The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-06 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY.

The private view of the exhibition of the year took
place on Friday, and on the following day (Saturday) the
annual dinner, which, from what we hear of the effects
of mismanagement in the returns to the treasury, must
have been very consoling to, as the fable has it, " the
belly and the members." An annual dinner, however, is
not much to our taste; it reminds us of Cumberland's
Jew, where, to Jabal's inquiry, " What's for dinner ?" his
fellow servant says, " There's our egg ;" upon which
Jabal exclaims, with a fearful inquisitiveness," Our egg!"
There is no falling off of numbers-1226 is a tolerable
dose, when we consider the ingredients of the mixture ;
but there is very little progress perceptible in any of the
departments of art, by a comparison with former years.
History is arrived at its lowest stage of discouragement.—
the R A. itself cin go no further ; the figure branch is
unequal, generally speaking ; and the Landscape certainly
not superior; while Portrait Painting is at zero in all,
except what is accepted so perniciously as the perfection
of the art, but which is, in truth, the easiest, most
puerile, and mechanical part of it—a likeness of the
features or face ; mind, expression, grace, and invention
being absent. The palmy days of portraiture are not, it
would seem, for us. From the Venetian, through Sir
Joshua, down to Sir Thomas, the world have had some-
thing more or less to he proud of—but what we seek in
vain to find in the smooth, and clean, and feeble Presi-
dent, or in the purely mechanical labours of Pickrrsgill,
however praiseworthy as far as they go. But although no
strides have been made—at least none forward—many
have maintained their former reputation, and the whole
thing is, in an idle hour, worth " a shilling."
We cannot say with old Christopher North, that " now
we have not six printers to whose productions a sane man
would give house room ;" for we are inclined to extend
the number a little, and, with all the fear of his crutch
for our bad taste, to double that number in these rooms,
though they are by no means all of the Royal Academy.
WILKIE'S Spanish Monks, No. 134, is excellent ; but
a portrait, ns in No. 140, William IV., sinks bis fame.
50. Tristram Shandy, by LESLIE, is a rare morceau.
LANDSEER., in No. 316, Hunters, and 351, Sir TV.
Scott, has taken a flight that leaves his flock of Birds at
the British in the lower regions of the sky. CALcoTr is
always chaste and beautiful. He has half a dozen pieces.
SIIIPSON, though a moderate painter, and one who, by
attempting to finish Lawrence's pictures, leaves them
utterly undone, has, in 317, Portrait of his Majesty, the
best head and likeness of the King in the Gallery. MIL-
NER has made no improvement by a better acquaintance
with nature and common sense-109. Bridge of Sighs,
and 125. Van Goyen looking out for a Subject ; but
there is in him always something to admire. Gold, in-
corruptible in itself, has corrupted him. His chef d'auvres
are or other days. In 247, Venice from the Dogana,
STANFIELD appears to have gained great 'vantage ground
in easel-painting. WEBSTER, in 454, A Village School,
has a piece of rich humour, admirably composed and exe-
cuted ; and STANLEY, in 9, The Old Bridge at Scariffe,
Ireland, has a landscape sweetly treated in all that respects
tint!' and nature. Newton, Briggs, Clint, Etty, Hart,
Drummond, Linnell, Cooper, Arnald, and Eastlake have
pieces of various merit, and there are many without any
merit at all.

CHANTREY has sent only two works--they are fine;
and a marble bust of Mrs. Evelyn, 1173, by MoottE, is
perfectly beautiful. This bust, however, and 1182, Caius
Marius, by BAILEY, require and deserve a more extended
notice; but as we are in danger of exceeding our bounds,
we must now go on no further with our notes, that we
may have room for a few lines on art of a higher quality
in painting than anything we see here.
We wish, in speaking of private days and the fine arts
par excellence, to notice to morrow, the 6th, when there
will be a privue view at Christie's of such a collection of
pictures as have not come to the hammer at any one time
in our memory. It consists of 131 pictures of the best
schools—ltalian, Spanish, Dutch, &c., collected by Mons.
Nieuwenhuys with a good fortune equal to the excellence
of the judgment exercised. The town generally have
rarely, perhaps never, had such a treat offered to them;
and the members of our English school will do well to
bring their earthen cups to this

" golden stream
" Of magic music, and poetic dream."
This is no imaginary standard ; for the critic, in speaking
thus, " considers the rank which they ought to hold imong
other works of the same kind.".—Motto to the Catalogue
of 1833. Although we protest against their constant vice
of copying each other—and, perhaps worse, themselves—
we shall here have no objection to a little " picking and
stealing;" for, as with parsons, so with painters, their
best sermons and their best pictures are commonly those
they have hal a hand in copying, hut none in composing.

The larlieg of Doncaster have determined to
petition both Houses of Parliament for the abolition of
slavery.

An account is preparing at the Treasury,
under the superintendence of Mr. SPRING Ries, and
pursuant to Parliamentary order, of the gross and net
amount of all taxes repealed, expired, or reduced in each
year since the termination of the war; and also of all
taxes imposed in the same period ; showing the several
articles on which the alteration of duty were made, toge-
ther with an estimate of the amount of reduction or in.
crease of duty upon each.
We regret to announce the serious indisposi-
tion of Lord KING. IFS Lordship rem ,ins at his resi-
dence in Dover-street, with, as we are informed, extremely
faint hopes of convalescence. The Noble Baron has been
ailing during the last month, but witt in the last two or
three (Lys his disorder has taken h n unfavourable turn:
The Hon. War. KING, eldest son of his Lordship, is at
present Fl t, acb u d to the suite of Lord NUGENT, Governor
. _ . _ _

of the lonian Islands, as Civil Secretary. The answer to
inquiries yesterday morning was, that his Lordship was
somewhat better than on the day preceding.
SEDUCTION AND SUICIDE.—Oft Saturday
an inquest was held at the King's Arms, Orchard-street,
Westminster, on the body of Many Asttscax, aged 24.
The young woman had for some mouths past been co-
habiting with a young man in the service of Mr. THORN,
the brewer, of No. 2, Park•street, Westminster. On

Thursday evening they had a quarrel, and her paramour
said he should leave her, which he did. On the following
day she went to one of the lodgers in a dejected state, and
asked for the loan of a shawl, as she wanted to go out.
This request was refused ; upon which she remarked that
it was the last time she should want such a favour. She
then retired to her apartment, and in the evening was dis-
covered hanging by the neck from a hook in the ceiling...—
Verdict, " Temporary insanity."
ILFORD PETTY SESSIONS. CURIOUS
AFFILIATION CASE.—CAROLINE CHILDS, a good looking
young woman, was brought up by the parish officers of
Waltbamstow, to affiliate an illegitimate child, of which
she swore that WILLIAM JENKINS, late master of the In-
fant School at Waltbamstow, was the father. The cir-
cumstances of the case were extraordinary. JENKINS,
who was in Court, and appeared respectable, is upwards of
sixty years of age, has had three wives, and is the father
of 19 children. He had brought up CAROLINE CHILDS
as if she were his own child, and some time ago obtained
her a situation in an Infant School Institution in Bucking.
hamshire. During the vacation he went down to see her,
and then, as she alleges, the intimacy took place, though
she declared that he had always before behaved like a
father. She bad a sweetheart at the time, and there were
several circumstances in the case that rendered her story
improbable. Being in a weak state of health, the Magis-
trates adjourned the examination for a month.

MURDER AT CHELSEA.—On Saturday
evening the inhabitants of Chelsea were thrown into a
state of consternation, by the discovery of a shocking
murder, committed on a Mrs. ELMS, about 70 years of
age, who resided at 17, Wellesley-street, near the new
Church. Mrs. ELMS occupied a house in Wellesley-street,
and had a female lodger, who had been absent for some
days. The last time the old lady was seen alive was on
Thursday night, about ten o'clock, when she went to the
Wellesley Arms for beer for her supper. On Friday and
Saturday, her house not being opened, suspicion was ex-
cited, and HUGHES, the constable of Chelsea, with his as-
sistants, obtained an entrance_ through a back window,
whets they were horrorstruck at discovering the poor old
lady with her throat cut, and her head dreaditilly mangled.
At present no clue exists to the discovery of the murderers.
The deceased appeared to be in respectable circumstances.
On Thursday last the new suspension-bridge
at Shoreham was opened in the presence of a grand pro-
cession, at the head of which were the Duke of NORFOLK,
the Earl and Countess of SURREY, the Duke and
Duchess of ST. ALBANS, Sir C. F. GOSLING, Sir J. W.
LLOYD, Barts., &c. An elegant dejeund was provided on
the causeway leading to the bridge, at two o'clock, which
was partaken of by a great number of the Nobility and
Gentry present. At the breakfast several addresses were
delivered to the company by the Duke of NORFOLK, and
appropriate toasts proposed. At the opening, the keys of
the old bridge were delivered to his Grace, after it hao
been locked up by the High Constable of Shoreham.
The distance saved between those two fashionable and po-
pulous towns, Worthing and Brighton, is two miles. The
bridge certainly stands unrivalled by any other work of the
sort, for magnificence and utility, and is, we are informed,
the design of Mr. W. TIERNEY CLARK, the architect of
Hammersmith and Marlow bridges,