The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

LEE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY f.'VJENING, MAY 4, 1857.

any body of Churchmen, meeting in Freemasons'
Tavern or in Exeter-hall, could not do ; yet it
essays to be something more. The attempt spoils
al). An open honest association, with the Arch-
bishop at its head, to which delegates both lay
and clerical from every diocese were invited, and
which held public meetings besides, would have
far mere attention paid t-.) it, and possess more
real influence. The present hole-and-corner
gathering of a few bishops, archdeacons, doctors,
and proctors, in the guise of an antiquated and
practically defunct body, is both ludicrous and
useless.

It is indeed amusing to read the report of the
proceedings. The Bishops in state entering at the
north gate of St. Paul's, the common clergy at
the south gate. Eolus or antiquaries must tell
us why. To the successors of St. PETER the
" Litany was intoned in Latin," and the sermon
preached in Latin ; siuoo,though St. PETER knew
nothing beyond his native Syriac, or Greek, at
most his successors at Rome have always used that
language. We hope the discourse on modern
things in the ancient tongue—the new wine in the
old bottles--will be printed ; for there do appear
to have been some good things in it. If Convo-
cation could but debate in Latin, it might be
worth while to keep up its meetings to preserve the
Latin of our clerical scholars from getting rusty.
One of the old Puritans was complained of, indeed,
for addressing his brethren sharply in English,
but he tuld them that "if they had sinned in
Latin he would have admonished them in Latin,
but as they had sinned in English they must ever
hear of it in English." Cannot the DITCHER and
DENIsoN case be conducted in Latin—it would save
some scandal. To return to Convocation, how-
ever, after a Latin benediction from the Arch-
bishop, they go forthwith to the Chapter House,
the Archbishops and Bishops, and the Lower
House, imitate as closely as may be the proceed-
ings of the Lords and Commons. The clergy are
ordered to withdraw and choose a speaker (pro-
locutor), and present him duly to his Grace for
confirmation, and so ended the first chapter of this
last Convocation. The second we are to have on
Thursday, when the clerical shadow of Mr. E.
DEmsoN is to be presented to his- Grace in the
person of the Dean of BRISTOL. As in St. Ste-
phen's there was no opposing candidate. We
im4gine all wise Churchmen will think that the
sooner all this solemn nonsense is, put an end to
the better for religion and the Church.

FREE TRADE IN MONEY.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

(PRIVATE VIEW.)

The bereavement of the Royal Family by the
lamented demise on Thursday morning of the last
of King George the Third's children, H.R.H. the

Princess Mary, Dachess of Gloucester, closes for

a while inexorably against the general public the

gates and doors of the Royal Academy. The
same melancholy event even precluded the Acade-
micians on Saturday evening from entertaining Her
Majesty's Ministers at the annual banquet given
by them now during ninety-eight consecutive sea-
sons to the Members of the Government and to
some among the most eminent of their contem-
poraries. Otherwise than by reason of the same
calamity—the doors of the Academy would this
morning have been flung wide for the first
day's public exhibition. Fortunately for
ourselves, during the continuance of this
untoward delay, we can fall back upon
our recollections of the " Private View" on
Friday morning ! Having consumed some two
hours most agreably on Friday morning in saun-
tering round the noble suite of„rooms constitut-
ing the gallery of our Academicians, we can,
even from that one day's view (inadequate though
one day's view necessarily is in itself for the pur-
pose of minute criticism), speak of this " Eighty-
Ninth" Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts,
authoritatively, so far, nevertheless ! We can speak
from our instant impression, from our own vivid
remembrance—though at the same time, of course,
from a merely " partial" and not by any means
" satisfied" experience. The Private View, how-
ever, while in one respect it does little better than
" whet the edge of one's appetite" for further
inspection—at the same time is quite enough
in itself to enable 6. keen observer
to arrive at a tolerably accurate estimate of the
general merit of the whole Exhibition collectively.
And viewing it thus, we do not hesitate for one in-
stant to declare, that the impression produced
upon our mind by our visit to the Academy on
Friday, is beyond all manner of doubt, that the
" Exhibition for MDCCOLVIL" is decidedly
above the Average. There are really some few
noble works of art in the present collection. And
the general run of pictures now hanging on those
" storied walls," we take to be excellent.
Unfortunately, it is true, there are several very
considerable Defaulters among the Associates, and
even, be it said, among the Academicians them-
selves ! Vainly do we look this year for some
of our chief favourites ! Briefly be it said, there
is no Thomas Webster, no Edward Ward, no
Frederick Lee, no Alfred Elmore. The Pre-
Raffaelites have nothing for once from Holman
Hunt—" The Scapegoat" of last year, we sup-
pose, being enough and to spare, for two seasons
at least ! Even the President himself reposes for
once upon his laurels—as he may well do with
perfect safety to his reputation, those same laurels
of his, not being by any means as yet, to all ap-
pearance, in " the sear and yellow leaf." But,
while eminent names like that of Eastlake and like
those already enumerated are a•wanting—the
Gallery for Fifty-Seven is full of its consolations.
Pre-eminent above them all—there is this season
a Mulready, and such a Mulready ! A picture
worthy in every respect of that illustrious and
veteran artist—perhaps of all men the chief
among the living glories of the English School of
Painting. This picture is No. 138. " The
Young Brother"—a work, as the catalogue in-
forms us, painted by this distingui hod artist
"For tue Gallery of Pictures presented to the

nation by the late Robert Vernon"—i❑ pursuance

of the will left by that munificent public bene-
factor. So that everybody can look at " The
Young Brother" with a double satisfac-
tion ! It is their own—a prize actually
iu their own possession ! The subject is full of
nature, of simplicity, and of tenderness. A flaxen-
headed infant-boy in the arms of an elder sister
(herself not far advanced in her teens) being
tickled into baby-laughter upon the smooth shoul-
der of that elder sister (who stands with her back
to you) by the hand of an elder brother. The whole
picture is riant in its playfulness ; and the group-
ing, the anatomy, the colouring—all appear to us.
perfectly exquisite. Nothing possibly could be
better than the flesh tints, whether in regard to
the child, the rural lassie, or the rustic stripling !
And as to the general colouring of the picture
already alluded to—what with the girl's brown
dress and yellow boddice, and lilac apron, and red

Icloak, and the youth's blue " smock," and the
baby's white raiment and golden locks, and the
azure sky overhead, and the verdant leaves in the
background (all charmingly harmonised)—the effect
of the ,whole is literally delicious : and in so ex-
pressing ourselves, we utter the words most truth-
fully and most unaffectedly. It is a painting—
small, though comparatively it is in its dimensions
—that a nation may be well proud of. It is a
work worthy of being an example of the powers
of Mulready, and, as such, of being added
to the treasures of the Vernon Collection. Again
—besides Mulready—we find another, and a very
notable Academician, this season, redidivus ! Her-
bert, to wit, who, in No. 230, presents to our
view (opening thereby to our mind's eye a new
phase in his genius)---at once a sea-scape and a
landscape. It is entitled, " On the Coast of
France, in the autumn of 1853 "—and spreads
out before us a wondrous sweep of coast scenery.
Leslie has but one picture this year, but it is one
much more pretentious, and much more worthy
of Leslie than his solitary contribution of last sea-
son. " Sir Roger de Coverley iu Church " is the sub-
ject of it (No. 213)—a painting in which the artist
has caught the humour of the "Spectator"— caught
it unmistakeably, and, therefore, of course, delight-
fully. Yet, so accomplished this that the gene-
ral effect produced upon the judgment of the be-
holder is anything but satisfying. The colours
are crude and raw—the hero of the scene appears
to be deaf and blind to the progress of the prin-
cipal incident, and while several of the country
bumpkins, in their suppressed appreciation of the
fun of the thing, are undoubtedly very humorous,
the majority of the rural congregation are so
many rustic pokers in dimity and smockfrocks !
Dyce's single contribution to the collection, No.
107, '• Titian Preparing to Make his First Essay
in Colouring," is at once beautiful and marvel-
lous. It is one of the loveliest pleas we have yet
seen put forward in behalf of what has
always seemed to us absurdly called Pre-
Raphaelism ! The dreamy face of the boy-
genius, his negligent, natural, musing attitude, the
flowers scattered about him, held in his hand, lying
on his knees, strewn upon the green sward, the
statuette of the Madonna, the very blades of grass
in the turf, the very twig, and bud, and leaflet
in the adjoining trees and thicket—all is wonder-
ful, all is beautiful ! liotv different this small
picture to the two large and absolutely hideous
exhibitions of the same extraordinary school by
the undoubted master of it now-a-days—the
young and gifted, but fitful and eccentric Millais 1 ,
Those two all but miraculous painted abominations,
No. 283, "A Dream of the Past : Sir Isambras at the
Ford" [call it not a Dream, Mr. Millais, but a
Nightmare !i]—and. No. 408, "The Escape of
a Heretic, 1559 [wherein the pretended monk if

pouting his lips into a "face" that would have
been either the fortune or the despair of Munden
the most face-making of comedians]. Danby has,
in No. 245, a delicious and gorgeous view, upon
a ruddy morning of old, of " The Court, Palace,
and Garden of Alcinous." Landseer almost
excels himself in two at least out of his three
remarkable contributions to the present collec-
tion. No. 77, " Scene in Braemar—Highland
Deer, k,c.," with the oddest little wild
rabbit perking up on one forefoot, the other
drooped akimbo—all inquisitiveness ! And better
still, No. 315, "Uncle Tom and his wife for
sale"—a Landseer (even while remembering that
it is really by Landseer) quite wonderful. Stan-
field, by no means equals this season his great
work of last year—" The Abandoned." But,
then, it is true that was a masterpiece,
and masterpieces are not productions of every
day achievement. Maclise has an astonishing
collection of Pencil Drawings under the head of
No. 1159, " The Story of the Conquest," and
one large painting No. 78—illustrating a memo-
rable incident in the life of " Peter the Great,"
when he was visited by William of Orange in the
ship builder's yard down at Deptford. But this,
and divers other remarkable contributions to the
Academy Exhibition we must speak of more at
ilength in our subsequent dissertations.

LATEST NEWS.

Lord Elgin, Envoy Extraordinary from the
British Government to China, embarked at Mar-
seilles on the Ist inst., on board the English Post-
office packet Car adoc, for Malta.

Letters from Smyrna, of the 23d ult., state
that a ship belonging to Tripoli, having 45 slaves
on board, had been seized at Tchesme on the de-
mand of the British Consul-General.

The Municipal Council of Smyrna had ordered
that the slaves should be set at liberty.
According to the news from Constantinople, of
the 23d ult., Ismail Pacha, commanding the
army of Anatolia, is removed to the command of
the army of Atabistan.

Au Imperial order has been addressed. to the
Greek Bishops, directing them to carry out the
reforms in the administration of worship decreed
in 1856.

The squadron of Admiral Lyons arrived before
Malta on the 23cl of April. Preparations were
making, for the 28th, to give a brilliant ovation
to the admiral, and to have a triumphal entry to
the officers and the crews.

BERNE, MAY 2.

Col. Denzler, commanding the republican troops,
and a member of the Grand Council of Neuchatel,
has published a letter addressed by him to the
Cantonal Government, blaming the acceptance of
the Treaty without consulting the Grand Council.
The Colonel expresses a hope that the People
and Grand Council of Neuchatel will declare
themselves against the Treaty, to which he con-
siders the status quo preferable.

BERLIN, SATURDAY.

111 this day's sitting, the Chamber of Repre-
sentatives rejected the law proposing a tax, upon

mines.

Iu the Upper Chamber the first section of the

itupost on manufactures has been thrown out.

MADRID, MAy 2.

In their sitting of Friday, the Cortes proceeded
to the formation of bureaux.

M. Martinez de la Rosa, has been named Pre-
sident of Congress. MM. Maquiera, Ferreira,
Aloiso, and the Count of Vista-Hermosa have
been elected. Vice-Presidents..