The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-07 00:00:00

c

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1858.

It appears that the independent Liberal Mem-
bers of Parliament are by no means disposed to
be marched through Coventry with either Lord
PALMERSTON or Lord Jowl' RUSSELL. They feel,
bitterly feel the contumelious neglect exhibited
towards them personally. And they see that the
measures to which they attached great importance
have a much better chance-of success under Lord

DERBY than under either of the Whig leaders.
They have no extraordinary desire to restore the
old cliques, consisting of members of the lucky
families. They are by no means anxious to have
Sir CHARLES WOOD at the head of the Exchequer,
the Admiralty, or the India Board, to give Lord
CLARENDON the opportunity to serve petty conti-
nental despots, or to enable Sir G. C. LEWIS to
grind the over-burdened tax-payer in order to
maintain a sinking fund to pay off old liabilities.
The influential meeting on Wednesday, at which
120 gentlemen attended, proved that the Liberal
party are no longer to be misled by specious fal-
lacies or pompous platitudes. They will hence-
forward look to "measures, not men," and give
all parties the fair play to which they may bo
entitled. It was the Whig Cabinet that " baffled"
the attempts at reform. Lord DERBY has at
once given up the property qualification, one of

the most vexatious and indefensible abuses of the

old law, and there is every reason to believe that
large and comprehensive measure of reform will
be introduced next session, far better than that
which was promised by Lord PALMERSTON, but
-no inkling whereof was suffered to ooze out ; and
which, indeed, it was admitted, had not even been
prepared by the Government twice pledged to its
•ifitmluction !
The Liberal members have now elected a
Whipper-in, Mr. FORSTER, M. P. for Walsall, and
another gentleman will doubtless be found to assist
him in his labours. This is a movement in the
right direction,—one indispensable to the effi-
ciency of the united band. The old fable of the
bundle of stinks might have taught these gentle-
men the propriety of such a step, long since, and,
now that it has been adopted, we may
zsasonably anticipate that the Independent mem-

berg will carry with them far greater weight
an
influence. They will now teach a salutary
lesson to the old " family" parties, and show them
the necessity of infusing new blood into airy
(*II/lamina that may henceforward be consii-
- tuted. It will never again do to merely
414.01 e the old p and produce the same
names in differentaock ffice. The Whig Leaders
may be wellassuvered
assured
llythabtaste.f they do so '
shuffle, they will a
Downing-street and its pleasant offices.t
cut
from
The Liberal party acted wisely in not insisting on
any specific measures. Their first duty is to estab
liah a proper organisation, and when that has been
effected all other points will follow in its train,
as soon as they have discovered the true value of
judicious combination.
One thing, at least, is certain, that the thunder-

ings of the Times, and the shrill squeakings of its
puny followers, will not induce those deserving
of the name of Liberals, to enter on a factious
course, or to sacrifice the interests of the country
in order to reinstate Lord PALMERSTON in Down-
ing-street.

Never was a Peerage more fairly earned than
that which is about to be conferred on Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL for his pre-eminent servioes in India.
The addition of such a member will confer even
more honour on the House of Lords than on the
victorious General. It is owing to his indefati•
gable energy and unflinching bravery, combined
with the utmost prudence, that the Indian
Empire has been saved, and the British supre-
macy completely re-established. He followed in
the track of able men. HAVELOCK and OUTRAM,
WILSON and GREATHED, NICHOLSON and NEILL,
and many others, were efficient pioneers who
paved the way for his brilliant triumphs. But
had there been any mistake or failure on his part,
the fruits of their indefatigable labours and in-
domitable courage might have slipped from our
hands. But he was fully equal to the emergency.
He did not leave the smallest opening for censure
to the most captious critic. One of his highest
claims to distinction was the wise economy of his
soldiers' lives, while he omitted nothing which
ought to be done, and did nothing that ought not

.o be dote. He regarded his soldiers eTen more

than himself, and was leas chary of his own
existence than of that of the humblest soldier
under his command. Such a man was natu-

turally idolised by his followers. They
would go anywhere with the man in whom
they had implicit confidence. There was
nothing too desperate to be undertaken, for they
could not fail under his auspices—the word " im-
possible" being erased from their vocabulary. His
very name was worth "ten thousand men, armed
all in proof,"—for while it inspired our men, it
struck terror into the rebels.

It is right that such a man should receive a
suitable reward ; and a peerage, with a handsome
pension, which will doubtless be added, is a step
in the right direction—an instalment of the debt,
which will eventually be fully liquidated. But
there is another honour that ought to be conceded.
Why should not our best general be elevated to
the highest military rank ? Why should not Sir
CoraN CAMPBELL be made a Field-Marshal, with
all the pay and allowances belonging to the posi-
tion ? Since the time of the Iron Duke there is no
man who has better merited the distinction. Lord
DERBY is entitled to just credit for his prompt
recognition of these inestimable services. He has
not procrastinated until death has intervened, and
deprived the tribute of respect and admiration of
its value. We earnestly hope that the Hero of
Lucknow will be spared to enjoy the honours and
rewards that will be showered on his head ; and
we are convinced that every man throughout the
length and breadth of the land, while admitting
Ithat "he won them well," will join in the fervent
aspiration that "he may wear them long."

The " property qualification" is doomed. The
Government has gracefully assented to the intro-
duction of Mr. LOCKE KING'S bill, and cordially
concurred in its object. " The mockery and de-
lusion" will thus be abolished, even during the
present session. The specious pretext of waiting
for a general measure was not insisted or. It
was notorious that any person could get a ready
" cut and dry" qualification at a certain price,
1001. for a knight of the shire, and 501. for a
citizen or burgess. Any man could easily pro-
cure this colourable independence, not one shilling
whereof was available for his own purposes, or for
his creditors in the event of his bankruptcy
or insolvency. It was only conscientious
men who would have been really useful members,
and who were tco high-minded to perjure them-
selves, that were excluded. The regulation had
palpably failed in effecting the object for which it
was created, and, according to the time-honoured
apothegm, "cessante ratione, cessat lex," the rule
itself should be abolished.

Besides, there should not be different laws for
different parts of the United Kingdom. In Scot-
land no property qualification is required, yet
the members for Scottish constituencies are fully
as respectable as any others ; and we believe that
there is, not a single one of the number who
could not produce a bona fide qualifi-
cation. The members for the Universities
are similarly situated, and surely no one would
say that the representatives of Oxford, Cambridge,
or Trinity College, Dublin, are not fit and proper
persons to occupy seats in the House of Commons.
The eldest sons of Peers, and even of persons
having 20,0001. Government Stock, were eligible,
while a barrister or physician, merchant or
banker, although fairly earning and paying In-
come-tax on ten or twelve thousand per annum,
would be excluded.

This palpable absurdity will now be abolished,
and it is worthy of notice that it is by the
Government of Lord DERBY that the first point
of Parliamentary Reform since the modern Mag►tia
Char•ta has been granted.
After all, the privilege really belongs to the
constituency, and not to the individual whom
they may select as a suitable exponent of their
wishes and opinions in the popular branch of the
Legislature. If any man can, without resorting
to corrupt or undue practices, obtain a majority
of votes, he should be entitled to take his seat ;
and even if two or three Ultra-Radicals (as they
are called) or Chartists should find places, it
would be far better that they should do so than
that they should be enabled to propagate revolu-
tionary doctrines out of doors. In the House
they would speedily find their level. Their sting
would be extracted, while outside they might be
really dangerous.
There is but little danger that the aristocratic
members would find many fustian coats, or flannel
jackets; " coming between the wind and their
nobility." Men must have more valuable quali-
Ifications than the nominal possession of 300/. a-
year to obtain a majority of the suffrages of an
independent constituency, and if they can fairly
obtain the " most sweet voices" of the voters,
they should not be excluded for any other cause.

MAY 7, 1858,

ROYAL ACADEMY.

(SECOND NOTICE.)

English
Irish..

their pastime--bewildered as they glance round
at the interruption—startled probably by a scream
and a fall when the young mother casts herself at
her wronged husband's feet, on seeing in his
tremulous grasp the evidence of the sudden reve-
lation. There is a note to the number of this
triple picture in the catalogue. ft is this, appa-
rently an entry in a diary :—" August the 4th—
Have just heard that B-- has been dead more
than a fortnight, so his poor children hare now
lost both parents. I hear she was seen on Friday
last near the Strand, evidently without a place
to lay her head. What a fall hers has been."
The companion picture on either hand of the
" Past," represents the " Present." There the
wretched mother, an outcast, squalid, degraded,
abandoned, is dying under oue of the gas lit
arches of the Adelphi ! There the orphan chil-
dren in their sleeping-chamber, one seated, one
kneeling in her night dress by the window, mus-
ing, weeping, prayerful ! An alternate glance
through the window, through the archway, shows
that the moment chosen is identical ! You see
this by the night sky—the aim° strip of cloud
hangs silvered under the moon—the same moon-
light showers down on either scene, the chil-
dren's grief and the mother's degradation. It is
a poet's thought, and a true painter's realisation
of it. Mr. Egg holds us before his canvass
spellbound. As the wedding guest listens to the
Ancient Mariners, so we needs must look—
mastered by the pathos of the artist's refined and
sorrowful imagination. There is a genuine pathos,
also, in an earlier picture in the same apart-
ment, No. 310, by P. F. Poole, another emi-
nent Associate. It represents the last scene in
" King Laar," a scene in which the old Kini
hangs in an agony of woe over the all but
lifeless form of Cordelia. Again, in this
latest work from his easel, Mr. Poole shows him-
self to be a perfect master in his way as a colour's'.
Another notable Associate, Francis Denby, con-ri-
butes three characteristic pic urea to the Exhibi-
tion—No. 239, "A Smug_ler's Cave" (not one in
the smuggler's own acceptation of the phrase) ;
No. 290, "The Death of Abel," the whole land-
scape glimmering under a ghastly obscuration ; and
No. 521, "Ulysses at the Court of Alcinous," with
the sun shining through the foliage like a gigantic
phosphoric star. Conspicuous though he is alway s
nowadays among the Academicians, E. M. Watd,
R.A., does not by any means satisfy us this season
—attractive though two of his large paintings art
in their subject, and bold, even daring, though th,
treatment of each undeniably is. In both Nos
35 and 254, the face of the French Emperor ap-
pears to be of the colour of mahogany, and in the
latter picture H. R. H. the Prince of Wales is
assuredly anything but flattered. The Empress
Eugenie is the principal figure, and the one most
successfully painted in the Installation scene at
Windsor; while at the tomb of Napoleon the Great
the most marshal figure is oddly enough his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, who, radiantly clod
in scarlet and gold regimentals, is grasping his
sword hilt as though he were going to charge an
army I Mr. Ward's other painting, No. 488, pour
trays the "Concealment of the Fugitives by Ali, e
I Lisle after the Battle of Sedgemoor, in the reign
of James [I." T. Faed is droll this time, instead of,
as formerly, pathetic. His version of "A listener
never hears gude o' himseP "—No. 272, is capital
throughout. It is delightfully humourous—to the
cat with her tail " magnified" by the eavesdropper's
cur snarling at the upraised back and the—phitz-
spitz ! Mr. Faed has three other pictures in the
Gallery this year, bat the one already noticed is
beyond doubt his principal contribution. There
are two comparatively small but very admirabl-
works from the hand of Alfred Elmore, R.A. ; one
in many ways remarkable, No. 120, the artist's
diploma work (illustrative of an incident in The
Two Gentlemen of Verona) deposited in the Aca-
demy on his election as Academician—the other,
No. 8, the realisation of a far-famed inci-
dent in the life of Dante Alighieri. Among
the rising contributors, W. C. T. Dobson is gain-
ing ground again after his undoubted failure
of last season. Small and in a manner unpretend
ing though his three pictures are in their character,
they are nevertheless very charming indeed iu their
treatment. No. 59, " Fairy Tales"—a sweet lit. le
puss of a fair-haired elfin girl, sitting with her doll,
engaged in the enjoyment of one of the dear old
wonderful stories of childhood. No. 415, " The
Holy Innocents ;" and No. 446, " Hagar and Ish-
mael." Another young artist, full of very rare
, promise, to wit, R. Carrick, advances yet furthet,
though by but a single stride, towards a very
different reputation. N. 300, " Weary Life,"
is the title of his one remarkable contribw ion. The
wonderful litter of straw in the foreground proves
it to be what is called in treatment pre-Raphaelite
—but the picture has a charm that pre-Raphaelite
pictures seldom, if ever, hive yet had—it is in no
way repulsive, it is in every way beautiful. Tie
colouring is resplendent, but at the same time ex
quisitely harmonious. A mountebank, with his
little urchin acrobat, have fallen asleep together in
a fie'd by the wayside. A country lass, ]eanire,
libnn a pifrolfrirlr, has Yawed to look at, thorn.
That is t!:e whole story. Yet in the telling of
the young artist has, by a Di e ob-ervation of na
tune, and by a delicate perception of what is beau-
tiful as well as truthful in its portraiture, produced
a painting that commands admiration. A vetera,
in art, cr..ivned with accumulated honours, Thom
Webster, R.A., has shown himself this last season
more than usually industrious. His three picture:,
are worthy of him, and are really astonishing in
their life-like naturalness. No. 334, " Grace Be-
fore Meat," is the title of one. No. 60, " Sum-
mer," that of another ; and the third is No.
119, "A Sunday Evening," the most ambitious
and the most el iborated. The mere brick floor of
that cottage interior is something marvellous tc,
look at ; but the characters, old and young, scat-
tered about the house-room, are each and all of
them studies—chief among these life-like face,
being that of the mother who is hushing the littl,
girl into silence with an upraised finger, and an ex-
pression half grave, half amused. Enough, how-
ever, as to our second survey of these glowing walls
of the Academy. We pass out again from the
porahway with our tastes chastened—

" I nunc, argentum et marmor vetue, ssraque et artes
Suspice ; cum gemmis Tyrios mirare colores."

MARKET NEWS.—(This Day.)

CORN EXCHANGE.
Fresh up to-day, coastwise and by land carriage, the ar
rivals of English wheat were very moderate, consequently
the show of samples was limited. Good and useful quali-
ties sold at Monday's currency, but the demand for then,
was by no means active. Low and damp parcels moved
off slowly, at aboat previous currencies.
For foreign wheat, the supply of which was tolerably
good, we had a slow sale, but no quotable change talc
place in value.
Floating cargoes of grain realised full currencies.
The supply of barley was less extensive ; nevertheless,
most kinds moved off slowly, on former terms.
Fine malt sold steadily—other kinds slowly, at late
rates.

Oath, owing to tho increased supplies, were dull, bu
not cheaper.
Beam, peas, and flour sold at Monday's currency.
ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt.
1,610 40 3,960

Oats. Flour
280 `lB6O
8,440 --
28,020 2040 sk..
1)11,

Foreign 111,400 I • 5,560

NEWGATE AND LEADENIIALL.

The supplies of meat on sale here to-day were seasonably
extensive. Ou the whole, a fair average business ww
transaoted, as follows :
Per 81bs by the carcase.
s. d. s. d.
Beef, inferior 2 10 3 0
Do., middling 3 2 3 4
Do. prime large 3 6 3 8
Do., do. small 3lO 4 0
Pork, large 3 2 3 8 1
Lamb, 5s 4,

8. d. 8.
Mutton, Inferior 3 0 3 2
Do. , middling 3 4 3 8
Do., prime 3 lO 4 2
Veal,
Pork, small 3 10 4 4
Ld to 6s id.

BOR,OUGB HOP.

We continue to have a steady, but by no means active,
demand for good and useful hops, at full quotations,
Thera is no disposition to accept lower rates for othe:
kinds, but the inquiry for them is heavy.
New Mid and East Kent Pockets, 70s to 112 s ; Weald o,
Kent do., 51s to 665; New Sussex do., 503 to 60s; y(ar.
littgs, 21s to 50s.