The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

forming our ancient cathedrals into modern theatres,
and to the cognate schemes of his friend Lord John
Gore for the restoration of maypoles. Then, is there
not Mr. Philip Spread, full of learning and levity,
logic and lore, with a sneaking desire for mathema-
tics or matrimony, which he is only prevented
from rushing into by the difficulties of a choice—
the more especially, as he is permanently in
love with Mies :parable, or, at least, with
Bessie Romford—besides numbers of the Spread-
line of the Spread family, whose age keeps them
in the nursery—even after dinner? Then are there
not the !Trend governess, Mrs. Martin, author
of the " Dignity of Woman," and the " Godmothers
of England;" the unctuous Dean Bedford, the prince
of pluralists, whose rotund person gives the lie to the
malicious reports which assert that the Irish church
is not in a flourishing condition; the manly Mrs.
Harry Farquhar, and the lady-like Mr. Harry.Far-
quhar ; and numerous other clever and prominent
characters, whose acquaintance it is pleasant to make?
How the philosophical bachelor goes down to spend
a few days with the Spreads, and how, in spite of his
caution and repulsive acerbity, he becomes entangled
in cares and connexions, in love and politics—how he
is forced into parliament against his will, and what
he does when there ; and how, finally, the science of
bachelordom fails, and explodes, and Pete: Barker,
Esq., becomes the martyr of matrimony, it is not our
purpose to relate ; arc they not written out in full in
The Bachelor of the Albany"?
• •

Mr. Savage wields a pen of great promise—less
bitter, but not less brilliant, than Disraeli—he depicts
a character in a phrase, and transfixes a folly with a
word. He is less personal, but not less striking, in
the delineations than that satirical novelist—while his
means are purer, and his purposes higher. In
"The Falcon Family" his shafts were levelled
at Young Ireland, and admirably they went home.
In " The Bachelor of the Albany," Young England
comes in for a sound, although but incidental, castiga-
tion. In the persons of the Rev. Bartholomew Owlet
—familiarly known as "Bat Owlet "—minor canon
of Salisbury, Lord John Gore, who is as mad about
may-poles as Lord Dudley Stuart is about real-Poles,
and the tractarian peeress who is anxious for the
demise of the Rev. Mr. Fowler—who in consequence
threatens to live for ever—that she may install Owlet
in his living, and restore the " ancient faith and
formulas"—the Young England party is cleverly and 1
facetimply described. The rehearsal of the old "mys-
tery 1
" of " Balsam and his Ass " in the chambers of
the minor canon, in which the reverend gentleman
personates the prophet in a tremendous beard, and
his noble friend does the eloqaent quadruped in " a
magnificent pair of ears," is splendid.

The satirical portraits of political men are not nume-
rous, but are uncommonly terse, clever, and suftl-
„eiently.true to prevent them from degenerating from
nature into caricature. The cynical bachelor of the
Albany, always contradictory and pugnacious, retorts
upon a worthy curate who knows little of the machi-
nery of the world, and deems every prime minister a
kind of demi-god, that his " angelic hierarch Sir
Robert Peel is a great devourer of rump steaks and
toasted cheese ;" and another person having dared to
assert his opinion that " the august Brougham is one
of the most gigantic intellects that have illumined
Europe," he dashes off a virulent sketch of the cha-
racter of the ex-chancellor, concluding it by pronoun-
cing him " a man of brilliant incapacity, vast and
various misinformation, and prodigious moral require-
ments."

In his parliamentary career Barker is as crotchety
as in his social one. Ile introduces all sorts of proper
motions at all sorts of improper times, falls foal of his
friends for the sake of a bitter joke, pesters the house
with useless inquiries, and demands returns which
nobody will ever read. He is constantly discovering
mares'-nests, and threatening the ministers with im-
peachment. Being annoyed one day by a misquotation
from Virgil, he calla for a return of all the quotations
from that author since 1688, specifying the lines
quoted in each case, the name of the member who
used them, and the particular poem from which taken
—whether " Georgics," ' Bucolic.," or " Eineid," a
work which would afford much curiosa felicitas in
the reading. Barker was hardly ever in majorities,
and very seldom in minorities of more than four or
eve. Like the ancient sage, he instantly reconsidered
his opinion, when he found it popular. For a con-
siderable time, he and Buckram, M.P. for Wells,
pulled wonderfully together—being two of the crab-
bedest and crookedest men in England. But at
length they split and thenceforth stood alone. The oc-
casion was this. They had agreed to introduce the
question of the ballot to the attention of the house
at the most unseasonable juncture imaginable. They
met to consider preliminaries. Upon all main points
and principles they agreed • but then came the quo-
tion of what sort of wood the ballot-box should be
made. Buckram was for oak, because it is British ;
Barker for cedar, because it is antiseptic. Neither
would give up his crotchet. Buckram could see no
sense in cedar : Barker considered oak the acme of
absurdity. They finally split upon the wood. The
ballot party broke up into two violent factions; each
called a cab and went home in it ; and the great
constitutional question of secret suffrage received a
shock which it did not recover for three sessions.

pm Arts.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY.—A new "Descriptive
and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National
Gallery" has just been printed at the expense of govern-
ment. It is the work of Mr. Ralph N. Wornum, and has
been "revised," as the titlepsge inform, us, "by C. L.
Eastlake, R.A." A chap and concise, and yet an ample
descriptive catalogue of the gallery has long been a real
want, a want in some measure supplied by Mr. Wornum's
work, whkh seems conscientiously and carefully compiled,
and though an octavo volume of 215 pages, is to be sold, we
understand, at the low price of one shilling. The arrange-
ment is in the alphabetical order of the artists' names, sad
of every painter there is a short biography, always useful,
and to the uninformed absolutely indisp 'rumble, for the due
appreciation of certain works the merit of which depends in
a great measure on the time and circumstances of their pro-
duction. Mr. Wornum leaves the spectator to judge of the
merits of the several pictures for himself—not unwisely
we think ; though the real utility of the work
would be considerably increased by the introduction of par-
ticular opinions, expressed in writing, by persons competent
to sit in judgment on the merits of the pictures. Thus, in
looking at the " Return of the Ark," by Sebastian Bourdon,
and the " Niobe" by Wilson, one would like to have before
them the particular passages in Sir Joshua's " Discourses"
which refer to these very pictures ; and, in looking at the
" Bacchus and Ariadne " of Titian, the introduction of
en extract from Charles Lamb would really add to one's
relish for the picture. In future editions it would be as
well to add the prices given foe the purchased pictures. They
are always of use in reflecting on the history and value of
works of art at different periods, and are facts, moreover,
occupying very little room. A few errors which have
escaped Mr. Eastlake may also be set right when the work
is reprinted. Vsndyck'e pension from Charles I. was not
1001., but 2001. (the amount afterwards given to Verrio) ;
and Vandyck's wife was not the daughter of " the unfortu-
nate Lord Rutkven," but the daughter of Patrick Ruthven,
a physician, related to Lord Ruthven. The preface informs
as that the number of purchased pictures is 66, and yet the
hit at the end (correctly enough) enumerates 67.