The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-26 00:00:00

ANOTHER ACCOUNT

BIRMINGHAM, SIX O'CLOCK MONDAY EVENING.—About
two hours ago a gentleman galloped into this town, and went
direct to the barracks. In a few minutes he returned through
the leading streets at full speed, at the head of a troop of sol-
diers, who went at a rapid pace with drawn swords and loaded
nieces in the direction of Dudley, in consequence of some seri-
ous disturbance that had taken plaee in the neighbourhood of
Lie-a-Waste"and West Bromwich. At Birmingham at one
o'clock immense crowds of persons were assembled, and the
Magistrates and police were perambulating the leading streets.
At three the whole of the shops in the principal streets were
closest, and a large number of men, armed with short sticks,
were walking about apparently determined on mischief. None,
however, up to that hour had been done. The hailers in Lie-
s. Waste, or in that direction, had been said to have pulled
down two or three nail warehouses, and that it was against the
rioters in that neighbourhood the troops had been sent. A
nail-maker from West Br, mwich states .that the whole of the
men in that quarter of the district turned out from work this
morning, and were to have met in thousands on one of the banks.
The origin of the strike is as follows :—Last Saturday night
week, the nail-masters, owing to the depression et trade, gave
notice that they would reduce the wages very considerably on
this day—they say 20 per cent. The men, already worn down
with previous reductions, and unable to obtain only a miserable
subsistence at the present price, resolved on resisting the re-
duction, and they accordingly sent round the bellman on Satur-
day night, announcing their determination to resist, and salting

on the hands to meet this morning. They did so, but as yet
the particulars have not arrived here. The nail-makers in
Stourbridge, Regis, Darlison, and several other ilaces, are also
out, and the utmost excitement is said to prevail many milts
around the district.. Trade in general never was in such a de-
p!orahle c indition, and it is to be feared that the poverty and
wretchedness. of the thousands now out al work, or only par-
tially employed, in the mining districts, may lead to worse than
useless outbreaks amongst these poor people. It is just reported
here that the mob have got three iron. masters in their custody
in Dudley, or close by. If so, the thing will be serious.

ROYAL COMMISSION OF FINE
ARTS.
Whitehall, April 25;1842.
I. The Commissioners appointed by the Queen for the pur-
pose of inquiring, first, whether, on the re building of her Ma-
jesty's Palace at Westminster wherein her Parliament is wont
to assemble, advantage might not be taken cf the opportunity
thereby afforded of promoting and encouraging the fine arts in
the United Kingdom—and, secondly, in what manner an ob-
ject of so much importance might be most effectually promoted
—have resolved that it would be expedient for furthering of
the objects of their inquiry, that means should in the first place
he taken to ascertain whether fresco painting might be applied
with advantage to the decoration of the Houses of Parliament.
2. Although some years must elapse before the walls of the
new buildings can be in a fit state for paintings of any kind, yet,
as fresco-paintaing has not hitherto been much practised in
this country, and as therefore candidates for employment in
that mode of painting, whatever their reputation or general skill
may be, will yrobabiy find it necessary to make preparatory
essays, her Majesty's Commissioners think it oxpedient that the
plan which they have resolved to adopt in order to decide on
the qualifications of such candidates should be announced forth-
with. With this view:—

Her Majesty's Commissioners hereby give notice,
3. That three premiums of 3001. each, three premiums of
2JO/. each, and five premiums of 100/. each, will be given to
the artists who shall furnish cartoons which shall respectively
be deemed worthy of one or other of the said premiums by
judges to be appointed to decide on the relative merit of the
works.

4. The drawings are to be executed in chalk, or in charcoal
or in some similar material, but without colours.

5. The size of the drawings is to be not less than ten nor
more than fifteen feet in their longest dimension ; the figures
are to be not less than the size of life.

6. Each artist is' at liberty to select his subject from British
11,story, or from the works of Spenser, Sitakspeare, or Milton.
7. The finished drawings are to be sent, in the course of the
first week in May, 1843, for exhibition, to a place hereafter to
be appointed. _

8. Each candidate is required to put a motto or mark on the
back of his drawing, and to send, together with his drawing, a
sealed letter containing his name and address, and having, on
the outside of its cover, a motto nr mark similar to that at the
back of the drawing. The letters belonging to the drawings
to which no premiums shall have been awarded will be re-
turned unopened.
9. If a drawing for which a premium shall have been
awarded, shall have been executed abrcad, or shall have been
begun before the publication of this notice, the judges ap-
pointed to decide on the relative merit of the works may, if
they shall think fit, require the artist to execute in this coun-
try, and under such conditions as they may think necessary, an
additional drawing, as a specimen of his ability, and in such
case, the premium awarded to such artist will not be paid unless
his second drawing shall be approved by the judges.
10. The drawings will be returned to the respective artists.
11, The competition will be confined to British artists.
PI The judges, hereafter to be appointed to decide on the
relative merit of the works, will consist partly of artists.
13. The competition hereby invited is open to all artists, al-
though it has more immediate reference to fresco painting.
14. The claims of candidates for employment in other me-
thods of painting, in other departments of the art besides
historical painting, and in decoration generally, will be duly
considered.

lb. Her Majesty's Commissioners will announce at a future
period the plan which they may adopt in order to decide on the
merit of candidates for employment as oil painters and as
sculptors:

16. The range of choice in regard to subjects which has
been left, in paragraph 6, to the discretion of the artists, has
reference to the present competition only, and is not to be
understood as implying the adoption of any particular scheme
for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament.
17. The judges to be appointed to decide on the relative
merits of the drawings will, it is presumed, be disposed to mark
their approbation of works which, with a just conception of
the subject, exhibit an attention to those qualities which are
more especially the objects of study in a cartoon; namely,
precision of drawing, founded on a knowledge of the structure
of the human figure; a treatment of drapery uniting the imi-
tation of nature with a reference to form, action, and compo-
sition, and a style of composition less dependent on chiaro-scuro
than on effective arrangement.
By Command of the Commissioners,
C. L. EASTLAKE, Secretary.

WEST INDIA MAILS.
The annexed extracts of letters further expose the shame-
fully defective management of the mail communisations by the
West India Steam Packet Company. Many others of a simi-
lar kind have been received :

" Royal Mail Steamer Dee, at sea, March 16, 1842.
" I sailed from Falmouth on the 3d of February in the Royal
mail steamer Medway, with 60 other passengers, for various
parts of the West Indies and .North America. We arrived at
Barbadoes on the 21st, and proceeded, via St. Vincent's, to
Grenada. Here, according to the Company's prospectus and
agreement with the Admiralty, we ought to have found a
steamer ready to convey mails and passengers to the northern
islands and Jamaica. Having waited here three clear days
without news of any of the Company's vessels, Captain Smith
proceeded on his voyage, by advice of the Governor, taking
mails anti passengers with him, and after having been
forced to make the tour of the West Indies, touching at
Trinidad, La Guayra, and Porto Cabello, on the Spanish
Main; Curacoa, and Mayaguez, and San Juan's, in Porto
Rico, we found ourselves at St. Thomas's on the 30th day,
and still not one of the Company's vessels to convey us or
the mails on our reute. After a few days her Majesty's fri-
gate Spartan called accidentally at the island, and Captain
Elliot took the Jamaica mails on vi oh him. At last the
Royal Mail Steamer Dee made her appearance, and took on
board passengers and mails on the twelfth day of their deten-
tion at, St. Thomas's. This vessel is bound for New York and
Halifax, but intends leaving us at Turk's Island (a sand hank
so called), to take our chance of some of the mail steamers
picking us up. We expect to arrive there to-morrow, but I
shall be unable to acquaint you of our ultimate fate, as the
English letter. bag will be closed to-night. Thus, on the 43d
day from Falmouth, the passengers for Jamaica, awl the mails
and passengers for flavannah and North America, find them-
selves not only no further advanced than Turk's Island, but
have the agreeable prospect of a forced stay of indefinite dura-
tion' on a sand bank producing nothing but salt, and where
the Jamaica passengers who were landed on the 17th of Ja-
nuary are known to have been en the 22d of February, having
expended all their fresh provisions, without being able to get
others.

" I myself saw mails at the Post-office at St. Thomas's for
various islands, weeks and weeks old ; and we have on board
Demerara mails for England already thirty days old. The
Admiral on the West India station has placed three Govern-
ment steamers at the disposal of the Company, and yet the duty
is not carried out. Every one in the West Indies considers
the plan proposed by the Company as impracticable, as it has
proved itself to be hitherto."

[The writer has enclosed his name.]
"Havannah, March 26.
"We arrived here yesterday morning. After knocking
about in the Dee 24 hours, in a gale of wind, we made that in-
fernal sandbank, Turk's Island, and there found no steamer !
The Tay, after waiting 16 days, had sailed the day before for
Havannah, taking back with her passengers from Jamaica for
London, who had already been twenty-eight days on the
island. The Dee was bound for New York, but as there were
four Jamaica mails and also Government specie on board, the
Admiralty agent resolved to proceed to Jamaica. We arrived
at Kingston on the 20th, and left. on the 21st; got here (the
Havannah) yesterday (Good Friday), and now there is not a
single steamer to go on to the place for which I have, in Lon-
don, paid my passage—New Orleans.
" I annex a list of the places we have touched at in our steam
voyage : —left Falmouth February 3d, Barbadoes February' 20th,
St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, La Guayra, Porto Cabello
(continent of South America), Curacoa, Mayaguez, St. Juan
(Porto Rico), San Thomas's, Turk's Island, Kingston, March
20th, Havannah, March 25th.