The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-05 00:00:00

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

PLYMOUTH, SUNDAY.
The screw steam-ship Niger, James Parsons
commander, arrived here this morning with the
mails from the above coast, 30 passengers, 1,260
ounces of gold, and a full cargo, consisting of 350
casks of palm oil, 2,378 logs cam wood, 447 bags of
ginger, 3 packages monkey skins, 20 bags of cotton,
beeswax, dw.

Among her passengers are—Governor O'Connor,
from the Gambia ; from Liberia, ex-President Ro-
berts, and Mrs. and Miss Roberts, en route for
America ; the Princes Charles and Henry, sons
of King Pepple, under the eharge of Capt. Witt, of
Liverpool, who has guaranteed to the governor and
British consul that ho will amply provide for their
education, as well as undertake their moral and
social charge.
The following have aiso taken passage in the
Niger :—Capt. Pickett, from Lagos • Mr. Holden,
' from Cape Coast • Mr. Thomas, of H.M. ship Sala-
mander ; Dr. Duff, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Tuke ; Cap-
tains Tellier, Bourne, and Robinson ; Lieutenants
Henderson and Haleman • Dr. Manners, Rev.
Monserrat, Mrs. Birley and
child ; Don Ribeiro,
from Teneriffe ; Mr. Cobden, from Madeira; and
five Spaniards from Lagos.
The Niger left Fernando Po, March 28 ; Lagos,
April 3 ; Accra, 5 ; Cape Coast Castle, 6 ; Liberia,
10 ; Sierra Leone, 14 ; Bathurst, 19 ; Goree, 24 ;
Teneriffe, 26 ; Madeira, 28.
At Accra things were unsettled, the inhabitants
refusing to pay the poll- tax. The governor of the
Gold Coast had left in order to arrange the affair.
Mr. Benson has succeeded to the Presidency of
Liberia.

H.M. ship Sappho arrived at Sierra Leone from
Plymouth, April 12. The Philomel and Salaman-
der were also there.

The Recovery, Captain Douglas, laden with
timber, for England, bad been lost on the Conflict
Reefs, off the river Nunez. The captain and crew
would proceed to England in the Euphrates steam
ship.
The Sir Frederick Pollock, with troops, had
arrived at the Gambia, from England.

The ships Ferozepore and Majestic were at Fer-
nando Po.
At Lagos, H.M.S. Childers and Minx.
At Bathurst, the Driver.
On the 28th April the Niger spoke the barque
Pacific, off Madeira ; April 29, the Gambia mail-
packet, outward bound ; April 30, the Victoria
and Albert ; and on May 1, off Cape Finisterre,
the steam-transport No. 5, with loss of rnNin and
foretcpumbh

Saturdk r afternoon found us among the pri-
vileged " many " admitted to the private view
of the annual exhibition of the (Old) Society of
Painters in Water Colours, at 5, Pall Mall East,
the Society's now well-known Gallery. Tolerably
well-known by this time to all lovers of art
among us Londoners, seeing that 1856 brings us
in it to the " fifty-second " of these same yearly
exhibitions Exactly 300 pictures are for the
present season numbered in the catalogue of the
collection. Three hundred, of course, good, bad,
and indifferent. The effect is brilliant enough
as usual on entering, and by the time we take
our departure, it must be admitted, sufficiontly
satisfactory altogether. Sauntering round the
old familiar Gallery one misses—how one misses
poor Copley Fielding ! No more of the rolling
billows in those affluent sea-scapes, no more of the
vapoury perspective, and the showery atmosphere,
and the erratic sunbeams glorifying those ample
Iland-scapes—lavished upon the walls with a hand
so free and indefatigable by the late gifted and
lamented President. No more t The easle is
folded up, the brushes put away, the pallett
cleaned, the blinds down, tho shutters
closed—for him, ! And in the vacated chair John
F. Lewis some time formally installed ! " The
King is dead : long live the King"—as the court-
herald cried years ago out of the window of the
old Tuileries. And, putting aside with a sigh the
memory of Copley Fielding, as we might a caput
mortsum from a gay banquet adorned with fruit
and flowers, we pause before No. 134, a large
contribution by John Lewis, representing " A
Frank Eacanapment in the Desert of Mount
Sinai, 1842, with the Convent of St. Catherine in
the distance." It comprises, this remarkable
picture, portraits of an English nobleman--(it
might be a scion of some noble house like the MSS.
hunting author of " Visits to the Monasteries of
the Levant," but for the pronged beard !)—and
his suite, together with Hassi. the
Uebet lor, and Mahn:owl" the Dragoman. The
effect of all the oriental accessories, contrasted
with the little pet Skye-terrier, and the luxurious
litter of bodily comforts for the grand insular
traveller in his outlandish raiment, comical
enough, and withal wondrously characteristic. It
is a marvellous glimpse of life as it is not unfre-
quently seen in the hot realm of the nomadic
Arab—with the Scheikh, and the Noble, and the
Dragoman all inclusively. David Cox—what on
earth is David Cox about latterly ? Playing
tricks with his reputation, as Turner was wont to
do in another way, towards the close of his
eminent career ? Not, as Turner did, shaking
out upon the canvass in one wild fuzzy jumble
the gaudiest colours of the prism, or of the
kaliedoscope—but sketching objects from nature
it would almost seem, anyhow, with a ragged
brush I In proof of which accusation let us merely
direct attention, anybody's attention, David Cox's
most infatuated admirers' attention, to (128)
" Driving the Flock," or to (260) "North
Wales "—rough drawings, which are, as compared
to finished pictures, what a blotted scrawl is to a
specimen of caligraphy. Sometimes, it is true,
even through this inadequate medium, the genius
of the master contrives still to shine out conspicu-
ously and unmistakeably, as in the same artist's
admirable sketch (140) " The Peat Gatherers."
Altogether, howbeit, a style so frightfully free-
and-easy, when adopted by a water-colourist like
D. Cox, is to us subject only for unaffected lamenta-
tion. What a contrast in its finished perfection
that presented by C. Branwhite's (121) noble
masterpiece, the view "On the River Trevi, near
Newcastle-in-Emlyn, S.W. ! " One of the loveliest
paintings this season displayed upon the walls of
the Gallery. Whether viewed in regard to wood-
land or cloudland—in reference to the blue sky
or the blue water. Another contribution by the
same hand (114) " A Winter Sunset," depicts a
frost scone on the river Avon—seeing which one
longs to buckle on the Mercury-blades, and glide
away over the ice, crackling and humming like an
animated top, or a sort of a human-swallow. W.
Goodall is also very noticeable among the
Water Colourists of the present season—
less, however, because of such a picture
as (63) "The Grandfather's -Visit," in which
the old gentleman is by far too skittish and
nimble-heeled for his age to be in any way true
to nature--than by reason of such another as
(111) " The Shrimpers," a coast group that would
have gladdened t he heart of Collins himself to have
looked upon. As any one will acknowledge, if only
on a glance at that young fisherboy's leg shining
with a wondrous flesh tint through the network,
or, as Dr. Johnson would have it--" the reticu-
lations or decussations with interstices between
the intersections !" What a delicious glory of
verdure, green and succulent with spring-fresh-
ness, is there not in (74) " The Mole, near Dork-
ing," by J. P. Naftel ! What a charming bit
of meadow loveliness is that peep at haymaking in
(33) "Priory Park, Reigate," by C. Davidson. A bout
the most prolific contributor to the Gallery for
1856 is unquestionably W. C. Smith—out of
whose score of oontr;lautif,,e, several of very oeu-
siderable beauty might easily be selected. For
example (42), " Still Pool, Lynton," cool, spark-
ling, and transparent ! It would interest us very
much to know what Mr. Naftel can possibly mean
by that yellow dash of spray (like a " cat's paw" of
curry !) thrown up among the boulders viewed at
sundown in (20) " Collecting Vraic, Guernsey."
Also—we should be interested to learn where-
abouts the point of the joke may be in those
two terrible portraitures of Irish home
life, by H. P. Riviere—(ls4) " Charming
Judy Callaghan" and (161) " Another bit
of Blarney"—the ugly Patlander who imperson-
ates the hero in each of which pictures being, in
his villanous squalor, rather a fitting subject for
Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors than for a
specimen of water-colour peasantry. Mr. Riviera
has, moreover, it is observable in (49) "Sunday
Morning," a ridiculous example of a very clean old
man, soaped, and brushed, and polished up into
the very model of a pattern Bible Reader ! Va-
lentine Bartholomew feasts our eyes with (78)
" Autumn Flowers," a posy of chrysanthemums !
And with (269) a profusion of roses and convolvoli !
Mr. Naftel introduces us through the pre-Raphaelite
lens of (158) to a " Nice Weedy Old Garden near
Bordeaux Harbour, Guernsey"—the very title of
which tells of the neglected foison in the grim oldthe
h
green " pleasaunce," almost as distinctly 43 e
magical verse •f Shelley where he sang—
" And the gesty winds woke the winged seeds
Out of their birthplace of ugly weeds.
s Rower's stem
Till they clung round many A sweet
Which rotted into the earth with them.
" Then the rain came down and the broken stalks
Were bent and tangled across the walks ;
And the leafless network of parasite bowers
Massed into rain, and all sweet flowers."
pleasing to the eye is that unexpected glimpse of
darling ,‘ Little Nell"of the Old Curiosity Shop,
vouchsafed to us by F. W. Topham in (288),
" Youth and Age'' where the angel-heroine sees
the young bride of fifty-five years ago in the
wrinkled old crone of nearly eighty winters, tot-
tering among the grassy hillocks of the rural
churchyard ! If the visitor to the Gallery wants
a specimen of the gaudiest colouring imaginable—
there hehas it surely to his heart's content in (296)
" Titian Visiting the Studio of one of his Pupils,"
by Alfred Fripp—red, blue, white, as staring as a
union-jack, and as glaringly contrasted each with
each as the harlequin-chequers at an oil and
colour shop. Does any one want a picture finished
to very tameness, he may look for it, confident of
no disappointment, in (299) the "Head of a Child,"
by H. Richter Is the visitor in search of—not a
call it, a me r d'acier, a
Inerde glace, but, as we may
rolling ocean of hard metallic waves—let him
(t
'pans® contented Wm (27) DutCh Ea tit In!

,an Hove Down,' by
lond all question
wants. Frederick TaylL
Landseer-like water. colour drawings o] men and
women, boys and girls, dogs and horses—comes
to us as welcome and as natural as flowers in May
in the midst of these preposterous eccentricities.
Admirable, for example, in (23) "Huntsman's Boy
and Bloodhounds"—admirable too in (263) " Re-
turnfrona Hawking"—but (if we might venture to
draw a comparison among three such pictures)
most admirable in (281) " 111-Nature, Highlands
of Scotland"—in which " twa dogs" are fighting
for the bare life, a little boy grinning with
delight at their ferocity, a little girl whimpering
in her apron at the same, and a flock of sheep scur-
rying off affrighted in the background. The Se-
cretary, J. J. Jenkins, has an amusing view of
following my leader over stepping-stones, called
(215) " Come Along !" and a boatful of home-
ward-bound veterans (125) " The Return,"
apropos of the War—or of the ?,ace ! Gloomy in
One, lurid in the other, but Woolmer-like in both,
S. Palmer illustrates in (147) and in (143) com-
panion incidents from " Comus"—the Brothers
guided by the Attendant Spirit and the same
brothers Lingering under the Vine ! Carl Haag
gives us in (150) the Head of a "Roman
Flower Girl " whose face would be lovely
but that the eyes are so frightfully dis-
proportionate in their largeness I John
Gilbert, the indefatigable and inexhaustible John
Gibert, will delight his admirers most with (37)
"The Standard-Bearer," but cannot' fail, of
course, to attract the notice of the majority chiefly
by his large picture (83) depicting " Her Majesty
the Queen inspecting the Wounded Coldstream
Guards in the Hall of Buckingham Palace "—a
painting full of interest, if only from the histori-
cal character of the subject, and the general ex-
cellence of the numerous portraits introduced.
Margaret Gillies has a charming little study (177),
entitled "The Students "—heads that might
pass muster as those of Sir Isaac Newton and his
beautiful niece, the admired of Swift and the be-
loved of Halifax. A crowded little picture hung
low down in the entrance (197) portrays " Co-
lumbus before the Council of Salamanca," as seen
by the " mind's eye" of J. StephanoEf--supposing
the great Christopher to have appeared like which
effigy with extended arms and dis-spread fingers,
"explaining his theory of the new world,"
we don't at all wonder at the children
calling after him in the streets of Madrid--
4' There zoea +l TM..-1 I.' 1.- - t•• TopnaUrs
01 (238) " The Gaugers are Coming
should not on any account be passed by svitnous
some earnest hint of commendation. Neither can
we remain altogether silent in regard to George
Fripp's (232) " Hambrook Mill, on the Frome,
near Bristol," with the wind blowing among the
trees so refreshingly. Another artist facile
princeps among the ablest and most gifted of living
water colourists remains yet to be mentioned. We
have reserved any allusion to him and his contri-
butions as a bonne boucle. Cannot any one guess en
the instant who it is we mean ?—W. Hunt, of Park
Gate, Bramley, n ear Basingstoke. A wonderful mas-
ter in the old-new art of Pre-Rephaelism. Look
at (253) that astonishing little "Bit of Mont
Blanc," about four inches square, giving a frag-
ment just so large of the metallic rocky substance
of the mountain freckled with lichen, and parti-
coloured with gleams of gneiss, mica, and granite--
such as must be absolute rapture we should fancy
to the souses of John Ruskin ! Then the fruit•
pieces of this marvellous painter—this magical
W. Hunt ! The plums in (274), plums that we could
almost eat ! The chesnuts in (278), chesnuts in
their shining golden jackets ! The green and
purple grapes in (219), grapes with the bloom on
them ! The cobnuts in (212), ripe brown nuts,
half peeping from pods sour, green, and shaggy !
The wild strawberries in (292), tiny wild straw-
berries, red, little, freckled atoms of natural sun-
mellowed deliciousness ! No wonder the fruit
pieces of Hunt aro snatched up greedily by art-
purchasers, almost as soon as they are exhibited.
Looking at them, lingering near them, tearing
ourselves from them reluctantly at last, we leave
tie Gallery smacking our lips as at the dessert after
the great feast of this Collection

1:11ER Y
MAJEST'S THEATRE.
SEA SON 1856.
It is respectfully announced that the OPERA. SEASOIT
will COMMENCE on SATURDAY next, the 10th of May.
On resuming the performances which have been suspended
during the last three years, the Director of her Majesty's
Theatre is anxious to assure the patrons of the Opera and
the public, that no exertion shall be wanting to secure for
this establishment that high position it so long maintained ;
and he trusts that the renewal of the enterprise under more
prosperous auspices will be accompanied with that favour
and support which no frequenter of the Opera needs to be
reminded were for se many years accorded to a brilliant and
successful management.
The secession, in 1847, of many of those performers who
had long been attached to the Opera Mouse was the com-
mencement of a long and arduous struggle to maintain the
fortunes of the old house ; and it was not till the wealth of
four successive competitors had been fruitlessly lavished upon
the rival theatre, that Mr. Lumley was reluctantly compelled
to retire from the contest.
From that time to the present Mr. Lumley's efforts have
been unremitting to' re-open her Majesty's Theatre upon a
permanent basis, and to restore the Opera to its ancient
home. He has received liberal encouragement from every
side, and, effectually aided by noble and generous support
frets a quarter where the refinements of art and taste never
tail to find a patron, he is now enabled gratefully to announce
the immediate resumption of performances.
At the present moment there are vocalists, of an excellence
seldom surpassed, who have never been heard by an English
public. Of these the elite have been secured for the present

season.
Her Majesty's Theatre is marked out by its size, its situa-
tion, and its convenience of access, no less than by old and
interesting associations, as the appropriate seat of the Opera.
In the acoustic properties, so essential to the effective pro.
duction of the lyrical drama, it is acknowledged to surpass
every other stage in Europe. In consequence of some happy
accident of construction a result has been attained that science
has failed to explain, and that no architect could engage to
reproduce, by which the faintest tones and the most delicate
vocalisation penetrate with unimpaired clearness to the re-
motest recesses of the vast edifice.

The arrangements completed and in progress, both in Opera
and Ballet, will, it is confidently hoped, be thought worthy
of the former reputution of the Theatre, and of the just ex-
pectations of its distinguished supporters.
In consequence of the late period at which it was resolved
to open the Theatre, the arrangements, satisfactory as it is
'wpm& they will even now be found, are not yet fully com-
pleted; and negotiations are in progress from which impor-
taut accessions are expected.
The following arrangements have been completed
OPER A.
MADAME ALBONI,
Her first appearance ix London these five years.
MDLLE. PICCOLOMONI,
Her first appearance.
MDLLE. GIUDITTA RIZZA, MDLLE. FINOLI,
Their first appearance!
MADAME AMADEI, MDLLE. BERTI,
Their first appearance.
And
MADAME ALBERTINI,
Her first appearance.

4
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