The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-19 00:00:00

. ' P 41'1

587

houses suited only to the manners and usages of a
former age, and against all taste we have decorated
them with grotesque forms and fancies, not because
w • approve them, but because we find them in the
models which we choose t. 4 consider ourselves sla-
vishly bound to follow. We cannot long continue to
cover our houses with griffins and dragons, nor our
churches with cowled monks and grinning imps ;
when once we begin to carve, as well as to paint,
such figures and such subjects as belong to ourselves
soil not to our ancestors, there will soon be new lite
anixig the sculptors and new interest among the
people. The statues which are designed, as most
tire lit present, without reference to the building in
which they are placed, cannot, of course, be the
better or the worse tor any changes wnich may take
place in architecture. These are chiefly imitations
of the Greek. Those which have been designed for
our new buildings are, with few exceptions, imi-
imitations of the early Gothic—in feeling scarcely
nearer to us than the Greek, and of greatly inferior
execution. We shall not have a national school of
sculpture till we have a national school of architec-
ture; but this we trust is not fur off.

With all our complaints against the sculptors we
really pity them; to see the mat bles upon which such
long months of labour have been spent, all huddled
together and hiding one another in that deserted
chamber, while the gallery of paintings above is
crowded from morning to night, must surely be
enough to chill any man's heart. Every one who has
a voice is bound to use it for them ; but the surest
remedy is in their own hands. Heaven helps those
that helps themselves ; let them produce something
th 1 people will care to see—will insist upon seeing,
and if that wretched room were once thoroughly
crowded such a tumu't would be raised that it would
scarcely remain in use another year. It, contains a
few good things at present, hut nothing of force
enough to draw people in. Mr. Calder Marshall
has a figure of " Ruth " beating out her corn,
and another of " Ophelia" with her wreath of
flowers. Both are free and graceful in attitude, and
both fail entirely, it seems to us, in truth of ex-
pression ; the face of Ruth is not even ordinarily
good-looking. Mr. Baily's statue of Turner seems
I onest and lifelike; as to the accuracy of the like-
ness we cannot speak. The figure of " Genius,"
executed by the same artist for the decoration of
the Mansion house, is rash. r a feeble and common-
place production. Mr. McDowell sends a modern
antique entitled the "Day dream," scfficienily pretty
and unmeaning; and a bombastic statue (we can
find no better epithet) of the Late Viscount Fitz-
gibbon, who is flourishing his sword about and
making great display of valour. Mercy on the
Battle-field," by Mr. Stephens is a clumsy repre-
sentation of a very hackneyed subject; at first sight
it might he taken for a woman tiling to coax !Lime
her drunken husband. Mr. Durham's statue of
" nermione," from the Winter's Tale, is not very
expressive of the lady "tender as infancy and grate."
Nor is the sourness of her countenance at all atoned
for by any merit of attitude or design. It is rathet a
curious specimen of conventionality that Mrs.
9'hornyeroft's portrait of Lady Anna Chandos
Pole, which stands next to this " Hermione," is
little more than a repetition of it. Surely the two
must have been intentionally placed bide by side.
Mr. Bell exhibits a statue of Newton, a bust of Sir
Robert Walpole, and an enormous figure of
" Honour," one of those vapid commonplaces upon
which it is impossible to fix the site tion fct ten
seconds. "The Bird's.nester " is a weak production
by Mr. Pepworth, sen.; his son sends figures of
" Rebecca before Abraham's Servant " and " Ruth
before Boaz ;" also of " The Scotch Woman catch-
ing the Sound of the Bagpipes," the interesting
incident which did not take place at the siege of
Lucknow. The action of Mr. Hancock's " Ariel " is
ton forced and violent ; the "Lover's Welk" and
" Undine," by Mr. Munro, show some little origin.
ality ; and the name of Sir W. Napier secures at
least a passing glance for bis bronze statuette of
Alcibiales. Carvings for churches are neither
numerous nor good ; Mr. Woolner's sketches of
Moses and St. John the Baptist, for the pulpit of
Llandaff Cathedral, are rather striking; but Mr.
Philip's alto-relievo of Michael and Satan, executed
for the porch of St. Michael's, Cornbill, is one of
the most ludicrously feeble things we ever saw.
Whoever has the patience to go through that long
double line of busts will find portraits of Dr.
Livingstone, the late Earl of Ellesmere, Mme.
Ristori and her daughter, Sir Charles Locoek, Mr.
Cesar Hawkins, Mr. Vernon Smith, the Duke of
Newcastle, the late Duke of Devonshire, Mr. W. H.
Russell, the late James Montgomery, the late Dean
of Canterbury, Professor Airy, the late Dr. Buck-
land, and, last but not least, Marochetti's admirable
bust of Lord John Russell, one of the finest things
in the whole collection. Mr. Noble's preparatory
model for a colossal bust of the Prince r
be executed iu marble for the city
stands in the raidul• of the room ,
' portrait of the Princess Royal by sfrs.

I

inch •Con-sort, Co
of Manchester,
sad beside it a
5. Thornycroft.

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We pen these lines in a state of mind which, if it cannotilet,ho,
described `as perfectly secure, is still hopeful and tranquil. .It is eleven
ofcloek, and in one hour more the lath ,of June will gave passed awaywi
Few of our eonntrymen are, perhaps, aware of • thb irtiminent peril whishii
they have this day escaped. But when we tell them that one of tim most rr
learned men in'this metropolis, who has recently been derroting his,energiew
to arousing Englishmeh /).;(40,., their danger, boldly deelared.! his
conviction of -a 'French, inivaticitioni the anniversary_ of the ltattia of
Waterloo, they will understand ,*ei ,dreadful . state of, amioty,vin,
which the whole of Friday has been passed. We know
_ .
that thi
the criastrophe'l ihmqlues-
duo to.-the v
,ileatnadiPßO*,

'4lr?
RP;Jate:l44;- n• •• AI
'presen;pccikete'*ntir.
guest bii'pefMl '•s ' • '
- coast, duty. tsiterv: all,
be cady, • like • blaimair43 ghnet, a lingintait of iftgltigetsted
beK or a lump of mustard. It is easy, we may be told, be
flippant, when the danger is over (it is now a quarter to, felce) fit Ve
are WO exultant to fee the force of such insinuations. Atrd wire 'of any
imputations of ingratitude, we must beg the Professor once more 140 again(
to mar. the tatet of hie really wholesome warning bp tias-aillelliMion of
prophecieawhioh:only deceive wad irritatchia,biackers. IIQ
.w
[We have received the above from.a/coiltributor of dubiorwpty.
cplifillosY"rWtk!iNiffiitPi) iiif-?,4bf:--F4-J) 'Fitly( 118
'4:11413 43,9214:: ;AI( -v< p ",Pirrtobi 97itnandus"

.117". ',t.;
1 n Yr. have not got authority tq report, as, the. Nefipolitan savant the
Ake &Twos able to do, that the period of earthquakes is over., for the
,
present. In the dead calm of the American trade,and the susewur ,of
. ....•
JI ,
financial operations there are still many favourable conditions fcrisf.„79p.
tion taking place on an extensive, if not a sublime, political scale. , The
Atawsuf me/pmeßts are no longer accidcntaki,)theytare now,well ascer-
UAW ; thilap*eur with almost uniform certainty,,t rgpdf44linistries
take out a policy, and mutually insure each ether's Vivt;a4i.pieens of
Aka.; political economists found theories upon them ; la
ofd
that
desires to increase its circulation will exert a good. tletßfti iii entlea7
,elpring to force them ; and, yet such is the popular. ignorance as to the
dupes of Periodical' disturbance, that whenever such a disturbance Occurs
3fttee world cannot divest itself of a vague fetlithg 'aieociated. with something
netting's, and 'subterranean and preternatanial. Net the, plost.,selthorkatile
phase Isf the . present eruption, is this job, hot,• fuliginoue, items
matter liow long or how wide—whichfotsonie weeks past hatibeell;lrs9-
charg4 TrOin the American COpgress. -Besieith and behind tine is a cur-
' fen-Tor itiiiie irepublien'ilie *Nth ipiiitt* forth in indignation 'theetings,
'aid ath times beide* Ainwion iii iostitithiper cascades, uyeinig !en 11* do*
lateautive ,saise tn•nseelerate what ~ is called '" ow -of- dna. inscru-
table designs of Providence for the working out the triifaipd, wanicest
" destiny of the great Republic ;" in other words, tq -‘‘. ^ e possession
"of Canada, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo, Mexicb," 'lend Central
" America," and "eatawompously to chew up" British humanity.
Two years is the limit of time which the New York Herald, in its some- '
what liberal arithmetic, allows for this national enterprize ; and in a tone
of severe warning bids the' present .Ft dish Cinveriunent renounce what ,
we were not aware tliey had ever accepted—the general war policy of I
their predecessors—directs them to Mike quick reparation and humble'
apology for Lord PALautnaroat'a offettsime *llion, and commands the Bri-
tish people, without further notioiantlsinder-enornious penalties, to cease
henceforth from inconvenient ph' tlippy, and not, to precipitate their]
ultimate doom. Further than this, the American. Senate, through its 1
Committee of Foreign Relations, has expressed its Patriotism in a series of)
bellicose resolutions, declared its ju t that 44. visitation, molestation,
or deletion of vessels sailing underdtrekenAmerican,llag is in derogation of
the sovereignty of the United SU/Its? and 'conferred upon the President
the extraordinary power which it gate 'in -V:161" BniiiiN in 1839, viz., the
disposal of the available naval forte; undautite df 5,000,000 dollars, for
the p of chastising British aggression, if , again repeated in the?
watersuror Florida or Cuba. Abottionnt as will' as"Tiro-slavery Senators;
have merged their diffeeences in common Anti-British repugnance, ex-
pressed in the debate upon this tote; several nigordits senators declaring
themselves, after the planner, of their country,,aslavourable to physical;
farce rather than to arguments of low moral suasion ; Mr. HAMMOND, oil
South Carolina, "b6.42tintrilling•-ba be smuggled into a war," but beingi
desirous " to throw with ail due • soleithniby she' bloody spear ;" while
Mr. Comps, from Georgia, who has beta ready for war during
the last ten years, and is indiguant that the finest vessel
in the United States nevy is engaged at present in " towing,
a telegraph cable, between two British dependencies," has at the,
two latest debates in the American Senate deported himself like a Trans-,
atlantic Cato, and made only one simple republican Ntterance—" that he;
waited the two British ships taken.' Flowever;natural and laudable
such a patriotic design, and however soothing to the wounded spirit of
Republicanism such a capture might be, then is an important obstacle in
the way of its accomplishment. It is, according
ta,the statistics which the:
Americans themselves show, not at all easy. ritish squadron in the,
bt
Gulf of Mekien is far the stronger force,-Ittm three guns to every

it will be pretended in certain quarters
of General ITEitinsfAisi='bpi' preiventekl the
tion. And that math ik consequently; duo
lesser, whose fas-reacitinkittint forswained. our..nc
were undgretciPd anck,PrpoledArt , lt,wagld Atp4.
at a gnose IRA asvq-d ..e b but on ibe pn
MI) questiot
of ' crude forms " te'", ; lib f theregeten
vision of a Frenels!. 'ma* on Jibe .111