The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-03 00:00:00

SUN,

LON DON,

FIVE A N.TS,

To L PICT L!, OF ri
By George Cruikshcmh.
Numerous as nave been the representaions of the
interior and exterior of the Crystal Palace, scarcely
one of them has hitherto proved really satisfactory.
There have been woodcuts, and steel engravings, and
engravings on copper and in nil zzotinto—worka of
all sizes, and taken from every imaginable „point of
view, the productions in some instances of uninis-
tskeable talent, and in others of unmistakeable
mediocrity. Yet, varied as these endeavours have
been, we have found them, with little
more than one or two • exceptions, unde-
serving of any very high commendation. The
exquiitelv coloured plates produced from the draw-
ings of Mr. Nash, drawings made in obedience to a
royal command, and now in her Majesty's possession,
must, of course, be particularised as those which
have mainly extorted our sulogium. Yet something
was still left to be accomplished after even the most
successful of those adventurous attempts at an ac-
curate delineation of one of the most memorable, as
it was also one of the most beautiful, incidents
in the reign of our beloved Sovereign. There was
wanting an engraving which, in addition to the merits
of ' architectural detail and of artistic execution,
should preserve about it in every particular a life-like
verisimilitude. Such an engraving is the one here
published by David Bogue, from the inimitable and
glorious George Cruikshank. Altogether, to speak
briefly and emphatically of the merits of the picture
before us, we may say with the strictest truth that
in it we see the Ist of May daguerreotyped. The
view is taken from the south-west gallery at
the moment when the Archbishop of Canter-
bury is invoking the Divine blessing upon the
objects of the Great Exhibition. Under the pendant
canopy, sanding by the throne, upon the elevated
dais erected in the northern division of the transept,
are the Queen, the Prince, and the two eldest of the
royal children. Immediately on the left of her
Majesty is the Primate of all England, and further
back, among a crowd of courtiers, may be die-
tinguished the Prime Minister, the Marquis of
Anglesey, and the Duke of Wellington. Pourtraying
with the utmost minuteness every feature in that
most gorgeous pageant, the heralds in their ta-
bards, the line of gentlemen-at-arms, the ladies in
waiting, the beef-eaters in the background, and the
vast and compact body of spectators, the artist has
nevertheless at the same time imparted to the spec-
tacle an air of ease in the flowing outlines of the
whole, such as might scarcely be expected in a work
so microscopically elaborated. When coloured the
engraving cannot but be an exquisite transcript from
that brilliant and superb original which, among its
varied hues, gave the green of the elm boughs, the
scarlet of the drapery, the blue and amber of
the iron- work edifice, added to the chequered
tints of the costumes worn by the different beholders.
Conspicuous among the latter may be recognised
several of the representatives of the various nations
of Christendom, pencilled off with that humorous ap
predation of character for which George Cruikshank
nes been so long and agreeably remarkable. Tne re-
doubtable Mandarin, known among our sight-seers as
the Commander of the Chinese Junk, is readily per-
ceived near the Crystal Fountain, and other notabi-
lities may be detected almost as easily by a little re-
search among the motley groups depicted. As a
memento of the inauguration of this unprecedented
exposition of art and industry, the plate here submitted
to our criticism moat be regarded as really inesti-
mable in every particular. It will be gratefully wel-
comed by every individual interested in the under-
taking, from the illustrious originator himself down to
the must obscure visitor of the Crystal Palace, en-
dearing yet more to the popular heart the old familiar
name of George Cruikshank.

THE ART JOURNAL.
Added to the attractions of the Art Journal the sub•
scribers to this popular periodical find those of the
illustrated Catalogue. As illustrations to the former
moiety of the publication there are engravings in the
current number of Hart's " Jewish Synagogue" and
of Bonnington's " Columns of St. Mark, Venice,"
and of Stothard's sketch of " Intemperance," all of
them taken from the well. known originals preserved
among the Vernon Collection. Further wood cut
specimens of Albert Durer are likewise given among
the varied pictorial embelii_hmeot►—such, for in-
stance, as the " Great Horse," as the " Knight and
Lady," or as the "Virgin and Child." An extraor-
dinary variety of engravings illustrative of the con-
tents of the Exhibition are mingled with the letter-
press portion of the catalogue.

MODERN CRUELTIES—FLY PAPERS.
Mr. Kidd has just taken up the cudgels, in a spirit el
true humanity, on behalf of that troublesome and an-
noying race of summer visitors—flies. Not that he de-
precates their destruction, quite the contrary; but he
proves to a demonstration Low cruelly they are "tor-
tured," before thiy are killed by those fearful engines of
horror—fly pspers.! Mr. Kidd thus writes in the
Gardeners' Chronicle, of June 21, on this new invention
of refined barbarity; and no one who has ever witnessed
the " action" of it, can disprove one syllable of the
statement:—
" FLY PAPERS.—Your correspondent Curiosus' has,
in his zeal to protec:, the poor inventor of the fly
papers,' not only o'erstepped the modesty of nature,' in
attempting to prove too much, but he has put an inter-
pretatien on my remarks perfectly unwarrantable. So
far from giving the poor inventor an ignoble character,'
I volunteered the charitable belief that he was ignorant'
of the atrocious barbarities he was the author of, and
hinted that if he were enlightened or made wise' on
the nature of the tortures he had invented, it would
only add to his own. As these sentiments were dropped
en passant, and savoured strongly of common humanity
only, I am at a loss, and so must your general readers
be, to imagine why' Curiosus' should feel so anxious to
endeavour to reclaim the reputation of this fellow-
creature, and set him right in the scale of creation.'
Had I gone out of my way to injure him (I know him
not, even by name), or indulged in any personality, it
would have been another thing. 'Curiosus' will please
to bear in mind, that I do on every possible occasion
• examine the mute vegetable kingdom,' and that I am
quite alive to the ' glutinous excretions' he speaks of. I
have often admired tho wisdom of nature in their crea-
tion. These, however, let me kindly remark, do not
at all bear upon the question at issue. If winged insects
are secured, by the by, under such circumstances, they
aro spot dily released by birds, spiders, and a variety of
other animals; it bait g a wise law of nature so to destroy
supetfluities, and to send one animal to prey upon
amaistr. Let us consider this paint settled. I will now,
es the hot season is at hand, put in a word for the poor
flies; and be the means, let me hope, of sparing some
millions of them unnecessary torture. Killed let them
be, by all means ; but not first put to the rack.'
iiearken ail ye who patronise these fly-papers! Hear
how they are made. The two compounds are, common
resin and sweet oil; heated, amalgamated, and spread
upon sheets of old newspapers. Thus are they manu-
factured ' Now for their attractive' qualities. ss. herever
fives abound, there it has been deemed advisable to spread
out these papers, one, two, three, or more. A little
sifted loaf-sugar lightly sprinkled on them completes the
'charm.' Let us note the result. In an instant some
luckless fly descends, in search of a treat. He realizes
it by finding either a leg or a wing fixed as in a vice.
Escape is impossible. Tne more ho struggles the worse
the consequences. Here he must live, here be must fast,
here he must linger, here he must stick' and groan, till
starvation and insect endurance can hold out no longer.
Sometimes the poor flies are glued down by their hinder
extremities, thus allowing freedom to their head and
trout legs, which, being elevated, give free play to their
respiratory organs, and prolong lite—to be further tor-
tured by want of food. Every person possessing only
common feelings of humanity, and who may be halting
between two opinions, must feel greatly interested in put-
ting my assertions to the proof. Let such carefully observe
(whilst his thoughtless neighbour is spreading the snare),
s,he almost supernatural endeavours of the poor flies,
when inveigled by these diabolical papers, to extricate
their feet trom the rivets; and note how, in the vain
ffort, they tear out in their final agonies each several
limb from its socket—their axis-shapen forms being
elevated, after death, to thrice their naturul height!
The distinctly audible vibrations of their wings in their
last dying pangs, as they lie one glued to the other in
countless numbers, complete this picture of newly-in-
vented horrors (unfit even for Madame Tussaud's 'Chant
bar')—a picture, alas! but too faithfully painted. Them
aro simple facts, which, by a few momenta of close oh.
nervation, any body may verify, by gazing on a well-filled
' sheet of flies.' I have used the word groan' with re-
ference to their agonies; and if any of your readers have
ever chanced to listen to the 'horribly' peculiar sounds
produced by the motion of the prisoners' quivering
wings, either by day or by night (the latter especially),
one moment's reflection will make them grateful that
`Curiosus' should have unwittingly drawn forth this ex-
position from his obliged collaborateur is the field of
Nature, WILLIAM KIDD.
" New-road, Hammersmith, June 19."

Niw YORK AND GALWAY.—The Galway voyage
is abandoned. The steam-ship North America was sold yes-
terday for 200,000 dolls., to run between Realeio and San
Francisco, in connexion with Commodore Vanderbilt's
Nicaragua line. She was to have left for Galway about the
same hour that her sale was effected. The negotiation that
resulted in her detention was effected while her passengers
were on board and her steam was up, ready for departure.
Captain R. J. Vande,,vate,, the agent, who sold her, imme-
diately engaged rooms fur her passengers on the steamer
Pacific, of the Collins' line, which sails on Saturday for
Liverpool. The North America will be dispatched for the
Pacific in two or three days.—New Yorh Paper.
NOTICE TO VOTERS FOR THE RETURN OF MEM.
BURS AND KNIGHTS OF TITS STILES TO PARLIAMENT.— No
person will be entitled to have his name inserted in the list
Of voters for the cities of London and Westminster, and the
metropolitan boroughs of the Tower Hamlets, Finsbury,
Marylebone, Lambeth, S hwar Greenwich, and also for
the counties of bliddlesex, &c., unless he pays upon or before
the 20th inst. all poor rates and assessed taxes due previously
to the sth of January last.
" TUE PoPE HE LEADS A HAPPY LlFE."—This
_linteheoffetisitei‘o,aldl
sfodnegdlC.did—by atstrchingly illustrated at a late revel
the clergy of St. Barnabas;
illustrated by the following hems ;—" 'hie gross weight of
the meat. was upwards of I,oooibs., and there were one
hundred g iUous of ale, and port and sherry in abundance."
Out of compliment to the Yope, the beef was, no noult, bull-
beef.—runch