The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-21 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE AFFAIRS OF THE JOINT-STOCK DISCOUNT COM-
PANT.—Before the Lords Justices, the appeal case of
Shepherd v. Gillespie was heard. The defendant was at
one time a director of the Joint-Stock Discount Company,
and Vice-Chancellor Stuart decreed that he should pay
calls made since 27th December, 1865, and any future calls
that might be made, on 250 shares in that company which
stood in the plaintiff's name. The decree of the Vice-
Chancellor was affirmed, and the appeal dismissed, with
costs.

A GAOL BIRD.—At Dublin, Christopher Cassidy, a
man 30 years of age, was charged with a violent assault
on a woman, and was sentenced to four months' imprison-
ment. Although not yet 30 years old, he has spent
eleven years in penal servitude, besides which he has
been seven times convicted before the Recorder, and
fourteen times before the police magistrates, for various
offences. In fact, ho has: spent more than half his life in
Prison.

WHAT ARE CHARITIES ?-A suit instituted in the Court
of Chancery, which raised the above question, under the
title of Beaumont v. Oliveira, has just been decided by
Vice-Chancellor Stuart. The object sought was to ad-
minister the estate of the late Benjamin Oliveira, who for
some years had been M.P. for Pontefract. By his will
Mr. Oliveira gave £4,000 to each of the following institu-
tions :—The Royal Humane Society, the Royal Institution,
the Royal Geographical Society, the Marylebone Girls'
School, and the Albert Orphan Home—making altogether
£20,000. The pure personalty bad realised only £6,700,
the leaseholds about £B,OOO, and some real estate in
Madeira £BOO. The Vice-Chancellor held that all these
institutions were charities, and all of them should partake
rateably of the pure personalty in priority to costs and
debts, and that the land in Madeira must be considered
pure personalty, and the proceeds of the sale thereof be
paid to the charities.

SENDING DISEASED MEAT TO MARKET. —At the Guildhall,
Henry Alurrag,e, a farmer, of Chelmsford, was charged
with sending four quarters of a cow to the London market
which were unfit for human food. The defendant had a
cow suffering from lung disease, and as soon as he became
aware of the fact, an order was at once issued that the
cow should be killed. The carcase was sent to a London
salesman, but the latter had evidently not intended to sell
it. The defendant was fined £2O, and ordered to pay
£5 ss. costs.

ANNOYING A CONGREGATION.—At Worship-street three
young men were charged with annoying the con-
gregation of St. Matthias, in Hackney-road, by
offering pigeons, rabbits, &c., for sale close to the
loors of the church, on Sunday last. A policeman who
was doing special duty in the neighbourhood saw one of
the prisoners with a small hamper vending rabbits, and
another had pigeons for sale, and the disturbance they
made at the very doors of the church must have been
heard by the congregation. The accused were fined 40s.
and costs, or a month's imprisonment.
ALLEGED MURDER.—The coroner for West Middlesex
ield an inquest at Erith to inquire into the circumstances
surrounding the death of a man named James Bishop,
who, it was alleged, expired on Sunday morning last from
the effect of injuries received on the previous Saturday
night at the hands of two young men named William Pink
and John Fletcher, without any provocation on the part
of the deceased. From the evidence it appeared that the
deceased was knocked down, beaten, and severely kicked
in the streets of Erith by the prisoner Pink, whilst the
prisoner Fletcher was standing near, but the latter
did not appear to have taken any active part in the assault.
Later in the day the prisoners were placed at the bar of
the Woolwich Police-court, before Mr. Maude, the sitting
magistrate, on the charge of murdering the deceased man
Bishop, when sufficient evidence was taken to justify the
prisoners being remanded on the capital charge.

MURDER THROUGH JEALOUSY.—At Bonhill, Scot-
sand, a few mornings since, a young man named M'Vean
was stabbed by a man named Gilchrist, and died in a few
hours. He was found lying in the street, but was able to
Identify the person who stabbed him. Gilchrist was
apprehended. It is thought that the deceased was stabbed
by mistake for another person, of whom it is said the pri-
soner was jealous of maintaining an improper intimacy
with his wife.

We read in a pamphlet just published at Paris,
written by M. L. A. Bourguin, and entitled "La
Viande de Cheval :"—" Some people are surprised
to find the ass and the mule figuring along with
ather animals in the butchers' shops of Paris. They
will be more surprised still when they learn that,
according to the unanimous testimony of the members of a
committee who have tasted them, the flesh of the mule is
better than that of the horse, and the flesh of the ass is
better than that of the mule. It is probable that so valu-
able an article of diet will be no longer neglected by our
armies in a campaign, since even in Paris the boucheries de
cheval are doing an excellent trade."
THE NEW REGISTRATION ACT. —The new Act
_or the next registration has been issued. It contains
thirty-seven clauses, some of which are declaratory of the
next registration and the next election. The revision is to
take place between the 14th September and the Bth
October. One hundred and thirty-two revising barristers
nay be appointed. In the event of the power to appoint
additional barristers, under the Act 6 and 7 Vic., c. 13,
)ccurring after the sth September, the power is to be exer-
cised by the judge sitting at chambers. There is a pro-
vision that notwithstanding the clause in the new Reform
Act, the lodgers" are to appear on the lists and registers
)f voters in separate lists.

STRANGE ACCIDENT.—Roger Onions, first whip
to the Quorn, was accidentally killed the other day. The
circumstances, as spoken to at the inquest by the hunts-
man, were these. He (the huntsman) and deceased, with
the other whipper-in, were in Clarendon Park with the
young hounds, sheaving them the deer, in order to break
them from running them. On their way through the park
deceased saw a lame deer, and seemed anxious to show it
the hounds, so he trotted towards it. The deer ran away,
and deceased started his horse in order to turn it in front
of the hounds. He called to deceased to stop, but he ap-
peared not to hear him, and went on, and the deer and his
horse came in collision. The deer fell and the horse rolled
over it sideways. The deer got up and ran away, and
deceased was left with his left leg under the horse for a
few seconds, when the horse jumped up, and, deceased's
foot being in the stirrup, he was dragged, but only about
two yards, when his foot was liberated, They raised him
up, but hq was insensible, HQ RIM bCCARC Ons42lA
I 1..

A GOSSIP ABOUT THE PAINTINGS,
IN THE PALMS DE L'iNDUSTRIE.

(CONCLUDING NOTICE.)

The age of intense admiration and appre-
ciation of works of art, is apparently passed
away. Let us hope not for ever. Comparatively
few young men of the present day care much
for paintings or statues of a high class, and,
compared with the vast su INA__; expended in the
vulgar luxuries of the day, ;the amount of
money laid out in the purchase of works of
art► would make but a poor figure. Modern
houses are but seldom adapted for the display
of paintings or statuary, and but too many
prefer to adorn their walls with gigantic look-
ing glasses (which only reflect and multiply
the insipid men and women of the world) rather
than to decorate them with works of art. The
idolatry of the horse is a crying evil of the
day. In England, men prefer to build stables
rather than galleries; while in France they
decorate, with a lavish expenditure, the apart-
ments of women of the "Traviata " class,
and the pictures they purchase for them are in
keeping with their miserable lives. Thus, many
painters are made to prostitute art for gain.
The large class of pictures called "genre" are
usually of small size, and represent familiar or
still life. These obtain a ready sale. Such
subjects as sporting incidents, breakfast or pic-
nic parties, " Babies awake," or "Babies
asleep," " Love Letters," " Absent Thoughts,"
" Lights of the Harem," &c. ; may be classed
as "genre."

The absence of many great names from the
gallery this year, is attributed to the artists hav-
ing been largely employed in decorating the
new churches—the grand opera, &c. Many
of the newly-made millionaires of Imperial
France do, indeed, give a certain amount of
support to the artists of the day, but not in pro-
portion to their luxurious expenditure in other
ways. There is many a great fortune, too,
spent in both London and Paris, without any
portion of it going to the support of art. The
reign of the Emperor Napoleon 111. will not
be remarkable for a display of refinement and
education among the richer classes.
A very pleasing " genre " picture represents
a Roman peasant girl, in the charming cos-
tume of her people. She is just fixing the
last pin that completes her toilette. Another
shows us Madame Vestris, then in her full
beauty, superintending a rehearsal of the
Gavotte, (the danse that supplanted the court
minuet). Madame Recamier is seen dancing
with the Duchess of Bedford, preparatory
to a ball, to be given by the Duchess of
Gordon. Having spoken of the men, we may
ask how do the women of France pass their
time ? They do not study the fine arts; few
play the piano, or sing; none read ; you do not
find them walking or riding. In the matter of
church going, they set English ladies a good
example, but that occupies only a small portion
of the day. We fear that the painting some
of them, at least, practice is personal, and that
a not inconsiderable sum is expended in golden-
tinted locks, and the various hues and tints,
and subtleties of the toilette. We may remark
of the numerous female portraits, that they are
nearly all anonymous. When in England we
see, on referring to the catalogue, Miss X—or
Mrs. B—, we know for a certainty that a mo-
dest dislike of notoriety, beyond the circle of
family and friends, dictates the concealment of
name. In France, we have always a suspicion
that the name will not bear publicity. In fact
we fear but too many are portraits of the demi-
monde. Of the nude in art, whether in sculp-
ture or painting, much may be said, both for
and against. Ancient art was nearly always
nude, because it was in accordance with the
habits of the people, a plea which may still be
put forward for nude art in Southern Europe,
where much of the old classic absence of dress
remains, and where, consequently, the represen-
tation of the nude figure is not looked upon as
in any way immodest, even in religious art.
Surely, no one could see anything immodest
in such works of modern sculpture as Gib-
son's "Venus"—or Power's "Greek Slave"?
Prudery is an English failing, and is carried to
a ridiculous excess. The barbarisms recently
done in Rome, in the way of disfiguring
statues, even down to the smallest cherubs
—and not only with the primitive leaf, but
with plaster draperies—have been done at the
suggestion of an Englishman. Even Canova's
pure Genii, on the Stuart monument, have
been thus disfigured. The representation of
the nude is, however, more open to objection
in painting than in sculpture, and more in
the modern French School than in any other.
French painters seem to revel in Nature un-
adorned. Out of 2,587 canvasses nearly a third
represents undraped figures. We may add
that if there never had been Venuses, Nymphs,
or Syrens more attractive than many of these,'
the world would have been a happier and a
better place. The great picture of the year,
and of which it is hard to get a good view, on
account of the number pressing to see it, re-
veals the fact that the study of the nude is
not always a picture. A woman of great
beauty is lying asleep on a couch, veiling her
face with her uplifted arm ; the figure abso-
lutely stands out from the canvas, and is a
marvel of flesh painting. The same amount
of talent on a worthier subject might have
created a painting that would have survived
all time. However people may differ as to
the relative merits of French, English, Belgian,
German, and other schools, most will yield the
palm to the French in the matter of choice of
subject. The French galleries, and more
especially the French department of the Great
Exhibition of last year, fully prove this. We
are disposed to place the Belgians next, then
the Germans, and the English last. In our
Royal Academy what repitition, year after
year, of subjects nearly similar—how many
Shakspeare subjects, to our mind always unin-
teresting, except, perhaps, when they contain
likenesses of actors or actresses of the day
—how many corn fields, fishing boats coming
in or going out, picturesque bits of Thames
scenery, an occasional far-fetched 'historical
subject, nearly always badly selected, generally
one or two dreary and futile attempts to make
some practice of the Catholic Church look ridi-
culous, or make a laughing-stock of a monk
or priest; and how often subjects selected from
dreary poems or episodes of the (real) dark
ages of the" Four Georges." Even in the
few pictures of still life, where one would
think monotony impossible, the fact remains
the same. In a painting in the Palais de
l'lndustrie we see how a flower subject may
gain in interest. Purple and red poppies and
white roses are shown clustering round a
rustic beehive, about which bees are swarming,
painted with marvellous truth to nature. A
touching picture is called a "Death-bed Mar-
riage." At the bidding of the priest, a child, the
offspring of illicit love, supports the hand of
its mother while the dying lover, too late a
husband, places on it the wedding ring. The
subject has a moral. We find great orignality
in the idea of " Hornets disturbed by Mice."
A hornet's nest, hanging from the decaying
timbers of an outhouse, has been molested, and
the air is filled with the hornets. The mice,
who would fain escape by flight, are seen suf-
fering the penalty of the act ; many are stung
to death. The execution of this painting is
excellent. •An allegory of the " Papacy '
where a Pontiff is seen, attended by Justice and
Clemency—would have better suited sculpture
than painting. Messalina, wife of the Emperor
Claudius, out on one of her midnight excur-
sions, is a fine picture. The Empress half
ashamed of her evil doings, the low quarter
of the city, the character of the den she is about
to enter, the associations of the familiar life of
the ancients, are all well given. We are all
familiar with representations of the Prodigal
Son , both ancient and modern. The time usually
selected is the return. Often a very uninviting
father is embracing a very naked son, and in
the background preparations for the banquet
are seen going on. In medieval pictures a
woman is generally seen in a quaint costume,
turning the fatted calf on a spit ; in the pic-
ture we notice a different period has been
chosen--namely, that of the poor prodigal'