The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-11 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE LITERARY
SOUVENIR.

We have just been favoured with a sight of proof
impressions of these illustrations, which show the taste
of the editor in their selection, and of the engravers in
the skill and refined delicacy with which they are
executed. The " Literary Souvenir" has always held
a high rank among the Annuals, and the present
number is assuredly no falling off. "Ancient Garden,"
from the pencil of Danby, is a truly poetic landscape,
and worthy to have belonged, to Alcinous. The en-
graving is by Hill, and is replete with grace and soft-
ness. The statue however in the foreground should
scarcely have been in deep shadow. From its position it
must have caught the light of the setting sun, which
irradiates that part of the picture in which it is placed.
,‘ Euphrosyne" is clever as an engraving, but the
features are rather too large and strongly defined.
" Gulnare" comes nearer to our idea of Lord Byron's
conception than any we have yet seen. The dark,
piercing, full eye, and resolute expression of the mouth
are strikingly characteristic. The attitude, too, of the
figure is remarkable for its graceful freedom. There
is apparently nothing studied about it, or the painter
has had the rare art to conceal his art. " Sun-set," by
Barrett, and engraved by Hill, might inspire a poet,
and set him dreaming throughout " a dewy
summer's eve." " Venice," is a cheerful, sunny view,
touched off with the skill of a Canaletti. It is a rea-
lization of Mrs. Ratcliffe's well known description of

the approach to this city. "La Pensee" is something
after Paris's sentimental manner. We do not know
why, because a lady happens to be thinking, she should
be represented as melancholy. Surely there are as
many happy, as lonely thoughts for a female to dwell
on ! We must confess we are by no means partial to
the broken-heart school of reverie. " The Deserted "
is another picture in the same style, as its name im-
ports. Of the sort, it is excellent. " The Vintage "
contains a finely-rounded, flowing outline of a female
figure. The " Storm in Harvest" is better as an en-
graving than a painting, for Westall has neither invention,
variety—power—nor, in fact, any thing but a stiff,
small, dancing-master sort of elegance to back his
pretensions as an artist. His countenances, male and
female, all wear the same monotonous expression. In

the present sketch, his boy sitting in the foreground,
might be mistaken by a mathematician for a definition
of an acute angle. " Diana Vernon" is arch and
handsome, with a face marked by lightness and energ).
" Dorothea" is good, but it is not original. The idea
is literally taken from Hayman's admirable illustrations
of Don Quixote, which G. Cruickshank tried the
other day to equal, but in which, as a matter of
course, he failed most egregiously. Altogether the
embellishments to the " Literary Souvenir" are worthy
of Mr. Alaric Watts's taste and judgment.

FINDENS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BIBLE.
The best Landscape in the present Number, which
consists of four engravings, and all from the pencil of
Finden, is decidedly the " View of the Ruins of the
Temple, of Diana at Ephesus," which has been finished
with the most scrupulous attention to detail.

As Sir Isaac Newton (every body has heard the
story) was riding one sunny day over Salisbury plain, a boy
tendir.g sheep by the wayside, cautioned him to put on his
cloak, which was folded behind him ; the weather being fine,
Sir Isaac disregarded the advice, and was speedily soaked to
the skin by a shower. Deeply pondering his own lack of
prescience, and the sagacity of a peasant boy, the philosopher
turned back and offered him a guinea to communicate the
rules of his weather-wisdom. After pocketting his fee, the
boy replied, that " whenever that old black ram turned his
rump toward the sun, he knew a storm was at hand," and we
know that many persons have used the Times in a similar
manner, to divine the approach of changes in the political
horizon. If an individual or a party be in full possession of
power, place, and reputation, and if at any period there be ob-
served something of coolness in the support of which the
Times will, of course, have given them ; if their unqualified
adulation be by degrees changed to the rankest abuse, until
the " leading journal" have got its rump fairly round, no
matter how calm be the atmosphere at present, it is time for
all men to button on their cloaks. The Times has about !Is
much to do in effecting a political revolution as the other old
black rain in raising a storm, but it has an instinctive hatred of
the falling—a rat-like antipathy to a fated ship—some hollow,
craving tooth, some decayed member, or increased itchiness
of palm, from which it derives a strong consciousness of
coming misfortune. We doubt not, in a very few days, we
shall see more signs of its divination, and its back turned,
with cumbrous alacrity, on the mighty Duke.

COURT CIRCULAR.

The King held a Court and Privy Council yesterday at St.
James's Palace.

The Rev. Dr. Allen, Bishop of Bristol, did homage to his
Majesty in the Royal closet, on his appointment to the see of
Bristol. The Duke of Wellington assisted at the ceremony as
his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, and the Rev. Dr. Sleath, as Deputy Clerk of the
Closet.

Lord Denman had an audience of his Majesty, and delivered
the seals of office of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
His Majesty held a Privy Council, which was attended by
the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis
Camden, the Earls of Rosslyn, Amherst, and Jersey, Lords
Ellenborough, Cowley, and Maryborough, Sir Robert Peel,
Sir C. M. Sutton, Sir John Beckett, Sir Henry Hardinge,
and Messrs. Goulburn and Herries.
Sir Robert Peel was sworn into office as Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and received the seals of office from the King.
Parliament was ordered to be further prorogued, from the
18th of the present month to Thursday the 15th of January.
The Lord Chancellor had an audience of the King, and
presented an address from Thrapstone, in Northamptonshire,
thanking his Majesty for calling to his Councils the present
Ministry.
Sir Robert Peel had an audience, and kissed hands on his.
appointment to office.
The King also gave audiences to the Duke of Wellington,
the Marquis of Winchester, the Marquis Camden, Lord Hill,
Sir Charles Manners Sutton, and Sir Henry Hardinge.
The Marquis of Winchester (Groom of the Stole), Lord
James O'Bryen, and the Hon. Captain George Campbell,
R.N., the Lord and Groom in Waiting, Lord Hill, Gold
Stick in Waiting, Sir Philip Sidney (Equerry), and Sir Wm.
Gomm, Field Officer in Waiting, and Master Graves, Page of

Honour, attended the Court. -
A party of the Yeomen of the Guard were on duty, com-
manded by Mr. Charles Hancock, the Exon in Waiting.
The Duke of Sussex and the Princess Sophia visited their
Majesties yesterday.
The King gave audience yesterday to the Earl of Mayo, Sir
Geoffrey Wyatville, and Sir Hilgrove Turner.
The external coffin for the late Duke of Gloucester arrived
at Bagshot yesterday evening, and the body was placed in it
preparatory to the interment this day.
The Duke of Wellington gave a grand dinner last evening
at Apsley-house to a large party, including the Lord Chan-
cellor, the Marquis Camden, the Earls of Aberdeen, Rosslyn,
and Jersey, Lords Ellenborough and Maryborough, Sir Robert
Peel, Sir Charles Manners Sutton, Sir George Murray, Sir
John Beckett, Sir Henry Hardinge, Messrs. Goulburn, Her-
ries, &c.

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.

ARRIVALS.

Viscount Galway, in Brook-street, from his seat in York-
shire; the Earl of Onslow, in Albemarle-street; Major and
Mrs. Home, in Park-lane, from Worthing ; Mrs. and the
Misses Hall Dare, at the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street,
from their scat in Essex ; Hon. Captain Douglas, at Fenton's
Hotel, St. James's-street, from a tour ; J. Kipburn, Esq., at
ditto, from Sussex ; Doyne, Esq., at ditto, from a tour ;
Mr. and Mrs. Harcourt, and Miss Henniker, at Crawley's
Hotel, Albemarle-street, from a tour ; W. Dixon, Esq., at
ditto, from ditto; Mr. and Mrs. John Harvey, in Brook-
street, from Hastings ; the Rev. Mr. Jennings, at Batt's
Hotel, Dover-street, from Cambridge; Viscount and Vis-
countess Weymouth, at ditto, from their seat near Bath ; Lord
Edward Thynne, at ditto, from Paris; Mr. and Mrs. J. T.
Schomberg, in Cadogan-place, from a tour.