The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-04 00:00:00

THE OUTWARD MA ILS.

The Massilia (from Southamptc,a 20th March)
reached Malta at 2 a.m. on the 30th, and sailed at

noon same day.

The Ve2tis (from Marseilles 28th. of March) ar-
rived at Malta at 11 p.m. on the 30th, and left for
Alexandria at 5 next morning.
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FRANCE.
PARIS, WEDNESDAY.
The squadron of evolution has finished taking in
stores at Toulon and is making preparations for
sailing. It is said that four ships of the line and
one frigate will proceed immediately to the Syrian

waters, where England is; increasing LI- naval
force.

BOURSE, April 3.—The market has, since the
termination of the settlement, relapsed into the
same dull and inanimate state which marked the
conclusion of the month, and prices have again re-
ceded. Threes, for the Account, which opened at
67f 65c, are now at 67f 45c. Railways quiet.
The following were the last quotations !-
41 per per Cents ... 95 Credit Fonder 935
155 i end mouth.... Belgian ft
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 55 Roman
Bank Shares . . 2892 50 Austrian—
Credit Mcbilier 637 50 Spanish Threes.... 48
Do. A 000taat 640 Home Debt

loops out from the cam ass a bonny matron
enough, carrying her sleeping bairn on her shoul-
ders, tucked up in her pladdie, bearing upon her
arm a basket of field flowers. Turn we, however,
from the large central room into the north-east
apartment where, in the place of honour over the
mantelpiece—yet notwithstanding that, but indif-
ferently hung after all, without doubt badly hung
considering the high merit of the production—
there appears, to our thinking about the most
remarkable, as it is certainly the moat ambitious
among all the figure pictures in the Exhibition.
It is numbered 583, is entitled "Elaine," and is
described in the catalogue as painted by C. Goldie
and H. W. Brewer. The incident pourtrayed, as
the name of the picture will have indicated to the
readers of " The Idylls of the King," is taken from
that last fragmentary masterpiece of the Poet
Laureate. Elaine, the beautiful Elaine, is there
steered by the " dumb old servitor," floating in the
antique barge "upwards with the flood" towards
Camelot—Elaine, dead, with the lily in her hand—
Elaine, fair as the lily in her life, fairer in death,
lying extended there upon her bier—
all her bright hair streaming down,
And all the coverlid rich cloth of gold
Down to her waist, aid she herself in white."
The river and its burthen, the distant towers of
Camelot, the old man and the dead maiden—all are
revealed to us, by an exquisite artistic device of the
painters, through the grand sweep of a Norman
arch in the foreground. The barge is represented
at the moment of its gliding up to the palace
doorway, and the two armed knights (who guard
the porch), clad in their white tunics and shining
mail, are approaching awe-stricken (one of them
almost in the act of kneeling) to receive the dead
and living voyagers. Exception may be taken, no
doubt, bythe more fastidious arch esologists both to the
armour and to the architecture as anachronisms—
but the era of Arthur Pendragon dates back so
vaguely and remotely into the far off antique, is so
hazed over by the twilight of fable that it remains
a moot question to the last as to what may be, or
may not be, in its regard, a distinct anachronism.
Beyond which it would be difficult to define the
precise extent of the poetic license allowable in any
work of art so purely and pre-eminently poetical
in its whole character, as is this bewitching realisa-
tion of one of the loveliest dreams ever dreamt by
Tennyson. The cynosure of the collection this
season among the landscapes, is in its turn readily
pointed to. It is No. 125, by Mr. Vicat
Cole, and represents, with resplendent truth-
fulnes to nature —" A Surrey Cornfield."
Let any rational man, who has ever looked forth
with eyes of love upon the reality of a scene like
this, stand before that noble picture and say
frankly, without knowing whose the brush that
limned it, whether it be not in truth a superb pro-
duction. Such to our mind it is indubitably : as—
though in a lesser way, because simply
,upon a
smaller scale and with fewer protenthns—is yet
another picture in the Gallery from the same easle :
No. 491. " Autumn," with wonderful dead and
dying fern and litter of undergrowth in the fore-
ground. Not far from the latter, in the south-west
room, is a marvellous red-legged King Cophetua,
No. 476, by W. J. Montaigne, a gawking King
Cophetua choosing the beggar girl for his wife—
the wonder being,however, her accepting him—that
spindling piece of royalty half flamingo, half
Mephistopheles ! Another amazing work of art not
far from it (both in position and extravagance), is
J. Lee's (No. 443) " Sweethearts and Wives "
such Jack Tars, to be sure, and their " Missusses"
—Williams without a touch of romance, and Smug
remarkable, we may be certain, for black eyes of a
very different character from those mentioned in
Mr. Gay's old ballad. Quitting the room haunted
by that kingly caricature of our own Edward
Longshanks, and rendered dreadful by the mere
remembrance of that boatful of sea-lubbers—we
will pause a while in the outer room to console our-
selves by a glance round the collection of water-
colours. Here, at once to begin with, is a " sweet-
heart " indeed; a sweetheart capable, upon the
instant, of exorcising the demon recollection of
those others, those mere pretenders to that dulcet
dooignation. No. 656 is on the margin oret-
schen" is her name—J. Bouvier sen. is the delicate-
handed artist who has pencilled her, as she stands
yonder, by the porch way in the garden, picking the
daisy to pieces, as she dreams there fancy free in
" maiden meditation I" Several other charming
productions from the same hand we notice, the
majority of them at once green ticketted, "sold,"
like this one of pretty " Gretschen." Instance No.
687, " Mary Magdalene" standing at early dawn on
that first Easter morning by the open sepulcher.
Or, again, No. 780, the same artist's " Flores del
Balcon," at Tortosa—blooming flowers peeping
coyly, coquetishly over the grass-green balcony,
flowers, the mere acquaintance of which it would
be pleasant one might think to cultivate. Hap-
pier than this last mentioned picture is the compa-
nion painting by J. Bouvier, sen., No. 765,
" The Home of the Izard Hunter" in the BasseS
Pyrenees. The delicious scarlet head-dress of the
young mother contrasting so exquisitely with the
downy flaxen head'of the little baby nestling on her
bosom—

" Tke sacre enfant aux cheveux blonds! bel ango
A l'aureele d'or :"
Another graceful picture by J. Bouvier junior
this time, however—is in the adjoining apartment,
No. 573, "The Little Truant"—a truant, we may
rest assured, who will only be corrected with
kisses—beaming out upon us roguishly from the
painting—blue eyed, golden haired, all glowing
and dishevelled, as she sits there on the rustic slab
bridging the rivulet, sorting the wild flowers in her
lap. Among the other contributions to the Suffolk-
street Gallery, from the same artist family, there
are two sweet little pictures in the water colour
room, both of them from the hand of Miss Bouvier;
one (No. 671) "Blue Eyed Peggy," (surely the
twin sister of the little truant, if not the truant
herself in another aspect of childish beauty)—and
No. 672, "Little Gipsy Jane," leaning upon a
stile, ready upon the instant, doubtless, to go any-
where a-nutting or picking blackberries. Clints
there are, as a matter of course, in the Gallery,
this year as during so many previous seasons—
with sunsets of the most gorgeous vermillion!
Boddingtons, with sedgy river banks, tempting
one even in April to take "a header" into them,
like the hero of the" Colleen B awn !" Subjects there
are too selected by the miscellaneous contributors, in
amusing variety—subjects as old and as trite as
No. 253, " Little Red Riding Hood," or as No. 557,
the closing incident in " Bluebearo" (Sister Anne
on the Tower)—subjects as new as No. 365, " Hefty
at her Toilet," from " Adam Bede :" as No. 366,
" Sophy and Lionel" from " What will he do with
it" (Bulwer ought to know, however, not painted
by Vance!): or as "Eva and Lord Montacute"from
Tancred," the last of the brilliant series of novels
written by the right hon. gentleman—novelist, now
no longer, but statesman and orator exclusively—
the leader of her Majesty's Opposition. Enough
has been here said, however, of the worthless shells
or of the gems of "purest ray serene" discoverable,
by those who care to look for them, in the five
rooms, those yet unfathomed caves of the Suffolk
Street collection. Enough of the rare flowers and
abundant weeds blooming upon the wide waste of
this art wilderness.

A QUESTION FOR THE HORSE GUARDS.—When
Peace is concluded, is War commenced ?—Punch.
A MAN BAKED TO DEATH.—An accident of
shocking character, and by which a man ;lamed John Re"
met with a dreadful death, has occurred at Mountain Ash,
Glamorganshire. In the neighbourhood are some kilns for
the manufacture of lime, at one of which the deceased, who
was a steady, well-conducted man, of between 30 and 40
years of age, was engaged, when ho accidentally slipped
through the crust into the burning kiln. His cries brought
help, and strenuous efforts were made in the hope of extri-
cating him from the appalling 6ituation in which he was,
but, unhappily, they proved unavailing, and the poor fellovt
was slowly burnt to death in the kiln. His charred and
mutilated body was ultimately got out, and information
having been forwarded to the coroner for the district, Mr.
George Overton, that official at once issued his precept,
and an inquest was held at the Boot Inn, Aberdare. From
the evidence adduced, it appeared that the death was en-
tirely to be attributed to an accidental cause, and the jury
returned a verdict to that effect. The deceased was much
respected in the circle in which he moved, and his horrible
death has caused quite a gloomy sensation in the neigh+
kowtood.