The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1866.

--1-

The annual Financial Statement has not this year
been looked forward to with quite the usual amount
of expectation, anxiety, and impatience. The fact
has been that we were all pretty well aware that we
could not hope this year to extort from the reluc-
tant Chancellor any considerable remissions, and
even those M.P.s who head the crusades against
particular imposts were well aware that it was use-
less to plan any attack, or arrange any manoeuvre,
for their removal in 1866. It was known, too, that
out of the small surplus on hand it would be neces-
sary to allow for the abolition of the timber
duties, and for certain alterations in the wine
duties, as arranged in the Commercial Treaty with
Austria, so that very trifling changes could be
made with the balance, and the excitement attend-
ing the Reform struggle completely diverted men's
minds from the consideration of such minor topics.
The Budget last evening fulfilled most of these
expectations, and the balance sheet for the year is
by no means perplexing., The estimated revenue
for 1865-6 was £66,392,000, and the expenditure
£66,147,000. The actual income was £67,812,000
and the expenditure £65,914,000, so that the sur-
plus of income over expenditure was £1,898,000.
We have an additional proof, if any were
needed, of the elasticity of the revenue, and of the
wonderful rapidity with which the increase of con-
sumption consequent upon the reduction of price
in articles of daily necessity compensates for the
direct loss to the Exchequer. The full effect of the
reduction of the Income Tax is not yet perceptible,
and must be taken into account in making the esti-
mates for the coming year, so that the probable sur-
plus for 1866-7 will be only £1,350,000—a sum
which Mr. GLADSTONE was careful to remind us
would have been more than doubled but for the
anticipatory legislation of last year. A gratifying
proof of the ever-increasing wealth of the country
was given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
told us that every penny MC-
tax now prod per pound of the Inco
'lced about £1,400,000 instead of the
£1,000,000 at which it used to be reckoned. The
revenue from
spirits last year amounted to
£13,955,000, the largest sum ever raised by an in-
direct tax on a single commodity. This source of
income is not altogether a satisfactory one, since
the increase of consumption augur, ill for the health
and morals of the people. Certainly the fact does
not afford much encouragement to the
hopes of the
Temperance League.

The manner in which Mr. GLADSTONP
- proposes
to dispose of his surplus million is worth
notice.
The abolition of the Timber Duties, rendered neees:
gary, as we have said, by the Treaty with Austria,
disposes of £307,000, and the assimilation of the
duty on wines in bottle to wines in wood,
consequent upon the same Treaty, takes £58,000
more. The Chancellor then sacrifices £112,000
to the abolition of the duty on pepper, a
boon, he says, to the tax-payers of Ire-
land, who just now appear to be quite peppery
enough without any increased consumption of that
condiment. The grievance of the mileage duty op
omnibuses :WA public conveyances is said to be

very great, so Mr. GLADSTONE, with a gre at floalrish
of trumpets, proposes to reduce it from (one penny
to one farthing per mile ! Really, having gmae so
far, he need not have spoiled the grace of the
gift by the retention of the quarter. Seeing
that the total amount produced is about
£120,000, the difference between that sum and
the £85,000 which he removes, would scarcely dis-
turb the Exchequer. But the Chancellor is occa-
sionally given to such partial reductions, which are
very unsatisfactory and disappointing to the
claimants, while making no sensible difference to
the taxpayers. In the same way he proposed at one
time when the total abolition of the Advertisement
Duty was being eagerly sought for to reduce it
from oue shilling and sixpence to sixpence---a boon
which the agitators plainly declined to receive.
The more important part of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
proposals referred to the reduction of the National
Debt. Thoughtful men have long admitted the
wisdom and necessity of availing ourselves of a time
of profound peace and rapidly increasing wealth
to make some effort towards lightening
the heavy burden which weighs upon the industry
c
of the nation, and which, comparatively unfelt now,
might in darker times become an overwhelming
weight. Mr. GLADSTONE, in discussing the subject,
showed all his customary ability, and his proposal,
though moderate enough in itself, only amounting
to the payment of thirty-six millions in twenty
years, was founded on the recognition of a just and
statesmanlike
principle. At .the same time it
must have occurred to a good many of his
hearers that we have to thank the simplicity or
perverseness of the Government which arranged
the peace with Russia in 1856 for our debt remain-
ing in statu quo. Had we, as we ought in common
justice to have done, compelled Russia to pay the
hundred millions spent on the war caused by her
greed and ambition, we should now be in a different
position. We have ourselves to pay pretty heavily
for the warlike tendencies of other nations,---even
last year's expenditure includes half a million on
fortifications. Is it too much to expect our turbulent
friends of the Continent to do something towards
paying for the cost of their little amusements ? How
true is the old political axiom, that what England
gains by the sword she losses in her diplomatic
chamber.

The declaration of France on the war question
will be regarded with interest by all those who are
anxiously watching the aspect of affairs. At the
sitting of the Corps Legislatif yesterday, M. Rou-
BER made a declaration on the part of the Govern-
ment, in which he said that the Government could
not just now accept a " discussion" on the German
question, because great inconvenience would ensue
therefrom, but that in consequence of the disturbed
state of the public mind it was thought advisable
to make known the character of the policy to be
followed. M. ROITHER stated that France had
made efforts towards the maintenance of peace,
which had only been controlled by a firm resolu-
tion not to contract obligations, and to maintain
liberty of action in those questions which, after all,
did not affect her honour, dignity, and interests.
The Government, he affirmed, was bound to prac-
tise an honest neutrality, and it profited by the
liberty it enjoyed to protect the " power, security,
and liberty of France against all attacks." As for
the Italian question, he said that particular duties
devolved upon France respecting Italy. " Italy
may believe herself called upon to interfere actively
in the Austro-Prussian conflict. The French do
not expect to exercise any guardianship over Italy,
but it feels so deep an interest in her affairs, that it
considers it proper to make an explanation. Italy
learns that, as we should highly disapprove of
Austria making any attack upon her, so also we are
thoroughly determined to throw upon her all the
perils and risks of any attack she may make upon
Austria." Further on. ltds_einTll2stimiliriffir* 'lll
these words :—." A pacific policy, an honest neutra-
trality, and complete liberty of action." M. ROCHER
subsequently stated that a telegram had been re-
ceived from Italy, in which Italy undertook not to
attack Austria. M. THIEF'S said that the Government
should send an energetic veto to Berlin and Florence,
but M. ROUHER, in the name of the Government,
requested that the debate might not be prolonged,
and it therefore terminated. This declaration will,
no doubt, do a great deal to dispel the notions of
war which have of late been so prevalent, and the
French Government must have seen the necessity
for making some such statement in consequence of
the confusion that prevailed respecting the chances
of war or peace. It must be admitted that this de-
claration is both firm and temperate, while
it shrinks from no avowal it guards against
giving offence to any one. The public mind in
France must be reassured by receiving such an
explanation of affairs, and it must have a great
influence in the councils of Italy. The rumours
which have for some days past been so prevalent
in Paris regarding the chances of war will, for the
time being at least, be hushed, and will give place
to discussions of arbitration and other subjects of
peaceful settlement.

In Berlin a Council of Ministers was held yester-
day, and while it was sitting a telegraphic reply
was received from Vienna to the last despatch
sent there; in which Austria declared that she
could not disarm to the extent required by
Prussia. It is said that BISMARCK has sent
an answer to Dresden stating to M. Von
BEI:ST that. the reply of Saxony to Prussia
respecting her armaments is " insufficient. "
The Prussian Government seem determined to pick
a quarrel with Saxony somehow or other, and
nothing can give them satisfaction. This seems
inconsistent enough when we consider their policy
in regard to other places. Bavaria has not been
requested by either Austria or Prussia to
disarm. The Bavarian Government will, it de-
clares, only consider the necessity of maintain-
ing the measures of defence to cease when
all danger has disappeared. This is a bold
and straightforward avowal, and we trust that
the same policy will be pursued by all the lesser
States of Germany. There is no reason in asking
them to disarm while there exists no settled idea of
peace being maintained, and much as that may
now seem probable, it is still likely enough that
hostilities will ensue to justify all reasonable

preparations.
In Italy it would seem as if there was a general
desire for war. The Florence correspondent of the
Independance Beige states that RICASOLI is busy in
the formation of a new Cabinet which will direct
the Government as
soon " as war is de-
clared." All soldiers on leave of absence have
been recalled, and the army is receiving field allow-
ance. It is added that " no power in Italy is strong
enough to prevent war." Popular demonstrations
have taken place in Florence, Naples,
and Turin in
favour of the National Government. The Minister
of the Interior has addressed a Circular to the Pre-
fects calling on the National Guard to do extraor-
dinary duty, and warlike manifestations are pre-
vailing through the country. All this is very signi-
ficant, and does not tally with the announcement
made to -the Corps
-- T---gislatif. Perhaps the
mischief is now done, and
there has
been too much fuss and preparation of war

for the people to be content to return to their for-
mer state of quiescence. We may notice in this an
awkward conjunction of affairs. The Italians are
exhibiting such eagerness for war that it will natu-
rally make the Austrians more than ever suspicious,
and increase the indignation of Prussia by keeping
up their armaments on the Italian frontier. It a ill
require great firmness on the part of France to
prevent a collision taking place between these
States in their present unsettled condition. There
is now more reason than ever to animadvert
upon the course pursued by Italy, because
had she maintained a proper reserve, and
not sought to mix herself up in the matter, all
this last discussion might have been prevented.
Austria could have come to terms with Prussia re-
specting disarmament, and much of the angry feel-
ing that has crept into the despatches could have
been avoided. At any rate, we cannot but concede
some praise to the Government of France for its
prompt declaration of yesterday—a statement which
must exercise an influence upon the Councils of
Europe, and tend to promote the interests of peace.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Thursday Evening.

The French Government seems to be gradually
paving its way for some such manifestation of its
opinion in regard to Austria and Prussia as that to
which I have alluded. The following appreciation
of the position is worth literal translation :—" The
pacific phase into which the affairs of Germany
seemed to have entered does not appear to have
realised the hope to which it gave rise. While the
two Powers were coming to an agreement to revoke
the military preparations which were in progress a
fresh difficulty arose upon another point. The
Cabinet of Vienna, founding its motives upon the
movements of troops on the other side of the Po,
declared that while disarming in Bohemia it felt
itself forced to place its army upon a war footing in
Venetia, and to provide for the protection of its ter-
ritory on the Adriatic. Prussia, in reply to this
communication from Vienna, made it known to the
Government there that she could not change her
plans if Austria did not disarm in the south as well
as in the north. The understanding which ap-
peared to have been amicably established between
the two Courts, therefore, has not received further
development. The Cabinet of Vienna, nevertheless,
continues to disavow any idea of aggression, and
protests that it has no other object than to place it-
self in a position to resist any attack. The Italian
Government in arming also affirms that it only pro-
vides in the interest of defence for the necessities of
the situation created by Austria.
" The Cabinet of Berlin, in accepting the
proposal for disarmament, expressed the wish
that the same measure should be adopted by such
of the secondary States of Germany as had also made
preparations for war. It is stated that the Minister
of Prussia at Dresden had been charged to inform
the Court of Saxony that if her army were kept up
on the footing on which it had been placed the
Prussian Government could not refrain from taking
steps for her own security upon the frontier com-
mon to both. It is difficult to draw conclusions
as to the views of the Germanic Diet. Attention
is directed to a despatch from Austria relative to
the Duchies, the original cause of the great dispute
between Austria and Prussia."

The views of the Siecle as to the coming war,
which it considers to be inevitable, are these :
" According to all probability, it will be in Saxony
that the armies of Austria and Prussia will strike
the first blow. Saxony extends between Prussia
and the north-west of Austria. Her whole limit
does not exceed forty leagues. The Elbe traverses
it from Bohemia, washes Dresden, the capital of
the little kingdom, and enters a few leagues further
into the Prussian provinces. The possession of
Dresden is for Prussia tif important interest in a
strategical point of view. A gear-^e at the map will
showethis.
Austrian
forces
hemfoiram,
swahevnast,
natural vast
ar
concentrated,
trenched camp, surrounded on all points by moun-
t tains, constituting a perfect bastion which dominates
1 over all the surrounding countries. If the Aus-
LA aces
e which lead to
should arrive '
at Drearia- netore tue i i us-
siaus, their position would be eminently dangerous
for Prussia. Dresden, connected with Bohemia by
a railway, may be easily surrounded with field forti-
fications, which was done by Napoleon in 1813, and
serve as the basis of operations. From Dresden
to Berlin the distance by railway is only 160
kilometres, and on the whole way there is not
an important river, not a natural obstacle,
not a strong place capable of stopping
an enemy. (Perhaps it may not be unacceptable to
some of your readers if I again explain that a kilo-
metre is 1,000 metres, and that there are 1,609
metres in an English mile.) Berlin, therefore, after
a lost battle, would be at the mercy of the enemy.
"If, on the contrary, the Prussians should first be
able to occupy Dresden, their position would be
much less perilous. As they might manceuvre at
will on both sides of the Elbe, it would be possible
for them to stop the Austrians at the outlets of the
mountains of Bohemia, and in any case they must
fight a battle in order to occupy Dresden before
thinking of marching upon Berlin. Dresden, there-
fore, seems to be the point upon which the first
efforts of the belligerents will be directed. The
Prussian frontier is only 32 kilometres from Dres-
den, whilst the Austrian frontier is at a distance of
64. Saxony, it is known, is the ally of Austria, but
the Saxon forces do not exceed 25,000 men of all
arms, and they are consequently unable to resist a
Prussian army concentrated upon the frontier, and
within a single march of Dresden. We may there-
fore expect to see the signal of hostilities given by
the entrance into the capital of Saxony of one of the
two armies. As the importance of this point
is ;vital for Prussia, it is very probable
that she will take the initiative. The Saxon forces
would then no doubt retreat upon the fortress of
Konigstein, situated at the issue of the gorges of
Pirna, by which the Elbe, making for itself a pas-
sage across the chain of the Erzgeberge, enters the
plains of Saxony. It is at the foot of this fortress
that the railway passes which leads to Prague, the
capital of Bohemia, and from thence to Vienna.
The forces of Saxony would there be in a good
position, and might assist the Austrian army."
The Siecle proceeds to express a favourable opinion
of the grand army of Italy, and gives its reason for
imagining that it would surprise the world by its
prowess against Austria. Italy, besides, has a great
advantage over Austria. her magnificent squadron
will command the Adriatic, and a landing of troops
either in Venetia, or at Trieste, would make an
enormous diversion, and even change the theatre of
war. With the Italians on the Izonzo, and Gari-
baldi in the mountains of the Tyrol, the places of
the Quadrilateral being cut off from all communi-
cation with Austria, would singularly lose their
importance.

In refe'rence to the above allusion to Garibaldi, I
may state that the General has declared his inten-
tion to take the field again should Austria resort
to hostilities.

It results from the inquiries of an eminent engi-
neer, sent to make investigations into the subject,
that the tunnel through Mount Cenis cannot be
completed for five years. When this tunnel through
the Alps shall have been made, the journey from
Paris to Turin will be effected in 22 hours. More
than nine years have already passed since the
tunnel was commenced. The beginning of this
great work was formally inaugurated on the 31st
of August, 1857, by the King of Sardinia and
Prince Napoleon. The idea of this tunnel, it is
said, was conceived by a peasant residing near the
mountain named Medan, and when the engineers
first examined into the plans they thought the
tunnel could not be completed in less than 36 years.
'.bout seven kilometres have, however, been
finished in less than ten years, and at the present
rate of about a kilometre per annum, it is confi-
dently believed that
thetliat this gigantic
may b
e atnerdmmat
importantedin
passage
1871. When the tunnel tinder the Thames way

made, George Canning, albeit a politician of a
serious mood, said that the Londoners about
Wapping considered it to be a great bore, but what
will the natives of the Alps think of such an un-
derhand proceeding as a tunnel across Mount
Cenis ?

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

(Private View—This Day.)

According to annual custom we have this after-
noon had the gratification of attending the Private
View of the Royal Academy Exhibition for the
current season. It is a Private View which, as the
town very well knows, is yearly thrown open
on the first Friday in May—we were going
to say to a select few, but, remembering the
fashionable crush through which we have until a
few minutes since been with no little adroitness
threading our way industriously for several hours
consecutively, we will say by preference—to
a select multitude ! To this select multitude—
(including within it, besides the usual sprinkling of
art-critics, all the notabilities in the metropolis at so
early a date in the season)—the noble suite of apart-
ments still allotted to the Royal Academy in the
eastern half of the National Gallery, are flung open,
as we have said, on the morning of the very
first Friday (whatever the date may happen to
be) following immediately after May-day ! The
evening of the next day (the Saturday) being,
according to the same annual custom, set apart for
that most charming banquet of the year—the Royal
Academy Dinner 1 So that on the Monday after-
wards the public may be admitted without the risk
of any subsequent interruption whatever to the free
enjoyment of what there may chance to be of excel-
lence in the wide range of the Academy Exhibition.
The present, it may here perhaps be worth re-
minding our readers, is the Ninety-Eighth of these
annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy since the
date of its original foundation. It may also at this
moment be not uninteresting to recall to public re-
collection the fact that during the lapse of these
ninety-eight years, constituting the lifetime as yet
of this great National Institution of the Fine Arts,
there have been installed at the head of it the fol-
lowing—

PRESIDENTS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Sir Joshua Reynolds 1768-4791.
Benjamin West 1792-1820.
Sir Thomas Lawrence
Sir Martin Shee

Sir Charles Eastlake
Sir Francis Grant .
Whether the Academy will contrive to " hold its
own" for another season's exhibition at the National
Gallery remains to be seen—the possibility, we
won't go so far as to say the probability, being that
before the advent of the Season of 1867, the habitat
of the R.A.'s and A.R.A.'s will be situated, not as at
present to the north of Trafalgar Square, but thence-
forth and en permanence upon a site of their own to the
north of Piccadilly. However this may be—there,
in one moiety of the National Gallery, midway
between the Strand and Pall-Mall, the Royal
Academicians and Associates contrive still to hold
possession of the walls of the apartments they and
their predecessors have so frequently adorned be-
fore now with the products of their artistic genius
and industry. The Exhibition for this present year
of grace 1866 includes within it works of art
numbering up altogether the magnificent aggregate
of one thousand and fifty-three ! But then, included
in that aggregate are productions not only of the
sculptors' chisel and mallet, not only of the paint-
ers' brush and mahl-stick, but of graver and etching
needle, of camel hair and crayon ! The five principal
apartments, however, it should be here added, dis-
play upon their walls pictures to the number in all
of just 800—counting among these eight hundred
pictures, of course, not merely such as are more
happily awarded places of honour upon the line, but
such others as, far less fortunately for their pro-
ducers, either sink towards the floor, or soar towards
the ceiling. Upon the title-page of the current
catalogue there is imprinted this suggestive and
elevating motto, selected from the late Sir Charles
Eastlake's Contributions to the Literature of the Fine
Arts :

" Beauty, in all its highest forms, is calculated to im-
-1"--s on human beings the belief in a perfection greater
than --orld contains."
Forernackt t,
~,Raiseumniotuitcera;.b,l9nuckcm;
ce this year to the examination
lagademy Exhibition, is the thrice-
welcome fact that one of the greatest painters of the
age, one of the most illustrious of the Royal Aca-
demicians now living, again takes his place among
the chief Exhibitors—Daniel Maclise ! Sir Daniel
Maclise, as he might very readily have been by this
time had he wished it—" Sir Daniel Maclise, Presi-
dent of the Royal Academy," and not (as he still
continues to 'be) simply one of the Forty Royal
Academicians.

Mr. Maclise—who has been occupied exclusively
of late years in the adornment of the National Palace
of the Legislature down at Westminster with his
two gigantic water-glass pictures—the one of
them "The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher
at Waterloo," the other " The Death of Nelson at
Trafalgar"—is, at any, rate, represented this sea-
son very nobly and attractively by (No. 47), the
finished sketch (entitled, " Here Nelson fell")
from which the second of those two grand histo-
rical paintings of his was produced. Although thus
simply mentioned by us as a sketch, the picture now
hanging on the walls of the Academy is one of
sufficiently large dimensions to afford something like
an adequate idea of the extraordinary merits of
the masterpiece of which it was in a manner the
precursor ! The design is intended, as we learn
with no little satisfaction, to be engraved and pub-
lished by the Art Union of London.

Mr. Leighton occupies a still larger space by right
of the most remarkable among his contributions
(No. 292), an oblong canvass of fourteen feet
by four, representing a procession of the maidens
of Syracuse, on their way to offer a bridal
sacrifice of wild beasts at the Temple of
Diana. Under the light of an autumnal
morning the virginal troop is revealed wending
its way--leading onwards, as intended sacrifices,
the limber forms of leonine whelps and young-
ling leopards, hung about with garlands and
festoons of roseate coronals and evergreens !
Visible here and there among the foliage of ilex
and cedar, and fruit-laden orange-shrubs, the blue
gleam of the eternal sea and of the eternal sky con-
stituting the " background !" Another, but lesser
production, from the hand of the same artist (No. 4),
reveals to us the charming forms and features of a
happy couple seated musingly check to cheek, and
entitled by the artist briefly, but significantly, the
" Painter's Honeymoon." Yet another picture close
by (No. 7), from the same hand, is simply the por-
traiture of a lady, but of a lady whose countenance
is worthy of being so pourtrayed.
Disappointingly conspicuous among the absentees
areboth of the two great leaders of the modern school
of the Pre-Raphaelites, that is, of course, of the Pre-
Raphaelite School redivivus—Mr. Holman Hunt
and Mr. John Millais. The latter, we suspect,
has been frittering away his varied and radiant
powers rather too prodigally upon the illustration
—but very rarely indeed with anything like success
—of current light literature : of such ephemeral
stories of everyday life, let us say, as those prattled
off so volubly by such slippered tale-tellers as Mr.
Anthony Trollope.
Mr. Stanfield, however--untiring veteran as he is
—sustains his high reputation befittingly, with two
noble seapieces—(No. 58) a wreck hard by " Tin-
tagel Castle, on the coast of Cornwall," and (No.
78) a view of " The Pic du Midi d'Ossau," in the
Pyrenees.

Mr. Hook, another of the sea-painters we should in
truth be very loth indeed to miss from the walls of
the Academy, refreshes our eyes again with as
many as four of his ever-welcome expositions of
sky and water—sky exquisitely
blue, water deliciously green—dripping sand and
dripping shingle, salt sea-weed, and salter fisher-
folk ! Foremost among these in position, if not in
merit, is (No. 99), "Landing Salmon"—next (No.
148) a group of buxom, chattering " Washerwomen"
hard at work upon the coast of Brittany. Besides these
there is (No. 239), a fiehingboat just putting off from

shore, and rather irrelevantly entitled, " Give us
this day our daily bread." And lastly, completing
the list of five (No. 268), " Baiting for Haddocks."
Mr. Ansdell also contributes four paintings, though
these four, as his very name will denote, are of
a widely contrasting character—all four of them,
these Ansdells of 'sixty-six, being delineations of
Spanish life and Spanish scenery.
Mr. Phillip puts in at least one notable appear-
ance with (No. 132) " A Chat round the Brasero"
—the other two pictures from the same master hand
(No. 93, and No. 533) being simply portraits, but
portraits, it should be added, wonderfully life-like—
all but living and breathing.
Mr. Goodall commands attention at the very first
glance, if only by reason of the startling dimen-
sions and impressive character of his great scriptural
painting of " Ishmael and Hagar" in the wilder-
ness. The appalling horrors of the desert he
has wonderfully contrived to express in the very-
clenching of the maternal right hand, in the sup-
pressed agony of abstraction gleaming out of the
maternal eyes—more forcibly even than in such
ghastlier accessories to the picture as the foul-beaked
carrion-loving bird of prey, perched gloatingly upon
the remains of the camel—remains withered away
to the ghastly appearance of a skeleton.
Mr. Faed, though he contributes no more than
two pictures to the exhibition, and even one of
those of no very ambitious kind and of no consi-
derable size, will, nevertheless, from the manner in
which the homely theme he has selected for his
chief work this year, has been treated by him, be
recognised in (No. 235) as in great force—namely
in a simple genre picture entitled " Pot Luck,"
portraying a couple of little peasant lassies feeding
poultry ! His other picture (No. 11) " Ere Care
begins"—small though it is—is worthy of special
examination as the artist's Diploma work on his
election as an Academician.

Mr. Marks more than justifies his claim to be
elevated to the rank of an Associate—he sus-
tains to the full his high and still rising repu-
tation both as a painter and as a humorist
by (No. 393) "My Lady's Page in Disgrace."
Another comical picture by the same droll of the
pencil is (No. 565) briefly but sufficiently entitled
" The Notary."
c Again this year we are right glad to meet once
more Mr. Burgess, who broke ground with such
brilliant success last season with his animated pic-
ture of the spectators at a Bull-fight, entitled (it
will surely be remembered upon the instant by all
who saw it) " Bravo, Toro I" This year, the young
artist's single contrioution to the gallery—(for,
again, he contents himself with no more than one,
but one worthy of the place of honour id; secures to
itself upon the line)—is a companion-picture to the
last, the one just mentioned—yet still for all that full
of rare excelleuce in the animated and exquisitely
humorous expression of the countenances pourtrayei.
This painting may be found in the West Room (No.
350), and is descriptively entitled in the Academy's
Catalogue, " Selling Fans at a Spanish Fair."
And, in very truth, a riant delightful picture it is
—worthy of an artist who could seise public
attention at his first advent by surprising those who
had never heard of his name before with such a
maiden-work as Bravo Toro ! The Fan Sellers (and
Buyers) it should be added, are almost equal in
vitality and vivacity to the variously-excited group
of the frequenters of the Spanish Amphitheatre.

BANK OF FRANCE.

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The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :