baltic fleet wanted to place the captain of the steamer under
arrest, but the Emperor would not permit it, and expressed
to the Captain his satisfaction at the manner in which he
acted. The English vessel continued her voyage. It is not
known if she be injured or not, but there is no doubt that
the Emperor will pay for whatever damage has been done. The
Emperor has accorded several favours on the marriage of his
daughter. Count Strogonoff, who was sent to England as
Extraordiny Ambassador for the coronation of Queen Vic-
toria, has been appointed Grand Chamberlain. A noble
efdwGurratnedmCbeurpg-
bPeoalree,
r.Cournritn3cleichdaeelnNo‘h'ielhnolorshkei:
at St. Petersburgh, has received the Grand Cordon of
has
m bbaesesna dnoarmo
Alexander." . .

Intelligence has been received from Rollie of tire 20th;
Puhlic rejoiciDga were pies OA for the &sooty, ad