The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The Laws of War• affecting Commerce and Shipping.
By H. Byerley Thomson, Esq., 8.A., Barrister-at-
Law. A New Edition. London : Smith, Elder,
and Co.

MR. THOMSON says in his preface that the success
which attended the " first edition of this treatise "
has induced him " to add largely and materially to
this (the second) edition." The treatise—if we re-
member accurately—was published in the form of a
pamphlet, and perhaps it would have been better to
have adhered to that form which had already proved
successful. The work may be useful as showing
where the authorities are to be found, but in its pre-
sent shape it is expensive.

1. Foolish War from False Peace. By Raven's Bane.
2. Paradox of Popular Rights. By the same Author.
Edinburgh : Thomson.
IN the first of these pamphlets the writer establishes
his political sagacity by contending that the Red
Republicans would have been better allies of England
than France and Austria; his knowledge, by con-
founding Poerio with the first; and his manliness
and humanity, by expressing enthusiastic admiration
of the cowardly assailants of the late General Hay-
nau. The second pamphlet is not inferior to the
first.

The Bank Charter Act in the Crisis of 1847. London :

Richardson Brothers.
AFTER having read this pamphlet we had to inspect
the titlepage to assure ourselves that it was a recent
publication. The date 1854 is certainly printed
legibly on the outside, but its contents relate to Sir
Robert Peel's financial views, Lord George Ben.
tinck's opinions, and Mr. Disraeli's life of that la-
mented nobleman. Notwithstanding the ample time
for reflection which the author has enjoyed, his
pamphlet might have been yet longer delayed with-
out disadvantage to the public.

The Two Princes; or, Sterlingcoin and Shamabram.
A Fairy Tale. By E. H. London : Hardwicke.
THE authoress may call this a fairy tale, but it is an
inaccurate title : it is an allegory, in which the virtues
and vices are personified, and contend for dominion
over the Princess Selfwilstrong. Very young children
would not understand it, and older ones would
scarcely admire it. We have the less hesitation in
stating this because it requires a mind of a high
order and very peculiar powers to write a good child's
book.

The Land we Live In. A Pictorial and Literary
Sketch-book of the British Islands. London: Orr
and Co.

This is Part 11. of a work judiciously conceived and
well executed, in this age of travellers. Following
the lines of railway, it describes the places of note
and interest on the routes. The present number
commences with Oxford, and, by way of Birmingham
and Stratford- upon-Avon, ends at Shrewsbury and
Chester. This pleasant journey is illustrated by nu-
merous engravings on wood and steel.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.
Letters from the Nile. J. W. Clayton. Bosworth.
Lecturee on Architecture and Painting. J. Ruskin.

Smith end Elder.
The Iron Cousin. M. C. Clarke. Routledge.
Russia and the War. Captain Jesse. Longman and Co.
The Black Tulip. A. Dumas. Hodgson.
The Caucasus. I. Golovin. Triibner and Co.
A Trip to Sea. G. Miller. Simpkin and Marshall.
The Scarlet Mystery. J. G. Macwalter. Nisbet and Co.
An Introduction to the Latin Language. A. H. Monteith.

1 )arton and Co.
Autobiography of a Working Man. Third Edition.

Hardwicke.

PAMPHLETS.

King Nutcracker. Orr and Co.
Bell's Popular Stenography. Hamilton and Co.
Cronstadl and the Russian Fleet. Parker and Son.
The New York Quarterly. New York : Norton.
New Translation of the Apostolic Epistles. Part I. T. W.
Peile, B. 1). Rivingtons.
Points of War. F. Lnshington. Macmillan and Co.
Report of the General Board of Health, 1848-64.

Eyre and Spottiswoode.
Easter and the Eastern Crisis. A Sermon. Bosworth.
Nsw

Deodill. A Song.

011ivier and Co.

Miss FREDRIKA BREMER has written a warm ap-
peal to the Swedish Parliament. in favour of the
Jews, who are now subject in Sweden to innumerable
injuries. In Denmark and in Norway they are
entirely free.

SATURDAY,

lint gilts.

EXHIBITIONS OF FRENCH AND GERMAN
ART.
(121, fall-mall, and 16$, New Bond•etreet).
THE line arts have no country, or, more properly,
belong to all. We are very glad of the opportunity
which the opening of these two very interesting exhi-
bitions affords us of comparing the several schools
of France, Germany, and England ; and it is with
much satisfaction, though without the least conscious
partiality, that we venture, on the whole, to pro_
nounce an opinion in favour of our own country.
There is much that the artists of each country might
learn from the school of the other. Those both of
France and Germany exhibit a care in execution, an
attention to detail, and, above all, an accuracy in
drawing which our painters are far from possessing;
while the English artists, on the other hand, have a
decided superiority in colouring, in effect, and, gene-
rally speaking, in correctness of taste.

In Lur notice of the Royal Academy last week,
while expressing our regret that the pre-Raphaehte
absurdity should have taken such strong hold of our
artists, we observed that it had not been imported
into England till it had been abandoned on the Con-
tinent. These two exhibitions corroborate our re•
mark. We do not observe in either a single picture
that can be attributed to the " false " or the " true
school" of meditevalism.

The French collection now exhibited in Pall-mall
contains several pictures of undoubted merit, and
well worthy the attention of our artists and their
patrons. In the small space which we allow our-
selves it would be difficult to point out all the pic-
tures which particularly struck us, or which we should
wish to recommend to the attention of our readers.
We shall briefly notice a few that appear to us among
the most striking.
Many of the best pictures in each exhibition have
already been sold. Lord Ellesmere has pur-
chased one of the most striking pictures in the
French collection for the large sum, if we are
rightly informed, of 1,2001. No. 126 of the cata-
logue, taken from a beautiful episode in the fifth
canto of Dante's "Inferno," represents the punish•
ment of Francesca da Rimini, and her guilty brother-
in.law, Paolo Malatesta, by M. Ary-Schetfer. The
couple united in the same punishment are borne for
ever on the restless wings of the whirlwind, which
permits them no respite excepting for the few mo-
ments in which the female spirit details her sad
story to the poet and his guide. The painter has
represented the guilty couple with taste and feeling :
the figures of Virgil and Dante are necessary to the
story, but can hardly be made to appear other-
wise than poor and intrusive. This fine pic-
ture, which the painter has repeated more than once
we believe, has met with a general and well-merited
admiration. We may regret a want of colour, and
something of meagreness of form, particularly in the
female figure ; and, in justice, we must observe that
the composition reminds us of the design for the
same subject by our own Flaxman, one of the hap-
piest certainly of his illustrations of the Florentine
poet. The motto on the frame is ill chosen, wo
think. " Ancor non m'abbondona " would better
have expressed the conception of the painter. No.
127, "The Entombment," by the same artist, is far
inferior both in conception and execution. The de•
sign is closely imitated from the Italian masters of
the sixteenth century, but truth and reality are want-
ing, and the colouring is feeble.
No. 38, "The Great Artists of the Revival," by M.
Paul Delaroche, officer of the Legion of Honour.
This composition is painted in fresco in the Hemi-
cycle of the " Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris." As the
design for a fresco, intended to be seen from a dis-
tance, this clever and ingenious composition must
not be tried by the rules we apply to cabinet painting.
Many of the individual figures are very happily con-
ceived, the likenesses are well preserved, and as much
unity of subject is given as its unmanageable nature
permits. We think the artist has judged very wisely
in attempting no classification of his illustrious pre•
decessors in chronological or national order. The
scene is the Elysium of Genius, where all earthly dis-
tinction of time and place is annihilated. The coin-
position fails unfortunately at the very point to which
the eye is first. directed. The three great fathers of
art, Ictinus, Apelles, and Phidias, surrounded by the
impersonations of the genius of after ages, are mean
and inexpressive figures. Seated side by side in
shadowy grandeur, half-draped and inanimate, they
appear the deities to be worshipped rather than the
great progenitors of the race over which they reign
in undisputed sovereignty.
No. 39, " The Death of the Duke of Guise in the
Château de Blois," by the same distinguished artist.
This picture seems rather to represent the scene in
a theatre than an actual event. The facts of this re-
markable story, if we remember tight, are not cor-
rectly rendered. The unfortunate prince was stabbed
in the antechamber, and not in the royal bedroom, as
represented in the picture : his arm spread out