The Sun.
London, England, 1804-05-17 00:00:00

-1\1417,AL NEWS.

FALMOUTH, ,MAY 4.—Arrivecl the Prince
Ernest Packet, Pirtt E, with Mails from' the Lee-
ward Islands. Left Tortola the tit ult. 'accom-
panied by His Majesty's Ship St. Lucia, which she
parted with the'following day. Also arrived the
Princess Charlotte Packet, KERR, with Mails from
the Leeward Islands, 29 days • from Tortola ; nei-
ther of which P-ckets bring any particular news.
Also arrived she American Brig Friendship, Czpt.
YArttts rts, S 6 days from the Cape of Good
Rope, bcund to Cowes for orders &
, g
with sua ,
r. co
fee, &c, detained by His Mojcsty's Ship La-Topat,
and sent in here. The Captain reports, ihat pre-
vious to his sailing, Adr miral 'Artois' Squadron
had arrived at the Mauitius, and were taking in
Troops about 2000 Troops
Cape for Batavia. had sailed from the
The Outc:i Troops were daily
deserting at the Cape ; and it was the general opi-
nion there, that if 'a small British Squadron appeared
off, it would immediately surrender.
The Prince of Wales Packet, with the. Mail for
tisbon, is detained by contrary winds.

PORTSMOTJTH, MA.Y z6.--:Arrived an outward_
bound Fleet front the. Dawns-, under Convoy of His
Majesty's Ship Orpheus ; a Fleet from Oporto; and
the Brunswick, MAux, from Norway,
propped down to St. Helens His Majesty's Ship
Chichester, of 44 guns, infi'exih/r, of 64 guns, and
Prosperous Bomb.

Came into Harbour, the Juno and Harmony
Transports.
His Majesty's Ship Ambuscade is appointed Con_
voy to the Straits.
Sailed the Prosterity, HoUNS'DALF, for Guirn-
*ley. ,

LYmiNcrobt
Frigate,MAY 16.---Sailed the Ez":Yd;ce
and H w ith. the Fleet under Convoy, fin Quebec
alifax, which put into Yarmouth Roach.

HAItIVICH, MAY /6.—The Diana Post Office
Packer, Captain 0,130, and the Auckland, Capt.
1441'11`1°ND, sailed direaly airer the arrival of the
It/Lils from London ; the Diana for Husum, with
the Hamburgh and Bremen Mails, and the Auckland
for Got tenburg.

YARMOUTH, MAY I 6.—Proww Anna,Wl L L EMS,
fr9rn Keel to Amsterdam, with timber, sent in
'here hy the Constant Gun brig.
Arrived the monmouth, of 64 rns, from Ports.
Mouth. Admiral Russ Er., hoisted his Flag on board
144'21'4 47"-Tvlng. ;rd rtzlzioi with ;II Tel:Clutl-bri
ina three Cutters: gs
Sailed the Ferretter Gun.',,ig, an a Cruize.

DEAL

rartar --2 IVIAY t6.---Arrived the Fury, Zebra,
us, and Zep..,,
from'a Cruize -off the Coast
of France.

Sailed the Perrou;us, on a Cruize off Boulogne.
In the Dow
teran, ns—Monarch, Utrecht, Leopard, Ardent, Ve.
very, Virgini, Immortalit6, Crescent, Luci'er, Disco-
D
)+lillbroeit evastation, Lark, Zephyr, Fury, Tartar.:, Zebra,
, and William transport

EDINEURCHI MAY i4.,—Yesterday arrived in
Leith Roads, the Elbalion Frigate, Capt. CHARLES
STUART with the Union Dutch Brig, mount.
few da
ing 16 nine-pounders ; whih Vessel he captured a
y c
s since neat Bergen, after a shot= ch'ice•
The Union is "the Brig that, in
.company with a
Corvette oftB guns, and two Schooners of smaller
force, had an aaion in March last with the Anse-.
:hyst Frigate, near the same place. The Corvette
was in Bergen when the Ethanol: left it, blockaded
by 'the Chitfonne Frigate, Capt. ADAMS ; d
of the Schooners was supposed to be lost, asan one
she had proceeded to Holland with dispatches,
but had
since been heard of. not
Ra ear-Admiral V
tur ASHON arrived in town on Sa.
dy, to take the command of the Naval Depart-
ment at Leith, in room of Admiral BLIGHe
On the 6th of NSoli ovember last, the Rm oh:haw,
a country Bombay from MuCaptain •Mecso, arrived at
scat rr,
, where she had been block-
ed up by the Atalanta French Frigate, of 38 guns,
6nof Admiral Li Nois'
:try on the 1 Squadron, which left Pon.
(help4th of July, in the expeaation
pa
with a
of receiving Distches over-land from France, and
n intent of establishing a Resident at Mus-
cnant,w" }a"ded horn the Frigate immediately
her aTrivais This French Agent not being
permitted to hoist the French Flag, returned on
board, nor was the French Captain permitted an
audience ( f the ImAum. The Frigate having
got her water, sailer} on the 13th of Oaober,
but was daily seen at some distance off the Port,
with an intention of ca me
the. liahem'sbarw, if
she attempted to proceed on her voya,,e. Capt. MEG-
sou remained till the Frigate disappebared. The Cap_
tai
of the Frigate applied to take elle Rab'msbaw
from her anchorage off Muscat, ; but this was posi-
tively refused. The Atzlanta brought presents also
for the SULTAVN, which were immediately. return.
ed. Froin inquiries tnade of the Frenchmen in the
LAura's service, reapeaing the trade, it was sup-
pkeed that the
p Atalanta was to make Diu Head,
and roceed along the coast to Bombay, in expeaa.
tion of making many captures. The King ofJo.
Jo.
H ANNA, his lamily and suite, arrived in the Rabeni.
and landed und:r a royal 'salute.

ROYAL I NSTITC)77O.A%

MR. OPIE's LECTURE ON PAINTING.

THE proper curiosity to learn from the Professor
of the Art of Design, his own notions as to the prin-
ciple; of the Art, and his opinion of its origin and
progress, brought a very fashionable, and in many
respells a critical Audience, on Tuesday 'evening,
to the Leaure Room of the Royal Institution.
Mr. Onla prefaced his disquisition by the best
apology which could he made for a Lecturer who
should write without literary attainments, namely,
that they would be, at all events, the opinions of a
man conversant with the Art. Something of real
moment must occur in the experience of a Professor,
and this would be useful, in whatever language it
might be conveyed. But Mr. OPIE has found,
happily, we think, a medium style, equally distant
from excessive refinement on the one side, and indiffe_
rence to all ornament on the other. Style has been
well defined by GIBBON, as the charaaer of the
mind;, and On' e has written precisely as he paints—
firmly, nervously, freely and variously—without
either spruceness or negleCt, affettation nr vnlgarit.
If I. am asked, said he, where this art originated ?
I answer, emery where—ln all climes and in all ages :
no people can have existed, too rude to have perceived'
and formed some resemblances to living objects. In
the shadows from the human figure, in the accidental
likenesses found impressed upon different substances
in the natural world, enough would be seen to sug-
gest imitation,' and produce a rude and imperteCt
outline. To Greece, however, he particularly re-
ferred for the refinement and consummation of the
Art ; and he expatiated with equal truth and do.
quence upon the glories of that Mistress of the
mental world—that pure source of every art and
elegance, which can improve and adorn the human
existence.

Upon the suhjea of the standards and criteria
of Art, he adopted the Legislative test of BEN
THAM, and maintained UTILITY to be the firm
basis upon which all great examples of Art were
ereded, and on which alone they can stand.---,To
change the figure, utility was the only chart which
could guide us from the bad taste of the Chinese
and the Flemish, to the pure and perfeft forms
of Grecian Art. He referred to this stanchird the
Venus Medici, the Jupiter of Phidias, the Hercules
Farness, and the Laocoon. All the objeas of Art
seemed to him to admit of being classified under the
two heads of Beauty and Charaiter. He was highly
complimentary indeed to the Ancients, when he men-
tioned the two most illustttous names of the mo-
derns, MICHAF.L ANGELO and RAFFAELE. Upon
the doubt expressed, whether io dll the parts of
Painting ti ~.y equally excelled, as in colour, in chiaro.
oscuro, and relief, Mr. Or tft gave his opinion in the
afffil ma ti v e.

When, upon the head of Beauty, he mentioned the
Poetical Landscapes of WI t,sON, every hearer tvarmed
with the just pride of patriotism--E. gland also pro.
duced the most illustrious Professor Charader ;
and Mr. OFIE hardly thought he needed to add to
the hint, the name of HOGARTH. The ins ances
which he enumerated, tecalled a thousand more—
indeed a redundance of proof, that. this philosophic
Artist had seized all the classes and casts of human
being, and ueitvered the Art 41110% us from mono.
cony and inropidite.
Mr. Or the. 1.4%i-inc.'s and arrogance
to which the Professors of his deg •ful Art
are perpetually exposed. Upon other Arts, some
study is usually thought necessary, to enable the
Speaker to expatiate ; some in iterials are usu-
ally acquired, and brought to the formation
and produdion of a judgment ; but upon Paint-
ing, every man, every woman, nay, every
child, suspected no deficiency, and pronounced an
unblushing decision. He remembered a person, by
no means below the common run, who told him,
that notwithstanding the admiration of woo years,
he could find neither grace nor majesty in the
Apollo Belvedere : the only answer that could be
made to this presumptuous ignorance was, in course,
if that is not the Apollo's fault."
To this slight and very impeded sketch, it is
with concern we add, that Mr. Or i E does nor Lee,:
turre.—any more this Season : though he felt himself
so highly flattered by the approbation he had met
with that night, as to say, that he thought he should
turn his views to a Series for the next year. '

A melancholy instance of self-destrudion occur-
red yesterday. William Ellis, a young man, twenty-
two years of age, the son of a respectable grocer in
Holborn, terminated his existence by shooting
himself through the head : the circumstances which
led to this fatal and dreadful ad, it is said, origi-
nated in an attachment the deceased had formed to a
young woman, whom his family did not consider a
suitable match for him. Between eight and nine
o'clock in. the morning he breakfasted withltisfather,
during which a quarrel took place on the subjea al-
luded to, and the young man rushed out of the room
apparently in great anger; but no suspicion was en-
tertained of the horrid design he meditated. Within
a short space of time after his departure, the report
of a gun was heard, and the alarmed father rushed
to his son's chamber, which presented a sight too
distressing to describe. The unfortunate youth
lay lifeless on the floor. It appears he had taken his
rifle-piece, the muzzle of which he placed to his
left ear, and touching the trigger, the piece went
ofF and the ball went through his head. Surgeons
Were instantly sent for, and came with all possible
expedition, but assistance was useless. The de-
ceased belonged to a Rifle Corps.
Yesterday an inquest was held at the WTheatsheaf
public-house, New Gravel-lane, before Mr. UN-
W / INT, Coroner for Middlesex, to take a view of the
body of Mr. Smith, who had hanged himself by
means of a pocket handkerchief, the preceding
evening, behind his house. The Jury having consi-
dered the case, returned a verdid of Lunacy.
The Ticket No. 19,338► as first-drawn yester-
day, entitled to 20,0001. was sold at the Office d
Messrs. HAZARD, BURN Et and Co. Royal Exchange,
in One Half, One Fourth, One Eighth, and kwo
Sixteenth Shares.
Tuesday night, three tradesmen, of the names of
Smellie, Oliver, and Barker, in Ratcliffe Highw-ay,
had theiepremises broke open, when a large quantity
v,
of linen, wearing apparel, and furniture were stole
by thieves not yet known,