The National Register. — London, England, 1808-06-13 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. JUNE IS. lt . : 1 : century performing' nearly the same casts of character. We hope that the rage of retirement will not spread itself any farther among the veterans of the stage : it is with great uneasi aess that we look forward to the departure of Mr. Lewis. TINE ARTS. sion, this picture surpasses any thing of the same kind, that we for a long time have seen : the eagerness of the countenance la catching, and we feel ourselves animated while we gaze. • 20. Maternal Affection. A. J. OLIV ER, A. " Who sate and watched my infant head, 46 When sleeping on my cradled bed ? a " My mother!" This picture is not without faults : but where the general feel ing is true to nature and to taste, little de%iation, snottlit not be minutely scanned, particularly in a young artist. The attitude and expression have great tenderness : and the softness and en itesty of the colouring are well adapted to the temper of Mae -übject. LAW REPORT. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, WESTMINSTER, SATURDAY, JUNE 11. TRIAL OF GOVERNOR PICTON FOR TORTURE. This was an indictment against the Defendant, charging biro with applying the torture to Louisa Cauldrone, a girl 1 9 years , old, in the Island of Trinidad. The Defendant had been cm victed of the offence, with which he stood charged, but a success ful application for a new trial had been granted, on the growls that the Defendant, as Governor of the Island of Trinidad, tee justified in inflicting the torture by the laws of Spain. Mr. Garrow, for the Prosecution, opened the case eloquemiy. It was not his intention to take up the time of the Court by a detail of the facts, which the Jury would have better fans Louisa Cauldrone ; hut the case the Learned Counsel .described as being one which deeply interested the public, inasmuch as it involved the character. of the British name, by charging a Bridsle Governor with cruelties which Englishmen would shudder at. The Learned Counsel commented at considerable length on the alleged conduct of the Governor, and at the conclusion of his speech he observed that he should reply to any defence that might be set up in order to justify the conduct of the Defends**. Louisa Cauldron was examined. She stated that she lived servant to Pedro Louis, in the 1 . -land of Trinidad, in the year 1801. A robbery had been committed in the house of her wes ter, and witness was taken into custody on suspicion, as 14 . 41 M also , a man whom she knew of the name of Carlos Goes:dee, and they were taken before Governor Picton, who said that if w 410.14 did not confess who committed the robbery, he would deliver her over to the hangman. Witness was guardA to prison, and after 11 days confinement she was taken before Mr. Begerat, to ss horn she denied any knowledge of the robbery. In the even ing the witness was taken to the picket, and put upon it, the right hand being fixed to a pulley on the ceiling, and the Left leg on the picket. whilst the other arm and leg were bound to gether behind her, and in that situation wkness fainted, and she could not say haw long she had undergone the torture. He gerat was present at the torture, and on being questioned by him, witness confessed that Gonsalee had committed the robbe ry ; and this confession was made whilst under torture. After having been taken down, witness was put in heavy irons, aart sent again to prison, and the following day was put ou the picket, in which situation she remained Merit) , minutes. She was again questioned as to the robbery, and she made the same con fession to Begerat that (ionsalez was the thief. Witness wits afterwards confined eight months in irons, and she was so much injured that she could not stand upwright. Her wrists awl under her arms were parts so much injured that she had not yet recovered ; and at the time of the iatliction of the torture, she was not more than 14 years of age, and had las ed two sears in the service of Pedro Louis. Witness stated that she had cot a person to defend her, our was nay one ;remitted to have acqess to her. She had been picketted without food, and the pain seas very bad. Witness was at length di-charged by the order of Governor Piston. Mr. Garrow was about to call other witnesses, when Mr.. Dallas admitted the torture. The Learned Counseljust:tied the conduct of Governor Picton upon various grounds, the most ma terial of which was, that the laws of Spain authorised torture, and consequently the conduct al the Governor was justifiable, for be was bound by the terms of the capitulation to enforce the existing lass sof the place. The Defendant had acted by the advice of one of the Judges of Trinidad, and the girl's crease was of a nature, which in this country would have subjected her to an ignominious death. The Learned C6uusel proceeded to justify the Defeedant's conduct tt great tenth, and aith coasidcrable after EXHIBITION AT AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY. No. 9. Village School-Mistress.-13. MIRNEI.I.. This is a picture conceived like the works of Mr. Wilkie, on en humble subject, but certainly conceived in a loftier style. The arrangement and expression of the various figures which consti tute the infantine groupes of this picture, deserve a considerable praise; but this artist appears to be exceedingly deficient in the mechanism of his profession. He has taken no pains to imitate the external appearances of nature i he seems to have attended only to the expression of feelings. If we are asked whether we pre fer this picture, with all its strength of imagination, and all its weakness of execution, to the picture of Mr. Wilkie, which is often set up as the standard by which this work of Mr. Burnell must be judged, we shall have no hesitation in declaring, How ever hold the assertion may appear, that we would always ra ther see a weak execution accompanying a strong imagination, than a strong execution employed to hide a weak imagination. We have been attacked for asserting that the ability of Mr. Wil kie is not to be termed strictly genius. We adhere to that as sertion. He has some talent in expression, but it is usually a very humble expression; his principal cleverness seems to lie in his execution. But is execution, even of the most perfect kind, to be denominated genius ? Is expression of feelings so humble as those described by Mr. Wilkie, a kind of expression that de serves a title which is given to the most sublime efforts of the human mind ? Execution in painting is just what versifica tion is in poetry; a valuable aid to the works of genius, but not genius in itself. Mr. Wilkie's style of expression in painting is what an epigram is in poetry : a quaint, sharp, hitting idea, which deserves the name of talent, clever ness, acute observation, but not genius. Styles of poetry and painting. which are. mach above this kind of production, for in stance, the style of Horace's satires, and the sty le of Hogarth's pictures, may be humour, may he wit, but even these are not genius. If any body will prove to us that Mr. Wilkie's style is a style that operates upon the feelings, or enlarges tke under standings of those who view his pictures, we will gladly acknow ledge our error, and allow hint the praise of great genius, as readily as we now allow him the praise of great cleverness. C. Cardinal Beaufort terrified l' the supposed Apparition of Gloucester. 11. FusEnt, It. A. " lie hath no eyes : the dust has blinded them. " Comb down his hair; look ! look ! it stands upright." Second Part of King Henry V.l. Act 3, Scene 3. Mr. Fuseli, in his ardour for obtaining the reputation of ge nius has rashed upon an extreme, exactly the opposite of that which we have mentioned in Mr. Wilkie, and treated the town ith bombast. This is a " Vaulting ambition, which o'crleaps itself " And falls &the other— Mr. Fuseli seems to have a black and blue imagination : that tinges every object which enters it. He looks through a dark ened glass, and of course sees every colour deeper than it appears to ordinary eyes. But this eccentricity Is not admirable : it is merely strange. In viewing this picture a thousand faults rush upon the mind. We will pass over the unnatural outlines of the figures in general, and mention but one defect : which is the right eye of Cardinal Beaufort. " Ile has no eyes," says the Cardinal, speaking of the supposed apparition:, and really one would think, from looking at Mr. Fuseli's picture, that the Cardinal meant to supply that deficiency in the ghost, by the loan of one of his own visual orbs : for his Reverence's right eye which by the bye is nothing but a round ball of dirty white, like the eye in a boiled cod, is actually come from the inside of the head, and seems rather to hang on the eyelid than to glare from the socket. Mr. Fuseli never spoke more truly than when he `lid: " If you want things as they were, go to Northcote : .11 you want things as they are, go to Opie : if you want things as they never were and never will be, come to me." 49. Trap-ball: Portrait of a Young Gentleman. 11. THOM-. SON, R. A. This picture is placed in an unfavourable situation of the room : but its merits will bring it very forward upon the. minds of critical obiervera. • For natural attitude and lively expres- ~. d ' :, 1 i '‘ ..., $ 1