The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

a conclusion to his volume as the following
stanza, the sense of which is nearly as vague
as the policy of " the earl" alluded to
ON THE PRESENT CRISIS.
Britannia! rise in all thy pride,
Or ne'er thy flag unfurl:
"No little war," the great duke cried;
What cries the petty earl?
The writer is complimentary to Lord
Derby :
I'm sorry that you sneer at Stanley,
For he is eloquent and manly;
And should he save the state,
From those that love the commonweal,
And feel like you a patriot's zeal,
He does not merit hate.
Lord Aberdeen does not come off so well.
Lord Palmerston is thus glanced at :
Lord P n, you've fire and wit,
And less require the spur than bit—
A clever lad to speak;
Your French runs glibly off enough,
But still you find your German tough,
And blunder at your Greek.
But perhaps we have already quoted too ex-
tensively.

The New Testament in Greek, based on the Text of
Dr. J. M. A. Scholz; with English Notes and
Prefaces, a Synopsis of the Four Gospels, and
Chronological Tables, ctc. Edited by the Rev.
J. F. Macmichael, B.A , Head Master of the
Grammar School, Ripon, Yorkshire. London :
Whittaker and Co.
Ix addition to the advantage of working on the text
of Dr. Scholz, who laboured like a Hercules at the
task of collation, the editor has had the assistance
of various qualified divines for portions of his anno
tations, and has been permitted to make free use of
the dates, (Lc., in Mr. Greswell's " Harmonia Evan-
gelica" and Dissertations. It would be affectation
to pretend that we have been able ourselves to test
the value of the multitudinous notes to this edition,
but as far as we can judge they include the best ma-
terials and set them forth perspicuously.

The Progr?ss of a Painter in the Nineteenth Century.
Containing Conversations and Remarks upon Art.
By John Burnet, Author of " Practical Hints on
Painting," &c. London : Bogue.
Tins is a singular, incomplete, but characteristic and
interesting work by a well-known writer upon art,
more especially upon its mechanical processes. To
artists it is especially adapted as a record, probably
faithful, of various conversations upon the principles
of painting in which the author took part with Wil-
kie, Etty, Turner, and other of his deceased contem-
poraries. As a specimen of its materials in this
respect we extract the following, being ourselves
familiar with the picture referred to, as an exception
to Lawrence's usual style :
" On the morning Wilkie called, Lawrence asked him
into the painting-room to see his friend's portrait, now
completed.
" Well, it is capital,' said Wilkie,' and only wants a
little touch to make it equal to Reynolds, or Vandyke
either.'
" ' Ah, my dear Wilkie ! we will never, I am afraid, agree
upon that little, though I am sure you are in the right. 1
tried glazing upon aeon-amore portrait of Hart Davis of
Bristol ; there it stands, and, though the artists like it, I
can't satisfy myself ; as a work, to stand the richness of
glazing, must be prepared for it in the dead colouring. My
style is already, I am afraid, too strongly fixed for me to
change, even if my overwhelming engagements would
allow me an opportunity. I never can throw away the ad-
vantage pure white gives to a work of art; and friend Tur-
ner is now come to the same conclusion.'

" Well, you are both the highest authorities,' said
Wilkie, ' and Segnier maintains that the old masters didn't
glaze ; but I am afraid I must die in the faith I have
adopted ; and, like a true disciple, ant anxious to convert
every one to the creed I profess.'
" tThe truth of this doctrine was afterwards put to the
test, by the directors of the British Institution having one
year an exhibition of Sir Joshua Reynolds' works in their
gallery, and afterwards an exhibition of the portraits of Sit
Thomas Lawrence. The Reynolds exhibition was richness
itself, and glowing with deep-toned brightness, so muci
so that the best portrait by Titian or Rembrandt migh
have been interspersed on the walls without gaining tle
least ascendancy ; the gallery during the Lawrence exhib-
tion, on the contrary, looked cold, and many of the pit-
tures chalky; even the surface, though pure white in tie
draperies, had become of a slate-colour, from the absence
of a rich vehicle to preserve the white lead from the te-
flon of the hydrogen in the atmosphere. We perceie
the same change has taken place in the portraits by Vm-
dyke painted in this country, compared with those painted
in Italy and Flanders ; it is ascribed by the critics to iis
multiplicity of engagements in England, especially in he
later time, when many of his works passed through .he
hands of his assistants without his afterwards going n-er
them. At all events, the flesh tints, especially of hie fe-
male portraits, have either faded, or, if even glazed. the
rich glazings are removed, for they now exhibit a slatelike

SATURDAY,

colour, both iu the lights and halltints. The picture of
Govartius in the National Gallery shows his talent; and se.
veral portraits of Charles the First, and others of his court,
show us that his power of colouring remained with him
to the lust, and neither Dobson nor cau approach
him.] "
The work has also a flavour of Scottish clanship and
conviviality which will commend it to the true
"Hebronites." In the intervals of tea and toddy
there is occasional amusement for the general
reader:—

" While the tea is brewing, I wish Knox to look at the
picture on the easel. I have bereft painting a portrait of
a cow—none of your Smithfield brutes ; it is the true
Holstein breed, which were the cattle Paul Potter painted.
Knox said,—
" I have been looking at it ; it seems rather long in

the legs.'
" That's impossible,' replied our philosopher ; it is
traced from one of Marc de Bye's : but as soon as the tea-
pot is filled I will look at it with you. Too long in the legs
say you,' he continued, going up to the easel; ' by heavens!
you are right," taking up the picture and laying it fiat on
the carpet : ' It was all right two hours ago ; but the heat
of the weather, and the weakness of the megulp, and the
admixture of too much wax, have caused the legs to run ;
it looks as if the poor brute was on stilts. it was Wilkie
who advised me to use wax in the megulp, for the purpose
of giving a fat, pulpy look to the picture. But I ought to
have remembered what a pupil of mine, the Honourable
Miss Keppel, told me. She said, a picture of her an-
cestor, Admiral Keppel, by Reynolds, hung over the
dining-room fireplace, and every year she could observe
the chin to lengthen.'"