Among the pictures in the Royal Academy this season are several by British army officers on foreign duty. By the Hon. Lieutenant Colonel Percy there are, _A Study of Niagara from the under Horse-Shoe Fall, The River St. Lawrence and Mouth of the Saguenay_, and a view on the same river _Near the Chaudiere Bridge, Quebec_. * * * * * RAUCH, the sculptor, whose statue of Frederic the Great has just been erected in Berlin, has been the object of an artistic ovation. The Academy of Sciences gave a banquet in his honor, the king, royal family, and ministers assisted, and Meyerbeer composed a _Cantata_ for the occasion. * * * * * Mr. HEALY'S picture of Mr. Webster replying to Colonel Hayne is completed, in Paris, and will be brought to New-York in the present month (of August). It is twenty-eight feet long. The painter has published proposals for engravings of it, at twenty dollars per copy. * * * * * An original painting by Raphael, _The Boar Hunt_, was destroyed in a recent fire at Downhill House, the family seat of Sir Hervey Bruce, in England. * * * * * The French and English journals mention several important improvements of the daguerreotype, some of which are of the same character as Mr. Hill's. Mr. Brady, of this city, has gone to London, to establish a branch of his house in that city. _Historical Review of the Month._ THE UNITED STATES. On the 4th of July the corner stone of the Capitol extension at Washington was laid, before the President of the United States, the Cabinet, army and navy officers, and a very large assemblage of citizens. Mr. Webster delivered on the occasion an address, in which he pointed out with his customary eloquent clearness the extraordinary advances of the country since General Washington, fifty-eight years before, had performed there a similar duty, and for the advantage of condensation and exactness he presented many important facts in the form of a comparative table, as follows: