The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-19 00:00:00

ja ER MAJESTY'S 7IT EATR E. ; paper handed to him by Baron Rothschild, and
Mdme. ALBONI.
TO-MORROW Evening (Tuesday, May 20) will be per- read--
f ormed Belliini's Opera,

" May 19, 1356.
"Sir,—We beg to offei for the proposed loan of
5,000,000/. to be paid for a% the perio'tls mentioned in
the public notice of the Bth inst., at the rate of 108/.
Three per Cent. Consolidated Annuities, with dividend
from Jan. last, for every 1001. in money, on which we
are ready to pay the required deposit.
"To the Chancellor of the Exchequer."
The Chancellor of the Exchequer.—That is not
equal to our terms. How much is that equal to in
Consols ?
Baron Rothschild.—Very nearly 92g.
Mr. Wilson.—Or 92i ?
Mr. J. Capel.—lt is between 92i and 92g.
Baron Rothschild—lt is within 9d. of 921.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer—Well, that is
not equal to our terms. Will the Governor of the
Bank open the paper which I have placed in his
hands ?
The Governor having opened the paper read the
minimum, terms of the Government, 107/.los. 7d.,
or equal to 93.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer—There is
therefore a difference of g.
Baron Rothschild—Will you allow us to retire
.'or a few moments, as before ?
The parties then retired. On their return,
Baron Rothschild, addressing the Chancellor of
he Exchequer, said—We have decided on accept-
ng your terms.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer—Very good
You will please sign the usual paper.
Baron Rothschild—Yes. Your terms are 107/.
10s. 7d., or Consols at 93.
The Governor of the B tnk.—Precisely so.
The contract was then signed in due form, and
the parties immediately withdrew.
From this we may form some opinion of the
radical defects of the system. It is manifest that
the Government "bill-discounter " was trying to
FrlActutitteitats.—salsw?n-g ttiat there is no com-
petition, in consequence of the virtual monopoly
he has established, he may bid as low as he
Ipleases. The sealed paper is then
,opened, the
supposed secret—if secret it be—is revealed, and
the bargain is concluded. What, then, can be
the advantage of the affectation of mystery ? It
does no good, but it prevents the general compe-
tition that might save a large amount to the
Exchequer. If we could get rid of " red-
tapism " the price would be announced
and the public invited to subscribe, and fifty, or
or even one hundred millions, could easily be ob-
tained. But the middle-man system must be
followed up at a cost that would, if better applied,
admit of many valuable although apparently
trivial reforms. When more than 90,0001. of
anticipated profit has been so easily surrendered,
we may form an estimate, nearly as accurate as
any we may expect from the Financial Minister
this evening, of the gains actually realised.
It would surely form an appreciable item in the
taxes levied on the general community, or a
valuable contribution to the fund for the relief of
the widows and orphans who have to deplore the
losses of husbands and fathers during the late
war.

LA SONNAMBU LA.
Arabia, Madame Alboni ; Lisa, Millie. Rizzi ; Teresa, Mdlle.
Borgaro ; Elvino, Signor Calzolari ; Alessi°, Signor Vario ;
and Count Rodolpho, Signor Beneventano.
To conclude with the successful Ballet Divertissement,
LES QUATRE SAISONS ;
by Mdmes. Bellon, Boschetti, Lizereux, Pierron, Katrine,
And M. Vandris. Pas de Deux, Mdlle. Boschetti and M.
'Vandris; Pas, Mdlle. Katrine, accompanied by Mdlle Pierron
and coryphees ; Pas, Mane. Lizereux and Corps de Ballet ;
Pas de Bacchante, Mlle. A. Bellon; Pas de Deux, Mdlle.
Bellon and M. Vandris; Finale, Mdlles. Bellon, Boschetti,
Lizereux, Katrine, and M. Vandris, and Corps da Ballet.
Applications for boxes and stalls to be made at the Box-
office of the Theatre, Colonnade, Haymarket.--The Opera
will commence at 8 o'clock.

THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE.
Lessee, Mr. R. T. Smith.
ENGLISH OPERA.
-
THIS EVENING will be produced
MISCHIEVOUS ANNIE.

After which.
CINDERELLA.
To conAnde with
THE YANKEE HOUSEKEEPER.

Prince FREDERICK WILLIAM of Prussia is en
route to England, and may be expected every day.
The object of his mission is no secret. He is a
suitor for the hand of the Princess Royal ; and
it 'is unfortunately but too notorious that the
matter is already arranged, and that nothing re-
mains but providing the dowry fur the Royal
victim. It is, of course, impossible to say whether
" the daughter of England" will be contented
with her lot. There are few English parents who
would allow a child of 15 years old to enter into
a binding engagement before she could know her
own mind, or form a correct judgment as to
whether the intended match was calculated to
promote her happiness. A brief respite might be
allowed, unless queitions of "State policy" im-
peratively required the sacrifice ! M3rriages de
convenances were never very popular in England
in any rank of life ; and past experience has cer-
tainly not enhanced the feeling iu their favour.
But perhaps the most unfortunate of any of the
kind that have been contracted have been those of
the Royal families, from the very earliest period
of English history.

But setting aside, so far as manly, generous
Englishmen can set aside the personal question, let
us look to it in the only point of view in which it
seems to be regarded by -"the prevailing in-
fluence." Consider it merely as a question of State
policy—and see whether it be beneficial to Eng-
land or the English ? We have had considerable
experience of Prussian policy since the commence-
ment of the Etstern difficulty, and certainly no
inducement has been thereby afforded to induce
us to desire a closer connection. She has
provei, beyonc the possibility of doubt, her entice
and unmitigated selfishness. Questions of European
interest were disregarded unless they affected
Germany, and that part of Germany iu which
Prussia was concerned. She wilfully and delibe-
rately abdicated the position she once occupied,
and proved that there was nothing to be hoped
for from her friendship, or feared from her

TILE S LON

vote a dower of even 7,000/. (to say nothing of
70,000/., which is perfectly ridiculous). Such a
resolution may abate the ardour of the "love-
, sick" Prussian, although we fear it would not pre-
vent the marriage, the collateral advantages
whereof to the Court of Berlin would induce it to
accept the juvenile Princess without portion,
alhough, according to its usual policy, it will, like
the Irish patriot, " take all it can get, and keep
grumbling."

Owing to the inclemency of the weather there
was no demonstration in the Parks yesterday.
Had the day been specially provided for the Poor
by Exeter Hall it could not have been more un-
genial. The rain fell in all sorts of showers, inter-
rupted at intervals by a momentary glimpse of
sunshine, overcast almost immediately by wild
gusts of wind charged with pattering hail—hail,
on one occasion, of the heaviest description. No
band could, under any circumstances, have played
on such a day in the open air, and the people
wisely stayed away. Exeter Hall is quite at
liberty to make the most it can of the
event. A table covered with communications
from all parts of the kingdom, and from
individuals of various classes in society, tes-
tifi?s, apart from what we have seen and heard,
to the resolution of the public to do battle
with Exeter Hall on the Sabbath question--00111-
muraications, it is but justice to say, characterised
by so much intelligence, and worded in a strain
of such indignant earnestness, that it is with
much regret we find ourselves unable, through
want of space, to admit them into our columns.
One gentleman wt.,. - --a
satisfaction at the stand now being made by the
London people against the hot-headed Sabbata-
rians, thus vindicates Yorkshire from participation
in the Pharisaisni of the Leeds Mercury :—" I
write to assure you that many of the most ardent
admirers of Mr. BAINES, as far as regards his
general politics, have been fairly sickened by the
endless repetition of his' Pharisaical views against
the observance of the Sabbath, and his long
tirades against every system of National Educa-
tion which has been brought before Parlisment."
Another, " A Presbyterian," testifies unequivo-
cally not only to the order which characterised
these Sunday reunions, but also to their educa-
tional tendencies, and expresses the most pro-
found surprise at the undignified conduct of the
Premier. So satisfied is ho of the good m
ral
effects of these reunions, that, though
a " working " man, he is prepared to
subscribe' a sovereign to the payment of the band.
Another correspondent, apparently a professional
gentleman, takes up and amusingly deals with the
subject of sacred music, showing to what irreve-
rent tunes those who object to polka or waltz music
in the Parks are accustomed to sing the praises
of GOD. Another demands to be informed whether
"the glorious and happy sight in the Parks is
never to be seen more by those who have the bad
taste to prefer our Great Master's own examp!e,
and the teachings of such men as JEREMY TAYLOR,
PALEY, and WHATELY, to SUMNER, CHIMING, and
the Ranters." Again, this is addressed to the
opposition, " Open our British Museum, our
great national institutions, gardens, and galleries
—you may then, and not till then, shut up our
gin palaces and take away our park music."
Others are in a more indignant key, but in
one thing they all coincide, and that is in saying,
g" Speak unto the people of London that they go
forward." The people of London, we are per-
suaded, have sot their hands to the plough and
will not go back. The wrong done them rankles
deeply in their breasts, and we must say they
would deserve to be turned outof their theatres and
other places of week-day amusement proscribed by
the Sabbatarian party also if they did not persist
in having it righted. There will be a demonstra-
tion, possibly of triumph, next Sunday, if the
weather does not resemble_ that of yesterday,
and we would recommend our readers to
use their utmost influence in getting up or
in any way promoting the signature of peti-
tions for the restoration of the Bands in their
respective localities. The House of Commons is
on its last legs ; andi c2nsequently, is weak and
timorous, and but too easily persuaded by the
Sabbatarian party to vote against its inclinations.
The Premier depends on the House, and, between
the two, the cause of the people has fallen to the
ground. Let them both be made aware, by host
o bona fide petitions, that it will be their wisdom
not to provoke the people too far ; fur, if any
harm ensues, the Sabbatariaus won't be able to
guarantee them their seats. In point of fact,
the number of those who would absolutely with
hold their votes from a non-Sabbatarian Member
is much smaller than is supposed even by those who
believe themselves well-informed on the subject.
The difference between signing a petition and re-
fusing a vote is immense. We would fain hope
that Honourable Members will arrive at the con-
riction that the London population, knowing
what is right and proper for themselves, really
desire Sabbath recreation, and will withdraw all
ungracious interference with their enjoyment, so
as to enable the Premier to muster up resolution
to rescind the prohibition. The people really
mean to succeed ono way or other—and peaceably
if possible.

HE ROYAL ACADEMY.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.— Vay 18.

(FROM 017 R OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
THE COURT AT OSBORNE.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent arrived
yesterday.

Fier Majesty, the Prince Clusort, the Duchess of
Kent, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and
Prince Alfred, attended divine service at Whippinghain
Church this morning.
The Prince of Prussia is expected at Osborne to-
morrow.

PRINCE FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRIISSIA.—It is de.
finitively arranged that Prince Frederick William, eldest
son of the Prince of Prussia, will land at Dover to-mor-
vow afternoon, and will at once leave, attended by a nu-
merous suite, for Osborne, on a visit to her Majesty and
bis Royal Highness Prince Albert. His Royal High.
ness during his sojourn in this country, which it is con-
templated will not exceed the last week in June, will be
the guest of the Queen. As our readers are aware, the
illustrious Prince is stated to be the suitor for the hand
of the Princess Royal.
The Earl of Clarendon, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines,
the Right Hon R. Vernon Smith, and the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, have remained in town during the
recess.
Lord Panmnre returns to town this morning from
the north.
The Duke of Argyll, accompanied by the Duchess,
comes to town to-day from staying with the Duke of
Sutherland at Clifden, near Maidenhead.
The Right Hon. Henry and Lady Mary Labeuchere
came to town on Saturday from their country seat.
The Earl Granville, the Lorl President of the Conn-
cii, accompanied by the C,,untess, arrived in town late
inst night, from visiting Sir R )bert and Lady Eratly
Peel, at Drayton Manor, Staff .rdshire.
General Chesney and Mr. W. P. Andrew had an in-
terview with;his Highness Aali Paella, the Grand Vizier,
at Claridge's Hotel, on the 17th inst., regarding the
Euphrates Valley route to India.
Lord and Lady Aveland and the Hon. Gilbert Heath-
cote, M.P,, have removed froni Langham-place t., En-
grave-square. Lord Aveland has purchased a long
lease of the mansion occupied for many years by the late
Earl Brownlow.

Sir James and Lady Anne Mackenzie have arrived at
Claridge'a Hotel, from their seat in Scotland.
Mr. Rc,bcrt Stephenson, as President of the Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers, announces his Conversazione
for Tuesday, May 27.
Major-General Sir James Love, K.C.B. and K. 11.,
Lieut.-Governor of Jersey, is to proceed to the Austrz-
-li3:a ctidoniFs.-. United Savice Gazdef.

(THIRD NOTICE.)
AIrO in our two previous criticisms upon
the R Academy Exhibition for 1856, we have
given, t of all, a general survey of the promi-
nent oaeteristies of the collection ; and, se-
conclY, analysis of the chief contributions from
the n( conspicuous masters in the old-new
schoo i the Pre-Raphaelites. It remains for
us nor' sdventure upon some more comprehen-
sive efitee of the 618 pictures disposed upon
the wth of the three principal apartments. Ap-
propribv enough, the motto selected for the
title-peeseF this year's Catalogue, is the senti-
ment rolLa Harpe—.." Lea Artises sont les en-
fans la Paix, ils sont bienfaiss-oats comme elle,
et c'et pe elle qu'ils prosperent." Appropriately
enoug, ere say, when viewed merely as an ab-
stractuiment, and not as one having reference to
any imediate application of it—seeing that most
of theoa:ntings at present exhibited on the walls
of thelcademy must have been carried tolerably
far toerds completion before this amiable Patron
of Art was summoned anew into being by the
Paris lenipotentiaries !
Theftoyal Academicians themselves are in some
force tis season, notwithstanding the visitor looks
in vain—as usual of late years—for any new ma-
nifestaion of the genius of perhaps the greatest
of all lying English Painters, William Mulready 1
Although Creswick has retired, for once, from the
annual competition ! Although Cape, and Her-
bert, aul Maclise have all restricted their energies
of late to the advancement of the legislative
palace at Westminster ! Although among
the defaulters for 1856 may be yet fur-
ther enumerated —Knight with his speak-
ing likenesses, and Denby with his gor-
.
alternately of the poet, and the novelist, and the
chronicler. Regretting the absence of these emi-
nent names from the list of exhibitors, we have,
nevertheless reason for some degree of exultation
over the treasures of art actually contributed to
the Gallery of the Royal Academy by the Royal
Academicians themselves. Leslie, it is true, con-
tents himself with the display of but one solitary
production, and that a very inadequate one, as a
token of his rare abilities whether as a designer or.
as a colourist. No. 144.—a statuesque glimpse
of "Hermione," the Hermione, however, rather
of the Atelier than of the stage, of Leslie than of
Shakspere. Webster, again, delights his admi-
rers with no more than a single painting, but
such a painting !—one so wondrously worthy in
every way of this Hogarth of the Cottage, this
Ostade of the Playground, this Wilkie of the Vil-
lagers—No. 114--" Hide and Seek." A picture
in which the great artist-humourist has tasked
his invention so very charmingly in stowing away
a "dispersed cluster " of youngsters, one in the
baby's cradle, with an obtrusive boot sticking
out from under the coverlet ! another beneath an
overturned basket, with a hand forgotten outside
the wicker-work ! a couple of breathless urchins
flattened together iu anxious complicity behind the
opening door, through which the eager laughing
boy-seeker is peering, in hopes of detecting hie
perdu-playmates. Mother all the while, good, com-
fortable Mother, sitting in the midst with an
evident though suppressed appreciation of all
the fun lighting up the grave mouth and the
laughing eye—as though she feared by the mere
expression of her maternal features to betray the
whereabouts of her boyish Romps and her girlish
Hoydens ! - Stanfield, moreover, has but two
pictures in the collection, but one of these two a
very masterpiece, No. 94, " The Abandoned"—
the hull of a wrecked vessel far away on the wild
ocean, rolling heavily upon the rolling billows,
luridly lit up by a sun-burst streaming down upon
it from a sudden cloud-rent overhead—altogether
the most wonderful bodying forth of a wierd ideal
of solemn, pathetic, and uttermost desolation.
Compared with this magical seascape, Stanfield's
other marine piece, admirable though it is in
several particulars, No. 191, " A guarda costa
ridine out a gale at the mouth of the Bidassoa,"
dwindles into insignificance. A couple of paint-
ings are alone supplied this season, also, from the
easel of Sir Edwin Lindseer, No. 147, " Saved,"
very appropriately dedicated to the Humane So-
ciety, and No. 208, "Highland Nurses," most
inappropriately dedicated to -Miss Nightingale.
The former picture being the representation of a
panting Newfoundland, who is supposed to have
preserved a little boy from drowning, though
when must ever remain matter of the wildest con-
jecture seeing, that the child appears to be, some.
how or other "-as dry as a bone," while the dog,
no less strangely, seems to be only slightly damp
about the hind quarters ! The latter picture being,
on the other hand, a not very graceful tribute to
the benevolence of the heroine of Scutari, through
the medium of an incident not unusual in forest•
life—where the fawns are seen tenderly licking
the bleeding bullet-hole in the flank of a wounded
doe, tumbled down in pain and exhaustion among
the grass and fern of the green wood shave.
"Saved," though hung rather too high to be
seen to advantage will be regarded, we doubt not,
as the painting the less unworthy of the two, as
an exemplar of those rare powers which have
secured to our great animal-painter his unrivalled
and European reputation. Red,grave,
has but two pictures in the present collection, as
we hate just observed to be the case, in 1856, on
the part of the animal painter Lenclseer
and of the marine-painter Stanfield—Redgrave's
companion contributions being, however, as neither
in the instance of Stanfield or of Landseer,
nently pre-Raphaelite in their general treatment.
No. 68, " Little Red Riding H eel," a d ilicioue
green vista of forest scenery, with a wondrous sil-
vered, moss-dappled, gnarled, and lichened bole in
the foreground, the whole of the wondrous little
wood view actually "lit up" by the scarlet cloak
of the tiny, light footed lady of the nursery song;
and No. 182, " Handy Janie," the " knowing-
est" little country lassie that ever had her portrait
!leaned by the cunning brush of a pre Raphaelite
academician ! Another of these potent academi-
cians, who tantalises us with merely two contri-
butions to the present year's very remarkable exhi-
bition, has yet to be particularised, as he ever
deserves 4 be particularised most honourably and
eulogistically—E. M. Ward—one of the youngest,
as he is also one of the most gifted, of the R. A.'s
of England: 'Both of these contributions, howbeit,
are so admirable of their kind, that we have no
serious cause to complain of the artist's indolence,
or to speak of such pictures in sober earnest as in
any way merely tantalising. No. 75, "The last
parting of Marie Antoinette and her Son"
---
another of Mr. Ward's pathetic mementoes of the
dungeon life of the Bourbons, in the earliest and
most terrible of the three great French Revolu-
tions. The painter, who has already celebrated
upon historic canvass the incarceration of Napo-
leon Bonaparte during the first days of the Direc-
tory; and the passage of Charlotte Corday t©
execution under the gaze of Robespierre, and
Denton, and Desmoulins ; and the prison-griefs
of Louis XVI. and his Family, with the Queen
patching the threadbare vest and the Princess
tending another Picciola in the window-sill—has
here, in No. 75, no less gracefully, no less ten-
derly, no less pathetically portrayed, the last
parting of the luckless and beautiful Marie An-
toinette from her unfortunate Children. Besides
the Queen, the Dauphin, his sister, and
the sister of the dead King, there gloom
upon us from the background various members of
the Revolutionary Committee, some terrible and
some in their preposterous dresses absolutely and
grotesquely ridiculous. Inimitable, too, is the
litter of the still-life accessories of the picture, the
canvass frame with its half-completed embroidery,
the ball of worsted rolled into a tangle, the gut-
tered tallow on the neglected tin-sconce, the
broken slate with its sums partially obliterated,
the gaudy tricoloured sash wound round the
waist of the child-Dauphin, then indeed regarded
by the emigres as King Louis XVll.—all help
marvellously to point the moral of that melan-
choly story of royal suffering and Republican de-
basement. Ward's other picture No. 587,
"Byrou's early love," is altogether a smaller and
14s rretendilag work of art, claivfly noticeable for

recesses of that diabolical realm of the purloining
Di; and the ravished Proserpine. Tire effect of
the picture altogether would be absolutely laugh-
able, but that it happens at the same time,to bt
positively and irredeemably revolting. While
orpheits fiddles—Eurydic3 seems to be gibberizag,

$0 MONDAY EVENING, MAY 19, lB5

the skilful contrast of the wax-light of the draw-
ing-room interior seen through the lattice window
and the moonlight of the rural-scene outside Annes-
ley Hall—the figure of Byron standing midway
between the moonlight and the waxlight looking
in upon the lovely form of his beloved whirling
about in the dance—his own exquisitely chiselled
profile being precisely turned the while to the
gaze of the spectator, the very type of a poet
face ! Frith has three paintings in the gallery
this year, one of these an universal favourite
with ma nmas and little children —No. 131.
"Many Happy Returns of the Day," a charm-
ing, peep for after times at the home-life of
well-to-do English folk of our present
comfort-loving generation. Grandpapa turn-
ing from his newspaper, and looking amused
over the top of his spectacles, from his easy-chair
in the chimney corner as the little puss at his el-
bow brines him (carefully) his brimming glass of
wine—Grandtnamrnal,t silver-haired and good hu-
moured at the dessert-table—Papa, comely but al-
most Jewish in his smugness, giving out the
Toast of the Day, the Health of the little Dar-
ling under the bowering arch of flowers !—it is
1 all admirable—admirable from Mamma herself
verging prettily to the matronly epoch of embon-
point, or from her unmarried sister (who is never
intended, we wager, to degenerate into an old maid,
but who will doubtless, in a very few years, have
cogent reasons of her own for wishing the same good
wishes to others than nephews and nieces) to
those same nephews and nieces in all the many
stages of child-like excitement, or to the prim litie
p?,Hour-maid in the back-ground bearing in her
hand the birth-day present of a doll or a punchi-
nello ! It is all, we repeat, admirable :as No. 7
from the same hand, " A Dream of the Future,"
is exquisitely graceful, or as No. 341, also from
the easel of Frith, " Garden Flowers," is really
o.s...es_ - _ - --amp," ~f something leetter than
of in our earliest notice of this years Exhibition
, of the Royal Academy—the notice which ap-
neared • in our columns on • the very day of the
" private view "—in those earnest terms of ad-
, miration which are peculiarly due to the principal
among his five very noteworthy contributions.
No. 10, a wonderful interior view of " Christmas
Day at St. Peter's, Rome, 1854 "—an interior
resplendent by its marvellous combination of
papal pomp and architectural magnificence.
No. 337, " St. Peter's—looking back upon
Rome ;" No. 383, " Venice—approach to the
Grand Canal ;" No. 541, an "Old Temole on a
Sunny Promontory ;" and No. 552, " A Monu-
ment at Venice," are exteriors by Roberts of sin-
gular and varied excellence, but his interior of
St. Peter's, No. 10, is incomparably this year in
every way the artist's chef d'oeuvre. Without
subscribing to the rather pert opinion of Uwins,
as expressed once upon a time to Mr. Morris
Moore, by the Honourable Member for Perthshire,
we may content ourselves with a hint that the
old painter is somewhat paqsé, N )s. 261, 472,
and 893 being scarcely passable, the picture, the
least unworthy of his former fame being, without
doubt, No. 454, his very English scene of
" Gleaners leaving the Stubble-field." Jones's
least unsatisfactory painting, again, for the pre-
sent season, is No. 186, being a very melo-
olramatic, smoky, theatrical reeresentatien of the
battle of " Trukkee" (28th Feb., 1845), when
Sir Charles Napier was a greater " God of War"
than Dalhousie, " Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl
of Mar," conquering Scinde by a series of thunder.
strokes, and only laying aside the sword of the
Conqueror to take up the pen and the fasces of the
Administrator. Witherington rejoices our sense
of the beautiful in rural scenery as agreeably as
ever ; while the two Pickersgills display their con-
trasting merits—larger promise being observable it,
the Associate than in the Academician as cannot be
said to occur in regard to the two Coopers—the
Academician here revealing, .as hitherto, astonish-
ing ability as a painter of horses, and in regard
to the mere number of his pictures more than
ordinary productiveness. Of all his eight contri-
butions, the one which will doubtless be
examined by the generality with the liveliest
interest, being No. 245, the " Portraits of Two
old Campaigners," M arengo, the white war-horse
of Nap 'Leon, and Copenhagen, the bay-charger of
his Grace, the late Duke of Wellington. Cooper,
the Associate, in his turn, contributes half-a-dozsn
of his Cuyp-like Cattle-scenes to the Gallery, one
of them in combination with a landscape by LOT,
according to their wont, as the Beaumont and
Fletcher of the brush—Lee's noblest work this
season, however, being No. 221, an exqeisite
marine piece, a view of " The Plymouth Break-
water," a masterpiece of water painting, whether
viewed in regard to the feathery curls of spray
blown off from the crests of the distant surges, or
in reference to the wide ample wash of the waves
over the level stones of the breakwater in the
foreground. Frost continues to be as ever clas-
sically conventional both in theme and treatment
—but charmingly so, we admit, in No. 162, his
group of the " Graces." Horsley, among five
pictures of great beauty gives us one, No. 311,
" A Novice," which we do not hesitate at once to
select as of all the " best beautiful." G ,odel 1
forsakes this year, for once, the field in which he
reaped his first laurels, for one in which we cannot
think he will ever add to them very considerably ;
we mean that of historice religious painting
to which he has exclusively dedicated his energies
this year Cirough the mediuso of his one large
picture, No. 359, " °releaser at the Traitor's
Gate"—,a picture of which we are constrained
to say (in spite of our admiration for
the artist's genius) that it is dec'de(liv
larger th an it is meritorious. Neither C-an
we regard Frank Stone as having, by his one
solitary production, displayed in this year's ex-
hibition, extended very considerably his reroute—
let us say—as a love-painter ! No. 319, " Doubt "
beiug (in spite of tw, t or three co:u ily f aces) both
in general merit and in actual purpose, eminently
doubtful. Poole hardly realises, for once, the
expectations cherished, season after season, by
those who appreciate, as it deserves, the genius of
that Defoe of the Pencil : No. 373, " The Con-
spirators," being only remarkable for its chiaro-
scuro. Eltuore, on the contrary, has surpassed
himself by his admirable historic picture N..
175, portraying " Charles V. at Yuste" —he
old Emperor bidding a last farewell to the earth
with all its beauties, to 'king his last upon his
favourite Titian, upon the portrait of his beloved
wife, as she was in her youthful
.loveliness,
breathing, for the last time, the fresh and scented
air floating in from the garden into the coolness
of the cloisters, basking in the last gleams of the
evening sunlight—prior to his being carried, for
the last time, into the gloomy cell, from which he
was to come forth no more alive I The aged
M march, as portrayed by the brush of Elmore,
is a marvellous limning of reverent and dejected
senility. The accessories, many of them, are in-
troduced with singular adroitness—the favourite
parrot upon the chair-rail with the nutshells
littered on the ground beneath its perch—nay,
the mere velvet covering of the chair, black
velvet, old; worn, and threadbare—everything is
painted with colours of astonishing verisimilitude.
Conspicuous, if not preeminent, among the
failures of the present year, is that pre-
sented by the one picture contributed to the
walls of the Academy by the young artist who last
section delighted the world of art with the im
moose promise visible in his painting of a Pre-
Raphaelite Procession. Leighton's picture for
1856 is again, indeed, a large one, and so far,
but no farther, bears a resornhlance to its prede-
ceseor. It is, No. 508, entitled "The Thump!'
of Music"—the subject of it being in reality n
more the Triumph -of Music than its treatment
by Mr. Leighton can be considered, in any way at
all, a token of the Triumph of Painting. It is
Orpheus, in fact, trying to redeem his wife from
Hades ! Such a blear-eyed, hand-clasping, high
sh )uldered, hobgoblin of an Eurydice, being, it,
fact, the most horrible object, perhaps, Orpheus
could anywhere have discovered in all the horrid

We turn our glance from this big painting with
a shudder of disgust, and happily find an exqui-
site relief by walking over to an opposite corner
of the same apartment, where T. Faed, another
artist who gave* large promise last year, has in
some respects already justified the popular expec-
tations in his regard by a little picture, No. 592,
of " Highland Mary"—a picture delicious in
colouring, the red bundle on the lassie's lap har-
monising, with the loveliest effect, with her looped-
up kirtle of green, and the under petticoats of yel-
low and brown, toned down by the neutralising grey
of the shepherd's plaid thrown over her shoulders
—the charm of the whole figure being crowned
by the lovely face so soon to be lamented in its
grave by the tender heart and eloquent lips of
the Poet Ploughman ! This cabinet picture of
" Highland Mary" we take to be, in every way,
a more notable contribution to the gallery from
the easel of Mr. Faed than that larger painting,
No. 273, " Home and the Hoineless," which is,
strictly speaking, but a weakened repetition of the
idea expressed by the artist's, popular picture of
last year, "The Mitherless Bairn."
Prominent among the successes of 1856, how-
ever, let us mark especially two most charming
contributions to the walls of the Royal Academy
by a rung artist of much more than large pro-
mise, already, be it said, of very considerable and
remarkable achievement ! Pictures they are by
J. M. Carrick : one of them, No. 86, " Brook
Ford, Devon"—with its overhanging branches
chequered into light and shade by the gleaming
sunbeams, and the cool and transparent current
underneath stirred into minutest ripples by the
pleasant zephyrs and the hooves of the quaffing
horse driven down to water by the little urchin
bestriding honest Debbin : the other, No. 262,
"The Village Postman" searching in his letter-
bag for good news for the expectant cottager—
every detail of the rustic scene sketched in by
marvellous- truthfulness, not theteiritt reginTo'
the rural perspective, but in reference even to the
tiles upon the house-top, the clambering ivy, the
dusty road, and the twinkling leaves of tree and
thicket. Another artist of the same name, popular
now for some years among our most popular
miniature painters, T. Carrick, the miniature
painter of Lord John Russell, and Daniel O'Con-
nell, and Signor Lablaclie, and William Ferran,
and other varied celebrities—with whose features
the English public have been familiarised by no
hand more successfully than by that of T. Carrick
—appears during the past year to have been more
than usually industrious and in some instances
more than ordinarily successful. Instance this—
Nos. 702, 709, 721, 727, 751, 778, 797, and 826
—particularly in regard to No. 751, the likeness
of Miss Cushman, the celebrated tragic and melo-
dramatic actress, a Bete, clever, characteristic face,
too often seen disfigured in the hag-like guise of
the gipay witch, Meg Merrilies.
Raturning from the Miniature R min into the
priucip tl suite of apartments, we would more par
titularly direct same few words of mist cordial
admiration to a very noble picture, villatiously
hung, close down by the ground, so that you are
obliged to kneel to see it preperly, a remarkable
painting by H. Wallis, No. 352, "Chatterton."
Ur. Wallis has two other pictures in the gallery
of no inconsiderable merit, No. 56, "Marten's
Tower, Chepstow Castle," and No. 516, "Andrew
Marvell returning the Bribe"---but this splendid
work, depicting the suicide of Thomas Chatterton,
white it is the finest production yet given to the
world by the genius f Mr. Wallis, is also, ba it
said, one of the most extraordinary works of art
in the whole Exhibition. We may conjecture
that the painter (for the exigencies of colour, per
haps) has somewhat overdone the raiment of th.
" marvellous boy, the sleepless soul that perished
in his pride," depicting him in white silk (?)
stockings, and violet satin (?) knee breeches, and—.
on the chair by the side of his miserable death-
pallet--a crimson velvet (?) doublet clothes
poor Caatterton (who destroyed himself after un-
dergoing two or three days and nights of absolute
starvation) would certainly (if he had had them)
have turned into bread at the pawnbrokers. But
forgiving this sollicisin -as" to the app erel of the
boy-creator of Rowley--what pathos may we not
discover in this representation of his suicide ! In
she lithe still, almost childish, figure, in the thin
stripling face, in the wild disorder of the reddish
auburn hair, in the torn and scattered manuscripts,
in the clenched hand, in the very bloom which has
been shed by the plant in the flowerpot upon the
window-sill ! And the'distant morning view of the
great city (this "stony-hearted " dreadful London
of ours) seen through Cho dim and broken glass of
the Brooke-street garret window—surely never be-
fore was light, seen thrOugh window glass, so won-
derfully, truthfully, astonishingly painted ! It is
the very triumph of actual fact and tragic power in
painting ! Honeur say we to the hand that could
depict so powerfully, so poetically, and so re tyingly
the death-scene closing that astonishing career
of Chatterton. Another painting wo would also
mention in terms of well-merited praise, No. 35,
" Home" by Paton, the most pathetic memento
of the late war that has yet come under our ob
servation. And so—with a glance of chagrin into
the dark and chilly store-room devoted below-stairs
to sculpture—we pass once again into the daylight
from this eighty-eighth Royal Academy Exl
bition.

LITERATUAE.

A Stemmer itti Yortlorit rAtrope. By &lin% Bun.
bury, au,,hor of " LLfe in Sweden," &c. 2 vols.
Hurst and Blackett.
This is a very lively attl.agreeable hook of travels,
full of sketches of national characters and descrip-
tions of scenery given in a pleasing and en tortaiu-
ing style. The authoress, who is already famur-
ably known to the public. both as a novelist and a
traveller, has previously ,given us a narrative of
her life and adventures iii Sweden during a northern
winter. The present work, however, does not re-
strict us to one country, for we are introduced to
scenes in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Gothland,
the Aland Islands, of which we have all heard so
much, and many other placer of interest. In al•
she met with a most hospitable reception—indeed
the description she gives throughout of her ac-
Traiotanee with the inhaaitants of the North
leaves a very favourable impression. Their kind-
ness and readiness to accommodate and oblige a
total stranger was without excep ion, and the au-
thoress has well repaid thel friendly attend ins she
met with, in the attractive picture she has drawn
of then. She has evidently visited many countries,
and is therefore in some degree qualified to judge
of national character as well as of architecture and
national features. Her descriptions of the latter
are full of admiration of the wonderful effects of the
northern winter, of which' she is an enthusiastic
admirer. So vivid is her recollection of the splen-
dour of a northern night, with its clear spherical
moon and glittering crystal snow, that she often
refers to it, and depicts it even in the record of her
summer excursions. She tells the tale of her own
adventures very a,greeably, and many amusing mis-
fortunesarerelatedfor thereader'sgratification. One
of these was on the occasion of her first landing in
Sweden, when she only knew a few words of the
language, but trusting to the information of her
guide-book repaired to an hotel where English was
said to be spoken. A. young woman appeared, to
whom she put the question, " Can you speak Bug
lish ?" and received the satisfactory answer of
" Yes." The wearied traveller accordingly gave
her order ;•foremost in the list, of course, the Bag-
lish demand for tea. "Yes" was the reply to every
inquiry or command, and the attendant disap-
peared. An hour elapsed—no tea. The bell was
rung ; up came the English interpreter, who, on
being asked if the refreshments were ready, replied
Yes," and went away again. Another hour and
another ring at the bell. A stranger this time
,lame, and made the traveller understand that the
E iglish flicks was out. At length she returned.
•, We are tired of waiting for this tea," exclaims
the traveller. " Yes," is still the oheerful reply.
1 new light breaks on the victim's mind, "Is yes
Ole only word you can say ?I' she asks. " Yes, 'is
ince more the answer ! How she extricated her
,elf from her dill:lenity she does not tell us. Many
,f the old traditions and :semantic tales of the
:ountry aro interspersed, and afford a pleasing
variety. Many anecdotes of the famous Gustavus
Vasa are also introduced, though the writer dues
lot seem to regard that warlike monarch with much
dmiration. Had he been unsuccessful, she says,
,ud ended his life as Gustavus Vasa, the Adven-
urer, instead of King Gustav:the First, she might
iave felt the same interest in his career as in that,
it Charles Edward, but as history puts that possi-
Jility out of the question, she cannot help differing
entirely with her good friends the syredep, who