The Press. — London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

APRIL 29, 1854. the charge of secret dissipation in early life against Cowper, We feel that criticism in this case is not needed, and that specimens of Mr. Giltillan's style sufficiently register its condemnation. Decimal Numeration and Decimal Coinage. By William T. Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.I.A. London : Blackwood. THE subject of decimals has not lost its attraction, notwithstanding war and rumours of war—probably because the select few whom it interests are of a class not much affected by popular cries. Mr. Thom son's pamphlet, or lecture, consists chiefly of extracts from the evidence taken before last year's committee, to which, however, are added comments of his own. He objects to a 1/. unit, and proposes one of 10s. in stead ; his chief reason for such preference being the expediency of retaining the shilling unaltered. It has also the advantage of allowing of a teal copper coin representing its I.looth part, the value of which would be one 1-sth of a penny—whereas the cent (value 20. nearly) is inconveniently large fora cop per coin, and inconveniently small for a silver one. Against the above merits must be set the drawback —in our view a very serious one—of an entire change in all those pecuniary relations which are now expressed in pounds. There is something to say on both sides, and Mr. Thomson argues his case well. The pamphlet, though short, is full of instruction. England, Turkey, and Russia. By the Rev. George Croly, LL.D. London : Seele ys. THIS eloquent discourse is replete with those rheto rical graces that characterise the pulpit eloquence of Doctor Croly. Few divines of the present day rival this accomplished preacher in the art of clothing high aspirations in language appropriately vivid, and in generalising the results of reflection, without losing influence over a mixed auditory. It is very difficult to be profound and persuasive, and to mingle the in quiry of a philosopher with the ingenuity of an advo cate, but both as a preacher and a political essayist Doctor Croly shows that this difficulty can be overcome. We have not space at present to dis cuss the literary merits of this long-tried and con sistent supporter of sound principles in Church and State, but we have a lively recollection of his im portant services in the cause of pure religion and ra tional liberty. Wide as has been the recognition of his merits, we doubt whether a perfect appreciation has ever been given to this eminent person, and when our columns are less crowded we may be tempted to notice some of the essential merits of one who has wielded a luminous pen for many years, and employed an eloquent tongue with great success in the most sacred of causes. We may express our surprise that the works of this brilliant writer have not been published in a collected form. The History of England, in Rhyme, from the Conquest to the Restoration. London : Hope and Co. MANY attempts have been made to find a royal road to learning by the aid of rhyme. One of our novelists represents a worthy maiden lady intent on writing a cookery book in rhyme giving a receipt for spiced beef after this fashion : " Spice your beef, and make it hot, Tie, and put it in the pot," Ltc. Philip Yorke, afterwards the great Chancellor Hardwicke, in his young days hoaxed Mr. Justice Powis—famed for his phrase, " Look, do you see " by pretending that he was about to produce Coke upon Lyttelton in rhyme. When asked for a speci men he glibly repeated : " He that holdeth his lands in fee, Need neither to quake nor to shiver, I humbly conceive, for look, do you see, They are his and his heirs for ever." The justice thought the design so good that he often asked Mr. Yorke subsequently how he was getting on with his great poem. The writer of this book may boast that he has actually accomplished a more arduous task. Three hundred and thirty pages of rhyme in double columns relate the history of England from the Conquest, " When William, For that's his name, The Conqueror Forthwith became," to the Restoration, "When London streets Were very gay, By thousands lin d Throughout the day, Who came to see King Charles pasaby, Salute him as His Majesty, THE PRESS. And hail, by ac claruatioi I high, The bleated return Of monarchy." As the book is sent us for an opinion, we can only say that we should be very sorry to put such a sorry example of composition into the hands of any child who exhibited the least sign of intelligence. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Boors. Poems, by Melanter. Saunders and Otley. Russia as It Is. Morell. Houtledge. The Lancashire Witches. W. H. Ainsworth. Do. Remains of Bishop Coplesion. R. \\lately, 1).1). Parker and Son. The Castilian. T, N. Talfourd. Mason. Supplements to Vacation Mantles. T. N. Talfourd. Do. The Nations of Russia and Turkey. J. Golovin. Triibner. Herodottia. J.W. Blakesley, B.D. Whittaker and Co. The Statistical Companion. T. C. Banfield. Longman and Co. Works of Oliver Guldamith. Vol. 3. P. Cunningham. Murray. PAMPHLETS. The Pageant is Over. Sermons. Seeleys. liar with Russia. A Sermon. Rev. W. H. Beamish. Bosworth. tint lrts. SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS. WHEN an exhibition is first opened there is no ques tion so often asked and so variously answered as, " How does this year's exhibition stand as compared with its predecessors ?" In the case of the Water-colour Exhibi tion, which was opened on Monday last, we should be in clined to answer the question favourably. The first impression on entering the room (and it istonly first impressions that are inquired after) is of more than usual variety of style and beauty of subject. The figure pieces are very prominent and attractive. Among the many which pleased us we must notice " The Fortune-tellers of Andalusia," by Mr. Top ham (No. 26). It is a very pretty composition, broad in effect and forcible in colour. " The Drug Bazaar" (No. 34), by Mr. Gillies, has a fine effect with powerful colouring. The perspec tive is excellent, but the execution is, perhaps, a little ragged ; and the draperies want breadth. No. 0, " The Rosary," by the same artist, represents the head of a pretty penitent, but the subject is a mistake. A rosary is an invention for scoring off, as they are said, a certain number of Paters Ayes and Credos. It is not wrapped round and round the hand, but is held in it, and of course the use of it cannot co-exist with a state of ecstatic devotion. Nos. 83 and X3l are two very ambitious pictures, by Mr. Haag, representing (the first) " The Ascent of Lochnagar by the Royal Family in the Morning ;" and the second, "The Re turn to Balmoral Castle at Night." Considering the subject, we cannot be surprised that the painter should have fallen into the natural error of giving too great a prominence to each figure in the illus trious group. In No. 83 the drawing is very often in correct. The attitudes are stiff and untrue. Nor can we admire either the colouring or composition. No. 201, without being better a.s a work of art, bas to con tend with the additional difficulty of representing torch light, the effect of which scarcely any artist renders truly, and which, even if well represented, is far from pleasing. We do not, however, forget the extreme diffi culty of the subject, and we trust the courage which has enabled Mr. Haag to grapple with it will in time lead him on to complete success. His " Roman Monk" (No. 114) is admirable, both in colour and expression. It has a strength and power which we never saw equalled in water colours. "The Popinjay," by Mr. F. Taylor (No. 144), is " painted by command of her Majesty," and, as we may naturally suppose, with more than the artist's usual care, and, in spite of some defects, we think with more than his usual success. The execution is light, spirited, and easy, and each individual group is so pretty in itself that we must retire to a distance before we perceive that there is a want of due sub ordination of the parts to the whole—that there is too much outline and too little shadow. The figures are so happily proportioned to the surface over which they are spread, that, in spite of a great want of aerial perspective, an air of space is given to the whole which is necessary to tell the story, and without which the best dramatic composition would fail. We could have wished a little more importance bad been given to the beautiful Edith, the heroine of the day, and the gallant and tender Lord Evandale. Lady Margaret is a poor and inexpressive figure, and we must remind Mr. Taylor that the eyeglass at the end of her whip is an anachronism : a lady whose sight failed her in the seventeenth century must have con tented herself with the old-fashioned barnacles with which the Dutch pictures make us so familiar. The colouring is gay and harmonious, but perhaps is 403 deficient in force. A lady occupying a prominent place in the foreground wears a green joseph, which, in our opinion, should certainly have been red. No. 341, " Roman Peasants at the Entrance of a Shrine," by Mr. Lewis, has the usual merits of his drawings ; but by a strange assemblage of objects he has given to this scene rather the air of an " old curiosity-shop" than a shrine • the interiors of Italian churches are so picturesque that no additions to them can be needed, or even tole rated. The multiplicity of objects here collected distracts the attention not less than it violates the truth of nature. A similar fault may be found with the figures : there is a bewildering variety of colour, a want of repose, and a want of effect. No. 24R, " A Halt in the Desert of Egypt," and No. 305, " Camels and Bedouins in the Desert of the Red Sea," are too singular to be pleasing ; but the glare of an African noonday is forcibly presented to the mind by the strange and unnatural whiteness and shadowless distinctness with which every object is defined. e had marked many more figure pictures for no tice, and we may recur to the subject on some future day, but we must hasten on to the landscape-painters. We think the accusation of mannerism which is so often brought against them is unjust, and most especially unfair on the part of the public, which does all in its power to keep them to mannerism. When an artist endeavours to give variety to his style or his subjects, he is met by flattering reproaches from his admirers that he has " changed his style ;" or, perhaps, what he likes still less to hear, that he has adopted some other artist's style. When we consider how great is the natural tendency of all artists to mannerism, and how strong is the temptation to reproduce the subjects they call represent most easily and are surest to sell, we are inclined on the whole to admire the variety which we find year after year at this exhibition. There is a picture by the President (No. 30), which, beside being admirable in itself, displays, without any apparent struggle for novelty, a diversity and variety of feeling, a freedom from self-imitation, which, after so many years oil assiduous practice as Mr. C. Fielding now can number, is very uncommon. But the best receipt against mannerism, and moreover the only receipt for progress, is close study from nature. Nothing but the careful and frequent realising of nature on the spot can enable the artist to bear steadily in mind what force and distinctness are compatible with distance, what strength and what contrast of colour are consistent with breadth. I 2 When an artist attempts to make a picture with insufficient materials, his timidity obliges him to in- volve the distance in blue, purple, or grey haze; and, if the other circumstances of the landscape are not in harmony with this supposed state of the atmo sphere, the truth of nature is violated : he secures breadth by banishing all strong local colours from his principal light at any sacrifice of truth. But it is especially in the case of Italian scenery that we desire to see a freer and fuller recurrence to nature. Let an artist divest himself of his precon ceived notions of Italian colouring, let him put off his blue and yellow spectacles, and proceed to the spot. We will then ask him did he ever see scenery of which the sky was more brilliantly luminous and trans parent, and the landscape more full of substance and solidity ? Turner's solutions of luminous haze, beautiful as they sometimes are, he will search for long in vain; nor will he recognise the Italy before him in the solid cobalt sky, the French blue sea, the chalky white buildings, the orange foreground and gigantic vine leaves of preternatural peen and yellow which have so long passed current for Neapolitan scenery. The sea and sky of Italy are under certain circumstances intensely blue ; but then the quality of the blue and the accompanying circumstances must be faithfully rendered by the artist. In Mr. Richard son's "Sorrento" (No. 25) the blue of the sea is not true to nature, and any deep shade of blue on the sea is incompatible with the heavy white clouds with which the sky is charged. It is when a light north erly breeze sweeps every curl of vapour from the bright clear vault, and gives a gentle ripple to the sea, that we obtain that intense azure which it is so difficult to represent with truth, and which so many of our countrymen believe to be the ordinary charac teristic of "Italian colouring." Again, if the artist desires to represent the glories of an Italian sunset, no one will deny the richness and the brilliancy of the foreground ; but, if he wastes on it all the re sources of his palette, he has nothing left to repre sent the splendours of the setting sun, and every fresh addition of colour to his sky only makes it more opaque and gravelly. " Lagonegro," a very fine drawing by Mr. Richard son, is an instance of the defects in composition which are caused by the deficiency of materials. Lagonegro is one of the strangest and wildest of thu many romantic towns in the mountain district" south of Naples. To snake a view of Lagonegr look probable and natural the strictest adherence t truth would be necessary. The architectural addt- ■ ■