The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-06 00:00:00

her frout teeth broken. At Joroslaf, while the
Englishwoman was staying there, the serfs of an
estate were treated so vilely by the proprietor,
a lady, that in desperation they laid their case
before the Emperor, imploring him in the
name of God, their common Father, to do
them justice. A commission sent from St.
Petersburg substantiated the truth of the
complaints; the lady was deprived of her
estate, and allowed only a small pension to
keep her from want. Another proprietress
was convicted of cutting and manning children
on her estate, and was exiled to Siberia.
Hence the reverence with which the Czar is
regarded by the peasantry in general. He
alone is their refuge when their oppression
and sufferings become too cruel to be borne.
According to this book the " Russians stand
" infinitely more in fear of their Emperor than
" they do of their Creator. The common say-
" ing, ' The Czar is near, but God is far off,'
" gives a good idea of their feeling on the sub-
" ject." But the power of the Czar to redress
wrong is confined only to glaring cases, and
serfs may be cruelly ground down by their
proprietors without other remedy for their
sufferings than the revenge which Bacon de-
scribes us a kind of " wild justice." When an
estate is farmed to a middle man, the pea-
sants are reduced to the last stage of misery
that the rents may be punctually paid, and
the agent enrich himself.
To further illustrate this subject we have to
quote from the second volume at the head of
this notice, but for the present we break off,
reserving further extracts and remarks for our
next issue.

Biographical Catalogue of the Italian Painters.
By a Lady. Edited by It. N. Wornum.
London : Murray.
Ma. Woasum assumes too much in his state-
ment that " people are generally indifferent
" about pictures and painters," and of those
of Italy in particular, because they have not
any ready means of acquiring knowledge of
the painters themselves. The leading facts in
the lives of the great masters are known to
most intelligent persons, or may be easily
acquired through the popular publications
which already exist, while the works of in-
ferior artists will hardly excite sufficient
notice to stimulate inquiry concerning them.
The usefulness and merit of this " Catalogue"
may be admitted without conceding that depth
of ignorance which Mr. Wornum insists on, or
without going so far as to say that, indepen-
dent of a guide like this, the finest picture "is
" at most a pleasing distribution of masses of
" light, and shade, and colour." Works of art
inspire pleasure from causes irrespective of
the personal history and character of their
author. As well might it be said the Wa
verly novels, before their writer was known,
were at most a collection of letters and words
impressed upon paper, or that the letters of
Junius are but a harmonius combination of
grammatical proprieties. Paintings have a
life and language of their own ; they repre-
sent the pictorial ideas of their creator, are
manifestations of his genius, and, apart from
his existence, speak by their character and ex-
pression. and affect the mind by the senti-
ments of beauty, grandeur, pity, or awe, which
they inspire. Appreciation of art is one thing,
knowledge of its history another, and the
latter is much the more common of the two.
They may exist apart, though often there is
some connection between them. The works
of a painter must depend on their own
qualities for the impression they make, but
his characteristics will be better underst.ood
by some knowledge of his epoch, position in
art, and history.
As a handbook to Italian collections, and a
means of acquiring some distinctive know-
ledge of the various Italian schools, this
volume will be found convenient Persons
tolerably well informed on the leading facts of
art-history will find this "Catalogue" of
great service when viewing Italian works, as
it must contain, we imagine, the names of 500
or 600 Italian painters, with some account in
each case of their lite and labours, where their
principal works are to be found, and to which
school they belong: The information is 00l-

viggri