The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-06 00:00:00

THE SICIN; LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 6, Isn6.

proper development of commerce, and the welfare of
the population, backed by the reflection that it is
to these sources they must look for an extended
sphere of taxation, will have weight in their
councils, and while the public are benefitted the
Board will become entitled to their respect and

gratitude.

THE SUNDAY BAND QUESTION.

Oa Thursday evening a crowded meeting was held in
the Shaftesbury National School, Salisbury-street, Pad-
dington. The meeting was summoned by persons calling
themselves the "Friends of Religion," who were repre-
sented by Dr. Spencer, the Rev. J. M'Cree, and other
welt-known Sabbatarians. The Dr., as proprietor of the
bUilding, took the chair, contrary to the wish of the
majority of the meeting.
'rue Rev. J. INITBEE rose to move the first resolution,
to the effect, "That the Sabbath being a Divine insti-
tution, beyond all human authority, it was wicked to
allow the bands to play in the parks on Sunday, and
that the thanks of the public werli due to Lord Palmer-
ston for suppressing such unchristian and desecrating
seenet"

The remarks of the speaker called forth the indignation
of the audience, but au unparalleled scene of confusion
arose upon his declaration that this meeting was not
open to discuss any amendment; the exasperation of the
meeting reached its height on the chairman calling in the
police, who, however, found no necessity for interfer-
ence. With great reluctance the chairman agreed to an
amendment, on condition that the meeting would first
hear Dr. M'Cree. The latter having spoken for

nearly an hour and declaring, when called to time,
his determination to speak for an hour longer, the
patience of the meeting became exhausted and
they insisted on the amendment being put. This
was done in the following terms :—Resolved, "That
the thanks of this meeting be given to Sir Benjamin
Hall for appointing the military bands to play
in the Parks on Sunday afternoons, thereby affording in-
nocent recreation to tens of thousands of her Majesty's
subjects, and regrets that Lord Palmenton should have
ordered their discontinuance; and that the Queen be
petitioned to reappoint them."
The amendment was carried by an overwhelming ma-
jority, of about 1,000 to 20, with great enthusiasm.
The meeting was afterwards addressed by several
gentlemen, and concluded at a little before 12 with three
cheers for Sir Benjamin Hall. •
Some amusement was created during the meeting by
the recognition of Dr. M'Cree, of the Johnny M'Oree
of ribandism notoriety some 20 years ago in Dublin.

FUNERAL CF THE LATE CAPTAIN COLE,
R.N., Ti. 11.

On Friday, the 231 tilt., the remains of the late much-
respected Captain W. J. Cnle, R.N., K.H., J.P., were
consigned to the family vault in Lec;alade churchyard,
which, during his life, it was his study to keep so neat.
The tolling of the muffled bell gave a solemnity to the
scene, and the closing of every shop and house testified
the respect in which tie was held. The body was carried
to the church on the shoulders of some of his cottage
tenantry. The pall was borne by four of his old and
intimate friends, Captain Luce, R.N., The Knoll, Malmes.
bury ; Captain Butler, R.N., Stamford Place, Far
ringdon ; George Milward, Esq., Lord of the Manor ;
and Geo. A. Robbins, Esq. of Clay Hill House. A double
line.was formed from the house to the church porch by
the poor :nen, tenants of the allotment ground, and about
fifty of the boys and girls of the National School, each
wearing a mark of respect to thei r deceased benefactor and
nstructer. The precession was heac'el by two clergymen,
then the coffin and pa 1-bearers, followed by E. P. Cole,
Eiq., R.N., brother of the deceased as chief-mourner,
and eleven other relatives and friends, with other clergy-
men, in their black gowns, who had requested to be
allowed to show their respect to his memory, following
in the rear. A vast c icceurse of people assembled,
among whom many were observed to shed tears as the
mournful cortege passed on its way to the church. The
ground was kept by four policemen, each having a black
crape rosette on his arm. The vicar, the Reverend R.
Vernon White, 8.D., performed the burial service in a
most feeling and impressive manner. The mournful
ceremony (Laded, a great many of the inhabitants pro-
ceeded to the vault to take a

" Last, fond lingering look"

ere it was closed. Long will his z-nemory be cherished
wherever he was known. On the Sunday following, the
R3V. F. A. Dawson, M.:L, rector of Buscut, an old and
valued friend of the family, preached a funeral.sermon
to a crowded congregation, from the 4th chapter of
the First Epistle of John, venws 7 and S.

THE FRENCH EXHIBITION.

Anoiher--the third—annual exhibition, in our
English metropolis, of the modern French School
of Paintings has recently been opened to public
view during the present season at the Gallery,
121, Pall-Mall, over against that south-west corner
of Her Majesty's Theatre popularly known as the
Opera Colonnade. Upwards of 300 pictures, large
and small, productions some among them of artists
hitherto wholly unknown in this country, but
others of world-famed masters of mature reputa-
tion, constitute the bulk of this year's remarkable
and more than ever meritorious collection. It is
with no ordinary satisfaction that we believe our-
selves enabled already to regard "The French
Exhibition of Paintings" in London as, so to
speak, among the number of our established insti-
tutions—the opening of which to the lovers of art
in this great capital may henceforth be looked
upon as about as much a matter of course in the
spring season (nearly) as the opening of our two
Water-Colour Societies (Old and New), of the Fuf-
folk-street Gallery, and of the Royal Academy
Exhibition, to say nothing at all about the pretty
nearly contemporaneous opening of the first Ball
at Almack's and of the first buds of the verdurous,
cream-coloured, rose-coloured, Mayflower I Wel-
come to us (almost as much as those vernal blos-
soruings of the "sweet o' the year ") are the
collected specimens of the modern French School
of the Fine Arts now displayed in London, season
after season, upon the walls of this attractive and
most charming Exhibition. Favourable speci-
mens, for the most part, they are, as a matter of
course, thanks to the excellently judicious taste
presiding over the general management—a ma-
nage neat comprising within the select group of
its Committee two such eminent masters in the
modern English School of Painting as Daniel
Maclise and Clarkson Stanfield, facile princeps each
in his way, among the, number of our more dis-
tinguished Academicians. Mr. E. Gambart still
presiding over all as the eminently judicious and
competent Director ; Mr. B. Frodsham, remain-
ing at Lis amistonoed post as Secretary, discharging
the duties of a delicate and responsible position
with not less amenity than intelligence. Every-
thing, indeed, promises continued success to an
enterprise which yielded, we remember well, the
happiest auguries at its commencement.

If we look in vain among the number of the I
prEsent contributors for any example of the illus-
trious veteran Horace Vernet, the glory of the
great painters of France now living, we find in
No. 281 a noble specimen of Ary Scheffer, and in
No. 110 a celebrated masterpiece from the won-
der-working hand of Paul Delaroche. The former,
No. 281, " The Three Maries" (a picture the
property of H.R.H. the Duchess of Orleans),
portraying, as Ary Scheffer alone could so por-
tray, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of
James and Salome, and Mary the mother of
Joseph of Arimathea, coming "with sweet spices,"
" very early in the morning the first day of the
week, the sun being now risen," that they might
anoint the body of the Lard in his holy Sepulchre !
The latter, No. 110, "Napoleon Crossing the
Alps" (a picture the property of Mr. John Dil-
lon), depicting the young and heroic First Consul
of the French Republic, as Paul Delaroche
alone has yet succeeded in depicting him upon
canvass, namely as—what Beranger has designated
him, not in deathless song, but in imperishable
prose ! And that ? Does any one forget it who
has once read. the "Preface de l'Auteur," pre-
fixed in 1833 to the " Chansons de Beranger ?"
Hardly, we conjecture. It is the sentence be-
ginning—"Le plus grand poets des temps modernes,
et pcutetre de tons les temps, :Napoleon .1" And as
the Great Poet of Action—the greatest in the
world's history, as Shakspere was the greatest of
the Poets of Thought—the pencil of Paul Dela-
roche has already more than once delineated the
figure and countenance apostrophised nearly forty
years ago by Lord Byron—.

" Oh heaven ! of which he Wa3 in power a feature ;
Oh earth 1 of which he was a noble creature."

One, midway in his meteoric career as " Em-
pereur des Francais"—standing sideways, with
his comely face looking over his shoulder at the
spectator; one hand behind his waist, holding a
snuff-box, the other thrust negligently into the
bosom of his military coat. BeSides this well-
known and favourite portrait of the Emperor,
there are two others of the hero from the same
masterhand ; the one illustrating the commence-
ment, the other the close of his history ; the one
lit, as it wore, by the rising, the other by the
setting sun of his fortunes—here Bonaparte, in
1800, crossing the Alps upon a mule, prior to
the Battle- of Marengo—there, Napoleon, in
1814, before the signing of his abdication in
tho palace of Fontainebleau. These two pictures
are familiarly known everywhere and by
everybody through the medium of engravings
of numerous sizes and of various excel-
lence. It is with the former that we
have to do now--here is the original
picture, or rather the reduced copy by Paul Dela-
ruche himself, from the original painting by him-
self of " Napoleon crossing the Alps." A won-
derful creation of genius--very different indeed
from that quasi-heroic representation of the same
scene by Louis David, pourtraying the
First Consul riding over almost perpendicular
Alpine acclivities upon a rearing war horse, as
Alexander 'could never by possibility have done
upon the back of Bucephalus, or the late ingenious
Mr. Ducrow, upon one of his most cleverly-
trained performing horses upon the sawdust of
Astley's Amphitheatre. True to history, true to
reality, true to nature, Delaroche has in his great
work produced a picture worthy of his subject and
of its hero, worthy of the Alps and of Napoleon.
• It is the Poet as well as the Soldier, the Dreamer
as well as the Conqueror, that gazes out upon the
Alpine solitudes through those exquisite blue
eyes, eyes full of deep and mysterious speculation!
Sweetness and firmness stamped upon the chiselled
lips, profound thought expressed through every
line of the thin psle, young face, abstraction in
the very attitude—svery accessory being intro-
duced moreover (even the minutest), with a mar-
vellous skill and appositeness. The negligently
buttoned grey great-coat, the mere breeze stirring
the chestnut locks of the Consul, and blowing the
long hairs of the mule's tail forward till their
ends touch the rider's bootandstirrup. A painting
so famous and ran rkab'e cannot but arrest the
attention of every one who visits this sea-son the
French Gallery now open to public view, opposite
the Opera Colonnale. Many visitors will turn too
with hardly lest curiosity to the three pictures
contributed in 1856 to the Gallery by that
astonishingly gifted lady, Mademoiselle Rosa
Bonheur—whose name is already immortalised
by her one marvellous picture of the "Horse-
Fair." No. 45, a Landseipe with Cattle,"
and two studies, No. 46, an "Auvergne re L..
sant," and No. 47, a " Pareheron Horse," core.
stituting thus far, for the Londoners, her sole
contributions to the French Exhibition: Two
large battle scenes "glorify " the walls of
the Gallery one, No. 13, "The Battle of
the Alma," by Joseph Baum°, the other, No.
324, "Marshal Ney supporting the Rearguard
at the Retreat from Moscow," by Adolphe Yool,
a matchless incident of valour on the part ( f
"Trio Bravest of the Brave" (as Ney was
called by Napoleon) here very nobly and
heroically celebrated. Shall we confess it ?
—we cannot but regard as somewhat exaggerated
the immense eulogitun pronounced in a few words
by Mr. Ruskin upon M. Frere—another of the
contributors called by Mr. Ruskin (vide
"Note.,. 4:0." ii, p 47.) either through a slip of
the pen or of the printer, Edouard Pierre. M.
Frore's cottage interiors—Nos. 150 to 155—are
very truthful and very beautiful no doubt—.
but " quite unequalled ?" Well, we suppose
we must yield a very wide margin for enthusiasm
to so impulsive a writer, one who never says things
(or sees things for that matter) by halves, but

who so far at least resembles the true poet as de-
scribed by Mr. Tennyson, inasmuch as be really
does seem to be—
" Dowered with the hate of hate.
The love of love, the scorn of F c rn. "

With every respect for the zeal and elcqueneo
(and generally speaking, too, for the tasty.) of Mr.
Ruskin, we cannot but regard these very clever

cottage interiors of M. Frero as altogether too
"dimly painted " to be " quite unequalled."
Breton's, No. 58, "Haystacks on Fire," on the
contrary, is by no means dimly painted, and is
full of animation—quite a "to do " in the rick-
yard ! His little picture, No. 59, " Young Girl
plucking Poppies," is delicious—a genuine glimpse
of nature : looking at the scarlet flowers, we long
to he at them ourselves, gathering their hairy
stalks into bundles ! What shall we say, how-
ever, of two out of the five contributions
to the Gallery by Biard ?—No. 27, "English
Travellers in France," and No. 28, " French Tra-
vellers in England." Say ? quotha—why, that
they are thoroughly delightful ! The latter espe-
cially, Mr. Bull, in No. 27, being a very Frenchi-
fied Jean Boule, indeed ! 'But every figure in No.
28 being in a wonderful degree humorous. Such
a line of "Bobbies" trooping by on one side—
every man Jack among them an excuse for a fresh
roar of laughter. The artist is a wag—whose
" twittering brush" tickles one into merriment as
it moves—" as many a time and oft" have done
the pencils of Phillipon and Gavarni, or, nearer
home, those of Leech and Cruikshank. A comi-
cal French scene (an interior) is No. 167, "An
Invitation to Dinner," by Guillemin, and a charm-
ing one (an exterior), No. 179, " A Church Porch
in Paris on Palm Sunday''—both invested with a
semi-religious character. Henri Scheffer contri-
butes, in No. 282, an admirable and most life-
like portrait of our great novelist Charles Dickens,
of Gadshill More admirable as a likeness, even
be it said (to our thinking), than the one of Boz
by the artist's illustrious brother, Ary Scheffer,
now on view at the Royal Academy. And with
another welcome glance, fresh in our recollection,
at that ever-pleasant sight—the faithful effigy of
a noble genius one loves and honours to the
uttermost—we pass out again into Pall-mall from
the gallery of the French Exhibition.