The Express.
London, England, 1860-04-06 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 6, 1880.

LITERATURE.

The Lif, and Labours of Sir Charles BeU, K.0.H.,
P.R.S.S. By AIM= PICHOT, M.D. Bentley.
A French physician of much literary as well as
professional repute, who enjoyed a slight personal
acquaintance with Sir Charles Bell, and who beheld
with sympathy and respect the great physiolo's
admirable career, has here paid a graceful tribate
to the memory of our distinguished oountrymaa.
Dr. Pichot has supplied us with a concise re-
cord of the experience and achievements of one
whose virtues as a man, as well as his pldlo-
oophic genius, were such that the world may
not willingly let the remembrance of them
die. The discovery of the functions of the
nervous system, announced in 1821 by Sir Charles
Bell, is rearded as only comparable, scientific
value,
value, to Harvey's discovery of the circulation el,
the blood. The lapse of two centuries, indeed,
separated the epochs of these great physiological
revelations, for which mankind is indebted to
British explorers of nature ; and the frankness with
which this competent French critic and biographer
congratulates England and Scotland upon the
honour of having produced men of such unequalled
fame and excellence in the important sciences of
animal organisation, is honourable to
.hiim--
rit. it is , gicessiblis
trei%re of gar Charles Bell'smind +reel

character, which is here presented, is a very inte-
resting one, showing the affectionate and amiable
relations of his private life, his generosity, mo-
dality, and devotedness, and even the excessive
sensibility which pained him at the sight of sinned
suffering, down to the latest period of his profes-
sional experience, though by force of resolute self-
control he was able to continue operating for many
days amongst the wounded at Waterloo. These
qualities, his refined susceptibility to the pleasures
of taste and imagination, and his adoring recog-
nition of the Divine power and wisdom in all
crested things, are exemplified by many remarkable
extracts from his correspondence, or notes of his
conversation. Not only therefore to those who
are beat acquainted with the great results of his
researches, but also to the general reader, this
memoir will prove acceptable.
The Japanese Empire : Its Physical, Political, and
Social Condition and History ; with details of the
late American and British Erpeditions. By.B. B.
Kamm. Partridge and Co.
Japan is a topic of the day, and this little volume
has been prepared to catch the breeze of popular
interest which blows in that direction. It is anec-
dotal and entertaining enough ; the whimsicalities
of custom and social condition ascribed to that re-
I mote and curious people, of whom so little has yet
really been known, supplied a favourite theme to the
humorous imagination of our cleverest satirists
in the last century; Dean Swift established a ministry
of state fiddlers at Jeddo, and Sznollett selected the
Japanese realm for the scene of his " Adventures
of an Atom." The compiler of this "condensed,
portable, and cheap handbook of the people and
country of Japan' has relied pretty much upon
the Dutch informants, not only Von Siebold, who
is comparatively recent, but old Kiimpfer, with his
picturesque circumstantiality of description ; and
whilst it would be rash to affirm that this account
includes nothing apocryphal, it would be easy
to find in its details abundant matter
of amusement. Without caring to inquire
into the veracity of those ancient stories
about the Japanese of a former age, which Mr.
Kemish has very simply reproduced, we might
however correct his statements in some particulars
concerning the English and their transactions with
Japan at the present day. He tells a story about
Mrs. .Allcock, wife of the well-known Consul-
General, landing at Sinagawa on a specified day,
when by displaying " her crinoline spread out, and
gaily trimmed bonnet," she excited the troublesome
attentions of the crowd, which this " first Euroti
lady in Jeddo" is said to have punished " bygiving
them a pretty heavy blow over their heads with her
parasol" But Mr. Kemish, who has gallantly
devoted the earliest and most elaborate of his pages
to the attractive subject of the Japanese ladies,
their millinery, manners, marriages, ts quite mis-
taken in this supposed adventure of a country-
woman of his own, who never existed at all. There
is no Mrs. Allcock, and no lady belonging to the
family of our respected Consul-General 'has en-
countered that disagreeable experience.

much better, but the water is opaque and unnatu-
rally;
agitated. " The Ambush, a scene on n
-Moors, Yorkshire " (17), by Mr. Nieman, is '
and effective, but, like all this artist's works, w'
not bear examination. The incidence of the re-
k fleeted light on the rocks is in nearly every cue in-
koorrect. Mr. Pyne likewise is a painter who does
not reverentially learn his art from nature, but
rather brings his art to her and would fain force her
into chains. There are many impossible effects
and much incompatible gay. colouring in "Wrecks
'and Wreckers off Beaumans" (74).
The " Sunset" (174), by Mr. J. P. Pettitt, is deep
and rich in colour, and a surprisingly successful,
realisation of a very transient effect. The dusky
golden rays shot through the sombre foliage,
&irking the clouds and barring the green sward, are
very truthful and poetical. Mr. A. Gilbert pos-
sums a speciality for similar effects, as in the long
level sun ray, athwart the emote of the hills in
" Evening in North Wales" (601). Mr. West has,
it appears, again revisited his favourite Norway,
and lias been equally successful as heretofore in
depicting the wonders of that comparatively unex-
country. In No. 564, " Near Vs/menden,
tiOrity," we have one of the thousand foaming tor-
rents which force their headlong way down from the
rat central chain of Norwegian mountains. In
...

MO Alli.Friazgattakeire.• at
the fieet We, Norway. Mr. is
very truthful and effective in a limited range.
That is to say, his drawing, for instance in No.
284, of the receding banks of a river, its water
plants, and redlectiam, is correct, but his palette
embraces only two or three tints of light grey and
cold dark green, and his colouring generally is hard,
erode, and too much like the old school of water
colours. Mr. Tennant, in "The Windings of the
Csk, from Dasy-park " (190), has lighted upon one
tithe most magnificent amphitheatral views an artist
could possibly select. A little more warmth would
have made this picture scarcely inferior to
any in the collection. In " The Darren
from the Ffwddog " (302), this artist has
given a very daring effect a sunbeam breaking
through rein-cloud. Much excellent painting in
"The Mole, near Dorking" (47), by Mr. Percy,
is inilson see No. 246) and Mr. Shayer seem to
juirieldbsy too great hotness in the shadows.
J. W
I have sue in the general rejuvenescence of this
sesiety. Mr. E. Boddington has a brilliant little
gem in oil in the water-colour room. No. 688,
Mr. Wainwright, is fresh and pleasant as usual.
Mr. Mogford deserves a better place for 201. We
I ate glad to welcome Mr. Banks as a promising
landscape painter. Lastly, Mr. A. W. Hunt is
becoming hopelessly pre-Raphaelite.
Mr. G. Cole more than ever sustains his repu-
tation as an animal painter in Nos. 36, 423, 154,
and 203 ; but we mum the admirable Cuyp-like
landscapes which generally accompanied former
works. However, the tone of some, especially the
smeller of these interiors, is so deep, rich, and
transparent, and so near that of the beet Dutch
marten, that we cannot permit ourselves anything
like fault-finding. In all these pictures there
are good drawing and foreshortening, knowledge of
&Mimi character, and a dexterous handling and
whisk of the brush very descriptive of the woolly
and hairy coats of sheep and cows.
Among the painters of still-life Mr. Duffield,
with his "Fruit, &c." (349), is pre-eminent. There
is, however, some marvellous microscopic painting
in No. 54, by Mr. Ward.
In the water-colour room, in addition to the figure-
subjects mentioned in our first notice, the following
drawings deserve attention, via :—" Mount's-bay
Norman fishing village" (807), and "St. Michael's
Blount" (809), by Mr. G. Wolfe; " St. George's
Windsor," by Mr. Bayliss ; " Bude," by
45111:11ehittaker ; "The south end to Rouen Cathe-
dral," by Mr. E. S. Cole ; and the works of Messrs.
J. B. Smith, Leitch, and Pearson.