The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-26 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2e, '1846,

the provisions of an act passed in the last session of paella-
dent, to facilitate the erection of Baths and Wash-houses
fir the people,. This memorial has been signed by up-
wards of 360 persons, including several of the clergy and
giber ministersof religion, many of the most eminent
INSiliisH men, some of the most opulent mortised' of the
benestsit, a long list of the principal tradesmen, and not a few
• Wießing classes. At a meeting of the town-council,
gla Weineaia , G. W. &lull, B presented the memorial
ami the praycr of it. Nut a single member of the
said a word to disparage the importance of each a
tam rte. The only matter on which there seemed to be any
slillidates of opinion was respecting the best means of doing
shall which all present appeared to thine most desirable in
itself. A committee, there'ore, was appointed to take the
maid into consideration, to examine plans, to consider the
eagnews, die., and to present a report at a future wean; of
the genisslL We hope that the labours of the committee
will how Is the production of such a report as will prove the
attire peneilcability of the measure, and that at no distant
period the workiut classes and the poor of Plymouth will
enjoy similar facilities for personal cleanliness, health, and
comfort with those which are already enjoyed in some other
towns.
A Niel SPICIIIEN OF OFFICIAL CARILIISSNRSS CAMS
under notice at Exeter on Wednesday. Some ingenious
personage, connected with the London Post Ofilce' put a
packet of stsathiug ink in one of the letter bags seat to that
town. The'consequence was that it burst upon the journey,
and many of the addresses were so completely obliterated,
that it became impossible to deliver the letters, and they
will ham th be sent back to London, to the great incon-
venience of the parties to whom they belonged.
WILTSHIRE
TH2 PARKINS Of DAIINTSEY, a parish lying within a ring
fence, undertook to keep the resident cottager. employed on
plan arranged by Mr Engelbsch, the agent, an intelligent and
accomplished gentleman. No compulsion was used to en-
force that arrangement, but it was represented that the
farmers would derive benefit from the reduction of poor-
rates, better productiveness of the land, better security for
person and property. The experiment has been tried for a
year, with so much success that the farmers have agreed to
continue it for a year more. When the arrangement was
made, the rate of wages was raised from 7s. to Ba. a week ;
but then, steadily employed throughout the year, the men
have taken no advantage of thu it employers to extort ex-
erbiteat wages at the brief times of pressure.
DOlthErBllllth.
CONTAINS AND PEASANTRY —A house at Dean stands in
the Athos driest, the home of a farm labourer. Their day-
roma Ma ens flair and two benches, and a small table, but
it ls • flegmeghly comfortless room. The birds fly in and
eat through boles in the door, and a candle win scareely
bens. rib( to the strong draughts that blow upon It. There
smelbse room overhead, the sleeping-room of the family.
It sonteig two beds; in one there sleep the labourer and
kis wiA mad their two youngest children ; in the other bed,
width Is 6 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 6 inches, there sleep has
unmarried dice, 20 years old, end his four sons, aged 18,
161, 8, and 6, besides his daughter, aged 13. The males
sleep with their heads at one end of the bed, the females
with *sin at the other. The room has two windows, but
neither of OHM has any glass in it ; the largest is perms-
neatly blacked up with part of a sack ,• the cooly window
that *pews is just one foot square ; at night this is stuffed up
with a pie se of a auk, and in summer the place is declared
to he "like a store." The room is ten feet five inches
by eleven feet Aar inches, not reckoning a small recess in
one owner, eeeupied by the steep stairs ; the height of
the.osifi
ng averages five feet seven inches. This labourer,
with his family, has lived in that house for these nine
years, and his four youngest children have been born there.
A eery few yards off I found a woman with her father and
her four children—a daughter of 14, and sons of 16, 5, and 3
years old—all sleeping in the same room every night, in a
cottage which they rent of a farmer, who, I believe holds it
with hi farm. The woman has lived there for eleven years.
No attempt is made to separate the beds by curtains. She
told me before her children, and with great nonchalance,
that eke; separated from her husband, end that her eldest
child was not his, but was the result of a " misfortune " be-
fore she married. I have asked in a quarter where the fact
would be known, whether there are many illegitimate chil-
dren born in this district about Cranborne, and the answer
was, "Why, they swarm like hem."—Times.

POST-OPTICI ALTERATIONS AT CHELTINRAII.—OR and
after the 31st but. the London night mail, and that to Glou-
cester, Hereford, South Wales, &c., will be dispatched from
the Cheltenham Peet-ofSoe at 9.65 p.m., or 45 minutes earlier
than at present. In consequence of this alteration, letters
must be posted at nine o cluck, or 46 minutes earlier than
at present. At the branch receiving-houses, on and after
the lame date, all letters for this dispatch must be posted
before 3.26 p.m., instead 0f9.10 p.m. as at present.—Chel-
fathom Chronicle.
TEMPIRANCII HALL AT CIRENCESTER. Tuesday and
Wedaesday bet were occupied by the friends of the tempe-
rance cause, in the borough end neighbourhood of Ciren-
ceder, for the formal opening of • new Temperance-hail,
which has been erected by Christopher Bowly, Esq., and
presented by him, to trustees, for the use and enjoyment of
the public.
alt11.19(11TIVIITRP

Moms diantozo.-7--EiliTverton a person named Cross
had, last week, been out shooting. On his return be ne-
glected to draw the charge from his gun, which he placed
near the clock. His son, a boy, took up the gun and snapped
it, when unfortunately it went off, and, the whole of the con-
tents were lodged in the mother's head, who fell dead on the
spot, leaving several motherlesschildren. The anguish of
the father on hearing of the accident cannot be described.
How often are such warnings to be repeated against careless-
ness with fire-arms ? Here is another. On Saturday last, a
man named Hancock was cleaning the barrel of a pistol, the
charge of which he had omitted to withdraw. Whilst hold-
ing at with the muzzle pointed towards his person, it went
off, and the contents were lodged in his body, excepting the
ball which passed through him, causing immediate death.
He has left a widow and seven children.
CAMBEIDOEnHIRE.
THE PROCTORS AND THEIR DUTIES.—The quietude of
the town was much disturbed on Wednesday night, by the
Proctors being engaged in their duties of clearing the streets.
Near Christ's College, a girl was taken into custody ; she,
however, stoutly resisted, and loudly screamed; a mob soon
collected, and a melancholy exhibition followed, the crowd
taking part with the girl, who was ultimately allowed to
proceed to her lodgings, followed across Christ's Pieces by
the Proctor. the Rev. Mr. Brume% and a few adults and
children. The next affair was more serious. Two girls
were taken in Sidney-street by the Proctors. Their screams,
we 'are told, soon brought a lame crowd around them,
which soon amounted to at least 500 persons. It would be
impossible to describe the scene that ensued. There seemed
to be a general feeling against the Proctors, Mr. Brumell and
Mr. Saunders, as we understood, and many were the allu-
sions to the late Spinning-house affair. A struggle ensued
between the girls "and the bull-does ;" the populace, in-
clutling • great number of gownsmen present, taking part
with the former. Ultimately the police interfered, but not
before the prisoners were rescued. Nearly all the students
took part with the townspeople. In the melee the clothes
of the girls were completely torn ; they were dragged into
the Woolplek yard by the townspeople, and the Proctors
eventually compelled to retreat, and were hooted to their
several colleges by the populace and gownsmen. A truly
melancholy spectacle, the like of which wo hope never
again to witness.—Essex tilandard.

SUFFOLK.
A CORN-Ct rrINO CTITAT.—A man calling himself "Dr. S.
Wolff, chiropodist, pupil of the celebrated F. R. La Oranche,"
who displayed certificates from several physicians in Derby,
Nottingham, and Birmingham, was lately committed to
Becalm Gaol, charged with obtaining money under false
pretences. It would appear his plan was, to open each corn,
and to pretend to take from it small horny substances, which
he described as being thrown out from the bone. From one
patient he pretended to extract, in about an hour, from only
four apparent corns, no less than twenty-five of these small
substances, which he called corns, for which he made a charge
of 61. 51., and received 61. He was equally successful in
other cases. Dr. Wake, a medical practitioner in Bccclee,
and a borough magistrate, having conceived a suspicion of
imposture, watched his proceedings narrowly, and soon be-
came convinced that the small horny substances he exhibited
were never taken from a human subject, but that, by dex-
terous management, " Dr. Wolff," while pretending to ex-
tract corns, only produced those he had brought ready pre-
pared with him, which it was surmised he had manufactured
out of the parings of horses' hoofs. The " chiropedist" will
be tried at the next sessions.

LITERATURE.
Chriailat VOIUMEBMICILINS,TITMAILRII,TOrLXINII,SOANE.
"The Fairy Riny,"Bnaoza's " Lenora,"
Christmas used to be a time for solid enjoyments,
and was considered to be not worthily eelebz ated, except
with chine and pudding and ale. It was a physical
revel for all classes, in which all joined in worship-
ping the idol of good cheer, a jolly corpulent image—
the very apotheosis of fat. Even the lighter amuse-
ments of the time were substantial and coarse. A
aa/atation was a blow, a gift a box, a pastime a romp.
On the stage, the drama gave way to the pantomime.
And a book, to claim attention at such a period, must
have been so rude and coarse a thing, that even Grub-
street despaired of it, its tenants feasting whilst they
could, and adjourning poetry and prose.
The portly chine has now long since disappeared,
or lingers for mere show in butchers' windows—for
butchers now-a-days have windows. The pudding is
compressed into the shape and size of a pine-apple or
strawberry. The ale is single X, or may be, very
sour ordinaire. Fat survives for holly boughs to be
stuck in, but the very hind refuses any longer to
digest it. He has grown unused to the thing. Two
bands meet as fish-slices might, were they given to
salutation. Christmas boxes are boxes of bonbons,
blind-man's-buff is a heresy, and children's games so
proper, that old and young scorn them. Poor panto-
mime has lost its spirit, without having bequeathed
it back to tragedy; and Christmas is anything but
what it used to be.
But if there be no longer " cakes and ale," we at
least have books, pretty stories, and pretty pictures,
an intellectual and tasteful feast for mind and eye,
revels for the drawing-room and the study, if not for
the refectory. The geniuses of art and letters turn
cooks for the season, and each comes with his costly
viands, inspiring such a glcrious appetite, and so daz-
zling by the splendid dishes and costumes in which
they are served, that certainly never was Christmas ban-
quet half so superb as the library table at Christmas.

Let us perform like office of taster at this banquet,
not of carver, contrary to the usual habit of critics,
who seem to come is general with unusually ferocious
intentions to the Maury feast, and who seem then
given to cut up and mangle, as if they never were
allowed a carving-knife to wield on any other day.
Our head dish is Dickens' Battle of Life.
There arc none of the works of this author, which
he seems to have undertaken so completely con amore
as his Christmas volumes, none on which he has spent
more energy, or lavished more art. Nor do we won-
der that he should have been first stricken by the
idea, and fascinated by the plan. The genius of
Dickens revels so peculiarly, so much at home, in
domesticity, and in the scenes which it animates and
over which it presides, that if ever a people built a
temple to Home, Boz should certainly be the high
priest. Christmas being the great fete of that divinity,
the great ceremonial day edits devotion, no wonder that
he should seize upon both as atime and a theme. And
yetamidst the beautiful forms which his fancy conjured,
the vivid picture of life which his pencil gave, and
the dramatic interest thrown into his humblest
scenes, Dickens, in his Christmas tales, resolved to
mingle something higher. Good moral leseons, in-
deed, he always taught- But here he aimed, on one
or two occassiona, to insinuate a more important
lesson, exposing covertly, ingeniously, charitably,
and mildly, those prejudices which made classes hate
each other, severing the sympathies of high and low.
Such efforts however noble, such aims however
liberal, were received on the part of those critics
considered to represent liberal ideas with execra-
tions of rancour and shouts of derision. The man of
imagination usurping the part of public moralist,
the writer of refined intellect extending his notions
amongst the vulgar herd of every-day politicians, was
considered a novelty to be repressed, an outrage to be
avenged. And although the great mass of the public,
high sod low, the galleries and boxes of society, ap-
plauded, the critics and the pit clamoured and vitu-
perated in no ordinary degree.
This uproarious malevolence seems to have had its
effect on the sensitive nature of the poet—for a poet
the writer is in the best sense of the term. In his
present tale he shrinks from political allusion, eschews
the expounding of any elevated truth, and resigns
himself to the task of fascinating and amusing, and
affecting the public with vivid pictures of ;humble,
middle, retired, and inconsequential life. s All is
1 beautiful scenic or sentimental description, character
and incident, story and dialogue. It is the
" Vicar of Wakefield" over again, in freshness and
innocence, in quiet humour and exuberant feeling.
There is even a little Goldsmithian awkwardness and
precipitation in bringing about the denouement of the
tale, and a completely Goldsmithian unconsciousness
of any busier world or mightier machinery existing
or going through its evolutions outside the little circle
that envelops and contains the tale.
One cannot say that the title is well chosen, or that
the "battle" is st all " germain" to the matter of the
story. It bespeaks big intention to illustrate the
doctrines of the Universal Peace Society, and to brand
the soldier trade as the vilest. On proceeding,
however, we find the author's arrows shot at
his old target of the attorney class, and that
the doers of battles escape without even a lecture. It
is, as we said. The sensitive and delicately-wrought
spirit of the imaginative writer first, and perhaps
far back proposed to itself, a public and a philan-
thropic mission ; but on closer scrutiny, perceiving
what a coarse, an ingrate, and a vulgar strife it would
become necessary to engage in, it shook its aerial
wings, and turned in disgust away from the Battle of
Life.
" Mrs. Perlcine's Ball" is the next Christmas
volume that attracts our attention. We must say,
that it is scarcely fair. It is notacaricature of society,
nor a picture, nor a set of portraits, bat a veritable
daguerreotype. It is just as if•the author introduced
an instrument of the Icind in the shape of a crushed
hat, and then carried off the host's locale and the
guests' physiognomy. There is not one of us that,
in reading the book, must not recollect the very ball,
and the very house, and the very people. The Per-
kinsesare our commonacquaintance,—their guests are
all well-known types of the ball-going species. And
the volume should thus make one of the naturalist's
library, from its fidelity and truth in describing rare
and curious specimens of human nature. We should
strongly recommend that, on the first erection of a
national monument, of the pedestal to the Welling-
ton statue, for example, if it ever find place or pedestal
whereon to rest its four feet, that a copy of Mrs. Per-
kins's ball be deposited in the foundation, in some such
coppnbox as that said to contain the lost books of Livy,
found the other day in Taffyland. Were Mrs.
Perkins so deposited, in order to come to light some
five hundred years hence, history would certainly
possess one of the truest records and pictures of the
costume, the genuine physiognomies, and the wisdom
of their ball-going ancestors, that could be imagined.
We have not space for analysis of Mies Toulmine's
very pretty tale, in which the imaginative powers of
her sex in competing with its more robust brother-
hood are fully supported. Indeed we wonder there
are not more female champions in the field.
Were we to descend from the Christmas food of the
grown to the variety of literary sweetmeats for
children, we should wind a long yarn. We see It.
Doyle at work in the pages of Mr. Murray's juvenile
publications; Maclise's original pencil in that beau-
tiful edition of Burger's Lenora, and first-rate artists
as well as intellects catering to children's amusement
in many a nursery tale.
We are really glad to see old Christmas make a
demand upon the contents of the brain-pan, as well
as on that of the sugar-pan.

to ornament their council-room ; and he pointed, moreover,
several 'pictures on his own account. Van Mender Lids
I that he died in 1529, of a disease called the English malady,
leaving a large property to the poor. Now there is
nothing so improbable in these two stories, as to render
future writers doubtful of their details, and prevent
them from making use of them; the more so ao the same
artist is mentioned by other historians, though with a
variation of dates. But lately, certain documents were
found at Brussels,. by Winters,
the archivist of that
town, which establish the fact clearly that the artist,
called by Van Minder, Roger of Bruges, bore the family
name of Van der Weyden, and that the two Rogers existed
only in the brain of the old writer, they being in fact one
and the same person. The additional particulars brought to
light by Mr. Winters, relative to Roger of Bruges, corre-
spond exactly with the dwells given of Van der We) den, by
Van Mender, and it appears in addition, that, Roger had
a son whose name was Goawin Van der Weyden, also a
painter, but much inferior to his Either. Evidently Van
Minder mixed up and compounded the information he had
received, and made two painters oat of one ; giving to the
first, thz christian name, with that of the town in which he
resided for Rome time, and to the second, the family sur-
name. To both. he allotted a fair share of the details of the
life of the " original Roger." In order, however, to make
his version pleuoible, he is guilty of another mistake;
for he actually makes Van der Weyden live nearly
• century after Roger, and states that he died in
1529. The original Roger Van der Weyden died at
Brussels in 1464, and was buried, accuding to the old
manuscript, or parish register, published by Mr.
Winters, "in the church of St. Gudule, in company with
his wife, near the altar of St. Catharine, where they both
slept under a blue stone."
Mr. Michiela very aptly observes at the conclusion of one
of his chapters: " If the darkness which covers this subject
is ever to be lighted up, the archives of Bruises are the point
from which this light must issue. For the last six hundred
years, documents have been amused in this necropolis.
There lie all the mminiscences of the community ; there are
inscribed the epitaphs of its departed glory. Let but a man
penetrote amongst them, armed with the magic wand of
patriotism brilliant visions will appear to him, and he will
seem escorted by the ghosts of his fathers. The attention of
Europe would be excited by it." There is no doubt that were
these documents searched, much valuable information would
be obtained, and we sincerely hope permission will be given,
at no distant period, for doing so. In the meanwhile we
must remain under the conviction that Van Minder
is not so implicity to be trusted as he has been
hitherto, and that his facts are not to be taken
as conclusive, in opposition to other authors, even
though the latter may seem to possess less means of informa-
tion. Though note painter himself, Mr. Michiels is enthu-
siastic in his subject ; he handles it with fervour, different in
this from the cold and formal style in which it has been
treated hitherto. lie begins by tracing the regeneration of
set in Flanders, in consequence of the rising power and
wealth of the towns of Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, and others.
The art, previous to Van Eyck, was in a state of infancy. In
Italy Giotto and Cimabue had begun the regeneration, and
Cologne was already the cradle of a better class of painters
under the tuition of Wilhelm. Front the latter place it
spread into Flanders, and though the fact is not stated, it is
highly probable thaeHerbert Van Eyck was bught first by
one of the Cologne painters. John Van Eyck invented oil
painting, and it was then that the &se arts, with that master
at their head, became the great feature of the period, sup-
ported by the Duke of Burgundy, the clergy, and the rich
citizens of Bruges.
The argument. advanced by many writers to combat the
opinion that oil painting was really the invention of Van
Eyck, are, by the author, summarily disposed of. And
there is no doubt, that previous to Van Eyck, oil painting
did exist; it would be foolish to attempt to deny it. Are
we not told that Giotto painted in oil ? So hedg. , But not
with the necessary medium to ensure the painting's drying,
which was invented by Van Eyck. Painting with linseed
oil was well known, but unfortunately for that method, the
great inconvenience attending it was, that it never dried, or
at least took such time to do so, that it was sufficient to dis-
gust painters from using it. Rave wrote at length to
prove the invention of oil-painting before Van Eyck, hut he
only proved what every one knew before ; i. e., that the
only oil used was linseed oil, °teens lini, as Theophilus says,
and he is Ruspe's chief authority.
Leaving aside this question, however, we find the school of
Van Eyck flourishing, his fame spread over Holland, Spain,
and Italy, and rich citizens following the prevailing fashion
of the times, building chapels and adorning them with the
choicest paintings. The chief of Van Eyck's early produc-
tions, the Mystic Lamb of the ApOCelypee' is still in exist-
ence, and the greater portion of is in St. Rayon, at Ghent,
where it was first executed. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip
the Good, was his generous patron, and sent him on
one occasion on a mission to Portugal, to paint the
portrait of hi* future wife, Isabella. The duke also
honoured the artist by the office of valet de chambre, no
doubt a gentle employ. Descamps construes it as privy
councillor, the correctness of which may be doubted. More
solid proofs of ducal favour appear In large sums given
" pour certain. services seem " performed for his sovereign.
He seems to hare been as indispensable to the potentate of
Burgundy, as at a later period Rubens was to Philip the
Fourth of Spain, who entrusted that great painter with
divers delicate negotiations. Talents such as these were not
lightly thought of then, when personal intercourse with
princes was more than a distinction. The regard and re-
spect of the great thus concentrated on the arta, no
wonder if emulation rose and produced its natural effect in
creating a school with such a master as Van Eyck to direct it.
Other towns imitated the example of Bruges, and coun-
tries were as much stirred with rivalry as individual artists.
lournay, Arras, Douai, Valenciennes, Louvain, Ypres,
Haarlem, and Leyden, all had their painters. We find in •
cotemporary manuscript, published by M. Oachard, a list
made out by Fasttre Hollet, steward to Charles the Bold,
containing upwards of a hundred names of painters
from all these towns, who had been summoned to attend for
the purpose of adorning the palace en the occasion of that
duke's marriage in 1468. Of these hundred, one alone is
known at the present day—Hugh Van der Goes, who received
" Sept !tyres sept sous, pour die fours et demi gu' it a mere
dquatorze sous par four." Other artists besides Van dr. Goes,
but whose names are not in this list, pass successively under
review ; they are all, however, infenor to Van Eyck, with
the exception of Roger Vander Weyden, and Hemling,
or hinging.
The genius of the school of Bruges may be summed up in
these three names—Van Eyck, Roger Vander Weyden, and
Mewling. Van Eyck is the painter of realities ; the slow,
but sure, copyist of nature, whose very faults he imitates.
The model, without indeed the expression, is transferred by
him to the canvass. Organic defects, wrinkles, and pimples
all re appear, and the care bestowed upon the smallest orna-
ment is really miraculous. All, however, is plain surface,
and the supreme lights, such as appear in the sparkling of
diamonds, are not embossed, as it were, to give more effect.
This is the acme of finish.

Roger Vender Weyden combines, with the firmness of his
muter* outlines, more delicate hues; his shadows have,
perhaps, too much flesh in them, but his flesh lights are
white without seeming pale. His compositions are in gene-
ral more graceful than these of his master. With him art
is less conventional, lees Byzantine ; and the (general effect
is more studied than the details, which are carried out, how-
ever, with considerable minuteness.

Memling carries the qualities of Roger to a still greater
perfection, and "nis love of the beautiful has a hippy effect
on his productions, in which you rarely see the Flemish
type in all its uglinees. The folds of his drapery are more
natural, and the general tendency of the school—length
without breadth in the figures—is less visible in him than
in his masters. The school of Bruges, as a whole, uever,
however, reaches the ideal, like their brethren of Italy and
the Rhine. They are constantly fettered by too close atten-
tient* nature as it is in vulgar life, and their aspirations to
the sublime often end in the ridiculous. Thus we see, in
many instances, the Virgin like a bouncing maid-servant,
and the apostles like ploughmen. These defects are less
visible in Vander Weyden and Memling than in the rest of
the school, because their taste has been probably more refined
by their stay in Italy. _ _ _

Memling was born at Bruges, and followed his muter,
Vander Weyden, to Rome; and here we may mention one
of Descamp'a gratuitous assertions, when he says, " Van
Munden was wrong when he stated that Hans Memmelinck
was born at Bruges. John Memmelinck is the real name of
this artist, who was a native of Demme." Where he lrrnt
that he was a native of Demme, is impossible to ascertain, as
the fact is not corroborated by any author. But the foci of
his having been received at a later period of his life in the
hospital of St. John, is sufficient to show that he was of
Bruges ; for by the order of foundation of that hospital, the
monks were forbidden to receive any but natives of that
town, or the neighbouring village of Maldeghem. Mr.
Michiels adopts the name of Hemling, " because," says he,
" it is the pleasantest to pronounce, and the moat significant,
meaning in the Germanic languages something celestial."
He says, and we do not agree with him, that the argu-
ments on both sides of the question are equal; but the
truth probably is, that he was unwilling to enter into
a controversy. But his adoption of the name of Hemling
obliges hint to enter into another, which he might have
avoided, and that is the controversy which has lately arisen
as to whether that painter wail a German or a Belgian,
founded upon the pedigree of certain Hemling's which bad
lately been found, and the last of the members of which,
Hans Hcmling by name, was born at Constance, in Swit-
zerland. Johanna Sehopenhauer and Nagler contend that
he is a German ; but, whether German or Belgian, he was
a subject of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bo'd, under
whose protection he was, and whose fortunes he followed.
not, as Descamps tells us, " enter the army as a com-
mon soldier from libertinism, and being reduced to the
utmost misery in the hospital of St. John, at Bruges, open
his eyes to the irregularities of his conduct, and, as soon as
his health permitted him, set to work and paint for his liveli-
hood." When Charles the Bold undertook his ill-fated expe-
dition against the Swiss, his household accompanied him,
and amongst the r.st Hemling. We find that painter re-
turning from the battle of Nancy, where Charles lost his life.
It was after his escape from that bloody field of battle that
he entered Bruges, pale, haggard, and faint with hunger and
lips of blood; he was taken in by the monks of the hospital
of St. John, who tended him till he recovered. He then
took to his easel, and it was not till he had done so, that he
was recognised ea Memling, whose name in connexion with
art was no doubt already known. After paying his debt of
gratitude to the kiwi monks by painting fur them the reli-
quary of St. Ursula, lie lett the munast.ry, and lived in af-
fluence, in diver; towns, while he bad been invited to adorn
convent wall, and churches with his paintings. It was in
the hospital of St. John that the bones of St. Ursula and the
ten martyred virgins were kept, and the fable of the 11,000
virgins of Cologne, is attempted to be rendered palpable to
John Bull, visiting the church of St. Ursula, by the light of
a number of skeletons, which were dug up in an old ceme-
tery of Cologne in the 13th century.
After Ilemiing commences the decline of the school of
Binges. The fall of this town as a commercial city took

place some time after the duce of the last Duke Curls*.
rhe merchants, alarmed by the constant recurrence of bates
tine warfare, emigrated with their wealth and their goods
and chattels to Antwerp, the rival of Bruges in the trae of
Spain and the Baltic. With the departure of trade d
took
place that of wealth and influence, and the school of the fine
arts following after that which fed it, deserted the place of its
birth for the more preeperous nursery of Antwerp.
flameJe whichrnmeoschLada:odwEnngeuglbhrechtedtinuparthe
ebucththieef
city
ykoerf ofFl thane-
den. The former seemed to invite a change in the existing
state of things, and the author of fiery and hellish subjects,
though a man of talent, was scarcely the meet follower of the
religious painters of Bruges.
The circumstances attending the rise and fall of the school
of Druges are sufficient to show that wealth, peace, and free-
dom are the three great requisites which must unite to form
a school of art. Examples of this are not wanting.
The Florentine and Roman schools, teetered and brought to
perfection under the mild rule of absolute and cultivated
princes, still owed their originality and spirit to that freedom
of will and of effort which pervaded the Italian cities so re-
cently. This spirit survived municipal freedom for a time,
whilst a cessation from civil war allowed its full development.
In Germany the arts, commencing at Cologne, and spreading
through the free and rich cities of masters,rg, and
Augsburg, gave birth to a long list o of whom we
need only mention Diirer, Holioein, and Lucas Cranach.
The Thirty Years' War came, end the fine arts were no
longer thought of. The school of Antwerp flourished till
1650, when the rivalry of Amsterdam threw Antwerp into
the shade as an emporium of trade. It cannot but be re-
marked, that the arts have in general, if not always,
sprung up in towns or small states, where the energies of
society were concentrated, and all the intellect of the popu-
lation was gathered and developed in a confined spot. In
France and England, where wealth, power, patronage, and
intellect, were necessarily scattered and divided between the
capital, the country, the universities, and the trading towns,
it was much more difficult to produce that last-born of in-
tellectual civilization, a school of art. It is only now, when
great clientele::: more and more resemble great towns, and
when the facilities of inter-communication and of the press
render every one the hearer and the neighbour, and the inti.
mate of the other, that we see artistical ambition starting up
to grasp at the palm which the generosity and taste of the
state and of the rich offer.
Horace Wtdpole may have thought that England
i ppos-
sessed a national school ; but in his account of painters n
England he only proves the very contrary. Under Henry
the Eighth, Holbein and Hocenhout shared the favours of
that monarch ; but relieous quarrels soon effaced the traces
they had left. To religious quarrels succeeded political
ones. Then Charles patzooised Reuben' and Vandyck, as
Henry did Holbein; but that hapless king bar furnished
England with pictures not artists.
To return to Mr.' Michiela' book, not the least in-
teresting part of it is that in which he gives an
account of the vicissitudes which have befallen some of the
pictures of the old Flemish masters. Many of the works of
Van Eyck were destroyed by the Iconoclasts. That paint-
er's chef d'reuvre, the altar-piece of the mystic lamb, has
had curious adventures. In 1641, we quote Mr. Michiels,
" the roof of the nave of St. Rayon took fire, and the picture
was taken down in the short space of time of one hour.
When it was afterwards restored to its original position,
crowds continued to assemble before it on oertaiu solemn
occasions. This custom still existed in 1785, when the
Emperor Joseph 11. visited it. The figures of Adam and
Eve, which formed part of the picture, shocked the poten-
tate. He considered their partial nudity indecent ; and the
man who had read and praised Voltaire's " Pucelle," blamed
the chaste ingenuity of the old artists ; he was astonished
that such a picture should be exhibited. His foolish remarks
were taken as orders, and the shutters closed over the pic-
tures. At a later period the French commissaries carried off
the panels forming the middle of the piece. The wings were
concealed in their absence. Mr. Denon, director of the
Paris museum, demanded them in vain"; he even offered
picture' of Ruben, in exchange for them. On the fall of
Buonaparte they were returned to Belgium ; they were
exhibited for a few weeks in the museum of Ghent, and
then returned to their original position. The wings, how-
ever, were never restored, and it was afterwards found
were deposited in a cellar. During the absence of the
bishop of the diocese, affairs were administered by
a vicar ; and a picture-dealer, called Nieuwenhays, took the
opportunity of endeavouring to get possession of them. He
paid a visit to the canons of the cathedral, assured them that
the pictures on the shutters were of no value, that they bore
no relation to the principal painting, and that shutters were
now out of fashion. He offered to give them 6,000 francs for
them. The fools believed him and accepted the offer. He
got a receipt and carried off his booty. On the following day,
M. Louis de Bast, the patient and laborious investigator,
was made acquainted with the affair. He immediately pro-
ceeded to inform the authorities, and a search was made in
the house of Nieuwenhays, but he had been too sharp for
them. The pannels were not to be found. He was brought
before a court of justice, but without result. In the mean-
time he sold his booty for 100,000 francs to an Englishman
named Solly, who lived at Berlin. Mr. Sully subsequently
sold his whole collection to the Ring cf Prussia for 500,000
thalers, the shutters of the Mystic Lamb alone procuring
him 400,000 francs.
Another of Van Eyck's pictures had a curious destiny. It
represents a couple united by Fidelity. It fell into the hands
of a barber in Ghent, who received a situation of 100 florins
friaum exchange for it, given to him by the Princess
. sister of Charles V. It was found at Brussels after
the battle of Waterloo by Major-General Hay, and it is now
in the National Gallery in London.
The Reliquary of St. Ursula, by Hemling, was well nigh
lost for Belgium in 1794. The French commissaries came
to the hospital to carry off its finest ornament. "La chasse,
la chtlase ' demanded they. The nuns, however, did not
understand the French language, and the name of this chef-
d'cruvre in Flemish is La Ryre. They said they did not
possess the article they wanted. Their accent, their coun-
tenances, convinced the delegates of the republic that they
were sincere, and they retired.