The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-15 00:00:00

CANTERBURY BALL.

Another, and this time an immense attraction,
has very recently been added by its enterpri,ing
and indefatigable proprietor to the already nume-
rous and varied allurements towards this popular
place of entertak ment. Cons iviality is still, of
course, the central sun of the establishment. But
to the enhancement and
,to the elevation of
conviviality—come the Fine Arts with all
their traces ! Music is there still reigning
predominant over the festivities, music of the most
varied kind, hilarious and pathetic, vocal and
instrumental. The performers there nightly pre-
siding over the festivities still continue to charm
the cars the frequenters of Mr. Morton's esta-
blishment. Hard by that lofty, and spacious, and
eminently beautiful hall, however, inwhich the music
and the Conviviality divide the attention of
the assembled guests, there has, for a long while
past, been opened a really admirable Fine Arts
Gallery, in which the Painter, the Sculptor, and
the Engraver lend their aid in a subsidiary way to
the more social part of each evening's entertain-
ment. The Fine Arts Gallery occupying the
same place in regard to . Canterbury Hall
itself, that the Floral Hall, at Covent
Garden occupies in relation to the noble Italian
Opera house adjoining. It is to this Fine Arts'
Gallery that the new attraction, or rather that
the new attractions referred to have been
added by the proprietor. They are no more
than three in number these new pictures
now very recently added to Mr. Morton's
Gallery—but such pictures—pictures the work
of so sublime a genius ! They are, in
truth, works of art, no less wonderful for
their majesty and magnificence than those
three chefs-crceurr es of the late John Martin—" The
Great Day of His Wrath," "The Plains of
Heaven," and " The Day of Judgment." Each of
these extraordinary productions—each the work of
a genius truly Miltonic in its sublimityhas
long since come to be regarded as, in conception
at least, a resplendent masterpiece. They are the
productions of that daring and superb imagination
which earlier led the hand of this great painter to
depict, as John Martin's hand could alone depict
the wonders and the terrors of the "Deluge," of the
"Destroying Angel," of the "Fall of Nineveh," of
the " Feast of Belshazzar."

THE EMPRESS'S Ris'TURN TO PARIS.

PARIS, DEC. lEmpress arrived in Pads
last evening from her excursion to England and
slept at Folkestone on
Scot lind. Her Majesty
Wednesday night, and embarked in a French Go-
vernment steamer the next morning at ten, amidst
the loudest acclamations of the whole population.
After a short delay at Boulogne, her Majesty came
on by an express train to Amiens, where the Em-
peror had arrived a short time before from
Paris. The Emperor reached Amiens about
half-past one, and soon after a despatch from
Boulogne announced that the Empress had
just landed. As her Majesty could not be at Amiens
in less than two hours, the Emperor determined to
visit the various parts of the town. He accordingly
drove out in the prefect's carriage, but before his
Majesty had been long going about, he was recog•
nised by the inhabitants, and loudly cheered on his
return to the station, where he arrived about four,
just as the approach of the train, bringing the Em-
press, was announced. Their Majesties soon after
continued their journey for Paris, where their ar-
rival at the Northern terminus was strictly private.
Orders had been given that no preparations
should be made for their reception, and the
only persons in attendance were General Fleury,
and two or three of the railway directors. Bat as
the Emperor's departure for Amiens had become
known in the neighbourhood, a considerable crowd
had assembled to await his return, and when their
Majesties appeared, they were saluted with loud
cries of " Vive l'Empereur !" " Vive l'lmperatrice !"
Their Majesties arrived at the Tuileries at a quar-
ter to seven. Her Majesty looked iu excellent
health.