The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-19 00:00:00

eir.inent position in the arts, had afforded to females of
talent and education a bright example of success in a
department of industry consonant with the delicacy of
the sex and the refinement of their taste.—(Cheers.) In
the' early days of the Royal Academy, and under the
presidency of Sir 'Joshua Reynolds, female artists par-
ticipated with their brethren in the honours of the pro-
fession. Angelica Kauffman, Miss Moser, and, he be-
Ferei, the lion. Mrs. Darner, who had been referred to
that day, were Royal Academicans ; and it was gene-
rally understood that had Sir Thomas Lawrence lived,
the Silique law, by which the lords of creation bore ex-
clusive sway in the domain of British art, would have
been restored.—(l,Oucl cheers.) The walls of the
Royal Academy had annually exhibited the pro-
ductions -of Mrs. Carpenter, Mrs. Charles Pearson,
Mrs. Robertson and other able female artists, besides the
!itinerary contributions of ladies of rank. It would be
but the payment of a grateful homage to public opinion
which had already, by it s patronage, given to those ladies
an elevated position in the fine arts of the Royal Aca-
demy, and the literary institutions of the country were to
c infer honours upon ladies eminent in art.,, sciences, and
literature,- who had earned distinction in the arena of
pul,Fc competition.—(Loud cheering.)
Deputy STEVENS cordially agreed in the observations
of the preceding:speakers, and particularly in the remarks
of the last gentleman who had spoken. He was delighted
to witness the grcat improvements which had taken place
during the last few years in female education. He
hoped that still further encouragement would be given
for the cultivation of literature and the.arts. Mrs. Pear-
son, who had been long known as the estimable wife of
their respected City Solicitor, afforded the best proof, by
her example, that the highest attainments in the arts was
perfectly compatible with the display of the domestic
virtues, which were the charm and ornament of the sex.
The motion was carried unanimously.—Adjourned.

THE BIRMINGHAM ELECTION.
(From the Cheltenham Examiner.)
This catastrophe has been consummated, and the
country has this week witnessed the humiliating spec-
tacle of a great constituency sacrificing certain success
to the gratification of internal feuds and dissensions.
Thus has Birmingham been lost to the Liberal interest—
the Tory candidate has been returned, and Mr. Joseph
Sturge entitled himself to the lasting gratitude of the
party for his services on the occasion. The unhappy
split which manifested itself immediately on Mr. Schole-
field's death, remained unclosed to the last ; and
the result was, that the Liberal party, weakened,
dispirited, and frittered away in unworthy rivalry,
was unable to cope with the united and sanguine
party opposed to it. The. Conservatives are not a little
vain-glorious at the fact that they have polled more
than the combined forces of their opponents. But, re-
garded as a mere party victory, they have little to con-
gratulate themselves on ; Mr. Spooner purchased the
votes of many of the middle men by his distinct decla-
rations against the present Ministry • he announced him-
self as a No-Peelite ! and as one who, on the Factory
and Sugar Bills, would have voted against Ministers,
and scorned to do as many of his party did—rescind
his vote to keep them in office. So far, then,
the Ministry gains but little in Mr. Spooner's
advent to Parliament. As to the causes of defeat to the
Liberals, they are simply these : united, they were un-
doubtedly able to carry their man ; their unfortunate
dissensions destroyed that certainty, by cramping the
energies, and destroying the unitedness of the party, and
preventing many, from the improbability of victory,
from going to the poll at all. As we before stated, the
only means of healing the breach was for the weakest
party to give way ; the result has shown which
that party was. The smallness of -Mr. Sturge's mino-
rity proves the hollowness of his pretensions to repre-
sent the borough ; he must have known, long before he
went to the poll, that he could not command 500 votes ;
in fact, that the only end of his opposition must be not
his own success, but the defeat of his brother Libe-
ral, and the letting in of a Tury. Mr. Schelefield,
on the contrary, had a prospect of success. No one
questions that had he stood alone, he would have com-
manded a majority with the undivided support of
the Liberal interest, his success was certain. But fate,
and the folly of party, decreed otherwise. Birming-
ham was destined to have the enviable notoriety
of giving the first victory to disunion, and its name
will hence be a word of warning, and caution, and
disgrace to the constituencies of the empire. The public
voice will not fail to visit this disgrace upon the right
quarter—the man who, with 300 votes (not a tithe of
the polling constituency), set up his own ambition and
his own pretensions against the all but unanimous voice
of his party.. It would scarcely be credited, but .for the
living example that so much professing philanthropy
should be a cloak to selfishness and personal ambition.
But, in these days, unfortunately, professions and prac-
tice often run to opposite extremes ; and the consti-
tuency of Birmingham have lent themselves to the full
development of the phenomenon. In plain language,
Birmingham has been Sturged.
(From the Cambridge Advertiser.) '
We live in strange times, and consequently may ex-
pect to witness strange things. There is, for instance,
the result of the Birmingham election—few will hesi-
tate to admit the strangeness of that event. Indeed,
seven years ago, had any one ventured to predict
that Radical Birmingham would choose a per-
son of Conservative principles for its repre-
sentative in 1844, he would be laughed at
for his folly ; but yet the thing has come to
pass. We, being no party politicians, can afford to
admit this fully and, unreservedly, but at the same time
we think the solution of the political phenomenon to be
simple and obvious. A house divided against. itself
cannot stand, neither can a party, nor the section of
a party ; and, therefore, ever since we heard of the split
that had taken place in the Liberal interest in Birming-
ham, we set down Mr. Spooner's return as certain and
inevitable. Besides, he is, we be believe, a gentleman
of great local influence, and deservedly popular with
the electors of Birmingham—that coupled with the dis-
union and antagonism in the ranks of the Birmingham
electors, easily, we think, accounts fur his triumph, over
the moral-force Chartist, and the mere Whig.
Of course, if local jealousies prevail, men . must
make up their minds to see the common cause sa-
crificed—if personal antipathies intervene, men
must lay their account with witnessing the
ruin of public principles. Nothing is surer than that.
The Liberals of Birmingham have themselves to thank
for the defeat they have sustained, and it is only to be
hoped that they will profit by the lesson that has been
ead them. If they do, the Liberal cause will be rather
served than injured by Mr. Spooner's return ; but dozens
of such returns cannot make up for the loss of
strength occasioned to the Ministry by the feelings of
distrust and disappointment that obtain amongst their
supporters, and that are so spreading amongst Con-
servative constituencies in every quarter of the empire.
Look how severely their conduct on Earl Powis's
Bill has been censured by their friends both in and out
of Parliament—look what a storm of odium Sir J. 'Gra-
ham's tampering with the Post-office called down upon
them; these things are not to be forgotten, or atoned for
by the sddition of one unit to the number of their par-
tisans in the Lower House. Character is everything with
the country in the long run ; and, indeed, in the present
condition of parties, with a servile majority of ninety at
the beck of Ministers, the result of an isolated election

can only be a matter of very secondary importance. It
is only as a sign of the times that it is at all worthy of
notice.

(From the Worcestershire Chronicle.)
The Birmingham election has terminated, as we pre-
dicted, in the return of Mr. Spooner, by a considerable
majority. This is owing to the unfortunate division in
the Liberal ranks, occasioned. by. the Complete Suf-
fragists, who must have known, in bringing forward Mr.
Sturge, that there was not the ghost of a chance of
securing his election. The only purpose 'served by the
line of conduct they thought fit to adopt, is the pur-
pose of the Tories, the hereditary enemies of good
government. They have demonstrated, at the same
time, the absurdity of their pretensions, laid bare
the weakness of their cause amongst the electoral
body, and established beyond the possibility of question
which of the two Liberal candidates ought to have
given way to the other. Three hundred and fifty votes
given for Mr. Sturge; more than seventeen hundred for
Mr. Seholefield! Surely the former and his supporters
could not have expected the majority should give
way to the minority, that the 1,700 should allow
the 350 to impose, as it were, a candidate upon them !
The probate result of the contest, as between Mr.
Schcletield and Mr. Sturge, must have been ascer-
tainable before the election. Mr. Sturge and his

friend;, had they made any calculations upon the subject,
as various communications to the press on their behalf
would lead us to believe they did, must have
.known
sufficient of the comparative position occupied by each
candidate, to be convinc• d that it was hopeless for them
to contest the election. Yet they and
,he persisted, and
the consequence of their unpatriotic obstinacy has been
that they have a Tory Member, instead of a Liberal
.mo. The principle Gn which the Complete Suf-
fragists have acted is just like that which is mani-
fested in spoilt children, who, because they cannot
have just what they desire, throw away the good
thing they might have. Became the Complete Suffra-
gists cannot have a member whose political sentiments
exactly match their own, they contrive to let in, not the
one whose opinions come the nearest to his, but the one
who is the farthest removed from him, who has scarcely a
Angle sentiment in common with the pattern they have set
up. And when they have done this they believe, for we
give them credit for sincerity, that they are going the
right way to work to promote an extension of the popu-
lar liberties, and to advance the cause of good Go-
vernment ! We pity their infatuation, and lament its
result.

BatottroN, WEDNESDAY, Six o'CLocK
P.M.—
About twelve o'clock this morning a steamer hove in sight,
rounding Newhaven cliffs, having in tow a large vessel, and
in about an hour afterwards it was a,certained to be the ves-
sel which Captain Warner intends to blow up with his newly
invented shell. Some hundreds of persons immediately paid
the toll to the Chain-pier, for the purpose of getting as near
a sight of the vessel as possible. The steamer did not stop,
but towed the vessel into Shoreham Harbour. Captain War-
ner, on leaving Brighton last night, proceeded to Dover, for
the purpose of engaging a steamer to tow the vessel to
Shoreham, and having effected that object, he left Dover and
arrived here this afternoon. It is uncertain when the expe-
riment, will be tried, but in all probability it will take place
on Saturday. Captain Warner is staying at the New Steyne
Hotel, and will write this evening to the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty, to ascertain their pleasure as to the precise
time for the trial of the shells.
INCENDIIRY FIRES.—Our accounts of the fires are
diminishing, and we trust they will continue to diminish.
We have but one incendiary fire to record in this county
since the date of our last publication ; and those of a purely
accidental nature are also limited in number. The evil has
been extensive and frightful enough without the added hor-
rors of exaggeration into which so many of our contempora-
ries, copying the example of the Times, have. fallen, and the
pri.spect of an abatement of that evil will, we trust, be hailed
IT all with thankfulness and gratitude.—Bury Herald of
, yesterday.