The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

son. It is elevated by the contemplation of Him
or His works in nature, and comforted by being
continually surrounded with sensible evidences
of his care. And we should tremble for the
spiritual condition of men, if belief in these
sensible evidences were, as they have been,
weakened by the refinements of too subtle and
contemplative intellects.
These books, with others of a somewhat
similar bearing, are a remarkable indication of
thA theological tendencies of our time, and so
far may excuse the space we have devoted to
them. We have yet to notice Mr. Thomson's
treatise, which obtained the first Burnett prize,
and Mr. Bins volume on the " Intellect and
the Senses."

The Louvre; or, Biography of a Museum. By
Bayle St. John. London : Chapman and
Hall.
THOSE English who have been to Paris will
perhaps remember a large building on the
right bank of the Seine, through which they
hurried so precipitately that they can merely
call to mind one or two galleries full of
pictures, some statues that had lost their
arms, and were therefore curious relics, and
a very comfortable divan in the centre of the
great saloon. We have frequently been struck
by observing the process required for " doing
the Louvre." Some people pass all pictures
with a deliberate scrutiny, and deliberately
exclaim " Beautiful ! " at intervals of a minute.
Some settle about the programme of the next
day's amusements, or divert your attention
from " La Belle Jardiniere " to express a hope
that they may see you in town. For some the
Louvre is a convenient lounging-place ; for
others it is a favorite place for boring their
companions ; for few is it the temple of art and
the permanent abiding•place of the immortal
labours of the greatest painters.
To those who are really interested in art we
can recommend Mr. Bayle St. John's volume.
They are sure to receive some information
from its pages, and may also calculate on
much pleasure. If not an artist, Mr. St. John
possesses many of an artist's characteristics,
with delicate sense of beauty and highly-
cultivated taste. His book gives in addition
a history of the Louvre, the vicissitudes it
passed through before it was made a museum,
and the neglect it suffered owing to the
caprices of its different rulers. This part of
the book will be new to many who are familiar
with the Louvre of the present day.
We find that the Louvre was first built by
Philippe-Auguste in the shape of a feudal
fortress, in which state it remained for above
three hundred years. It then became a royal
residence, and, alternately restored and ne-
glected through many reigns, it passed into a
kind of Hampton Court, accommodating
officers of the Crown and others with lodg-
ings :
It became (says Mr. St. John) the great hotel, the
lodging•house of the whole rabble of Court followers,
Court artists, ant Court sevens. In order to increase the
number of habitable rooms, most of the great halls were
divided horizontally and perpendicularly by temporary
floorings and partitions ; staircases and chimneys were
cut through the walls ; on all sides projected ircn tubes of
the most hideous shape, that perpetually vomited smoke
and soot. By degrees some of the inhabitants who could
afford to keep horses turned the lower halls into stables ;
the Government post•house was built against the colon-
nade, along which were ranged long lines of mangers;
wooden sheds gradually accumulated on every side.
This state of things was gradually being
swept away, till the Republic of 1848, by
which a certain M. Jeauron was appointed
director. It would seem that the energy of
the Republic with regard to the Louvre tends
to overthrow the theory advanced in Johnson's
favorite line—
And never rebel was to arts a friend.
M. Jeauron, the Director of the Museums,
displayed wonderful energy in bringing the
Louvre to its present state. During the
Revolution of 1848 he pacified the insurgents,
who would have made the Louvre follow tho
fate of the Palais Royal, the flames from
which lighted up the skies, by assuring them
that the Louvre belonged not to the King but
to the nation, and that in destroying it they
would destroy their own property. He also
began to reclaim all the pictures belonging to
the Louvre that had been either lent out to

SATURDAY,

copy or presented to Ministers for their own
apartments. Mr. St. John informs us that
-

The royal manufactories of Sevres, the Gobelins and
Beauvais, were fond of reproducing the most important
works of art in the museum, and for this purpose, instead
of making copies, obtained the loan of the originals, and
frequently kept them fur many years. I may mention, as
an instance, that Raphael's " Vierge an Linge " was kept
for five years in the atelier of Madame Ducluyeau, who
was engaged in copying it on porcelain fur the manufac-
tory of Sevres. It was only restored to the gallery in
September, 1848, by M. Jeauron, who insisted that the
public ought no longer to be deprived of its view. The
Vierge su Voile," by the same master, had also been long
kept from exhibition for a similar purpose.
M. Jeauron's interference in houses where
the pictures belonging to the Louvre had been
long displayed, was often resented. We are
told that a functionary actually opposed with
success the removal from the place absurdly
given to it of Le-Sueur's " Phaethon," under
the pretence that, as it had been made a
ceiling of, its absence would be disagreeably
felt in the apartment of the Due de Nemours.
Mr. St. John hazards a supposition that if
some prince could be found to make use of
the cartoons of Raphael to carpet his ball-
room, the same appeal to accomplished facts
would be the answer to any complainant.
Another evil against which the hero of Mr.
Baylo St. John's book made a vigorous stand
was the system of picture•cleaning, which ap-
parently was originally invented for the pur-
pose of entirely cleaning the canvas from the
pollutions of paint. Magnificent pictures
have been scrubbed with coarse sand till they
became worthless. Not contented with having
a live negro, the owners of pictures would fain
scrub him to get the dirt off; and the conse-
quences are the same with pictures and the
negro in lEsop who was scoured to death.
On this subject we find one or two quotable
passages :
- - •

I undertook a copy of the picture of Sebastian del
Piombo, " The Virgin going to visit St. Elizabeth "—a
fine thing, large, sober, and rich, where the double in•
fluence of Michael Angelo and Giorgione manifested itself
in the most learned conciliation and the most imposing
unity—a masterpiece, in fact. The picture disappeared,
and ascended to the paradise of restorers, the hell of
painters. Some months after, this admirable work, worn
down, violated, destroyed, reappeared in its place. I was
struck dumb : I understood the whole extent of the mis-
chief—of the crime, I must call it.
Louis Philippe was not devout, I think ; but, on the
other hand, he was very clean. What a vast amount of
pictures were scrubbed under his reign ! How many
beautiful pieces of colour dirtied, during that period, the
essence, alcohol, and so appears in those active ateliers of
restoration which were favored with such frequent visits!
Crosses of Honour were gained at that work, and immense
sums to boot. A Dutch picture•dealer, I think—a M. de
Niewenhuis, whose acquaintance I made whilst copying
under his eyes the " Man with the Toque" of Rembrandt
—said to me one day, " If your king goes on in this style,
I would only give one•feurth for his gallery in twenty
years."
After reading the accounts given by Mr. St.
John of these restorations, one can readily
imagine one of the old masters appearing
from his grave to have a look at his pictures.
With what an incredulous stare would he not
greet those spurious pieces of canvas, with
fresh colour badly laid on, so as to spoil all
the delicacy of touch that he bestowed upon
his favorite works ! Was it for this that he
had toiled so perseveringly, that he had re-
ceived such a gift of genius ? And while he
gazed in honour and wrath at this desecration
of his powers he might hear some modern,
commenting on his restored pi,tture, saying,
" Not so bad for an ancient, that ! But you
" should see our modern paintings ! "
The third and fourth chapters of the book
are among the most valuable, as they describe
the way in which most of the pictures in the
Louvre came into the possession of the French
nation. Mr. Bayle St. John gives an enter-
taining account of the triumphal entry into
Paris of the objects of art and materials of
science—books, statues, manuscripts, and pic-
tures—seized in Italy during the early Italian
wars

Among these pictures were fifteen by Raphael, seventeen
by Perugino, twenty eight by Guercino, four by Cerreggio,
nine by Guido, and five by Titian, many others of the best
masters being also among the spoils.

In statuary, we find the "Apollo Belvedere,"
the " Nine Muses," the " Antinous," the
" Laocoon," the " Gladiator," and the " Mel-
pomene " of the Capitol, borne in the same
procession. After the citation of such apolia
opima, the French should hardly twit their
neighbours about the Elgin marbles.

JUNE 7,1855.

It is characteristic of the great public build-
ings of France that each one is, to some extent,
characteristic of the mutations of the nation.
The Louvre is no exception to the rule, and
Mr. St. John in describing its present state
has pleasantly brought before us the traditions
which connect it with the progress of the
French nation.

AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS.
The Wabash; or, Adventures of an English Gentle.
man's Family in the Interior of America. By
J. Richard Bests, Esq. London : Hurst and
Blacken.
America and the Americans. By W. E. Baxter,
Esq., M.P. London: Routledge.
A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada.
By C. R. Weld. London : Longmans.
A Few Months in America. By James Robertson.
London : Longmans.
OF all countries in the world, [none has fur-
nished such a constant succession of books of
travel, by British authors, as the United States
of America. The fact is the more remarkable
as the number of travellers is by no means
large. For every one who makes the passage
of the Atlantic there are twenty who cross the
British Channel, and yet France and Spain, Italy
and Germany, provoke much less remark. Ve all
feel an interest in this rival nation, of the same
race and language with ourselves, and yet so dif-
ferent in all its habits and sympathies. Its progress
is more rapid than our own, its power and wealth
are wonderfully increasing, and there larks in our
breasts a sentiment of apprehension lest we should
be outstripped by our own offshoot, and have to
yield the supremacy we so long have proudly
claimed. Yet we cannot conceal our cunosity to
know what is their polity, and what the tendency of
their institutions and characzer.
The tour accomplished by each of the four
gentlemen whose books are bet ore us was
nearly the same. Landing at New York, they
visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington,
from thence proceeded to the southern and slave
States, and returning by the great lakes to Niagara,
Montreal, and Quebec, and crossing the frontier
between Canada and the States, they once more
reached Boston and New York en route to England.
Upon the whole, these tourists differ but little in
Vietir descriptions and opinions of America and the
Americans. They appear to state their impres-
sions with candour and accuracy, and only to have
arrived at their conclusions after a fair consideration
of the facts. Mr. Weld, perhaps, in his " Vacation
Tour," is too willing to pass over the faults and pecu-
liarities of our transatlantic cousins, and only
willing to see what is pleasant; but in a " Vacation
Tour" that may be pardoned. The great questions
of commerce, education, policy, manners, and slavery,
are all spoken of impartially, and every credit given
to the energy, vigour, and mental activity of the
Americans, and to the immense natural resources of
the country. Yet the peculiarities of the People, the
deficiencies of their system, both political and com-
mercial, and the diversities of the country and its
climate, are not the less remarked. In "The
Wabash" we have as good a sketch of the people,
their manners, and their country—fresh, racy, and
natural—as could be desired. Mr. Bests writes with
spirit and distinctness ; his book, moreover, is full of
incident and abounds in lively anecdotes. Mr.
Baxter, in his "America and the Americans," is
sensible and concise. He travelled all over the
country, and mixed in every society, with the object
of seeing with his own eyes what so many observers
of American manners and progress have either mis-
represented or caricatured, and he relates his ob-
servations in a series of pleasant sketches, at once
lively and instructive. Mr. Robertson's book, in
contradistinction to these, is the very carefully-pre-
pared and accurately-written survey of the practical
commercial man who has thoroughly mastered the
principles of American commerce. With tables and
statistical returns of the trade of every State, his
book is valuable for reference, and gives in a simple
form an insight to the trade of the country, and
that vast commercial system which is at least one of
the wonders of the world. Of Mr. Weld's book we
can say no more than that it is a lively-sketch of his
tour through the States.
• The two great things which appear to strike a man
most upon his first landing in America are the uni-
versality of trade as a means of living, wholesale and
retail, and the complete absence of religious distinc-
tions. To these must be added a third—the per-
petual presence of expectoration in all forms and

places :
A stranger voyaging in a Mississippian steamboat might
well arrive at the conclusion that expectoration was a ne-
cessity of existence with the natives of that region. The
deck, paddle•boxes, railings, cabins, stoves, and chairs

THE PRESS.

of the vessels are often so besmeared with brown
juice, that you cannot distinguish their colour. 1 made a
trip on the Ohio with a young man whom I never saw but
once, even at meals, without a quid rolled in his cheek,
and who squirted with remarkable regularity, according to
my watch, seven times per minute, or 11,040 times in twelve
hairs. Another person who sat beside me in a Presby-
terian church at Cincinnati kept up an incessant fire of
liquid tobacco during the service, and on one of my first
journeys on American railroads, between New York and
Philadelphia, having been incautious enough to lay my
writing-desk on the floor of the car, I found it, on rising to
leave, in the midst of a pool of, and quite saturated with,
the juice of the weed. Nor can I ever forget a scene in
the hall of the Virginia Howl at St. Louis, one wet
evening in the autumn of 18.53, when the floor was a sea
of rain-water and liquid tobacco, while the spitting
rendered it impossible for an uninitiated stranger to walk
about or read the newspapers. In the street, at the bar-
rooms, or on the decks of steamers, however, one can
generally, by a little dexterity, avoid being spat upon,
unless, indeed, he received an unexpected volley at a
corner ; but in a railroad-car there is no way of escape.
One man spits on the floor between your legs, solo:her out
at the window, within an inch of your nose, a third over
your shoulder on the side of the carriage, a fourth makes
a target of the door by which you wish to make your exit ;
you let fall your glove on the floor, it floats in tobacco-
juice, and your wife's gown is ruined by contact with the
filthy boards of the carriage.
In matters of delicacy and taste every country
under the sun has some favorite points upon which it
refines and others upon which it relaxes, but in this
matter of expectoration Jonathan, with his European
experience, cannot expect us to relax. Why even
his daughters have incurred the same habit, ac-
cording to Mr. Beste, except that they chew pitch in-
stead of tobacco But this is not the only point upon
which we differ so essentially in national habit. We are
fond of outdoor sports, and consider them essential
to manliness of character; the American, unless on
business, seldom stirs outside his door. Of this
intense devotion to business every writer bears
witness. " Early to bed and early to rise," they
are never an hour during the interval sway from
their work. "It is one of the worst features of
American life," says Mr. Beste :
Every man is in business, and the business is never
over. Nominally the office may be shut, but, in reality,
the merchant, or the lawyer, or the commission agent, is
b Rind to be at the beck and call of whoever may want him.
From the early morning until late at night he is only per.
mitted to snatch s quarter of an hour or twenty minutes,
during which be may rush away to swallow his food : that
feat accomplished, as Americans only can accomplish it,
he must hurry back to his office to await the pleasure of
some one who might just as well have called at an earlier
hour. Under such a system no domestic feeling, no do-
mestic establishment, is possible. The man of business
can have no mornings and no evenings with his family. I
know some in these western States who have attempted to
adopt the European plan ; who have given notice that
their offices would be really closed at four or five o'clock :
they were considered to be presumptuous and impertinent,
as setting themselves above their clients, and dictating at
what hour they would earn their money ; and others in
the same line of business, lacking the honour said to exist
among thieves, the esprit de corps, or the spirit of combi-
nation which actuates Europeans. improved the discontent,
and ran off with the business from their more refined and
gentlemanly brethren.
- - -

In such a country, where labour is the highest
aim of every man, it is surprising to find that
the women are the most superficial, lazy, indolent
creatures upon earth, thinking of nothing but their
dinners and their dresses, and living mostly in board-
ing-houses to avoid the trouble of domestic cares,
passing their time either over a stove or in a rocking-
chair, with a fan and a French novel :
However (says Mr. Baxter) they may differ in other
particulars, European travellers have expressed themselves
with wonderful unanimity on this subject. Indeed, the
evil is so self-evident, that the most prejudiced cannot fail
to notice it. Young ladies who in all other civilised
countries would be considered mere boarding-school misses,
in whom modesty is regarded as the most essential ac•
quirement, in the United States, casting off all restraint,
not only act an independent part and display an ease of
manner savouring painfully of pertness and pretension,
but actually assume the lead in society. Prematurely em-
barked on the sea of life, they acquire at an early age a
self-confidence and a freedom of demeanour by no means
feminine or calculated to please an impartial spectator.
Forward without genius, and talkative without information,
they often render conversation frivolous, and overbear
wiser heads by their loud assumption of unnatural dignity.
It is repugnant to proper feeling to see married women,
though distinguished for beauty and accomplishments,
comparatively neglected in company, while girls of sixteen
or seventeen, who have nothing to recommend them but
thoughtlessness and volubility, are surrounded with
listeners. Nor is this abuse confined to the drawing-room
and the evening party ; it enters into the daily routine of
domestic duties. Instead of assisting her mother, the
lovely Miss M laughs at and snubs her, asks whom
she pleases to visit at the house, and does nothing all day
long but flirt, lounge, and read ncvels My
fair transatlantic friends may think these criticisms severe ;
but candour compels me to charge them further with the
excessive love of dress, and with being so extravagant in
this respect that it is the most fertile subject of complaint
on the part of husbands and fathers. Nothing is more
common than for a lady to incur enormous bills to drapers

647

all over town for silks, satins, and India shawls, without
the knowledge of the unfortunate individual who must pay
them ; and when she goes to Newport or Saratoga fur a
month in summer, she orders a new dress for every
morning, and another fur every evening of her sojourn.
The extent to which this silly vanity is carried would
scarcely be credited, even in the gayest circles of Europe.
Nor can I overlook the injury they do to their own health
and the health of the nation by not taking exercise. Not
only in the towns, but in country quarters, they often sit
from sunrise to sunset in rockiug•chairs ; the idea of walk-
ing appears shocking to them, and as to roaming in the
woods or climbing hills, they would regard any one who
proposed such a thing as a madman. Round a suffocating
stove during winter, and diligently fanning themselves all
summer, they lead a sort of butterfly life, which may yet
tell most unfavorably on the succeeding generations.
Mr. Beste is still more severe. Speaking of the
conceit and affectation of American women, he con-
tinues :

Whether it take the tone of sentimentality or indifference,
the affectation is always there. The nasal whine, which
Englishmen feel to be so revolting, is, I really believe, in
great part affected; the most commonplace observations
are thought to be rendered touching and full of meaning
when drawled forth at the rate of five words an hour in
that languidly-sentimental or rigidly-precise twang. I
have remarked on the excessive politeness of all American
men to all females, whether in the saloons of steamers or
elsewhere: I have remarked upon the elegant dress of the
American women : I have remarked upon the lounging and
rocking-chairs in which they rock and fan themselves in-
cessantly : but I have not remarked upon their care of
their children on those occasions; I have not remarked on
any wish to inform their minds, shown by the books car-
ried with them ; I have not remarked upon any endeavour
to amuse and employ their fingers with fancy-work—l
have not remarked on these, because, in no saloon through-
out America, did I ever see any female even momentarily
employed with children, with books, or with needlework.
Let it not be said that I came direct to the backwoods, and
had no opportunity of forming an opinion. I came by
fashionable steam-boats and large towns ; and I so returned.
I lingered at fashionable watering-places. Everywhere I
saw the same listless, whining apathy : the same idleness
and affectation of helpless fine•ladyiam. Where an Eng-
lishwoman, of whatever class, would have had her
embroidery frame or her crochet-work, or even her novel,
the American woman, whether rich or poor, had her
rocking-chair and her fan ; her simper and her sigh, her
whine and her finery.
One striking peculiarity of the Americans is
their utter disregard for life. Mr. Weld upon this
point gives some entertaining anecdotes. Being
anxious to see the cemetery at Cincinnati, he hired
a buggy, and was driven off as usual at a break-neck
rate :

I am not a nervous man, so, although we went at a
breakneck rate, careering over stones and through deep
ruts, I made no remonstrance, having faith in the springs.
But when, on turning a corner, we came suddenly in sight
of a board with the well known notice. " Look out for the
locomotive when the bell rings," which was made more
impressive by hearing the signal, and seeing the line of
steam announcing the proximity of a train, I was some-
what anxious, as my driver did not manifest the slightest
disposition to stop. As usual, the road and railway crossed
on the same level, which did not lessen my anxiety. " Hold
hard ! stop, stop !" I cried; and, as these words received
no attention, 1 rose from my seat and grasped the driver's
arm for the purpose of arresting our progress, but in vain.
Lashing the home with redoubled energy, he replied to my
intreaties to stop by the assurance he would go ahead of
the en-gine ; and to my horror on we went, buggy and
train approximating rapidly at right angles, the locomo-
tive's bell meanwhile ringing furiously what seemed to be
my death-knell. Finding all my efforts to avert an antici-
pated collision were futile, I resumed my seat, and re-
signed myself to my fate. What I did or said during the
next few moments I know not; but I remember a feeling
of sickness came over me as we dashed across the line,
and I beheld the iron horse rushing onwards, and almost
felt the hot blast of its steam jets.
"There, I told you I'd clear the darn'ol thing," said my
drivet, chuckling over the achievement, " but 'twits a close
shave.'
This little adventure added to my experience of the ex-
traordinary disregard of human life in America; buts more
striking example was in store for me, as will be seen here-
after. It is indeed impossible to travel far or long without
meeting with cases illustrating the fact, and the traveller
should deem himself fortunate if he be not included in the
list of killed or wounded. I heard a pithy anecdote bear-
ing on this subject, which we must hope is only truthful
in its moral. "Jack," said a man to a lad just entering
his teens, " your father's drowned." " Darn it," replied
the young hopeful, " and he's got my knife in his pocket."
As Administrative Reform is a popular topic at
present in this country, it is worth while examining
how things go on under a democratic Government
in America :
" Political corruption ( says a late article in Harper's Maga-
sine,the Quarterly of the Statesl—why has it become a
jest and a bye-word amongst na—a settled phrase denoting
a fixed fact in our history—a fact now conceded by all
parties, and which no intelligent man ever thinks of deny•
ing ? We hear it from all sides. There is political cor-
ruption, and that too on the broadest scale—corruption in
all parties—corruption in leading partisans—corruption
in political measures--corruption in political services
—corruption in the dispensation of offices—corruptioa
in the management of the press—corruption among almost
the entire class of those who may be called politicians by
profession—agrowing corruption, or, what is equally bad,