The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-18 00:00:00

CANADIAN POLITICS,

The following despatch from Sir E. Bulwcr
Lytton to the Governor-General of Canada has
been published in Canada :

" Downing-street, Sept. 10, 1858

" Sir,—l have to acknowledge your 'clesPatches of the
numbers and dates in the margin, with their enclosures,
giving a detailed account of the political events which
recently occurred during the session of the Canadian Par-
liament, ending with the appointment of a new Adminis-
tration, composed of Messrs. Galt, Sherwood, and other
gentlemen.
" You aro well aware that her Majesty's advisers have
no wish to interfere in any way in the domestic affairs of
the great province under your Government, and, therefore,
while they have read with an interest proportioned to the
gravity of the subject the documents thus communicated to
them, they abstain from expressing any opinion on their
general contents.
" With regard, however, to yoir own conduct in this
crisis as an officer of the Crown, they are of opinion that
you acted in accordance with those principles of constitu-
tional government which obtain in this country as well as
in Canada ; nor have they any reason to doubt the sound-
ness of your judgment in applying those principles, although
this is not a point on which they are qualified to decide.
"They are bound, however, not to pass over one subject
without remark.

"The question of the federation of the colonies is onesin
which Canada has no doubt a very deep interest, and in
which any representations, proceeding from the legislature
of that province, will be received with the greatest atten-
tion.
But it is necessarily one of imperial character, in-
volving the future government of the other North Ameri-
can colonies, equally bound with Canada by the common
tie which unites all the members of that empire. It is
therefore one which it properly belongs to the executive
authority of the empire, and not that of any separate pro-
vince, to initiate. Ido not, however, question the import-
ance of the reasons which led you to advert to it, and shall
await the further development of the views of yourself and
your advisers on the subject. I have communicated your
speech, and an extract of this part of my despatch, to
the Lieutenant-Governor of the other North American
provinces..
" In reviewing the history of the session of tho Canadian
Parliament now terminated, it is impossible for her Ma-
jesty's Government to avoid expressing their regret that,
after having deliberately invited the award of her Majesty
on the question of the future seat of Canadian Government,
the Assembly should have thought proper deliberately to
reject that award. They are not in possession of the reasons
which may have led to so unexpected a decision; but they
are too strongly assured of the loyaltyilbf the representatives
of the Canadian people to believe that any individual among
the members who joined in that vote' intended a slight to
his Sovereign.—l have, &c., "F,,. B. LYTTON.
" The Right Hon. Sir E. W. Head, Bart."

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OVER TILE
ma TER.

(From Pune7l.

The Royal Academy we allude to is at Canterbury Hall.
Its President is Mr. C. Morton. Instead of limiting its
walls to some forty members, it can boast of some four
hundred. Rosa Bonheur is not too proud to be one of its
contributors.. You meet with pictures good, bad, and in-
different—just as you do at the other Royal Academy.
Perhaps the indifferent preponderate—and this similarity
only strengthens the likeness between the two rival exhibi-
tions. However, Canterbury Hall has certain marks of
superiority, which Trafalgar-square, if it be wise, will do
well to imitate.

First of all, the price of admission is only sixpence. This
is a clear gain of one-half.
Secondly. The catalogue is only one penny, instead of
the shilling that is usually charged at the other colour shop.
Thirdly. The catalogue is not disfigured by certain mis-
quotations from the Latin or German.
Fourthly. Over and above your admission to the gallery,
you can retire to a magnificent hall, which is as effective as
any interior that David Roberts ever painted. There is no
extra charge for this privilege.
Fifthly. You may hear in this same hall some capital
songs. the tone of which is very superior to that of many of
the tableaux at the opposition show, sb inharmonious iu
their treatment, and so criard in all their artistic utter-'
antes, that they can scarcely be called " worth a song."
This is an attraction, which might be imitated with advan-
tage at the National Gallery. A comic song, relieved every
now and then by a comic dance, might have the power of
drawing, which is a faculty that more than one R.A. can-
not boast of.

Sixthly. (We think it is sixthly, for really there are so
many points of excellence to mark down, that we may be
wrong in, our scoring), you can order at Canterbury Hall
exactly what you like. If some fruit by Lance tempt your
palate, as it often does that of some hopeless imitator, you
can call for apples, or oranges, or even ginger-beer. If
some cattle by Sidney Cooper provoke your taste, you can
instantly gratify it by ordering a steak, or a mutton-chop.
These are graces that touch every man most inwardly, for
we doubt if Ruskin himself could speak ill of a picture,
after it had filled him with admiration to the happy extent
of having proved both meat and bread and beer to him.
Thus, critics, true to their capacity, can dine, and sup, and
fatten off the pictures they have been previously cutting up.
Now, the Royal Academicians on the Middlesex side of
the water have always shut their mouths against everything
in the shape of refreshments. A lady might faint before a
Poole, and there would not be as much as a glass of water
in the place you could offer her. Every one must recollect
the choking sensation that the dust of the Derby Day
(we mean Frith's) gave him last year. The very
sight of the champagne bottles that were being
opened in every direction, helped, if anything, to
aggravate one's thirst, and yet there was not a drop of
anything to be had nearer than the Union Club, and one of
the beautiful regulations of the Royal Academy is, that you
pay a shilling every time you enter. Quench your thirst
twenty times in the course of a long sultry afternoon,
with scorching pictures of the Dsert before you,
and red-hot sunsets by Denby behind you, and you
must pay twenty shillings—that is to say, if you
are anxious to rejoin the pretty country cousins, to whom
you are playing- the cousinly part of a catalogue more
or less ratsonne. How different at the Royal Academy on
the Surrey side I You can leave as often as you, like, and
enter as often as you like, and there is nothing extra to pay.
The only payment is in the shape of a check, made payable
to order. _ _ _ _ _

We said that our Quarante Immortels, who have the right
to write R.A. after their names, never allow feasting within
their classic walls. This is scarcely true, and we apologise
for defaming them. They do give a dinner once a year;
but then the public is not admitted to it. Nov, when
President Morton gives a dinner, any one is at liberty to go
who chooses to pay a guinea. This is much more liberal,
and the consequence is, the company is not so numerous as
when persons go in for nothing, and the effect naturally is
mush more select. Ask the waiters.•
Another point (we fancy it is the seventh) Mr. Morton
pays his rent, which is more than the Royal Acade-
micians can say they do ; for it is a notorious fact,
which will not bear canvassing, that our great artists
occupy premises that by right belong to the public, and
from which the public, with the exception of, the shilling
section of it, is rigidly excluded. Turn them out I—Yes,
but who is to do it?

We might multiply our points until they mounted up to
a full rubber, but we imagine we have said amply enough
to prove that game is all on the side of Mr. Morton.
Look as we might, we could not find the Body of Harold
anywhere within sight of Canterbury. The old Vicar
of Wakefield, too, is singularly absent, though his old friend
Maclise is there in great force. This is an absence that be-
speaks great presence of mind on the part of the distin-
guished President.
Lastly, by way of a last finishing touch, we must say
that we admire the cruet-stands of Canterbury Hall a vast
sight more than the vile mustard and pepper-boxes of the
National Gallery, which it is time were removed, for the
building, being rather an old one, can no longer stand in
want of seasoning.
et.

EXTRAORDINARY CASE. The Dutch journals
give some details of the coming trial at the llague of the
venerable General Gunkel, who last month sent a poisoned
sausage to his mistress, uut the comestible was not eaten
by her, killing her brother and servant maid, the mother of
four children. His object was that of the notorious returned
convict Tawell, to bo rid of the expense of her maintenance,
and to obliterate a debt of 1,500 gueldres she had lent him.
The apothecary who sold him the arsenic had taken care to
get his receipt for its delivery, which is forthcoming. This
is a sad finale to a long career of military exploits, begin-
ning in 1794, when he was artillery lieutenant against the
French, under Jourdan, at Fleurus, afterwards fighting
under Pichegru against the English in the Scheldt, distin-
guished at the siege of Dantsic, where he won the Cross of
the Legion of Honour, mainly instrumental in the taking,
of Breda, and finally, on the a owhfll of Napoleon, his re-
appearance at Waterloo in command of the Dutch and
Belgian Artillery on that great day. Singular enough, in a
pamphlet he published last February, 1858, he recounts all
his achievements apropos of a slight recently put on him by
the Breda garrison, and then winds up with the following
passage:— Men have cast a stain on my uniform, and this
stain must not go with me down into the grave." _ _

.
FRAUDULENT TRADE MARKS.—At tne monthly
meeting of the council of the Birmingham Chamber of Com-
merce on Wednesday, the following letter from the Foreign-
office was read:—" Foreign-office, February 14. 1859.—Sir,
—I am directed by the Earl of Malmesbury to acknowledge
the receipt, of the memorial signed by you on behalf of the
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, calling his lordship's
attention to the fraudulent imitation of the trade marks of
British manufacturers in foreign countries ; and I am to
request that you will inform the Chamber of Commerce that
this subject is under the consideration of her Majesty's Go-
vernment, with a view to steps being taken for the protec-
tion of British trade marks in all countries.—l am, sir, your
most obedient humble servant,—G. LTAmmoND.-11.
Spooner, Esq., M.P."
THE INLAND CARRYING TIMBER AND STEAM
TRADES IN CONNECTION WITH THE LIVERPOOL DOCKS.
—At the meeting of the Mersey Dock Board, at Liverpool,
yesterday (Thursday), the engineer submitted two plans—
one for increasing the accommodation of the inland carry-
ing trade at the north end of the town by two carriers'
docks, comprising 41 acres of water space, a half-tide basin
of about 4 acres, and the necessary passages and locks.
The estimated cost of the proposed works was £213,956,
and the plans included a lock to facilitate the loading of
timber and a railway jetty, also for this purpose. The second
plan comprised a proposed addition to the Iluakisson Dock,
for the accommodation of the steam trade,
,the addition
consisting of a branch 1,180 feet in length by 250 in width,
and giving an additional water area of about 6/ acres. The
cost of carrying out this plan was estimated at £70,000.
Though no opposition was offered to the plans, it was de-
cided that their adoption should be postponed for a week.

TIIE BILL FOR TIIE RATING OF TIIE LIVER-
POOL DOCKS.--A long and warm discussion took place
yesterday at the meeting of tho Mersey Dock Beard, upon
the propriety of adding three additional members to the par-
liamentary committee of the board, for the purpose of op-
posing the bill introduced into Parliament for the rating of
the Liverpool Docks. Upon the general question of dock-
rating, the decided opinion of the board (with the exception
of Mr. Hutchison) was that such a measure would ultimately
cause an increase in dock charges upon vessels and cargoes,
and the consequent dimunition of trade, as Liverpool woul.:.
then be forsaken for other and cheaper ports. The argpnient
that nearly all other docks were rated to the poor, &c., was
combated en thQ ground that almost all other docks were
private property where there was a beneficial interest, which
was not the case in Liverpool. The discussion also assumed
a personal tone from the fact that the chairman (Mr. C.
Turner) protested against the addition to the committee, and
said that, as at present constituted, the committee had done
and was prepared to do its duty with vigour and disinterest-
edness. Ultimately, the motion for an increase to the par-,
liamentary committee was withdrawn by Mr, Smith, the
mover,