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

THE PRICE OF PEACE.

England dishonoured ; Italy betrayed ;
Rewards of treachery to Austria paid ;
The rising hopeli of Poland's freedom crushed ;
The cries of trodden nations rudely hushed ;
Sinope's crime and Inkerman condoned ;
The inassaere of Mango unatoned ;
The soil by valour won and heroes' graves
Left to the insults of barbarian slaves ;
All this, that despots may prolong their hour
O. public plunder and unlawful power,
And, with their armies from the war set free,
May bind more fast their peoples' slavery.
March, 1856. J. M.

His Excellency the Ambassador of France and the
Countess Periigny will arrive in town this evening from
Warwick, where they have been stayin; for a few days
past.

Viscount Palmerston left town with Visco'intees Pal-
merston, yesterday, for his seat, 13roadlands, Hants.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer left London, yes-
terday, for his seat, Herpton Court, Kington, Hereford.
The Right Hon. H. Labouchere and Lady Mary
Labouehere arrived in town on Monday evening.
Sir John and Lady Lister Kaye and family have ar-
rived at their residence in Portland-place, from their
seat, Denbigh Grange, Yorkshire.
We are authorised to contradict a paragraph stating
that "Mr. Ormsby Gore, M.P., is suffering from con-
gestion of the brain." Mr. Gore was very ill for a few
boors, but is now rapidly regaining strength.
Sir Robert Peg! kasEed throegh Turin on the 21st.

SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.

THE SUFFOLK-STREET EXHIBITION.

On Saturday afterseen) according to annual cus•
tom, we duly wended our way along Suffolk street,
Pall Mall East, to the private view of the paintings
displayed somewhere about epring- time, year after
year, by the Society of British Artists—the first
privileged glimpse of one of our most popular
London Exhibitions. The collection for 1856 now
hanging upon the walls of the Gallery, is that of
the thirty-third memo; it appears—the association
having been originally founded and incorporated
by Royal Charter in the year of grace 1823. As
many as 843 pictures in oil and water colours
adorn the sides of the five apartments' en suite,
only three specimens of sculpture decorating the
floor of the outer room, the room just within the
vestibule. Among the rather numerous contribu-
tors the most industrious, at least so far as we can
estimate the amount of his industry by the variety
of his productions, appears to be Mr. J. J. Wilson
of Folkestone. The most conspicuous among the
exhibitors being as usual the very men whose
names have long been the chief boast of the society,
not forgetting among these, altogether apart from
his official position, the painter wom the British
artists have long ago selected, and' since then
retained, as their President. To a certain
extent, consequently, the general character of
each year's exhibition preserves, season after
season, a strong and unmistakeable sort of a family
resemblance. Entering the Gallery, in Suffolk-
street, any fine Saturday morning in March, you
may be certain that,. while making the circuit of the
four inner rooms, your eyes will be greeted by
some sly-looking Italian boy, with an olive com-
plexion; instantly recognizable as a Hurlstone ! •
By a chalky-coloured landscape, or a milky-hued
sea view, such as Pyne's brush alone could by any
possibility delineate ! By a Clint, blushing all
over with the gorgeous dyes of sunset I By the
prettiest; daintiest, sweetest, freshest, rustic girl,
or stripling; with (be sure of that) a little child •
introduced somewhere or other, to stand upon tip-
toe and drink out of a pitcher,
,visible at the first
glance as another charming nwrceau from the
easel of Hill ! Yonder, again, a Woolmer, painted
in splotches and, ..blots of gamboge, white, and car-
mine, out-of which grows upon your view some
partially nude and very voluptdotis figure, stand-
ing, or sitting, or kneeling, or lying in most
unaccountable nakedness ip the midst of the most
amply flowing and voluthinous of draperies !
While every now and then, as we saunter on,
past picture after picture from very various
hands indeed, we come most refreshingly upon
some delicious little peep of river scenery, some .
side view down a rural English lane, seine casual
glimpse through the cool and shady perspective of a
pleasant greenwood slitter—instantly and gladly
welcomed as a new boon of natural beauty from
the familiar and houourei brush of Boddingtou !
Such, ,wei take it, is the agreeable average of the
annual exhibition in Suffolk-street, Pall-mall East,
opened to the public view by the Society of British
Artists in the sweet spring season. The exhibition
there for this present year of grace 1856, is, all,
things considered, about the average ; and as such,
therefore, we regard it as eminently well entitled
to our commendations. Eight seems to be the
favourite number attained by the Chief Exhibitors.
Mr. Hurlstone, the President, hes " eight "—Mr.
Alfred Clint, the Hon. Secretary, has " eight"—
and Mr. Woolmer has " eight"—scatteied here
and. there in the ample catalogue. Mr. J. J. Hill
contributes, on the contrary, only three pictures
altogether, but all three of these pictures we
.found (and let us add, with no surprise whatever)
pleasantly marked with the little green ticket
" SOLD," even before 'the vulgar sreXaei were ad-
mitted to the chance of cosnapetition. Mr. Pyne, on the
other hand, exhibits this year as Many as." seven,"
and Mc. Bodclington as many as " nine " (some of
these, in each instance, very remarkable) produc-
tions. Exquisite, for example, to our thinking, is
(No. 11) " Streatley M.ll, on the Thames—a Sum-
mer's Noon," from the hand of the last men-
tioned—lovely, too, is (No. 136) "An English
Lane" of his—and yet mere lovely (No. 420) ',' A
Summer's Morning, North Wales,"-this latest to
our mind a very jewel of a Boddington. There
are especially noticeable moreover, iu their way-:-
(No. 39) "Summer. Evening Bantry," and (No: •
335)." Stunt, Fishing Boats eurening inset Harbour,"
both by Alfred Clint, and worthy of him—the
rolling storm and the ruddy evening Mr. Pyne
has brought home once more from Italy "things
of beauty," WhiCh must continue ," joys for ever,"
so long at least as the threads of the canvass upon
which he has painted hang together. .Now that Tur-
ner is gone, there is scarcely a man who can approach
him as is delineator of Nature. Witness this (No.
38) "Bathing Buffaloes in the Pontine Marshes
(in itself a most luscious study of colour !)—and (No.
65) " Castello d'Ostia' Campagna di Recria
and (No. 83) ."Venice from the Lido" (a Veniee
like the Fairy D tydream described as such in
that magical vision Of alio tioa.tittee • city, seen and
told of, once upon a time, by Bee !)—end, besides
these, gleams of wonderful power and beauty from
'the last asyful eruption of Mount Vesuvius, that
of May, 1855, such for example-.as that presented
by (No. 620) " Cescata Interwile" a rolling cataract
et red hot lava that (thus depicted) would have
given joy to the heart, and eyes, and brain of• Tu-
rner. "The Hay Field" (No. 25) a 120/. picture
by Mr. Hill, is this year, beyond. all doubt, Mr.
Hill's heppiest effort—wonderfully' preferable at
•once to (No. 281) his " Shepherdess," and to (No.
580) his " Galway Rustics." This sweet and most'
delicious Hay Field of his, being a scene altogether
of happy rustic love, and health, and industry.
Mr. Woolmer's worst picture, fur a long time past,
we conceive to be the monstrosity entitled (No.
109) " Christ in the Wilderness," with a gigantic
Seville Orange .shining through the contorted•
boughs of the bare wool in the background ! As
a matter of course, he gives us (No. 239) a " Doro-
thea, vide 'Dan Quixote.'" His two most sen-
suous, or rather we should perhaps say of them his
two most sensual pieces, this year, are (No. 273)
" Lady G-odiva," and (No. 435) " Return from the
Ball, Sunrise"--both pourtraying the female form in
the very act of stripping into stark nakedness ! Mr.
Hurlstone's mos( characteristic work for the pre-
sent season is, perhaps, of all, (No. 199) "Tenants
of the Forum Romanum in the Nineteenth C -n-
-tory," three dark-eyed, brown-skinned, white-
toothed laughing Italian children, eating fruit and
maccaroni. The President, it should be observed,
however, appears to have been latterly more
than ordinarily industrious as a portrait painter,
chiefly in the family of "Sir William E len,
Baronet," as Mr. Bucket would call him,
see Nos. 187, 306, and 134, one only of these, viz.,
(No. 300) " Blanche," being to ourselves, as dis-
passionate spectators, in any way satisfactory—the
prettiest little baby-trot imaginable, with its eyes
laughing, and its hands full of grapes ! One of
the most interesting portraits in the Gallery is
(No. 88.) Mr. Swintoa's portrait of " Sir John
M‘Neil," a truly noble classic profile: (No. 14) Mr.
Bell's portrait of "Professor Farraday" having an
'attraction of its own in the mere name of the
illus-
trions philosopher—possibly, however, in all re-
'spects, the best -portrait in the entire collection
being (No. 150), Mr. Westcott's life-like portrait of
a lady, mentioned in the catalogue as "Mrs. Jas.
H. Hulnee, Cliffs House, Ballow, Derbyshire."
Besides other large pictures in the gallery, otherwise
distinguishable as in some way meritorious, there are
several big, execrable- paintings. 'such as (No. 201)
" The Golden Age," by Mr. Underhill, with its
brawny cloWn. dancing in2a leopard skin—or as
(No. 174) "False SecUrriy," by Mr. Bullock, with
a most extravagant Terror sprawling out upon us
pell-mell with her arms outspread ! Mr.
Pidding's (No. 283). "The Mercy Thought"
is the silliest, vapidest thing otonceiv-
able. Very different from Mr. Fitzgerald's
(No. 243) " Youth," with mirth in her eyes, and
freak, and fun, and frolic in every outline of her
gay, gliding figuree--a merry country lass, sliding
to us upon tho ice with a laugh all but audible. .
Horrible is (No. 372) Miss Emily Smith's " Sailor
Boy's Early Dream !" Capital ie (No. 459) the little
"Country Boy," sketched from nature by Mr. Hems-
Icy—with visible weight in his pitcher, and muscle'
under his shirt sleeves, and a totter in his little boots!
Mawkish, is (No. 467.) Mr. Egley's " Honey.
moon"—the very type of your ballad frontispiece
in coloured lithography? And such for the most
part are the chief themes for praise or dispraise
noticed by us"during the course of our first visit
thisseason to'the annual Suffolk-street Exhibition.

COVENT•GARDEN THEATRE.—Her Majesty the Queen
has, we understand, offered to head a submeription list
for the rebuilding of Covent-garden Theatre, with a con-
tribution of 1,0001.

The Sardinian Government has moved a body of
troops to the frontiers of Parma. Fears are entertained
of further disorders in that quarter.
A SUBURBAN NEWSPAPER.—An ingenious little subur-
ban contemporary, entitled The Chelsea and .Kensington
TVeekly Observer, has recently made its appearance.
Assuming, by reason of the very modesty of its domi-
nion—(after the fashion of the Elector of one of your
small German principalities)—a grandiose title as long
as one's arm, " Tout pour deux sous, M'sieur!" it under-
takes to circulate in Chelsea, Battersea, Wandsworth,
Putney, Fulham, Hammersmith, Pimlico, Brompton,
Kensington, and Knightsbridge ! It affects in every
way the manner and appearance of a French journal,
beginning with its political articles and ending with its
advertisements—not forgetting even the feuilletm ruled
off at the bottom of the page, and which sets out with
a tale of the reign of Charles the Tenth, rather uncom-
fortably entitled " The Lost Finger a contribution,
by the way, authenticated with the name of the indus-
trim nciacto4.• of our little west-end contemporary.

THE DISTURBED CONGREGATION.