The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-13 00:00:00

The Chinese theatre and Parisian café concerts are
particularly favoured with public patronage. In
the Turkish section of the Exhibition building
wines from Palestine are exposed, and the exhibitor
announces to thepasser that he will send gratuitously
to every person who will give him an order for
twelve bottles of wine, one bottle of water from the
Jordan—for baptism !

After long deliberation, the Committee of the
Universal Exhibition has adjudged the prize for the
Hymn dedicated to Peace to two poets, who share
equally the honour. This Hymn, with the Cantata,
will be sung on the 15th of August, on the occasion
of the Emperor's fete and the great Exhibition cere-
monies which come off at that time.
Visitors to the Exhibition are even more nume-
rous than was expected ; it is estimated that an
average of fifty thousand per day! will be maintained
throughout the whole period of the show. If this
should be the case, the establishment will prove a
paying concern to the Government. The Society
of Construction guaranteed to the Imperial Com-
mission 8 millions of francs, which sum is consi-
dered necessary to indemnify the State for its out-
lay. The Exhibition will last, from beginning to
end, 210 days ; multiply this by 50,000, and we
have a total of 10f millions of francs. Can any
one persist in asserting that the enterprise is not a
success after these figures ?
Carlotta Patti, the sister of Adelina, is creating
quite a furore with her performances in conjunction
with the celebrated violinist, Vieuxtemps, at the
Synique. These representations have been filling up
the intermissions of Romeo and Juliet, and have not
been less successful. Miss Carlotta Patti is well
known in America, having made her first appear-
ance before the public of New York in 1861, with
such success as to insure her engagement at the
Academy of Music, where she displayed to appre-
ciative audiences her wonderful gift of song. From
that time her renown became established, and has
gone on progressively until she has attained the en-
viable rank in the musical world which she enjoys
to-day. Leaving America on account of the civil
war she went to London, where her reputation had
preceded her, and insured an immediate engagement
at the Covent Garden Opera, in which she was
paid $3,200 per month. In 1864 she signel another
engagement at the same place for $3,600 per month,
and another, in 1865, for $4,000 per month.
Her voice is rich and melodious, scarcely less
limpid and pure than her sister's, and with, perhaps,
equal volume. The marvellous adaptation to sudden
starts and elevations, as well as the highest or
owest notes, is considered by many even to be supe-
rior to her sister's. Unfortunately an infirmity,
which causes her to limp, forbids graceful move-
ment on the stage, and she remains stationary.
Since my last letter I. learn that Paris is to be,
favoured soon with the visits of a lirge number of
the crowned heads of Europe. The King of
Greece and Prince Oscar of Sweden are already
here. In a few days the King and Queen of the
Belgians and King and Queen of Portugal will
arrive, as probably also the Prince of Wales and
Prince and Princess of Prussia ; in addition, the
visits of the Emperor of Russia, with two of his
sons, Emperor and Empress of Austria, and the
King of Prussia are announced. Victor Emmanuel,
the King and Queen of Spain, and the Viceroy of
Egypt, are to arrive in the next four or six weeks.
Such an assemblage of sovereigns has not been seen
in the capital of France for the last century.

While it bas become a question of serious debate
in London whether it be advisable or not to take a
walk in Hyde Park, that famous place for public
exhibitions of every description, the French, unlike
the English nation in this respect, do not quite
hesitate sufficiently ere they set out for the Champ
de Mars. There is a medium between that scrupu-
lous anxiety which a British paterfamilias must
entertain as to the consequences of a constitutional
within the gates of the Park, and the opposite reck-
less rush into difficulties, illustrated by Parisians
every Sunday morning. They do not consider that
to leave home when the sun is shining is one thing
and to return to it another, when moonlight casts
a saddening influence over their weary path. The
fact is never clear that they can go home at all
until it is too late to be wise, and exhausted limbs
have been kept in motion between the Porte Rapp,
the Porte Suffren, and vice versa in search of an
empty vehicle.

No pour boire, however fabulous, can tempt a
porter to run for a (acre; running is out of the
question ; happy those who can crawl home, and
doubly wretched they whose earthly treasures are
located.at the furthest end of the metropolis. Let
all future visitors be advised never to seek a facre
at the Porte Rapp, which is reserved for private
carriages. No Porte is yet reserved for hired
conveyances, but the wailings of a great nation are
going to be heard, and a bill has been moved for a
stand at the Porte Suffren. It is but a stand-still
at present however. Omnibuses there are, and as
no one knows where, it is as well to mention that
they set down and take up passengers at the oppo-
i site end of the Pont de Jena. Why omnibuses
cannot come across the bridge and pick up the
languid is one of those questions which will eter-
nally as much perplex humanity ai that doubt
about "to be and not to be." Omnibuses are con-
tent to stop where they are, and of the two I think
that in a case of emergency it is infinitely shorter to
go to Mahomet if Mahomet will not come, than
deform nature by walking one's legs off, losing one's
temper, and backbiting the Exposition unjustly.
Then there are thosesteamers called the " Mouches,"
which run all down the Seine, from the Champ de
Mars, and stop; indeed they are very remarkable
for stopping at all sorts of bridges, and steps, and
places both right and left of the river. These halting
places are called stations, and as there are so many
it is natural to suppose they must be convenient.
Truly we have but six of these mouches, and fifty
would not be sufficient, but the Exposition is only
beginning; by the time it is over everything will be
ready. The papers are full of things that have got
to be finished.

The other mode of conveyance is the railway ; it
is very convenient, only the trains start but once
every hour, and 1,500 travellers are delayed at the
St. Lazare station in Paris by the return train,
which lets 40 out at the intermediate stations. There
is evidently a vice in the system, a vice which dis-
figures one of the grandest, best, noblest Exhibi-
tions ever heard of in the whole world. The Ex-
position is an immense success, independently of all
these little mistakes. One, however, I must allude
to, which is the exaction of those who have bought.
" sole privileges." There is a privilege which of all
others ought not to be have been sold, that of sit-
ting down. The purchaser of the right of making
people stand on their legs, if the business transac-
tion appears clearer in this light, exacts five sons
for a chair in any part of the building, and every
one who has paid his five sous should, I say, carry
his chair along with him, for as surely as he leaves
it he will be pounced down upon for another five
sous. This is probably a very enviable right of
sale, and briags in a large sum ; another one
there is of a decidedly unenviable nature,
though it may bring in a great deal more.
I faintly allude to some other establishments.
They are in every sense, and in all circumstances, to
be avoided, especially since ladies preside at the
counter, and admittance has risen in unheard-of
proportions. I advise that no statement, no con-
versation, should take place between the customers
and proprietors on leaving the premises, for if the
visitor has washed his hands in a basin of water
another five sous will be charged ; if he has wiped
his hands after washing he will piy for the use of
the towel; and, in one word, if he does render up a
detailed account, he will get so confused that the
lady at the counter will think he is ashamed of him-
self, and wonder why he should be so.

If the writer of this correspondence had been en-
trusted with the Exhibition Note Department, she
would doubtless have acquitted herself of the inter-
esting task to the best of her abilities, but she would
have been compelled to follow some method, or ex-
pose herself to criticism. As s!ae has not been asked
to write on the Champ de Mars she feels anxious
to do so, hoping she will be treated as
amateurs generally are when they attempt
what they are not fitted for, and no worse.
What if she will one day disapp'ar under
the stalactites of Mr. Guerard's salt water aquarium,

the next appear in Mr. Thiry's Dutch hot-house all
among the ugliest cactuses, bearing the lovelist
flowers. What does it matter if she discuss botany
one day, mineralogy or hides another ? The in-
dustrious bee finds her honey where she lists, and it
is none the less sweet for having been collected from
the stately city at morn and wildest field-flower at
sunset. Meanwhile, a great deal that is far-
fetched and curious is displayed in every direction,
and a great deal that is really useful is not
sufficiently appreciated. Thus crowds are daily
assembled round what I should style drawing-room
machinery; tor instance the bonbon apparatus, which
goes through the process of manufacturing sweet
drag ies, while spinning and weaving machines are
called horrid dins. One invention is very curious :
it is a pen on a table put in motion by a weather-
cock on the top of a roof. It turns N.S.E. and W.
according as the wind blows, and actually writes on
a sheet of paper which way the weathercock is
turning. Those politicians who are in such trouble
about the Luxemburg should try this pen ; they
would find it convenient, and turn the way the
wind is fairest. There ought hencerbrth to be one
in every Cabinet Council. Eager lookers-on stand
for hours before revolvers and cannons calculat-
ing how many men could be shot dorm in a
second. One sweeps everything in a circle before
it, and, is lam told, "a love of a thing !" The
paintings which please most are battle-fields
covered with the dead and dying. Many a lady
who could not save a fly from drowning declares
that the agony of the wounded in such and such
a painting is " magnificent, taken to life !"
Few visit the group containing products, both
raw and manufactured, those appertaining to
mining, forestry, &c., and yet the timber must be
felled before it is carved, and the aching brow can-
not be soothed without pharmaceutical products.

ROME, April 29, 1867.

The grand display of fireworks took place accord-
ing to custom last Monday night. The Piazza del
Popolo was filled with an expectant but not enthu-
siastic crowd, for the programme has been-too often
repeated to produce any general excitement. For
one, I had never imagined that such magnificent
pyrotechnic effects could be produced. To those
who have not witnessed them no description could
convey an adequate idea. Those who have cannot
well forget the sharp deafening cannonade with
which the performance opens, those volleys of
rockets, 4,500 of which are sent up in one shower
as if poured forth from the crater of a volcano, the
soft showers of brilliant, many-hued rain, which
float downward from the exploding shells, the
quaint little balloons which whizz and whirl their
way upward and descend with a timid, uncertain
motion, the changing lights which give such a new
beauty to every arch and tree of the Pincian, and
even to the plain buildings of the square, the fierce
fusillade which occupies the intervals as if armies
were battling under cover of the darkness and the
clouds of smoke ; and finally, that adventurous
rocket which is let loose toward the square in a way
to make inexperienced spectators wince, and which,
striking the obelisk, appears to penetrate it from
side to side, sending off satellites to light up brilliant
lamps all around the open space, revealing the faces
of the spectators, and the machinery of wood and
wire by which all this magnificence is operated.
In the dearth of incidents here at present a few
notes from the studios of American artists may be
of interest. To present them is, indeed, a hazard-
ous undertaking, and, to guard as far as may be
against its dangers, I wish at once to disavow all
claim to professional criticism. I have, as already
said, but a few notes to give—the notes of a tra-
veller who can render something more than a tra-
ditional admiration to the great works of antiquity,
and who is not wholly insensible to the expression
of thought and character in the living face, or the
artist's representation, and who admires beauty
without first asking whether it is the highest pos-
sible, or what good it will do.
The resident artists of Rome, while gaining an
advantage for their own studies from the immedi-
ate vicinity of the mister-pieces of other days,
cannot fail to lose from the same cause in the im-
mediate effect of their works. A statue, which at
home we should admire for its own grace and
power, is here unconsciously compared with the
Apollo Belvidere, the Venus of the Capitol, or the
Cupid of Praxiteles, and it is not wonderful if, in
such companionship, its real merit is but half appre-
ciated. The question between ancient and modern
art is one on which little difference of opinion ex-
ists. *Yet, while we all agree to award the palm
to the old masters, we are unjust to the
living if we deem their works therefore
worthless. We perhaps too often forget the vast
multitude of statues and paintings produced in
former times, as illustrated by the oft-quoted say-
ing that " there were more gods than men in
Athens" in the days of its power, and proved by
the countless remains, which have escaped all the
casualties of time and war. We have no right to
suppose that all these numerous productions were
beyond censure, because some, which are left, seem
almost faultless ; and we have the power to dis-
spts
eormromeayselt elto
ensi
tosuuhncfuegloil
number
aeeenrrrdtyohori
feomnwsaryeutnr:
were
superior
irtsfiofto
iairletleawt
p:o:roeyrerfkseaes
t,wrahvwdaee
yvhi
drao,
an
antiquity.
nedot whoseui
ldub iy point-
ing
est
oyolm.ecomparatively
eilnt of-
Rome to study the remainder? Or if a painter of
our
figuresdaya
were to
insipid
originate
faces which
may b
of thosestarched
on
many medieval altar-pieces, what a storm of con-
temptuous abuse he would draw down on his un-
lucky head !

Yet all these works found admirers and
pur-
chasers;
otherwise, they would not have been
exeTchuetedeeoertenmpaoteprrersieers of Praxiteles
which
theira and
Rafael
were pleased with many a geniuswork
paintingswou would I-, av eo
f erel
hall a
l rtto
andy
universalm an
disdained.yordMinaanrya 8
ypaatsrotantaeglye of merit. It
aintdwgaasrdteinlis,
displayedwhioshcutlhpeturweosrladndis
indebted for its masterpieces. As no prescience
can divine before the trial who is qualified for the
highest achievements, the very condition of such
achievements must be a wide competition, and the
condition of such competition again is the possibility
of a safe mediocrity. Here and there
may be
found one hardy enough to engage in an undertak-
ing, where a life-time is lost; unless immortality be
won. But to bring a great number into any field
it must be understood, that a partial success is still
success. This would be true, if for no other reason,
because the majority must think of subsistence as
well as of distinction; and among those thus dis-
trustful of their own powers, and thus dependent
upon their talent for the means of developing that
talent, may often be found those possessing the
highest gifts. That such may be sustained in the
wearisome but inevitable apprenticeship, and in the
first years of doubtful endeavour, they must know
their profession to be one by which they can live,
even if by it they cannot win renown. A general
patronage of art is thus necessary to the highest
development of art. A value must be set upon that
which is good, even if it is neither faultless nor un-
surpassed. If the Greeks would neither have praised
nor paid any one but a Praxiteles, or the Italians
any but a Rafael, neither would probably have
executed a work or left a name ; and if we are deter-
mined to despise every achievement less than theirs
we may resign all hope of ever seeing their equals.
Another consideration there is which affects more
directly the patrons of art. Not many can afford
to purchase a chef d (vivre, even if it is produced
ready to their hand. But the number is very large
of those who can deck their houses with graceful
figures, beautiful scenes and faces, which will be to
all who see them sources of genuine, healthful plea-
sure, and keep in exercise the fine feelings of our
nature, even if they are not adapted to excite the
wonder of future ages. While the modern studio
offers us so much, let us remember it gratefully, both
for its sake, and for our own. We shall secure a
certain present advantage, and may hope that when
we offer to art a position relatively as high as that
of former times, artists will produce for us works
which we need not fear to compare with the best of
theirs. America, as a youthful nation, possessing

a territory so wide and so slightly developed, must
necessarily be occupied with the study of homely,
practical utilities, but has of late years made a