The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-08 00:00:00

TIIE ROYAL ACADEMY AND ITS RIVALS.

We stated a few days ago that in consequence of
the large number of resections from this year's
Royal Academy, a movement had been set on foot
to start a rival institution. Mr Moy Thomas, editor
of Ca3seles Magazine, is undertali:ng the active part
of this design, and has issued a circular, in which ho
states " that a considerable number of pictures
actually accepted by the council have been
finally omitted, on the ground of want of space."
Messrs,- Solomon llart, F. G. Watts, and
F. Leighton, the R.A.'s who constituted
the hanging committee, write to deny this. They
say that " all pictures accepted by the council have
been Owed, and together with them some few
subsequently selected from the category of the
doubtful.'" It Is but fair to those gentlemen to
say that they have not sacrificed other artists for
their own benefit. Their own pictures are by no
means in the best places, and Mr. Leighton's diploma
'picture of St. Jerome absolutely suffers from being
hung too high. It would have been well if the
three principal portrait painters, Sir F. Grant, Mr.
Knight, and Mr. Richmond, had shewn the same
amount of consideration for outsiders.

(From the Anglo-American Times)
There is no position without its drawbacks. If
there were, it ought to be that of the United States
Senator dispensing patronage without incurring re-
sponsibility. It must be very pleasant to pension
off poor relations by quartering them on the coun-
try, and thus to repay political and other services.
It must be delightful to be surrounded by the
sycophantic throng, eager for a look of recognition
and proud of any notice bestowed. But, even Sena-
tors often have a hard time. Their privacy is in-
vaded, their digestion disturbed at meals, if any
cranny is left open an office-seeker gets in through
it, and a Senator complains that on one night, he
was three times routed out of his bed ; what a de-
lightful interview the third office-seeker must have
had ! and in what a peaceful and happy frame of
mind the Senator must have returned to his luxu-
rious repose ! The senßational book of the season
might be, "The Adventures of an Office-seeker in
Washington," if graphically told.
It may be remembered that when Andrew John-
son temporarily appointed Grant, Secretary of War
that General commenced by clearing everything su-
perfluous out of the department, and reducing in a
material way its expenses. The tendency of every
bureau is to increase, and this is one of the draw-
backs of the American principle that to the victor
belong the spoils, for if the victor can increase the
spoils it is natural for him to do so, while the public
who are plundered recognise the conqueror's right.
Hence employe's multiply, offices innumerable are
created to satisfy the greedy crowd through whose
means the party triumphed, the country being mer-
cilessly fleeced to support useless hangers-on. The
President's policy is essentially a clearing-out one,
and while this is his natural taste the bent is none
the less that he regards this overflow of employes the
leavings of Andrew Johnson. It is calculated that
fully a third will be discharged from the departments.
The Secretary of the Treasury has dismissed 300
clerks of both sexes, whose salaries range from £l5O
to .£4OO a year.• Congress in these departments was
denied 'even a voice in the expenditure, for this was
the way in which it was managed;—Certain appro-
priations were discussed and made ; at the close of
the fiscal year the Secretary sent in an enormous
deficiency bill for his department, and the Repre-
sentatives were then much in the position that a
husband is in who at the close of his quarter finds
that his wife had expended a sum far beyond that
set aside for house-keeping- He may storm and
rave, but he has to supply the deficiency, the ex-
penditure hiving already been in .t le by his autho-
rised agent. General Grant is going to be the eco-
nomical wife, who has a genuine and not a pretended
turn for saving.
General Butler has lately been at Baltimore con-
ducting his own defence in the case brought against
him by Messrs. Kimberley and Co. Chief Justice
Chase heard the case, and give judgment for the
defendant upon the demurrer, when the. plaintiff's
counsel asked leave to amend the bill cf parti-
culars, which the Court granted, and at the re-
quest of the defendant the case was continued to the
next term of the Circuit Court, the plaintiff paying
the costs of the present term. The Chief Justice
ruled in this case, that the privilege of a member
of Cungr se does not extend to exemption from
wrest, in the sense of forbidding process of sum-
mons in a civil suit, though members ale exempt
from a forcible detention, looking to imprisonment.
The Senate adjourned on the 22d of April sine