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TUSCAN CORRESPONDENCE . The cause of order and national independence are both running serious risks at this moment in Tuscany and may before long require strenuous exertions and all the influence of upright and conscientious men to prey eat the people from falling into the snares which are laid for them on all sides ; Hitherto order lias been maintained by the good sense and self restraint of the people , but it is not to be supposed that this state of things can be indefinitely prolonged . The excitement of the public mind , the anxiety for . the future , the longthreatened approach of war , and the mutism and double-dealing of the Government gradually but surely will undermine the principle of order in
general The Constitutional party have openly and with manly straightforwardness in many ways declared tlieir desn-es and requests . Nothing was required of Government to conciliate these men and obtain the confidence of the country but a slight modification of the ministry . This would necessarily have been followed by some liieasure of concession , which would have relieved the effervescence now kept up by the Republicans , and have rallied round the throne all the best and most reasonable men of the . Grand Duchy . Instead of this , however , Government maintains a stolid silence , and manifests ill-concealed contempt for the . Constitutional party ; petty manoeuvres , ' are even employed to excite , instead of to quell , disorder .
It is deeply to be regretted that a member of the British ministry should lend a hand iii the ruin of a country , instead of using his influence to induce the ' Government to retract' past errors , and regain the confidence of the population . This cannot be called neutrality ; it is , in fact , the abet- ; ting , of disorder . The retrograde party readily yield to it , as they did in . 1 . 848 ,-with the hope of having a good excuse for bringing in ail armed intervention of Austrian troops . The Government , while , assisting . emigrants to embark for Piedmont ,, on the one hand , arc abolishing , on the other , ' the small remnant of liberty of the press . which
remained in Tuscany , and daily threatening to leave the country to its own devices , well knowing what must follow . Were such men as-Corsini , Rulo'lfi , and Ricasoli called to take a share in the Government / these moderate Constitutionalists would keep things in order . The Grand Duke played tho same game in' 48 ; swore to the Constitution , and let into the ministry the Radicals , who soon accomplished what he wished . This is what the Times will call leaving the Italians to themselves ; but
they aro not left to themselves so long as a British minister is playing into the hands of Austria , by supporting tho Government against the legitimate desires of the people , and advising and encouraging the head of that Government to persist in his obstinate refusal to meet the views of his people , as expressed by the most respectable and intelligent among them , How much wiser and more English would it be to urge upon tho Grand Duke now to grant what lie will ultimately be obliged to give , and thus save the country from passing through a stage of peril and bloodshed .
Wo had written thus far when tho telegram appeared , announcing that an open revolt hud taken place , and that the Grand Duke had fled . As wp expected , the entire nvmy refused to aid Austria , or eveu to remain neutral , and have hailed the proclamation of Sardinia . \\ 'o must wnit the opening of the second net of the drama for further and more defined intclliirence .
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A CONVICT'S FUNERAL . Wk know of no sadder rending thnn the records of our police courts . To nil , not unacquainted with tho " Mysteries of London , " these glimpse ;* into tho dark vicissitudes of the world , outride ( he law , open up prospects of dramas far more exciting thnn tnoso noted on any stoeuic stage . What tulea of dissipation , and misery , and sin—of fortunes ruined ,
of reputations blasted , anil of broken hearts—can one not form , for ouo ' ri own perusal , out of those brief and barren records which tho police reports lay . day by day , before us ? Of all the 30 broken stories , without n beginning and without an end , which it has been our lot to road , wo remoinbor none move melancholy than that of tho poor oonvict lad who diptl last wcok in tlio ^ prison olVOoldbath Fields . It is a story worth tolling , and not withput amoral . Some six mouths "go , a very young man was oommittod at tho
liowstreet police-court , on a charge of stealing a bracelet from a jeweller ' s shop . There was nothing of any particular interest about the' case , except to the unhappy culprit . The evidence of the theft was clear , and the fraud was not -even rendered interesting by any peculiar dexterity of contrivance . It was a purloining instead of common theft . The only fact that made the case at all remarkable was that the prisoner was supposed to be of good parentage and education . The name he bore of Smythe was known also to be an assumed one . It needed no great perception to tell that his was one of the thousand versions of the old story of the
" Prodigal . " He , too , had spent his substance in riotous living ; but alas ! for him the doors of home were closed . Friends looked aside , and relations stood aloof . Alone and friendless , he was convicted and condemned . Alone and friendless , he was removed to prison . Alone and friendless , he pined there , and died . No friend came near him ; no word of love was spoken to him ; no hand was held but to save him . God , however , in His mercy , left him not altogether comfortless . There was some poor girl whom he had known in his days of dissipation . She had been his partner in . ' pleasure , and ; woman-like , she was true to him in sorrow .
From time to time she came to visit the prisoner , and , if ought of faith in man ' s charity , and God ' s love , was still left in the dying convict ' s heart , it was due to that woman ' s love , and that love alone . The other day , the girl came again to see her lover , and found him dead . The story of his death is buried in the prison Avails . Poor lad ! lie must have suffered fearfully , for the worn , emaciated body was covered with the marks of fearful blisters . That solitary death-bed of agony within the dreary cell is a thing not pleasant to think upori . It . is . plea ' sail ter to think that the cares of his burial were not left entirely to the mercy of the prison officials . The girl asked for
the body of the friend she had loved so ' greatly ; and , for the credit of common humanity , we are ashamed to say , the body was giyeri up to her without a rag to cover it . Scarred ;* and blotched , and naked , the corps of the convict was returned to the woman ' s ' - arms .. By her instructions , and at her expense , the body was taken to Shillibeer ' s . The coffin that covered him , the shroud that enclosed him , and the flowers strewed over him , were paid for by the girl ' s earnings . God knows h w dearly earned . There is many a man who dies surrounded with the odour of sanctity and the pomp of respectability , who ha . 3 had no such worthy tribute of regret as these few worthless ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
flowers . ¦' . We own that we cannot join in the . . unreasoning cry which has been raised , as if all the officials of prisons were monsters of inhumanity ; but this we do say , that the sort , of petty parish parsimony , which grudges a prisoner the decencies of Christian burial , is a disgrace to a Christian country . Our indignation is more raised against the relations of the ill-fated prisoner . No doubt they are respectable and respected . Truly , in this world , they have their reward . From them it is idle to expect anything ; but , surely , public benevolence might do some thing' for that poor and forlorn girl , who was faithful even unto death .
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A Calcutta Univkusitv Examination . —At tho examination for entrance into the CalouttaUniversity , on tho 8 th . March , a ludicrous incident occurred . Thu examination was held on the lower floor of the Town Hall , whoro between four and five hundred of the Calcutta candidates were arranged at desks . On tho upper floor tho Municipal Commissioners wore holding thoir court for appeals against the assessment . A Bengali , who luul . oomo to appeal to the latter , was , by his own mistake , included among tho entrance students , and set down at n desk with all nocossnry appliances , ami a copy of tho questions . While his soul was filled with unxiuty regarding the
tax , he was startled with tho question , " What is satiric poetry ? " In vain did ho attempt to answer it , and those that succeeded it . lie know nothing of Johnson ' s " Vanity of Human " Wishes , ' . ' save that bo himself was likely to sorvo ns an illustration . At last , in despair , lie duly entovocl aftor ovory question tho statement , "I cannot answer it , " and , ' in tolorablo English , wound up his paper by a statement of his right to a reduction of tho assossr mont . The astonished oxamlnor was appealed to by the poor man in porson to remit a purt of tho amount , and then tho inlstuUo was discovered . It was too lato : tho Court had boon closed for tluit day . '
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3 STo . 475 , APRii 30 , 1859- THE L 1 AI ) E | . 563
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EXHIBITION OF THE SOCIETY O 3 P BRITISH ARTISTS . ( Second Notice . ) Mu . Cobbett is in full force this year , with more variety than usual . "No . 11 , " Heather Bells " C odies ') , is in his best out-door style ; the sunshine and shade , and tone of colour , are excellent . No . 488 , " A Bit of Luncheon , " is equally good as an interior , luminous , true , and very pleasing : and No . 159 , "A Peasant Eamily of Brittany , " totally different in style , excites admiration by its simple domestic truthfulness and beauty . Mr . Henzell , in " The Mountain Path" ( 108 ) , treads close on Mr . Cobbett ' s heels : he chooses the same kind of subject .
works from the same models , and uses the same colouring ; and though the result be good , h ' e would do well to remember that , as mannerism—even if original—is to be avoided , so also is a style when open to the easily made charge of being borrowed . There is no doubt he can see nature with ' his-own . eyes when he pleases . In " Home , Sweet Home " ( 413 ) , he has painted a cat—a thing which , to most painters , has , for some unexplained reason , been a pans asinorum ; the black and white pussy at the door , and chanticleer in the 3-ard , are perfect . The picture is worth' buying for these alone . Mr . Vicat Cole ' s " Springtime " is a delightful picture , so equal that it is hard to select points for special remark tlie careful drawing of details in . the foreground ; the tints , which are rich and varied , but never and the
" o ' erstep the modesty of nature ; " retiring distance , inav , however , be mentioned . The oak growing On " the bank , and the barked tree lying across , are finely drawn . No . 8 % A . boy- asleep in a cornfield , and a beech wood ( 300 ; , struck us by their good intention and truthfulness . Mr , H . Moore , in " The Seabifd ' s Summer Home" ( 44 ) , sustains his well-earned reputation ; the figures are peculiar , but good—the boy ' s cautious action especially ; and there is . a fine ' contrast , between the deep blue sea and the graduated buff tints of the sandstone rocks ; but , unfortunately , the artist ; has chosen a pbiiit of sight too near to , his canvas , and the consequently rapid diminution in size of-the-foreground objects Jays it open to the charge of disproportion , which we were sorry to hear ignorantly , but too plausibly , urged against it by an observer .
Mr . J . P . Pettit ' s love for torrent sculptured rocks has carried him to a wonderful perfection in painting them . If he loved trees as well as lie does stone and water , and had attained an equal power over foliage , Xo . S 7 would be in all respects a magnificent-picture of the subject , though we fear there are few with a suflicieutly simple love of nature in all her forms to do it sympathising justice . No , 445 has some more of the inimitable water-worn stones m the foreground , and a cool , shady , and refreshing distance . 406 must be noticed as a clever little
picture in a very different style , a sunset view , in which the evening light is excellently represented , and " The Blackpool'" ( 562 ) will secure general notice by its very original and forcible treatment ; the bright light on the tree cutting the deep transparent shade of the background produces ' an imposing effect . E . A . Pettit exhibits •< A Welsh Mill" ( 340 ) . This young artist has yet to acquire a wholesome " horror of black and white ; " at present his true shadows seem to be painted over black , and the bluish gray and white lights he indulges in have a chilling effect .
However , with good drawing and light ami shade to begin with , warmth and true colour will come hi due time . Mr . Syer ' s sea-piece , " Near Tynemouth ( 102 ) is marked by good composition and pleasant sober colour ; and No . 137 is a picturesque and bright Welsh landscape . Noxt to it hangs " A Mountain Pastoral , " by G . Cole ( 140 ) , in which some water m the corner showing the pobbly bottom , and at the same time indicating surface reflexion , is vory good . Some bouluor-stones partially immersed itro also cleverly done , except that thu break of lino caused tho
by refraction , scorns to have eseapod painter . We must not omit to mention Ny . 2 a , a ploasant little river seono , with some capital foiled limbor i » i tho foreground ; and ' 581 , a very cheerful view on tho Conwnv , with bright sunlight 11 ml " particularly nice sky . " Mr . J . I ) . Fnmcis , in 147 , shows us a Scotch girl returning 1 from ylwinhiL ? , by t ' ; S ™ oi the sotting sun , with a bumllo of outs on her head , and knitting as sho goes , tlio locality I 8 » . J ^ IJjf plaid and thistles , as well as by tho Scottish , though soil ami pleasing features ot the » mk k' » ; no « , ? decidedly oflbetlvonml natural , and lms attracted ft groat deal of noiwo among artists us well as
Mr W West ' s picture of tho " North Coast of Povoii—HLonn Clearing off" ( 200 ) is very flnoj the claim of sunshine o » tho cliffs , and tho forms aud colour * of tho rooks and waves , aro true and forcible . TIiIh pafntor also exhibits a vory romarkable Norwoiriun plotiu-o— Gridvangor Fiord" ( 348 ) 5 and his WutwiWl , Xnvorsuttid " ( 408 ) is oxoollont in wator
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1859, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2292/page/19/
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