26 MARCH 1859, Page 20

We are solicited to insert the expression of a wish

from some of the frequenters of the museum, at South Kensington that the new galleries for the Turner and Vernon - collections will be open to the public on certain evenings in the week on the same regulations as the apartments containing the Sheepshanks' pictures.

The annual public exhibition of the French Photographic Society is to take place from the 15th April to the 15th June this year, in the South- east pavilion of the Palace of Industry in the Champs-Elysees. Im- portant inventions having been made during the last twelve months in the art of taking sun-pictures, it is believed that this year's exhibition will be an unusually interesting one.

There is at present in course of construction in the Champ-Elysees a panorama of the Capture of Sebastopol, erected by a limited liability company, which counts among its shareholders no fewer than seven gene- rals, all of Crimean repute. The manager of the affair is Colonel Lang- lois, an officer well known for his exploits at Inkermann, who, it is said, has invested his whole fortune in the undertaking. An idea of the gigantic dimensions of this new show may be formed from the fact that the canvass on which the panorama is to be painted measured rather more than 3500 square yards, and that the expenses of construction are calculated at 200,000 francs, or about 80001.

One essential difference between the administrations of the Royal Academy and the Old Water Colour Society, which has not been promi- nently noticed by the public interested in the adjustment of their claims, is the distribution of revenue obtained from the exhibition of their works. The Royal Academy, frugally or otherwise as it may be thought, spends its income in schools, &c. for public use and advantage - the Water Colour painters divide the funds resulting from their annual display among themselves.

Messrs. Lonsdale are selling a group of engravings, (old as they be,) of much interest to all Musicians. Portraits of Bartleman, the bass of the celebrated glee-party, S. Webbe, the Homer, and Bishop, the-Horace, of glee music, will awaken pleasant associations in the minds of all lovers of the English harmonies of this particular character ; and there are others whose counterfeit presentment is essential to a right understand- ing of musical art ; for how much less you know of a man's spirit and meaning until you have seen them by the light of his countenance.