Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

Men , by John Leaf . Mr . Leaf , ive know , has beeu for many years an anonymous contributor to the magazine literature of this country A School of Arfc is about to be established at Sunderland . The Venerable Edward Clim-ton , M . A ., Archdeacon of Cleveland , the well known author of The Early English Church , and other works of great research , has , in the press , The Latitudinarians . a

Chapter of Church History from the Accession of Archbishop Tiltot-, son , in 1 G 91 , to ihe Death of Archdeacon Blaclcburne , in 1787 . Mr . Henry Mayhew has in the press The Eootsteps of Martin . ' Lv . tlier .

Professor Tyncuill will commence a course of thirty-six lectures on Physics , at the Government Schools of Mines , Jermyn-street , on Monday next , the loth inst . The following excellent remarks on "the morality of advocacy " are from the Comldll Magazine for the present month . We are always glad to see the beauty ancl advantages of truth under all circumstances boldly inculcated , —Truth being one of the grand pillars of

the Masonic temple : —¦ " The notion that disregard to truth is an advantage to a barrister is , of all the spiteful commonplaces ivhich people take a foolish pleasure in repeating upon the subject , the most absurd . The silly jokes about briellessness which were certainly threadbare twenty , ancl probably almndrecl , years ago , appear to have created an impression that a barrister is a sort of educated beggar , absolutely dependent on all his clients , jointly and severally ,

with no character to lose , and bound clown to an abject subserviency to every one who gives him a brief , in respect of every brief which he receives . Such notions , childish as they are , afford the only possible explanation of the impression as to the advantage which a barrister is supposnd to derive from acquiring a reputation for falsehood . In fact , such a reputation is , apart from its infamy , a most . serious calamity . A man suspected of that vice is never trusted , either by the Judges or by the bar ; and no one who does not know

by practical experience how much the dispatch of business depends on the existence of such confidence , can estimate tbe loss which the want of it inflicts . Suppose a man has promised an attorney that be will personally attend a particular case , and leaves it at the last moment to his junior , is that likely to prolong their connection ? Suppose a judge detects him in mis-stating the effect of an affidavit , and on all subsequent occasions insists on his reading his affidavits ¦ strai ght through , is that likely to make him a pleasant person to

deal with ? Suppose that , after giving a promise to the counsel on the other side to produce a particular witness , or to make a particular admission , he refuses to do so , is he likely to be trusted with confidence in return ? The simple truth is , that advocacy is neither more nor less moral that other professions . It is a practical expedient devised as the best mode of doing a very difficult thing , namely , . administering tbe law . Ifc shaves with all other Iranian pursuits the reproach of doing harm as well as goodthough on the whole it

, -does good . It possesses a high and strict standard of professional morality , ivhich is , however , evaded by a noisy ancl conspicuous section of its members ; and it gives its prizes to those who have the intellectual ancl physical strength to win them ; but in attaining them the possession of the principal moral virtues are a considerable , though not an indispensable assistance . "

Mr . Bhv . ichard Jerrold is engaged on a History of Industrial Exhibitions , tho first of which took place , as Charles Knight -observes , " during the stormy period of the first French Revolution , when the bonds of society seemed to be snapped asunder , ancl when peril surrounded all the institutions of that country . " They have since become of such importance to the civilisation of the world ,

that a good history of them is much to be desired . Mr . William B . Scott , Head Master ofthe Government School of Design at Newcastle-upon-Tyne , has just issued his Half-Hour Lectures on the History and Practice of the Eine anil Ornamental Arts , in which he makes the following remarks on Tempera painting : — " Tempera , however , is very permanent ; it has had the

longest trial , anil nothing * is more certain than the fact that many of the earliest pictures in Italy are better preserved than the majority of later works . In tempera , gums of various kinds , glue or size made from parchment , or even Hour-paste , were all used . Ceninno Cennini , who wrote a treatise on painting about the end of tlio fourteenth century , professes , to give the exact method of Giotto . Egg beaten up with water seems to have been preferred by him , except where tbe yellowness of the mixture injured tbe purity of the colour . Oil or albumen was used to go over the surface afterwards , and , as far as my limited means of observation enable me to speak , I conceive it is very difficult , at this distance

of time , to say which are in tempera , ancl which fresco , or even oil , among the early wall-pictures in Italy . The surfaces of all of them are equally hard and smooth , but the true fresco may , unhappily , be most frequently distinguished by its dilapidation , the plaster having at first been put on piecemeal , and tbe last coating , tbe intonaeo , or fine and white lime , on ivhich the artist bas to work , being added at bis convenience , ancl irrespectively of the condition ,

of tbe wall below . If fresco has its attendant evils in a southern climate , bow much are they increased in northern countries I In Munich , the out-of-door frescoes done about twenty-five years ago are falling to pieces , and in our new Houses of Parliament , where the process is upon its trial , retouching has been already resorted to ; some of the artists employed , however , are wholly wanting in the sureness of hand and precision of tbe 'inspired workmen / as the great masters have been called , their execution of easel pictures

even being painfully uncertain and laborious . " And he adds : — " If we compare the wall-paintings by Giotto , those in the Arena Chapel in Padua especially , with later works , either in fresco or oil , we should say that the method pursued by him is the most permanent of all . But , happily , this chapel has scarcely ever been used . Tempera painting is not now sufficiently estimated as a method adapted to elaborate subjects of an elevated character . The scenepainter has full possession of it , and he has brought it to great

perfection , the truth of imitation in some of our best theatrical scenery ancl panoramic pictures being absolutely startling . It was in this way that the less accomplished , but the higher-thinking , Byzantine ancl Gothic" artist worked , whether on bis illuminated page or chancel-wall . Until Giotto ' s time the vehicle was used very thick , and the paint laid on with a small brush . That great master painted in a broader style , thinning his colours with egg in water and the milky juice of young shoots of the fig-tree , an excellent medium , not easily affected afterwards , either by water or oil . "

T . P . Ellis , Esq ., Recorder of Leeds ancl Attorney-General for tlie Duchy of Lancaster , died on the Sth inst ., in his 66 th year . He was the associate of Mr . Aclolphus in editing the Queen ' s Bench Reports , and the friend and literary executor of the late Lord Macaulay . Mr . Ellis , we believe , has been suffering from ill-health for many years .

We are sorry to learn that one of the most popular ancl polished poets which this country can boast , Mr . Charles Swain , has heen for the last ten weeks seriously indisposed ; so much so , indeed , as to be unable to leave bis house in Prestwich Park , near Manchester , or to write a letter to a friend . "We sincerely trust that tbe fine weather , which really seems coming afc last , will aid in restoring

the gifted bard to health again ; so that be whom tbe Literary Gazette has declared to be " the author of as fine compositions as tbe English tongue can boast , " may once more be enabled to retime his lyre ; for , as Robert Southey well remarked , " Swain's poetry is made of the right materials ; if ever man was born to be a poet , ho we . s ; and if Manchester is not proud of him yet , the

time will certainly come when it will be so . " The next meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England is to be holden afc Leeds , from the loth to the 19 th of July . Barker ' s picture of Garibaldi , said to be the best portrait of the great Italian liberator extant , is now being exhibited in London . The copyright of Mr . John Timbs' works are to he sold by

auction next week . Mrs . Bayly has a small book in the press , on Worl-men and their Difficulties . Professor Arnold has , in the press , The Popular Education of France , with Notices of that of Holland and Sioilzerland : a Eeport I o the Eoyal Commissioners on Popular Education .

Besides occupying the chair of poetry at Oxford , Mr . Arnold is one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools . Mr . Walker White's Month in Yorkshire has reached a fourth

edition . The annual meeting and dinner of the Ethnological Society will he holden in London on the loth of Slay . The annual dinner at Stratford-on-Avon , in honour of Shakspere , will take place on the 23 rd inst . The chair is to be taken by Sir Robert Hamilton , and one of the great dramatist's plays is to be read by the Rev . Julian Young , rector of Honington , and son of Mr . Young , the once popular actor . New Place , where Shakspere