The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-18 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
The Royal Mail steamship England, Capt. Dun-
las, arrived at Dartmouth yesterday, the 17th
inst., from India, via the Cape of Good Hope.
Her dates are Calcutta, Dec. 15 ; Madras, Dec.
22 ; Point de Galle, Dec. 27 ; the Mauritius, Jan.
12 ; Cape of Good Hope, Jan. 31; St. Helena,
Feb. -10 ; Ascension, Feb. 15.
The England brings a large mail from the Maui i-
tius and the Cape, and about 30 passengers, chiefly
from India. Her cargo consiits of about 150 tons
of indigo and 700 tans of other Calcutta produce,
besides 110 tons landed at Cape Town. She had
very heavy weather after leaving the Mauritius,
and strong westerly galei, all the way from the
Western Islands. The Royal Mail steamship Ire-
land arrived at the Cape on the 29th of Jan. The
England was detained two days on that account.
Her Majesty's steam transport Vulcan, arrived
on the 28th of -January, in 72 days froth. Ports-
mouth, with Baron Stutterheim and part of the
German Legion on board ; the Abyssinian hired
transport had also arrived wish German troops.
The England spoke the following vessels during
:—January
her voyage in lat. 30.30 S., long.
38 E., the Dutch bark Henriette, 48 days from
Java, bound for Amsterdam ; Jan. 25, off the Cape,
her Majesty's ship Raleigh, from Simon's Bay,
bound for Singapore ; Feb. 5, in lat. 23.30 S., long.
3.30 E , the American ship Martha, Feb. 8, in lat.
17.30 S., long. 3.15 W., the English bark Geelong ;
February • 10, in /at. 15.50 S., long. 6 W., the
Dutch schooner Mary Goddard 50 days from.
Batavia, bound for Schiedam ; same day, the Eng-
lish barque Fingal, 34 days from the Mauritius,
bound for London ; Feb. 13, in lat. 9.40 S., long.
12 W., the English barque Anna, Mary, 15 days
from' Table Bay, bound for London • Feb. 16 in
lat. 6.50 S., long. 16 W., the French 'barque Elise,
41 days from Bourbon, bound for Bordeaux ; Feb.
20, in lat. 2 N., long. 20.30 W., the English bark
Crimea; Feb. 20, in lat. 2.30 N., long. 20.43 the Eng-
lish ship John Spencer, 76days from Calcutta, bound
for Trieste ; March 3, in lat. 27.15 N., long. 40 W. the
American ship Sml. Watts, 75 days from the Chinchas'
Islands, bound for HaVre de Grace ; March 5, in
lat. 32 40 N., long. 43 W., the Dutch ship Cor-
nelis'Houtman, 90 days from Batavia, bound for
Amsterdam ; March 6, in lat. 33 45 N., long. 41
15 W., the Bremen bark Constitucion, 45daysfrom
Rio de Janeiro, bound for Bremen ; the same day)
.the English ship City of Calcutta, from Cal-
cutta, bound for London ; March 10, off the Island
of Corvo, the American ship Screamer, 16 days
from Havre de Grace, bound for New Orleans ;
March 16, off the Lizard, the English barque Pa-
trician' 40 days from Jamaica, bound for London.
The Roman Emperor, from Calcutta, and the Alma,
from Adelaide, had Passed St. Helena on the sth
and 7th of February.

MURDER OP Two CHILDREN BY THEIR MOTHER,
AND SUICIDE OP THE MURDERESS.—A murder and sui-
cide have this week taken place at the village of Sunny-
brow, near Bishop Auckland, Durham. The murderess
is a woman named Jane Parkinson, the wife of a pit-
man working at Bowden Close Colliery, and the two
victims are her children, the eldest a boy aged two years
and nine months, and the youngest an infant aged about
nine months. The mother was in her 28th year, had
only been married about 18 months, and resided with
her husband at Sunnybrow. On Tuesday morning the
husband left home at 8 o'clock, and proceeded to his
work at the pit, and about 10 the deceased woman dressed
herself, and stated to the neighbours that she was going
to Willington to fetch home her husband's shoes, which
bad been sent to be repaired. She also dressed both
the children, and said as they had not much fresh air
lately she would take them with her. At this time
nothing remarkable was observed in her demeanour ex-
cept an unusnal degree of gaiety. She proceeded alqng
a gotpath through Sunnybrow-wood towards Wil-
lington, and nothing more was seen of her until noon.
Shortly after twelve, Peter Na3l,r, a stonemason, was
going towards Willington to his dinner, when he saw a
woman extended at full' length in a small stream of
water which takes its course through the wood above
mentioned, and passes under the Bishop Auckland Rail-
aay. She lay with her face in the water, and by her
side was a little boy, whose head was also immersed, and
the woman's arm was passed over him, and seemed to
hold him down. Naylor gave an alarm, but tefore
assistance arrived he raised up the body of the woman,
and then discovered an infant lying beneath her. All
three were quite dead. Scores of people soon flocked to
the spot, and the bodies were quickly identified as those
of Jane Parkinson and her two children. On opening
the woman's dress, he found in her bosom a small
tobacco box, containing the money she bad taken with
her to pay for the shoes. The stream at the place
i_
where the bodies were found was only inches
o in
deptb, and the boy's cap was drawn over his eyes. The
position and appearance of the bodies would lead to the
i
conjecture that the woman bad first rnmered and
drowned the eldest child, and had then thrown herself
into the water upon the infect.

THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.
An agreeable saunter may now be enjoyed any
fine afternoon round the Gallery of the old British
Institution. And although many of our accus-
tomed favourites are unfortunately this year a-want-
ing, there are still observable among the list of
exhibitors a few great names, and several smaller
ones, large at least in promise—to make up for the
deficiency. If we have nothing this year from Ro-
berts, nothing from Lee, nothing from Creswick—
we have, at any rate, the satisfaction of "perusing"
two or three of the charming landscapes and sea-
scapes of Jutsum, as, for example, Nos. 3 and 197,
the picturesque "Devonshire Coast," and the plea-
sant "Hayfield." We are refreshed in spirit by
watching the "Rain Clearing off;" in No. 82, by
H. Dawson—and find an assuaging influence, not
by any means unwelcome in a period of easterly
winds, in the glimpse of a "Tranquil Stream in
Autumn," caught through the medium of the
Welch scene portrayed in No. 173 by C. Bran-
white. There is an omission, moreover, of a rather
unusual kind in the early spring exhibition of
native contemporary paintings in the gallery of
the British Institution—the much-to-be-regretted
omission of the name of Sant, to which, hitherto,
thanks to his ready and most graceful pencil, we
have now for several years past become, in a man-
ner, very delightfully habituated. There is con-
siderable excellence to console us, however, even
for this, in the "Boy's Head," No. 315, by W. E.
Frost—and in a very different way also, in the
" Pliant Hour," by W. P. Frith, R. A. a picture,
the one last mentioned, in which the artist has
interpreted the deep erotic charm latent in those
few and simple words of Othello, " Upon this hint
I spake"—spake, that is, to Desdemona, of his own
loving and tender infatuation. Another and strik-
ingly contrasted Sha,ksperian painting, full of genius
of a diametrically opposite, though of a not less
unmistakable description, will be lingered before,
we doubt not, by almost every individual visitor
this season to the Gallery of the British Institu-
tion. We allude to the wonderfully elaborated, gro-
tesque, fantastic, and eminently humorous
picture delineative of the last scene in the "Merry
Wives of Windsor"—the latest of the really re-
markable paintings in oil lately given to the world
of art (to its mingled surprise and admiration) by
the fluent baud of rare and inexhaustible George
Cruikshank. Such a Herne's Oak fairy scene as it
is ! With the Fat Knight tumbled down
" squelch" among the furze and brushwood—
pinched, and pricked, and fleered at, and flouted,
, stunned w;th noise and dazzled with torches,
scared by gibes and covered with explosions of
derisive laughter ! Yonder is Dame Quickly on
her knees, pummelling the recreant Sir John to
her heart's content--yonder, fantastically masked
as a Merry Devil, the roaring and roystering Bully
Pistol—yonder Doctor Cains (like a goose as he
is) " absquatulating" with the mock Anne Page,
while the veritable original is being adroitly carried
off at an opposite corner by cunning Master Fenton.
The whole scene as portrayed by George Cruik-
shank is replete (as any one might guess, coming
from his easel) with sparkling fun, frolic, and ani-
mation. John Gilbert affords us, in his turn, in .
No. 76, a picture hardly less remarkable in its glit-
tering life and vivacity—his canvas presenting to
view, most Picturesquely lit up with gleams of sun-
light, " A Regiment of Royalist Cavalry at the
Battle of Edgehill." Frank Dillon, in No. 1
(which we can't help "taking care of" in this way
by an especial word of totice) reveals to view "The-
Colossal Pair, Thebes"—Shamy and Dr.my—the
nearest of the two ben our old classic friend
Memnon ! The picture, if it does not remind one
of Hunt's " Sphinx," at any rate bears comparison
with poor young Seddon's "Sunset View of the Great -
Pyramid." We ought not, in justice, to pass out
in-o Pall Mall, before casting a glance of admiration
at George Lance's "Beautiful in Death," a gorgeous
limning of a dead marvel of a peacock I Without
a momentary pause before Maw Eugley's strange
pre-Raphaelite delineation of the "Talking Oak"
of Tennyson ! " Above all, without a smile of wor-
der and of pleasure, at T. P. Hall's (No. 458) gay
and laughter-moving version of "Moliere reading
to his Housekeeper' —a painting really admirab!e
for its humour and vivacity.

TAP' PEACE CONFERENCE-1856.
PAINTED BY E. DIIBI7FE.
A remarkable historical picture—almost, we
might venture to say without exaggeration, of co-
lossal dimension—is now on view at 79, Corn-
hill, the well-known and 'popular gallery of the
Messrs. Leggatt, Hayward, and Leggatt. It is the
production of Monsieur E. Dubufe, Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour, and is the personal property of
the Emperor Napoleon lll.—having been painted
expressly by order of his Imperial Majesty in com-
memoration of the late Notable "Paris Confe-
rences." The magnitude of this extraordinary
work of art will be more dist:nctly appreciable to
those who have not already seen it, when we ob-
serve that it is actually no less than 17 feet by 10
feet 6 inches, and that it includes as many as fifteen
"life-size" Portraits from the Life—Portraits from
sittings given to the artist by each of the fifteen
remarkable personages here represented. The
scene is the very room which was the literal
arena of the Conference,. The furniture and de-
corations being portrayed iu it with careful exac-
titude. Over the mantelpiece a Bust [of the Em-
peror—that is to say not the Emperor, but the
present Emperor." In the foreground—as the
most conspicuous personages of the group the
Four principal representatives of the Four princi-
pal Powers engaged in the late European Struggle,
whether by force of arms or through the medium
of diplomatic negotiations—England in this way
being represented by Lord Clarendon--Turkey by
Aali Pacha—Russia by Count Orloff—France by
by Count Walewski. Besides the Austrian Envoy,
the Prussian Envoy, and the Sardinian Envoy, there are noticeable in the background such men
as
Lord Cowley and M. de Bourqueney—not forget-
ting even among the notabilities taking part in the
Congress that astute and very essential ipator partic
in the labours of the Conferences, the
very able
gentleman who officiated at the table as the French
Secretary. What we principally call to recollection
after examining M. Dubufe 's Great Picture of the_
" Paris Conferences" may be thus briefly enume-
rated—the puffy and almost bloated face of Wa-
lewski—the gigantic bulk of the burly Orloff—the
pale and dyspeptic features of Clarendon—and the
clear but wonderfully sour visage of the Prussian
Premier Manteuffel.
THE GREAT EXHIBITION-1851,
PAINTED BY H. C. &LOU&
An astonishingly large engraving from the hand
of Samuel Benin, has just been issued from 467,
I Oxford-street, by Mr. Thomas Boys, the eminent
and enterprising printseller. It is the result of an
elaborated and ingenious transfer to metal of the
numerous figures delineated in the original paint-
ing by H. C. Selous—the picture representing in
one comprehensive view the memorable spectacle
of in Hyde-park. The spectacle of her
most gracious Majesty the Queen opening the
Crystal Palace All Nations upoia that
lovely May morni of
ng, not very soon, we
conceive, to be lost to the world's recol-
lection. The crowd of historical portraits in-
troduced by the painter, and here faithfully re-
produced by the engraver—must of itself alone be
regarded as matter for very general astonishment.
Around the Queen upon the dias, the principal
individuals of the Court. Close beside her Ma-
, jesty—H.R.H. the Prince, accompanied by the
two eldest of the Royal children. Upon the Sove-
reign's left--the splendidly and various
p onattired
ly
members of the Corp Diplematique. U her
Majesty's right the leading Statesmen
of both
Houses of the Legislature, mingled here and there
with other personages otherwise remarkable.
About the most conspicuous individuals in the
foreground being the munificent and enterprising
Sir Samuel Morton Peto, in his deputy-lieutenant's
uniform—the man who was to the Great Exhibition
what William Dargan was afterwards to the Great
Dublin Exhibition. The observer will not fail, of
course, to recognise at once* among the other
portraits introduced the Duke of Welling,
ton, and Lord John Russell, and Richa;fd
Cobden, and Dr. Lyon Playfair, and a variety of
other notabilities grouped together most miscellane-
ously. The most unsatisfactory portrait of all, to
our mind, being (strange to tell) that of her most
gracious Majesty the Sovereign. As
the visible
memento of a great historical event the huge en-
graving before us will be recognised, at once and by
all, as one singularly valuable and attractive.
BOLTON, ABBEY—IN THE OLDEN TIME.
PAINTED BY SIR EDWIN LA-NDSEER, R.A.
A masterpiece; in regard to the reissue of which
necessary to notify here in the briefest
simple fact of its re-
it is only
terms imaginable, the
aPPearanc. Admirable, as so many others of
Edwih Landseer's extraordinary works of art
incontestably are—this one no less incontestably is,
among all his works, the moat admirable, the most
truthful, and the most eminently beautiful.' "Bol-
ton Abbey in the Olden Time" being to Landseer
in his department of art, what the "Descent from
the deg,r was to Sir Peter Paul, what the "Last
Supper" was to Leonardo, what the " Transfigure-
tian" was to Raffaelle. In speaking thus we are
not, we conceive, speaking in any way extrava-
gantly. We are talking of Sir Edwin in his cha-
racter as an animal painter, as "the animal painter.
And viewing him as such, we accord to his noble
picture of "Belton Abbey" the first- and foremost
Placedae of all, as, indisputably his masterpiece. En-
gr very charmingly by W. T. Davey, it is now
issued anew most enticingly from Mr. Boys' popu
lar cbtablintiment.