The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-04 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid Gazette of the 29i1 ult. publishes
at length the conditions on which the arrangement
between M. Mires and the Spanish Government
has been effected. The chief features are that M.
Mires is to advance 300,000,000 reals, to be paid in
five instalments, the first in ten days from the defi-
nitive conclusion of the affair, the others at inter-

vals of two months each ; and is to receive in return
stock at the price of 11 per cent., with deduction for
commission of 3 per cent. from the nominal capital.
These conditions are to be put up to public competi-
tion on the 17th of this month, and it is only in tho
event of no more favourable offer being made by
other capitalists that they will be definitively ac-
cepted. In a report to the Queen the ministers
say that the loan is required in consequence of the
Treasury having in addition to its ordinary charges,
which are very heavy, to incur great outlay, owing
to the dearness of food. The other journals of the
29th contain no news, but the Boja Autografa,
says that the Queen, in a long interview with the
Count de Lucena(O'Donnell), had earnestly pressed
him to accept the St. Petersburg embassy, but that
he had refused, though with every expression of
regret at not being able to comply with her Ma-
' jetty's wishes.

KARS AND ITS DEFENDERS.

PAINTED BY WILLIAM SIMPSON.

During the last two or three days there has
been on Private View, at the French Gallery, 121,
Pall-mall, an original painting, by William Simp-
son, representing through that one remarkable
work of art the most heroic incident of the late
War, the most brilliant episode of the whole con-
flict, the glorious, tragic, and ever-memorable events
enacted at Kars—those of its Siege, Defence, and.
Surrender ! We have seen this picture—we have
examined it carefully in all its details—we have
viewed it at once in reference to the celebrity of
the artist, and in reference to the glory of the
great historic occurrence he has through it under-
taken to commemorate—and having said all this,
let us honestly add at once that we regard this
really noble pictorial memento of "Kars and its
Defenders" with unfeigned admiration. Mr. Simp-
son has in it fairly surpassed himself he has
eclipsed all his previous achievements—
those well-known artistic achievements by
which, during the course of the great Crimean
Struggle, he built up for himself so rapidly
a very remarkable reputation. It has been
said, and said very truly, in regard to those
achievements of his, the Sketches of the Scenes
and Deeds of the War from the Alma to the
Malakhoff, that—" Mr. Simpson did with his
pencil what Mr. Russell did with his pen !" Than
which could there be words of more earnest and
sententious panegyric ? For what, with his pen
of fiery rhetoric, did not Mr. Russell accomplish
in his capacity as the Times' Correspondent I
Yet to our thinking far beyond any of his really
admirable Sketches from the Crimea, far beyond
them as a work of art and as an enduring memo-
rial of the dread encounter between Russia and the
Allies, is this one solitary painting from the hand
of William Simpson, representing at a glance
" Kars and its Defenders." An engraving of it
by George Zobell is now in preparation, one exe'
cuted (as it ought to be) in the first style
of etching and mezzotinto. The plate,
when completed, to be issued to the subscribers
by the Messrs. Paul and Dominic Colnaghi and
Co.—the firm par excellence among printsellers.
A most acceptable commemoration of the war it
cannot fail to prove when finished—acceptable,
we mean, as bringing visibly to our homes and
hearths the Memory of a most Heroic Incident.
The picture, such as it is, portrays (as its title
indicates) not only Kars itself, but its Defenders.
It is taken from the south, and is recognised
universally by those who are competent to Pro-
nounce an opinion upon the subject as a must
exact representation. There is the great rocky
fastness of Armenia—the town and fortress of
Kars, situated in 40' 15' north latitude, and 43°
16' east longitude, 7,000 feet above the level of
the sea—in front, a vast plain—in rear,
a lofty
range of mountains. Yonder axe the town, the
suburbs, the citadel, the hospital, the tabias, the
bastions, the modern walls of defence, the ancient
line of fortifications. And yonder to the right
hand, grouped together—better than all the stone
barriers in the world, are the living buttressed of
defence—the little band of heroes who won for
themselves ' imperishable fame by their stern
valour and inflexible endurance, rendering gars
by that valour and endurance another and
heal,
be it said, a lesser Thermopylae. There they
one and all—there General Sir William Fen/rickare
Williams—there General Kmety—there the
there
shir—there Osman Bey the Bashi• Baso Lake and
General Kohlman—there Teesdale, and d
Thompson, and Dr. Sandwith the medical officer, and
Mr. Mr. Churchill the Secretary. Not one ma
n of W
eriod
among them all has been omitted. The p
chosen for the scene is the one almost immedi-
ately prior to the great battle of the 29th of
September, 1855, when the devoted garrison were
first beginning to feel the dire effects of the
Besides the historic cha-
scarci ty of provisions.
been art
stically introduced
into the picture, a
racters already mentioned various other charac-
teristic figures have i
wounded soldier, a Koord or
Laz, a poor Armenian mother with her children.
Altogether
painting is precisely what it should
be tip
subject and from such a hand
picture worthy --a
on such the a
ush of William Simpson,
oethe brush
and not unworthy of commemorating to after
times "Kars and its Defenders."