The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

210 presence is thus ingeniously accounted for in the following memorandum:— " Observing that our list of evidence was not quite what we could have wished it to have been, we considered it ex pedient to put down in our alphabetical index the mimes of Mr. Bailey Jenks, It. Simmons, the landlord of the Lamb and Flag, and other eminent gentlemen spirtstnen to whom our inquiries haul been transmitted, leaving it to the public to discover that the only answer we received from these parties was an intimation to the effect, that they hall HO intention of Wilding any ro tat • with us whatever. Thus that artful and experienced jockey, the very father of the turf, poor dear old Joe Martin, who Mew up Aniseed aky high, aunt said be was only a cum mom fellow and uu seeretary at all, appears in the index side by side with our most deturmitied backers. It is lOU , prising bow much this expedient has eontritotted to the apparent respectability of our list of evidence, and Ism many superficial readers have been taken in by it. One alone of the heads of tmi ll i l it; establishments was too sharp (Or 115, HIIII n 41111114 sit UlleWer, Or We should err wilily have had him diiwn among the rest. Aniseed wrote a letter Insult billiKeir iu his private capacity to himself as secretary of the suborn 111 l ission, by which he imparted to himself inueli valuable inforniuthm ; and, sine tir two of lour torn body following his example, we were easily provided with a mass of evidence suffirient for the purpose of our inquiry." These addenda also contain some portions of the evidence in what we may consider its rough state— harr alio, a letter from Mr. Clackit, M.P. for Old castle-over Mine ; from the Devastation Club, Pen men; and from It. Whitehead, an Australian colonist, formerly engaged in the Oxford coaching business. The latter thus expresses himself in the vernacular : " I cant alma r them Oxford couching chaps, every holly abuses em, and they abut (4)111110.1st to 110 their work. 'They wants more stimulus, tout all 11 a.. ley eaves to is to j o . 1: aliong the rosul, mitil they can get their iii the evanitrv, where they finds the pat wot suits their eon and we hears no tivire fill eat. They (limy sieli a lazy lot 0 Passengers, that them us wants to brush along rant make no way along at all. I was hauled disgusted as how, when I cum nil' the top of a well appinted country (smelt, and had to take my place upon the monkey hoard of one o' these here crowded %vehicles, and took to drink and idleness ilinsediately in consikence. Hut I 144/1.111 got myself into their way o business. and turned out a tie monitions rogue. I drove them ('Mist listrelt Swells lip and ilgovii Logic Iwo., spite the old I lean, for ten how' a day, term after term, 411111 1' sl my conch inside and 11111, till we was a must busted. It W 1•1111 altogether honest quite, • just 10 1111411 as raja 1111'11' fare, 11111. I was onkimmen hurt up just t 114.11, 111111 being, us all allows, a find rate hand, had great temptation fiw to over. load." " lye knowel OxtOrd Gents out in llorseteiiily in weny r 111 l my sitiyatimis, for which they wasnt qualified by an means by a College edieation; sums in partiekler as wf is a Hoods at 111•VIT hail 'well tnu hl by any college Tutor how to put a polish on a Ilts4, or tell a Nuggs4 when lie seed it from a like.. 11111lliS, 1 yet he'll !mid his mooney in Hie Itivrcr every With these remarks, I am, I kmlititi y o ur obedient. servant, ItomN Wurrctickn." These extracts we hare no ►loubt will bespeak attention to this valuable co ntribution t o o ur euritlean literature. P11111.14 . .V114)N5. The Funeral l'rocession of the I)ukr of Wellington. lAmolon : Ackermann and Co. A ' , Axon: oil is the natural form in which to depict procession ; anal among processions there were never any that. better deserved such counmemorati than the splendid and melancholy pageant which pre ceded to Si. l'aul's the funereal car of wetiington. The component parts of that-long cavalcaule--t he represen tatives and emblems by which Church anal State, Queen and People, the Sen lees, the City, the lin vernment, the Empire itself, alike partook in the sad glories of that day---are represented with great acenntey in the panoramic view before us. Without pretending tat artistic finish in drawing or tint, the successive groups of military, state, or civic assistants are very effectively portrayed, much care being evident in pre serving the fidelity of sequence and costume. The panorama is magnificently mounted, and will give a graphic idea of the memorable spectacle to the mul titudes who were Mot present- Ilt , it, and suggest mournful and yet not unpleasing reminiscences to the multitudes who were. The Alphabet Annotated, and Hint* 'Ton Slip-slop. By an Old Etonian. London Ackermann and Co. pretence of vivifying isuiversation from vulgarism and misprominciat ion, the author has strung together a multitude of specimens of both offences in lloggrel veNe, and set them in a frame of very elabo rate and fanciful design. Thus the words or blun ders meat' sl in the text find illustration in the margin, generally of a burlesque tendency. mil often sufficiently laughable. For example, the ineffectual II in " honour" is symbolised by a candidate pledg ing himself on the hWings, and the treatment in- \,_ THE PRESS. Meted on the same unfortunate literal in other quarters depicted in the Massacre of the Innocents. There is much pleasant fancy in the tracery-work with which the various etched groups are bordered and connected; and many of the flowers and leaf wreaths are very gracefully drawn. In his figures the artist's drawing is noticeably coarse and incorrect. The letterpress is far from good—hardly worthy, in deed, the pains that have been lavished on its dress and decoration. MAU AZIN k:S. Illackwomrst Magazine for July. Loudon : wood and Co. A sTmstxo paper on the " Fine Arts and Public Taste in 1,45:1" forms the centre-piece of the :fitly number of Blackwood. It is written with abundant. dash and cleverness, evidently by a lurid experienced alike with pen and pencil, and, like most other art criticisms, is full of pungency and personality. The only critics who retain in our polite days any traces of the fierceness which characterised all literature in times when men had strong (opinions, and spoke them strongly, are those who deal with► art. The present writer discourses upon Mr. Ruskin and his " lamps," Turner's style and school, the vagaries of public taste, the flayings at the National Gallery, pre-Raphaelism, and Mr. Millais. The pictures of the last-mentioned artist in the present Exhibition are minutely scrutinised and treated, critically speak ing, just as the cleaners have practically done with the Claude in the other wing of the building. With all his savagery, however, the author has written an essay which is well worth reading. Another art art icle, of milder spirit, is devoted to Mrs. Jameson's " Legends of the Madonna." Two historical papers on Mr. Weiss's " Histoire des Refugees Pmtestantes en France," and the Castlereagh Correspondence ; a Chapter on Life Assurances; and the usual political article, in which the fertile subject of gold and emi gration is skilfully discussed, contribute to make up an excellent number of the great magazine of North Britain. Fraiser's Mayazine for July. London : Parker and Sot►. THE contents of this month's Muter exhibit some thing more than the usual variety of treatment and topic. A new chapter is added to the interesting series on the natural history of fishes, devoted to the investigation of the Carpiana and Letteisca species, i'ulgo, the fresh-water carp and bleak. Another paper contains much well digested information re garding the French naval forces. Hut the most telling article at the present moment is on table turning, in which the writer, on abstract principles, suggest: the same solution to the phenomena as Sir Michael Faraday has reached after his carefully conducted experiments, viz., the involuntary action of the muscles. The Church of Englund Quarterly Review for July. London : Painter. WITHIN the limits of its peculiar domain this review exhibits much spirit and literary talent. It is now the recognised exponent of the opinions of a large section of Established Churchmen, and it: writers perform very ably the functions devolving upon them under that character. Some of the articles in the present number treat of topics possessing more ge neral and lay interest., and impart an acceptable variety to its contents. oun LinnAin"r %nix. The `Iflr!I .?‘. Coife euxtle. Right Ilan, Geo. Ilat►kea. 'Murray. Meii,,ia, Viscount Ingestr. I'lu•ker and Muni. ./k/i)rat v i the l'exhisarethery Jurbolietht. Buttxmortit. I'wmg. Sermiti EsWinn. Alexander Smith. Motile. I 'est(4 . .xiosis tfralt Elogli.h Opiuwettler. titailikin, Marshall, 111111 CO. Memoir,. of a Shmsterh. l'aistor. 3hwieret liaotextie l'iNikery. Murray. stegor t'ulfiruf ;MI. A, illilliphlet. SIeNVIIIi 1111/1 Murray. The Life and Muth el Sitax llfirtmlmle. Ily Talbot I:stilts.. Smith and 1.:141..r. The Teitiv el fhe 1 . 1141. Lienteliallt I losper, U.N. Mur r ay. tint arts. BRITISH IN sTarnox. Is, I Notice.] Wr. have already mentioned the pictures by Claude as tine specimens of his powers. No. •f, "Apollo tending the Flocks of Admetus," and No. s, "A Sea port," both the property of Lord Leicester, are tine pictures anti in good condition, suffering at this mo ment, perhaps, from an overdose of varnish. No. 10, "Cupid and Psyche," by the same master, the property of Mr. Perkins, is not, perhaps, in so good a state; it has been less scrupulously cleaned ; and, it' we do not detect the brush of the restorer in the principal parts of the picture, we see signs of his heavy hand in the group of trees in the centre from which the glazing colour has been heedlessly rubbed away. We think, moreover, he has judged ill iu " tilling SATURDAY, in the cracks " in the sky and distant mountains, an operation which, however carefully performed ( and we have no complaint to make on this score), must always remain perceptible. The cracks themselves are of little consequence, and are hardly visible ex cept on the closest inspection, whereas the colour that is superadded changes the atmosphere of the picture, and renders it harsh and crude. This picture is, nevertheless, a work of the highest merit, exhibiting all those peculiar excellences for which the master is celebrated—the graceful composition, a transcript of all that is beautiful in Italian landscape, the rich and mellow foliage, the distance melting into the sky, and the whole glowing beneath a southern sun. No. s:t, a fine landscape by I'oussin, belonging to Lord Wicklow, is the best work of the master in the collection. Of the works of Canaletti the specimens are nume mus. In some that bear his name we detect little of his hand ; for Caualetti, though a mannerist, is the most difficult painter to copy or imitate. Two views taken on the Thames, the property of the Duke of Northum berland, though so inferior in beauty of subject to those which lie usually handled, will have a great in terest for Englishmen. We regret that they have been rendered hard and crude by overcicaning. By far the finest painting by this master which the collection contains—perhaps the finest in England— is a large picture numbered 173, and miscalled in the catalogue "The Festival of St. Luke." The build ing represented is the Scuola di S. Rocco, a palace belonging to a religious confraternity of that name, amongst which Venetian citizens of all ranks were indiscriminately enrolled, and of which the Doge for the time being was ex-q§kio a member. The wealthy brotherhood were bound by a Vow to render mutual succour and assistance to each other, and on the 15th of August, the saint's festival, the Doge, with all his court, paid a selemn visit to the shrine, and having offered his devotions, and witnessed the charitable dis tribution that succeeled the service, heiwas presented with a nosegay (which will be observed in his hand in the picture) by the superior or guardian. He took his departure with the same ceremonious pomp with which he entered. It is the departure that is represented in this magnificent picture with equal spirit, truth, and beauty. Every detail in architec ture, ceremonial, and costume is strictly observed. The extraordinary accuracy observable in the works of this master is not the least of his numerous merits. No. 37, a beautiful landscape by Wynants, the property of Mr. Leicester—a wood, a sunny bank, and a tuft of trees, a combination which, pretty in itself, yet requires the taste and execution of this charming artist to form into a picture. No. 61, a landscape by Both ; No. 107, "Scenery near Subiaco," by the same painter ; a contribution from the tine collection of Mr. Perkins. The last of these is the best picture ; but both, together with some of the beau ties, have also the characteristic defects of the mas ter. The atmosphere of both is clear and sunny, the tone equally mellow and harmonious, but they have the same faulty composition. The objects are unevenly distributed over the canvas, and balanced ; a huge bill occupying two-thirds of the picture, and a small opening on a blue distance being thrust into a corner—a composition obviously artificial, yet without the beauty and elegance we have a right to expect in a fancy landscape. No. 105, "Moonlight," by Van der Neer, and No. 43, another " Moonlight," by the same hand, both tine specimens, and both possessing in a nearly equal degree the same merits—a natural and agreeable composition, lighted by the pale beams of a full moon reflected in a stream which occupies the centre of the picture. The effect is excellent, and the light does not exceed that which a t'ull moon might cast over the landscape on a fine night. No. 57, "A Calm," by Vandevelde, another mas terpiece from the collection of Mr. Perkins. A fleet of considerable strength is calmly lying at anchor in water of glassy smoothness; a bright sun shining overhead dissolving every object that falls within its rays into a dazzling hazy white; the distant vessels, their sails flapping in the air, hardly distinguishable from the luminous sky, on which they seem a fleecy cloud. All tell of a calm, but of a calm in a northern sea which may at any moment be converted into a gale. This picture has all the technical merits of the admirable painter, all his knowledge of shipping, his luminous skies and flat water. There are several cattle-pieces by Culp, but not, perhaps, possessing that distinctive merit which would entitle them to any particular notice, at least in a country which possesses specimens of the master of such superior excellence. No. 17, the "like des Chandrons," a contribution from Woburn Abbey, possesses many of the best qualities of Teniers. It has all his brilliant execu tion, that minute finish and perfect freedom which we so rarely see united except in his pictures. This specimen is defective, perhaps, in the aerial perspec tive for which he was also remarkable: the more distant figures are not kept in due subordination, and the distance wants both substance and atmo sphere.