The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-02 00:00:00

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lif-6-11' ,4tVet ''`P
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P;t' It 1.-'''-: :-;l7'l'
well-meaning soul, shocked and °dined by the harmless
rt`
lenity that Punch—according to his wont—poured upon
the head of the discharged postman. „Howlett, blistered
by Punch's ink, was salved and comforted by a sanative
bit of blank paper. But Punch required further and
better treatment of Howlett; when lo! the merciful
kind-hearted Marquis steps in—or is rather pulled into
the rescue by a bishop--and Howlett, the martyr, is re-
stored to his original condition. Is there no abiding re-
ward in this world for the lowly champion of truth?
We had hoped to see Howlett maintained in Sabbatarian
clover, the pet example of Post-office piety.
"For he on honey-dew has fed,
And drank the milk of Paradise."
This should bare been the amended condition of the
victim ex-postman, had the Postmaster-General been
less 3 ielding to a bishop. Howlett would have been the
stall-fed martyr of Exeter Hall. And, uin Catholic
countries, certain relics are on certain days exhibited to
the populace, so, on certain gatherings, would our How-
lett, with a ruddier tint upon his cheek, a sleeker tex-
t, urrees
oc,eftesdk itne, andthe a
electgro wcifegthdeiginktyll,
as a
of abdomen,lovely
andba?n
ft:wishing example of w(11-retarded piety. carefally
taken in and abundantly dune for by Lard Ashley and
his cinder-loving followers. Vauxhall has its Flo ver-
Show ; why not Eketer Hall its Martyr-Show ?
Been with Howlett restored to the Post-office, he is a
(Lily, hourly example to his f flow-lahouters of the itn-
puni y that may attend offi.:Et treason and revolt: but
with Howlett, kept at Sabbatsrian expense—Howlett,
grown sli.cli as a bishop's beaver—he would have been a
two'old example of the prosperity of the conscientious
lowly, and the generosity ( f the Sabbetarian rich. How-
lett,f,,t, and thriving, would have afforded a delightful
gloss to the pious text of our Ashley preaching.
Again, the Bishop of Oxford, in his all unworldly way,
has missed a chance. Why did not he comfort and har-
bour Howlett ? Could he not have clothed him in. epis-
copal purple, and suspended him at the back of his
coach, showing a stiff-necked generation what glory-was
vouchsafed a Post-office martyr, whom a bishop de-
lighted to honour. This Oxford might have done; and
this, with his characteristic meekness, he has foregone
and missed.
We must, therefore, be content to leave Howlett at
the Post-office. We trust, however, that he will have
an extra bit of gold lace to mark his worth and past suf-
fering. Poesibly the Marquis of Clanricarde has already
provided for this, saying with Bassanio when he engages
Lancele t Gobbo—
,, Give him a livery
More guarded than his fellows' fee it dose."
[Exit Howlett, into Post-office.
T

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HE ROYAL VISIT to SCOTLAND.
EDINBURGH, An-a. 31.—My last detailed communica-
tion closed with the account of her Msjesty'a arrival at
Holyrood on Thursday afternoon. The same evening,
and before night had closed in, the Queen proceeded to
tho suite of apartments occupied by the beautiful and
uufortunate Mary Stuart. Her visit was a strictly pri-
vate one, so much so that the housekeeper who shows
the rooms did not know who the illustrious personage
was to whom site pointed out the curious relics placed
beneath her care. To all who feel an interest in that
fascinating page of history which records the life of
Queen Mary, the announcement of this visit made by
her descendant will be read with interest. The sceptre
in both eases swayed by female hands, in both husbands
not sharing with them the regal office—how great
in every other respect is the contrast which the
fortunes, and, it must be added, the character of
Victoria, present to those of the ill-fated Mary! The
apartments now occupied by the royal party are in the
more modern part of the Palace, erected on the site of
that which John Knox's fiery zeal burned down, and
which was restored by Charles 11. Here Charles X. of
France resided from 1830 to 1833. The levees of George
IV. were held in the hall of state on the eastern side of
the Palace. His Grace the Duke of Hamilton is here-
ditary keeper of Holyrood, but for a long period of time
little has been done to keep this royal residence in good
and tenantable repair. Everybody in Scotland had
ceased to regard it as anything but a venerable and in-
teresting ruin, worthy a certain amount of care for the
sake of old times, and in memorial of the days when the
Court lived at the foot of the Canoegate. No one ever
expected to see the Sovereign residing in that
quadrangular and turreted old building again. Hence
its occupation by her Majesty has greatly delighted the
people of Edinburgh, and of Scotland generally.
Yesterday morning the Queen and the Prince Consort
were early astir, and ascended to the very summit of
Arthur's Seat. They also visited at a later period of
the day Donaldson's Hospital, but these were in the
nature of private visits, and the only proceeding of a
formal and public character which took place was the
ceremony of laying the foundation-stone of the proposed
National Gallery on the Mound. This ceremony was
performed by his Royal Highness Prince Albert at one
o'clock, and drew together an immense concourse of
spectators ; but, befbre describing the scene, and giving
the details of what took place, it is necessary to say some-
thing about the circumstances under which the new
building is about to be erected, the objects to which it
is to be dedicated, and the style of edifice which it is
proposed to construct. At the Union of the two
countries a grant of a certain sum annually was
agreed to be set apart for the encouragement
of manufactures and fisheries iu Scotland. The
administration of this sum was vested in the
hands of two boerds, one entitled " the Bt and
of Trustees for Manufactures," &c„ the other " the
Board of Briti,h White herring Fisheries." The former
contains thirty, and the latter nineteen members, several .
of them otherwise much engaged by public busiuess.
The same secretary and clerics conduct the affairs of
bosh boards, and the cflices are at the Royal Institution
on the Mound, close to the Lew building of which hia
Royal highness Prince Albert laid the foundation-stone
yesterday. It appears that the annual amount paysble
to these boards fell largely in art ear, end with 40 0001.
of that arrear the institution was built. Now, it so
happened, that when the grant of money at the Union
eas egresd upon, the eecou kzeinsnt of art ssas unfit r-
stood to ba included along with that of manufactures,
and thus it arose that when the Royal Scottish Sociity
for Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture received its
charter, it was placed to a certain extent under the wing
of the board of trustees,who in their turn received se me two
or three members of the society into their body. The an-
nual exhibition of the society, which much resembles
that of the Royal Academy, took place at the Institution,
and it is believed that the board of trustees have de-
rived considerable emolument therefrom. Certain it is,
that the society has always ben outvoted by the trustees,
that it is much dissatisfied with the treatment which it
receives from them, and that it alleges, with the general
assent of public opinion, that they are incompetent for
the efficient discharge of their trust, which is thus
thrown into the hands of a small clique and carried on in
a jobbing spirit. The trustees in their turn say that
they don't want to be bothered with the society's annual
exhibition, that it compels them to displace their own
pictures, which are thus exposed to serious damage, and
is otherwise a great inconvenience. Which of the dis-
puting bodies is right remains to be decided by higher
authority, but in the m' antimo out of these quarrels has
sprung up a strong desire on the part of the Royal
Society to have an academy specially provided for itself,
leaving the Institution to be appropriated to other pur-
pose s. The society had saved some thousands of
pound+, and Government were asked to obtain a grant
of public money for the object. in view. They agreed to
do so, and the amount of the vote which they carried,
instead of being handed over to the board of trustees for
expenditure, will, it is understood, be administered
through the office of Woods and Forests by a committee
of the board, consisting of his Grace the Duke of Buc-
clench, the Lord Provost, and several other very effi-
cient names. Such are the circumstances under which
the now building is about to be erected. The objects to
which it is to be dedicated are twofold, viz., first, the
erection of a National Gallery, where great works of
art, become public property, may be collected
and exhibited ; secondly, the formation of a
Royal Academy, where young artists may bo
instructed in their profession, and the more ad-
vanced have an opportunity of annually displaying
and compering their powers. Both are to be under the
same roof, and to be parallel with each other along the
extent of a structure running southward from the Insti-
tution towards the Free Church College, and standing
separate from the former edifice, while harmonizing •
with it in general character. There are to be two four-
columned lonic porticoes at either end, and a large
transverse portico of six columns in the centre on either
side, to break the otherwise monotonous effect of an
extent of dead wall considerably longer than the insti-
tution, and plainly decorated with pilasters. The light
is to be entirely from above, the rooms within to be
shaped in octagons and squares, and the estimated cost
of construction is 40,000/., of which the Government find
25,0001., and the Royal Scottish Society 15,0001. If the
edifice when completed at all resembles a design of it
pub,ished by the architect, it will:prove a very great ar-
chitectural acquisition to the city of Edinburgh.
The ceremony yesterday was a very fine one. Prince
Albert was loudly cheered as he passed in procession
along Prince's-street, attended by an escort of cavalry.
On alighting at the Institution, a royal salute was fired
from the frowning battlements of the castle, and with
grand effect. The halfmoon battery opened its fire, and

-from that point battery after battery took up the salute
in order, the flash of each report being visible several
seconds before the sound was heard. and the smoke of
the discharges as they took place being swept athwart
the stern and warlike mass of the lofty old fortress till
the mimic cannonade seemed to grow into a reality.
On all sideQ, wherever the eye turned, countless multi•
tudes of human beings were assembled. The whole
space southward sloping upwards to the many storied
houses of the old town was filled with a perfect sea
of heads. On the flat roof of the Bank of Scotland,
and on the graceful galleries of the Scott monument, and
far up on the battlements of the Castle—in fact, every-
where whence a commanding view could be obtained,
groups of spectators were clustered. The pensioners,
under the command of Culonel Jones, kept the ground
admirably, but had their patience been less conspicuous,
or their bearing less firm; there was drawn up for the
protection of the Queen's peace, that long-established
and'headed by their va-
liant the high constables of the city, armed with elabo-
Had this body failed in
i'sillbaogdinyeg,uard, who
ns
then the
lriaatnetlysoidrnlaomyselnrdmtorduenrcahtenor,
might have been called into requisi-
effect of a discharge Rduotyya,lwsheoicthtisiht iAsrehhaerrdal,yhpeorssilbilae
jetsoty
of arrows upon a
twi
oe
nr e,
aa
nl sdo tpr
ireeds e
tnhte,
mob in the 19th century. Toe enclosed space had
several stands erected wi.hin it; one at the northern
extremity of- the new building connected with the
institution by a canopiel passage, and set apart for
the board of trustees and their friends. Through
this, after the members of the board, and those of the
Board of Fisheries, had keen presented to him, hiS'
Royal Highness passed to the foundation-stone, retog-,t.
nizing and shaking bands on his way with several of the
distinguished personages assembled there. Among
those were—the Duchess of Buccleuch, the Dowager
Duchess of Roxburghe, the Duchess of Rozburghe and