The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-22 00:00:00

BREhS'S PANORAMA.

The subjects of this excellent Panorama are views
of New Zealand, divided into two parts, and a picture
of Sydney, New South Wales. In the picture of the
town of Auckland, while the native canoes in the
foreground, with the carving on their prows, which
is distinctly brought out in the painting, gives a
pleasing idea of native ingenuity ; the thriving appear-
ance of the town, with the other indications of pros-
perity in its neighbourhood, indicate the progress
that is there making in all the arts of civilization.
The views of Wellington and of the Bay of All Saints
were also beautifully managed with a view to picto-
rial effect. The view of Sydney, with the military
fort in the distance, was distinctly and finely deli-
neated.

WESTERN INSTITUTION.
The panoramas at this institution in Leicester-
square, are devoted exclusively to the illustration of
our colonial possessions at the Cape of Good Hope ;
rendered more than usually interesting, at present,
from their being the seat of war. We are first pre-
sented with several views of Cape Town and the
neighbourhood, taken successively from Table Bay,
from the interior of the town, and from the summit
of Table Mountain. There are also spirited re-
presentations of Dutch villages, Hottentot kraals,
and Kafir encampments, together with views of
the natural scenery of the district, which will do
more than the most laboured descriptions could ac-
complish in making the spectator acquainted with the
peculiar difficulties to be encountered by our troops
in their conflicts with the natives. To these the en-
terprising proprietor has lately added a new sketch,
illustrative of the recent attack of the Kafirs on
Colonel Mackinnon and his party, in the gorge of the
Keiskamma Hoek ; the whole accompanied by appro-
priate music, under the direction of Miss Kirkham,
and a descriptive lecture, highly elucidative of the
subject, by Mr. J. D. Malcolm.

GREENWICH FAIR.
The persistence with which the body corporate of
Cockneydom clings to its prescriptive rights would be
a very fine trait of its character if it wore not, in its
collateral effects, a very unpleasant one. Year after
year the good people flock to Greenwich on Easter
Monday to ruin their best bonnets and destroy their
best coats with an ardour no rain can quench, and a
vigour no mud can intimidate, and yet there is no
sign of reform. If old Moore,judging what the fu-
tura world be from the experience of the remotest
past put down in his atmospheric” revelations, after
the Easter Monday, " Ver.Y wet, he would be re-
garded as an arrant impostor ; for the whole world
east of Temple-bar seems to have determined from
time immemorial, that the opening of Greenwich
fair on Easter Monday shall be and must be "fine
and dry." With the usual pezacliowauess a the see-

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son the morning smiled warmly througLaWQ doles,' ' "t
so light that they looked like mufflertist worn,. or
the moment, and to be cast oft' as soon as i*EitsijA,lscf 1/4..4
got any tooting in the heavens.. The Ibitrq-44d-h• 4
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deceitful proceeding was to bring 0uti9404-1
blow of richly-coloured bonnets and r ..._4 •..,i, L., i
"t"Tl4"glaNiritu,:„/
divers coats of many colours, and to lesilie---ur
seclusion many serviceable umbrellax. The glass,
to be sure, looked ominous, but glasses
of anothvr description were so frequently
consulted as not to under the indications of the first
of much importance. About one o'clock the boats
were tolerably full as they left London-bridge, and
the trains were still fuller. The railway company',
after many a vain effort to resist the democratic ten-
dencies of the age in Easter week, placidly announced
that they would let any one get down to Greenwich
in any class be liked for Gd., and the result was thet
the third•class carriages became decidedly fashionable
and select.

At two the usual incidents of Greenwich corn.
inenced. Down came the rain, and all the sports of
the day were brought to a close. The park became a
plashy mashy mass of trampled mud ; the streets
something like the strand off the Strand when the tide
is out, and the public-houses full to fortune-making.
Tlae bold English archers unbent their bows and fled
from I3lackheath ; the donkey cavalry charged in
pulks to the nearest shelter; and " the fun of the fair"
svas only heard creaking feebly from under leafless
trees in the most frequented walks; the aged vete-
rans with the telescopes "d
---d their eyes" end the
weather, and put up their glasses till they got into
the town. The slopes and glades were deserted by
everything but some isolated drunken men end a few
hardened deer ; and all was sloppy, damp, and nasty.
As for the town, it was the same as it always is.
Clouds of tobacco smoke, and the ends of' long pipes
protruded from the windows into the fat.
moisture. The tea-touters, under a cloud of umbrellas,
suggested the propriety of keeping up one's spirits
with the cup which cheers, but not inebriates in
vain. " The nut rifle corps" was as numerous and.
hardy es ever, and baffled the skill of the excited
little boys, who seemed always to fire furthest from
the mark the more pains they took with their aim.
Warriors of a hundred fights sat quietly on a pile of
straw in the gutter, as idle as " the painted ship upon
the painted ocean" beside them. Men who had suf-
fered all the ills that flesh is heir to, as if by wholesale
entail, with contingent remainders of legs, noses, and.
arms, recounted the story of their disasters to the
scanty passengers. Humpy-backed soldiers, who had.
been discharged, after 40 years' " servis, for beatia
mi sargint"—puny navigators, who had been muti-
lated while " blastin at the Shakspeer klift, near
Dover, as most does remember"—and several pro-
prietors of glass ships, which had been more or less
victims to the violence of cabmen--as well as persons
with legs frightfully swelled by an accumulation of
stockings, and white-headed boys with flaxen hair
and flax wigs, took up their usual perches by the
most crowded, or rather by the least desolate tho-
roughfares; and it was curious to observe that a great
number of "objects" who announced to the public
in bold chalk characters on their hats—the flags were
too wet—that they were starving of hunger, and ge-
nerally had garments which showed an enormous
amount of dramatic taste and skill in their tailors,
had been brought all at once into the main street of
Greenwich. As to the fair par excellence, it seems
gone for ever. The blight which we noticed some
time ago on the native British race of mermaids,
learned pigs, unrivalled giants, tremendous dwarfs,
five-legged sheep, and spotted ladies, still continues
with painful severity. Foreign imports of these arti-
cles must take place, or the trade is ruined. What
signifies the wretched substitutes of " living por-
traits" for id., or " cosmorama-panoptic delusions"
for 2d., after such as we have seen but a few short years
when free trade was unknown? Even the contami-
nation of "poses plastikes" has been introduced, and
the time may soon come when the gingerbread art
may perish for ever, and the secret of moulding
kings, emperors, and giants, lions and all the finest
of animals, fern: naturce, in that pleasant medium,
may be lost to us, even as that of malleable glass.
Richardson was there with perennial lustre—his tur-
bans not faded in brightness—his band unin-
jured in lung—his Columbine as though she had just
drunk a bumper of the aurum potabile, and the Har-
lequin rather fatly lively, as though he had drained
the dregs; but his audiences were not equal to his
merits. He bad three appearances of a ghost, and a
great deal of battle and murder, with a comic song,
end as sensible a ballet pantomime as we have seen
for a long time, spun out to a great and alarming
length ; but all to no we. The ginger-
bread stalls were as numerous and as gaudy as usual,
resplendent with gilded kings, queens, beasts, birds,
and nondescripts. The place of the learned pig was
supplied by au exhibition of performing rats and.
mice : the Swiss Giantess was supplanted by a
" female Goliath," and the patrons of the " fancy"
might gratify their taste at a sparring booth, the door
of which was guarded by as ugly-looking a pair of
men as one would wish to avoid meeting on a lonely
country road at midnight, and whose personal appear-
ance was enough to deter all peaceably-disposed
lieges from entering the place. Despite the con-
tinuous rain, the trains and boats continued to pour
their contingents into the fair. The numerous
dancing-booths offered an inviting refuge from the
inclemency of the weather to those who preferred a
canvas covering and a boarded floor to wandering
about unsheltered upon ground ancle-deep in mud,
and they were extensively patronised. In Algar's
monster booth an indefatigable band was kept con-
stantly at work upon polkas, waltzes, and quadrilles ;
and if the dancers continued to exhibit the same un-
tiring energy in their devotion to Terpsichore
throughout the evening, the musicians, we are sure,
deserve sincere commiseration. Upon the whole, the
holiday-makers displayed most commendable resigna-
tion under the difficulties they encountered in the
pursuit of pleasure ; and, if all did not go "merry as
a marriage bell, as much cheerfulness and good
humour was evinced as could be expected under the
circumstances.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.—The Museum was more
thronged than ever remembered by the officials on
any previous Easter. The works not being completed_
in the gallery of sculptural antiquities, that portion of
the Museum was seen to much disadvantage. Anew
entrance has been made to the Nineveh Gallery.
a
The total number of visitors during th
76,850, averaging about 182 per minute. At
was
past four o'clock the rooms were so crammed, ndhathlfe-
crush was so great, that the authorities
deemed it
ed
expedient to stop the admission.tathour was 7,530. In
The number of
persons who passed out
willthe
opening of the Great
order not to disappointEt the
therhi
h publiction,atthteheMtuimseeumor
this year be closed for cleansing from the 29th inst. to
the 3d of May, reopening
yto. the public on the sth,
..
l
in-
stead of on the 9th of
TnE NATIONAL GALLERY.—The visitors were here
very numerous. According to the officials 36,500
VERNON COLLECTION.—From the time the
at Marlborough House were opened a continu-
enTteHreEd the gallery during the day.
human beings poured into the rooms to
view the magnificent collections of paintings therein.
The total number of visitors was 47,390.
(trsstream of
THE UNITED SERVICE MUSEUM.—The subscribers
opened their museum in Scotland-yard for the free
admission of the public, and 7,000 persons availed
themselves of the privilege to view the splendid col-
lection of models and implements of war deposited
therein. The museum will remain open this day and
to-morrow.

THE TOWER.—Upwards of 600 persons paid yester-
day to see the regalia, armoury, and other objects of
curiosity deposited in the Tower.
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. ••••• Notwithstanding
the unfavourable weather, many hundreds of persons
visited this favourite resort. The chief attraction ap-
peared to be the female elephant and her calf, and the
hippopotamus.

He who pampers the selfishness of another does
that other a moral injury, which cannot be compensated by
any amount of gratification imparted to him.--Eliza Cook's
Journal.

- -
A " STUMP SPEECII."—Ain erimcaenrisc to occupy the, our republic
a, is yet destined to re-annex South America,
Russian possessions, as well as those British colonies which
the old thirteen colonies von from the French on the plains
of Abraham—all rightfully ours to occupy. Faneuil Hall
was the cradle of the republic, but whar' whar will be found
timber enough for its coffin? Scoop all the water from out
the Atlantic Ocean, and its bed would not afford sufficient
for its corpse. And yet America is still in the gristle of
boyhood. Europe—what is Europe? She is nowhar—
nothing—a circumstance—a cypher—a land absolutely ideal.
We have faster steam-boats, swifter locomotives, larger
creeks, bigger plantations, better mill privileges, broader
lakes, higher mountains, deeper cataracts, louder thunder,
forkeder lightning, braver men, hansemmer wemen, more
money than England dar have.-117rs. Houlston's Travels.
EXTRAORDINARY FEAT. Mr. James Duncan
Wright, otherwise called " Steeple Jack," has been engaged
at the Bristol Alkali Works for a few days, making arrange-
ments for repairing the tall chimney outside, without stop-
ping the works a moment. At twenty minutes past two,
on Thursday week, seeing that the wind would suit him, he
Jew his kite, and by twenty-five minutes past three he had a
chain over the top, with proper tackle attached for ascending.
In another half-hour he took his seat on a bit of board, 18
inches by 9, and 1 inch thick, and went to the top (200
feet) in half a minute ! In three minutes he had placed
the chain in a secure position, exactly across the top (which
it was not before), and in another half-minute was shaking
hands with his friends below. This is only one of the
many feats for which " Steeple Jack" is celebrated.—Bristol
Journal.

Fame and admiration weigh not a feather in the
scale against friendship and love, for the heart languishes all
the same.—Eliza Cook's Journal.

DEATH FROM BRUTAL VIOLENCE AT CHELsEL.--
The adjourned inquest at the Prince of Wales, Exeter-street,
Chelsea, upon the body of Caroline Jewell, who lost her
life in that neighbourhood about a fortnight ago from
week, owing to the absence of one Qf the
brutal violence, was further postponed yesterday until this
day (Tuesday)
jurymen.