The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-20 00:00:00

MUSIC.

THE FLAG THAT BRAVED A THOUSAND
YEARS. New Nalional Song. The Poi try by Joseph
Oliver, Esq., the Music composed by George J. 0.

Allmans.
This is an excellent national song, such an one as
Dibdin might have composed, and as Charles lade-
don would have delighted to sing. Mr. Oliver
possesses the true spirit of poetry, and Mr. Allman
has sot his ode to one of the most spirit-stirring airs
we have heard for many a day. Those who have
heard Mr. Manvers or Mr. Shoubridge sing this truly
national song at festivals and concerts will not easily
forget the effect produced by it. The accompani-
ment is admirable, and proves that Mr. Allman is a
most accomplished musician.

FINE ARTS.
PARIS IIG FEBRUARY. Painted by Pliilippoteaux.
A few days since we visited the Egyptian Hall,
in Piccadilly, and witnessed the most brilliant of the
very many brilliant pictorial achievements of the ce-
lebrated artist M. Philippoteaux. It is a picture; re•
cently exhibited in Paris to the admiration of all those
most qualified to decide as to the truth of the repre-
sentation; the oil painting covers a surface of canvass
twenty-two feet wide by twelve feet high, and—if for
nothing else—is a marvel for the rapidity with which
it has been completed. The work, however, is one
which commands our astonishment for many other
reasons besides that of the quickness of its composi-
tion ; in point of grouping, of expression, of chiaro-
scuro, of the distribution of lights and shades,
in faithfulness of portraiture, in the admirable
effect produced by the combination of the colouring,
and, above all,
event reveals itself in a single glance—there is ample
in the masterly manner in which the
reason for eulogium and surprise—surprise always/
because of the speed with which the whole has been
completed. Philippoteaux has chosen the esplanade of
the
whichm Thend
the
an Revolutionveryi
d confusionea o f ao
of f
great
theb
spectacle
I wasehvm at te d.eo
e
in
to noble building of the Hotel de Ville as the spot
b
society, law, order and government.° The
moreecnmnensnvulet s
of
dis-
tinguished members of the Provisional Gov' ernment—
Arago, Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Dupont de l'Eure,
and Marrast—are grouped together as the central
point of attraction, and the greatest man among
them all, the only GREAT MAN, strictly speaking, yet
produced by the Third Revolution, the
m on the
an whose
voice alone saved France from being plunged,
night of the 24th of February, 184,into b
ani abyss of
blood, terror, and anarchy, concentrates
(as he ought to do) all the power, majesty, tyunse and
himself
moral of that grand epoch in French history. The
eye instantly turns to him—instinctively turns to him
he is standing among his companions of the Provil
sional Government, elevated on a velvet chair,
or fauteuil, his head uncovered and thrown
back, his arm raised, his eye lambent, his lips
apart, so that to the imagination the air
seems actually vibrating with his eloquence—
he is uttering his immortal apostrophe to the tricolour,
and his whole figure is marked by the grandeur of a
great orator. The effect of the atttiude, the man, the
speech, and the occasion has in it an indescribable
beauty ; and the courage, nay, the absolute heroism
of that one unarmed citizen repelling the demands of
an infuriated rabble is powerfully expressed by the
form of a beautiful girl galloping towards him on a
white horse, bearing aloft the red banner—that stan-
dard of cruelty and sedition. In one corner is the
gold and silver spoil of the palaces, heaped to-
gether on the ground and carried in a hand-
truck ; in another is the dead body of a
workman with a paper lying upon his boom marked