The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-26 00:00:00

13r GEORGE ORTTIKSHANK.

Half-a-century's outpouring of fun and frolic
—so far from -bluatina it—seems only .to have
whetted (.4o to speak) the edge of our great humor-
ist's exquisite sense of the droll and the ridiculous.
Kcce Sijnum this latent of his glorious and-delight.;
ful provocatives of laughter—" The Disturbed
Congregation." The original painting we remem-
ber three or four seasons back adorning the walls
(if we are not very much mistaken) of the British
Institution. It was a new evidence at the time of
the wonderfully ready adaptation of George
Cruikshank's skill to what, in his instance, had been
until a very brief while previously, a hitherto
unentered field for its manifestation. His
pencil had given abundant employment to the
tools of the wood-engraver ever since the memor-
able evening when as a stripling he had chanced to
c itch sight----(glancing at it, as he passed by, outside)
over the top of some waggish publican's window
blind—of Shakspere's bust above the mantelpiece
with the clay pipe stuck in its mouth. The serene,
godlike face with its anomalous and most unmis-
takable dullaeen—startling the young artist, as with
a sun-stroke' of merriment, into—facile
prin-
ecps—the .first of English caricaturists. Very
soon after that George•was at it—if not tooth
and, nail, certainly crayon and etching needle !
Tumbling down all sorts of abuses and absurdities
with his matchless revelation in them of what was
utterly and irredeemably ludicrous. Sweeping al-
most out of recollection by contrast with his keen
and subtle'satire, the coarseness and vulgarity, nay,
even be it said now, the brutalities and obscenities
of those greist guns of caricature among our fore-
fathers of the last century, still recollected here
and there . in association with their gaudily-
coloured extravagancies-fGilray and Rowland-
son. -Droll fellews, no doubt, in their way,
and in, their day, but not, by any means, either of
them, a George Cruikshauk. Whichever of them
yon like, say for example Gilray, was Eclipse who
distanced the field—but George at once, while yet
a mere youth, distanced Eclipse ! And he has
kept his place, at an easy canter, ever since in the
great race of ridicule; that grand struggle which
• has variously for its goal—political reform and
social improvement. How much he has done since
then, not Only in the way of makina us happier by,
the innocent laughter he has provoked, but actually, •
we do believe, by helping to make us all
very much better by the noble truths, the gene-
rous sentiments; the elevating and purifying mora-
lities, his pencil hat, time and again, so wondrously
enforced. Has he not ? Recollect that his was the
hand that gave poignancy to the political satires of
Hone—his the brush that coloured into life the
humorous sarcasms of Egan. Remember in proof
of this, and put a grave face on the matter if you
can while remembering, the high-shouldered
elegance of Derry-Down Triangle, and the
bewigged pomp of the ever famous Dandy
of Fifty, to say nothing at all about
the astonishing escapadeS •of those three emi-
nently ridiculous persons, the fast men of the
" old-fogified times," in the Consulship of Plancus
—Corinthian Tom, Bob Logic, and Jerry Haw-
thorn ! The memory of all wuich and of all whom
seems to come back upon us from a far away per-
speetive, as of the fun and. frolic of some long past
generation. And yet, at this very day, George
Cruikshank is but now in the fullness of his ma-
turity, sa early had lie begun to wield the pencil,
which he has ever since plied with such a
master hand, and with such inexhaustible
facetiousness ! Honour to the kindly humorist who
has all the while been labouring at once so deftly
and so earnestly—with so wholesome a regard (al-
ways) for the taste of the people, and so genial an
eye to their harmless amuseineut. As an illustrator
of our home-literature generally has he not lent a
charm of his own to the original letterpress of many
of our most delightful and most cherished master-
pieces ? scattering with a prolific fancy the most
apt and felicitous of embellishments among the
classic pages of such writers of fiction as
Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett, and
illuminating with his pictorial mirth such comic
rhymes as, for 'example, William Cowper's Ballad
of John Gilpin ! Embellishments in this way not
nnWorthy of being classed in the samo'category.
;with Hogarth'S series of etchings illustrative of
liudibras ! :And as an oriainal • humorist of the
rarest drollery imaginable—has he not, given us
such tid-bits of fun as My Lord Bateman ? The,
," loving ballad" adorned with the trousers and
nose of Sophia, and the bouquet and the leas (thOse.
superb legs !)
,of the Proud Young Porter 1.
•As an historical draughtsman,„ has he not
pencilled with a very luminous pencil7-by
victory, , after victory—the marvellous . career
of that. marvellous man, whose life has been well
called the Fairy Tale of Modern Europe,. Napoleon
llmaparte ? As a noble, earnest, gifted, generous,.
heroic, moralist-satirist, has he not done good ser-
vice in the cause of virtue, and in the interests
Of 'religion, and in the name and on behalf of
humanity, by his very powerful, tragical, and
pathetic series of pictures called The Bottle,
followed by its, scarcely less powerful, tragical,
and pathetic sequel, The Drunkard's 'Children ?.,
And now, after 'having, during all these busy,
years, thus marvellously, and industriously,,
and variously, drawn on wood, and etched on cop-
per, and handled, even once upon a timei if we
mistake not, the needle of the glyphographer; after
having einployed so-often in each individual instance
so adroitly almost every implement Corning within
the grasp of au artist's hand, George Ocuikshank
has latterly taken very kindly ,to the brush and
the palette, and appeared in the galleries of
London,. season after season, as an oil painter.
Appearing, we may add, as such in every
instance to very
.general 'admiration. Already,
if we recollect rightly, he has produced,
among those later oil paintings, two of remark-
' able ability illuStrative of the eltritch 'scapes
'of Burns's . "Tam o'Shanter." Here—before us
—is an engraving of rather considerable dimen-
sions taken from another, not suggested by any
poet's phantasies, but "all out of the artist's
own head," to wit, this droll, delightful
picture of his, "The Disturbed Congregation !"
Passing through the streets during the last few
days, we have been amused more than once by
watching the faces of the casual foot-passengers
pausing for an instant opposite the windows of
some print-shop in which George Cruikshank's
" last' has happened to be displayed somewhat
conspicuously. Looking at their faces, it has been
something like looking at. Hogarth's "Laughing,
Audience !" And no wonder ! Such a Beadle as
there is in the very centre of this picture—from
the hand that dreW of old the purpling features and
the portly form of 'Bumble ! It is the very head
Beadle of Beadledom —glowering over the upper
•rims of his spectacles at that preposterous urchin who
has just, by some strangely unaccountable ill luck,
clattered his peg top down upon the pavement of
the 'aisle—everybody else looking up 9r turning
round at the commotion. The humorous
absurdity of the. whole scene is a thing to be seen
and net merely described. And seen—we warrant
it, it will only be Visible through eyes half-closed
with laughter. Arid so, with a kindly wave of
the,hand-at parting, say we Au revoir I to George
Cruikshank. • : ,

The director of the Bank of Athens is about to foUnd
a branch establishment at Constantinople.
We regret to announce the death of Sir Hyde Parker,
whu.died on the 21st inst., at Government house, De-
vonport, shortly, after his arrival from Lisbon in afm.s.
St. Georges:, Sir Hyde, whe was born in 1785, was'
brother of the late Sir Wm, Parker, whom he succeeded
in 1830,, and grandson of the Admiral Sir Hyde Parker
who defeated the Dutch at Deggerbank, in 1781, and
who being. shertly--afterwards appointed to command
naval forces in.the East Indies, sailed in the Cato, and
was never heai'd of after leaving Rio Janeiro, where he
put in for water. The baronetcy, we believe, is inhe-
rited by Colonel Richard Parker, who commands the Ist
Lile Guards, cousin to the late baronet, and eldest sur-
viving son of the late Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, who
distinguished himself during the American war.
Tux BAST ',INDIA COMPANY'S SERVICE.—Tne follow-
ing officers of the East 'lndia Company's army have been
allowed, to retire from the service :—Major J. W. Ben-
nett, Bengal lst Fusiliers ;, Brevet-Maj or Jolla Grimes,
Maeiras Bth Native Infantry ; Surgeon Samuel Cox,
M.D., Madras Medical Establishment • Brevet-Major
Edward Skipper, Bombay 7th Native Infantry ; .Lieut.
F. E. Hunter, B Anbay 4th Native Infantry ;
H. R. Edlin, Indian Navy,' Bombay Establishment ;
Mr. Joseph Wells, branch pilot, Indian nary. The fol-
lowing appointments as assistant chaplains have been
made :—The Rev. Henry Daniel James, :A.A. of Mag-
dalen Hall, Oxford, to Bengal Ecclesiastical Establish-
ment ; the Rev. Alexander Dunbar Nicholson, M.A.,
of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, to Bengal Ecclesias-
tical Establishment. Mr. Gerard Henry Dudd has been,
admitted a volunteer for the Indian Navy. Mr. Samuel
Augustus Gliddon bls been appointed a capt,in's clerk
for the Indian Navy.—Smith. and Elder's Overland Mail
JOURNAL OF ADVENTURES WITH THE BRITISH ARMY
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR TO THE FALL
OF SEBASTOPOL, by George Cavendish Taylor, late 95th
Regiment, 2 Vols.—At the present inomcnt this work
will be read with unusual interest. " Mr. Taylor's
Journal of Adventures with the British Army," says
the Examiner, "has the merit of being a journal by one
who participated is nearly the whole series of events. It
is valuable for its genuineness, and for the extent of ex-
peri6nce embraced 'in it." " There was scarcely an oc-
currence of importance,": says the United Service Gazette,
" that Mr. Taylor was not an eye-witness of—Balaklava,
Inker:nan Kertcb, the operations in the Sea of Azoff,
Amapa, the unsuccessful and also the second and glorious
storming of the Malakhoff and Redan, and the taking
possession of Sebastopol—each event is detailed in that
concise but clear professional style which we have not
met with-

LATEST NEWS.

MARSEILLES, MARCH 25.
Intelligence has been received here from Con-
stantinople to the 17th inst.

A rumour was current that the Porte would
refuse to embody in a general Treaty of Peace the
reforms enacted by the late decree of the Sultan.
The Ottoman Government, moreover, was
anxious that the deliberations on some important

questions should talk place at Constantinople.
General La Marmara had left Constantinople
on the. 14th for the Crimea.

KIEL, MARCH 24.

The English frigate Amphion and the corvette
Sampson have just quitted this roadstead to join
the English squadron in the Baltic. The Caesar
and Majestic, ships of the line, have just arrived
here to reinforce the English squadron.

BERLIN, MARCH 24.

An imperial "ukase removes from their functions
of governors of provinces Generals Kokoschkine
and Prince Ouroussof, and calls them to the
Senate. The posts 'which they held have been
suppressed. -
Letters from Poland state that, by order of the
Russian Government, tho levy of recruits in
Poland, which was to have taken plaCe on the
17th inst., is postponed.

THE PEACE CONGRESS.
(From Second Edition of the Time* of this day. )
The following is, the letter of our Paris corre-
spondent, dated yeterday, 6 p.m. :
Yesterday the Congress held its twelfth meeting
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The particular
business that was gone 'through I am unable to say.
What was not done, however, may be guessed from
the fact that no conclusion has been arrived at yet,
meaning, of course, by "conclusion" the siguingof
the Treaty of Peace. • I fear we are not yet arrived
at that point, thougirit is hoped we may do so in the
course, or rather at the !close of, the week. The
difficulty still in tie Way •is the one alluded
to in my letter of Sunday ; it turns on the terms
upon which Prussia will be admitted to sign the
treaty. I do not think there is any other difficulty
of a serious kind, as the more important points
have been already settled. I have no particular
reason fur saying so, but I am inclined to think
that the chief opposition to admitting Prussia on a
footing of :equality with the allies comes from
England. ,It is evident that Russia would be much
pleased to have Prussia in the Congress on the
same footing as the other Powers, as she hopes
that if it were brought about by her influence
she would recover her prestige in- Germany, and
attach Prussia to her mere firmly than ever. Be-
sides, she considers she owes a debt of gratitude to
Prussia for fidelity to her throughout. I am aware
that here the point is not considered as one of im-
portance—certainly not important enough to re-
tard the great work of peace, or compel us to re-
tain our immense force in the Crimea. The diffi-
culty may be, viewed in another light elsewhere,
but whatever be the importance it really deserves,
itssuffices to retard the solution all so earnestly
desire. ,The term of the armistice is rapidly ap-
proaching, and something must be known in the
course of the present week.

FRANCE.
VA.RIS, TUESDAY EVENING.

There his•-heen a sitting of the Congress to-day.
A protest, similar to that front 'Moldavia, is on
its way to the Congress of Paris from Wallachia.
The Wallachian protest confines itself more to a
desire for the maintenance of the statu quo.
Representations hare been addressed to the Con-
gress from persons of great influence, urgino, the
'necessity of European interference to remedy the
administrative di oils afflicting large portions of
Italy. ,
It is rumoured: .that a very powerful expedition
to Mada.gascar is meditated by the Emperor, to
punish a massacre lately committed there on French
colonists.

The Af oititeur continues to publish the text'-of
addresses of congratulation to the Emperor received
from different towns of France, and from the
oQi-
cers and crews of the naval division of the

. . .
The Moniteur colitaius a decree extending the
amnesty, already granted, to persons who have
infringed the; lawstelative to sporting, to indirect
taxes, and custems,.and to persons guilty of con-
traventions of the laws relating to the mint stamps
.on gold and silver.
We read in the Moniteur

"The Times, in its number of the 22d, and on..the
faith of its Paris correspondent, represents our army in
the Crimea as being in want of everything, provisions
and clothing, and as abandoned by the. Government of
the Emperor, ,which :no- longer feels any solicittide for
those brave troop?. The Tintes goes so far as to say
.that our soldiers were compelled for their subsistence •th
~ go and pick up the damaged biscuit and the refuse pro-
visions which the English soldiers threw away. With
regard to the last assertion, we will say that if a
scarcity had been felt in our camp,, our allies
would eagerly have shared their resources with us,
as we have ourselves done with them, and that
t e generous offer which they lately made at Con-
stantinople t ► place all our medical, stores at our
disposal sufficiently answers for what they would
have done in'the Crimea, if see hal been in want of pro-
visions. The Times will, we doubt not, regret that it
had not been. :better informed, when it learns tt.at the
'French army is supplied in such a manner as to receive
newly-baked bread every day ; that it has in store suffi-
cient flour for the consumption of three months ; arid
that the greatest part of our troops have fresh vegetables
served out t r them, which are sent in large quantities
from Constantinople.: As ter clothing, it may be affirmed
that never at any period have the wants of the army
been so abundantly supplied. Each soldier in the
Crimea has received, in addition to his regulation cloth-
ing, a complete winter suit, composed ofa thick worsted
cap, a great coat with a hood, a pair of thick warm
gaiters, a flannel or worsted waist belt, a pair of worsted
tockings, a pair ofsabots, and a pair of warm gloves.
It is true that our army, notwithstanding the care of which
it has been constantly the object, has been for some
time past suffering from sickness, which appears to have
spared our more fortunate allies. If, however, it be consi-
dered that our troops ate encamped around Sebastopol, on
the very theatre of the.strtiggle, that is to say,on the ground
which, having served as the burying-place for s 4 many
victims, is far from offering the ,editions of salubrity
which the English army finds., at Balaklava, it will be
comprehended that the present inferiority of our sanitary
condition may be the. consequence of these inevitable cir-
cumstances, and that it cannot be attributed. to a want
of solicitude. We may addethat this state of things has
already been much ameliorated, aad that doubtless it
will in a short time be completely removed. This happy
result may be hoped for from the return of fine weather,
and from the measures -taken to oppose the diseaie, par-
ticillarly from "the removal of a considerable number of
the sick to Constantinople, and the establishment at the
latter place of new, apaoions, and well-aired ambu-
lances."
The Debats is of opinion that the treaty of peace
will be sigutcl.before -the 31st of this month.

BOURSE, March 25.—The following were the last
quotations :

_ .
. Cash. : fr• e• End of Month.
ti per Cents 94 --.-. : —f.. —c.
3 per Cents 72 45 . 72 70
New Loan ....... :..:
Bank Shares 3,500 Roman
Cr6dit Mobilier 1,575 Austrian
89
Belgian Fives o7l— Spanish Throes
44i
Piedmonteee (5)