The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 3, 1869.

A 3 for the President's resp)nsJ, it wm, in its artistic
retrospect, in the highest degree graceful bcsiles being
appropriate to the occasion, that, namely, as we have
already said of inaugurating the Royal Ac ►demy':
new home and its second centenary together. Th
Academy, he reminded his hearers, corn:llene .d it:
career under the auspices of [as he said very ex
extravagantly] a Great King, and [as he said by
no means extravagantly] a great painter—
GEORGE 111. and Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS. The glories
of the Academy he indicated succinctly enougl
by enumerating sixteen names of artists dead am
gone—such as those of NOLLEKENS, BARRY, COPLEY,
BANKS, S3fIRICE, STOTHARD, LAWRENCE, HOPNER,
FLAXMAN, TURNER, CALCOT, WILKIE, MULREADY.
LESLIE, ETTY,NEWTON, and CONSTABLE—particularis-
ing among their living successors of eminence but on
only—the illustrious name of the veteran Sir EDWIN
LANDSEER. After honouring the American Ambas
sador with a toast all to himself—a toast almost as i
happens of farewell, seeing that Mr. REVERDY JOHN.
SON is immediately to be replaced by Mr. MOTLEY, the
historian of the Dutch Republic, the Lords and
Commons were pledged together by the President.
the Lords coupled with the name of that Last of the
Barons Lord LAWRENCE, the House of Com-
mons (as Sir FRANCIS GRANT observed, amidst
the applause of the distinguished assemblage) " with
the name of one of its greatest orators and
most distinguisho Statesmen," Mr. DISRAELI, the
ex-Premier, and now Leader of the Opposition.
After Mr. DISRAELI'S response, the rest of the toasts
were little less than formal—the Lord Mayor ac-
knowlefliging_that of the City of London, General
SABINE that]of the Royal Society, and the Dean of
Westminster that of the Interests of Literature--
Literature, oddly enough, being pledged tho last of
all by the Royal Academicians !

LORD STANLEY made a speech on Friday evening
which makes us regret more than ever that he speaks
so seldom. It was eminently wise, temperate, and
statesmanlike. It was so different from the speech
which almost immediately followed it, that it is well-
nigh impossible to believe that they were made in
the same assembly, or on the same evening.
Lord STANLEY expressly exonerated the Govern-
ment for not bringing in a land bill this
session. He considered that to pass two such measures
as that and the Trish Church Bill in the same
yen. is impossible ; and thus he had the frank-
ness to say openly what Mr. DISRAELI admits tacitly.
At the same time he contended that the Government
ought to give some general intimation of their policy,
so as to allay the excitement and the wild expectations
which prevail in Ireland with respect to the land. On
the other hand, Lord CLAUDE HAMILTON made sue!,
a fierce attack upon Mr. BRIGHT that it drew from Mr.
TOP.IIENS a vehement protest, from the SPEAKER an
expression of "regret," and from Serjeant DOWSE
the humorous suggestion that the MAYOR of Conx
should, as the heaviest punishment that could be
inflicted upon him, be shut up for a whole day with
the member for Tyrone. Mr. BRIGHT, in his reply,
made one unlucky mistake. He spoke in the
first person singular, and said that he was
prepared to bring in a measure to pu'
greater numbers of people in possession of land than
now hold it. The mistake was not unnatural in the
case of a man of Mr. BRIGHT'S antecedents. He
has been for so many years standing alone, warring
alone, that he forgets that he now has allies, and is
under the command of a superior officer. Of course
the Opposition were keen to mark the blunder ; all
the keener because they connected it with certain
proposals made by Mr. BRIGHT on a former occasion,
which, it is understood, the Liberal party generally,
and Mr. GLADSTONE in particular, are not prepared to
accept. But the debate that followed was not with-
out use. It set forth pretty clearly the principles of
the Government policy, though whether it would
feaibrleyen. -pbenetttenr,itnoegbtieonst.ill =ore precise •is s
nnloatt

The principles of the intended Ministerial measure
arc clearly these : that there shall be compensation
to tenants for unexhausted improvements, and thai
facilities shall be offered for converting tenants int(
owners. To the first principle both sides of the
House are already committed. The Conservative:
unhappily compelled the RUSSELL-GLADSTONI
Ministry to abandon their Tenant Right Bill in 1866
just as it was compelled to give up its Reform Bill.
We know what happened. With regard to the
second matter, we know that the limited extension
rejected in 1866 brought about household suffrage in
1867; and so it will be with regard to the first. The
day is gone by, we fear, for any measure's° mode-
rate as the Irish Land Bill of 1866 to suffice.
We must have that and something more.
Fortunately that something mora is offered
by the Irish Church Bill. A large quantity of land
will conic more or less under the control of the
Government, and we have no doubt that it is wit
this Mr. GLADSTONE and Mr. BRIGHT are prepared
to deal. There will be no " confiscation." The
lands will not be taken from the Church in order to
be given to the peasantry. But every facility
for the purchase of them will be offered
to the present tenant class. Tints although
the Government wisely decline to introduce their
land bill this session, they m'ght, we think, state
with greater precision the intentions which are to be
inferred from, rather than were expressed in, the
Ministerial statements on Friday night. In the
meanwhile, if Mr. BRIGHT'S former speeches have
led to any extravagant expectations on the part of the
Irish people, he has done his best to d'ss'pate them
by his explicit disavowal of the projects which are
imputed to him.

LITERATURE,

Imitations of George Cruik shank.

German Popular lories. By the Brothers Grimm.
Two Seri s. With Illustrations. After the
Original Designs by George Cruikshank. One
Vol., pp 335. J. C. Hotten.
Under the most alluring guise, shining radiantly
a apple-green and gold, there comes back to
,he shape of this goodly volume, one of our old
special favourites. And what a book it is I A
fairy-tale book among fairy-tale books—a collection
,f apologues among a collection of apologues! Hans
in Luck and Tom Thumb—The Jew in the Bush
Ind King Grisly-beard—Rumpel-Stilts -kin and
Cherry or the Frog Bride—The Salad, the Goose-
girl, The Turnip, The Juniper free, the Three
sluggards, the Seven Ravens, and The Nose !
IVit, fan, wi.idom, absurdity, conceits the wildest,
aomicality the most extravagant, fable, allegory,
IrJllery and dia.blerie
Sport that wrinkled car© derides,
And lau,hter holding bath his sides.

•'Llausmiischen" is the name of it—being (as it is) a
;athering together of the German Popular S.ories by
he Brothers Grimm. The elder of these two brothers
wing Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, born in 1785 at
elanau. The younger, Wilhelm Carl Grimm, born
,u 1786 at Hanover. Like Dr. Johnson, they are
mown and honoured among lexicographers. But,
more effectively than the author of Hasselas, they
weilded the pen of the fabulist. One of them, Jacob,
writing of his literary association with his brother
tVilhelm, said, " We lived, from our youth up, iu
Orotherly community of goods—money, books, and
collectanea belonging to us in common :" so that, as
le a ids, " it was natural to combine our labours."
Aesd, in this way, they worked together. Earlier
than we can by any possibility recall to our remem-
orance, in point of fact before we were bore, a trans-
lation of these famous GerinanPopularStorie s, of the
renowned " Haustuarchen" was given to the English
?abbe —this was in 1823—by Mr. Edgar Taylor
mud his partner, Mr. Roscoe, then practising as soli-
sitors in the Temple. The first volume was
mblished by Charles Baldwyn, of Newgate-street,
aid the second by James Robins, of Ivy-lane The
:teliings—the wonderful etchings—illustrating the
s;tielish version of the Stories, were by George Cruik-
,hault. Forty odd years have flown by since then ;
.ud the work we are here referring to, after having
saseed through a great numeer of editions, has long
seen regarded as a choice rarity—whenever they
lave been fortunate enough to light upon a stray
:opy of it—by the collectors of the vast multitude
f scattered works produced by the etching-needle
f George Cruikshank. According to a statement
Jade in the " Advertisement" prefixed to the
'olume now under notice-3 statement made on
ee authority of its publisher, Mr. Rotten, of Pic-
adilly—the original issue of Edgar Taylor's and
.{,o,cue's Englash version of the "llttusmiirchen"of tee
irothers Grimm, embellished by the hand of George
Jruikshank, sold at the time of its first publication
a six shillings the volume, that is for twelve bill—
ings the two volume;—those two volumes being
ow, according to Mr. Hjtteu, worth, at the least,
or I:6 steiieg. Nov, it is this book which, in
le form, as nearly as possible, of a facsimile, has
,ere, in this attractive shape, beau reproduced.
l'he title-page is hank enough where it speaks of the
ilustrations as " A fter the Designs of George
jrudeshank." Otherwise, as it seems to us, tee
fork—intentionally or uninteatieually—is de cep-
Iva. Aed, it is so, or at any rate it strikes us as so,
or this rea on, that externally—as though the
Qek were his, or were duly authorized by him—
acre is einblazsned the well-known autograph of
lie great artist : while, internally, there is
serfectly legible, under each seeming replica of the
Tiginal etchings— either G. Cruikshauk feeit,
,r, at any rate, his initials. Over and above
dl which, in the course of a charming
utroduction to this Edition (written expressly
'or the volume under notice) Mr. Ruskin hien-
,elf writes, among other things, the words fin-
aediately following--" These copies" have been so
:arefully executed that at first I was deceived by
hem, and supposed them to be late impressions
the plates (and what -is more I believe the
:ma:ter hintsell ern. derri pod by them, and su_n-
iosed them to be his own)"—and so cel. Now th .
cords italicized in parenthesis we have italicized
u-pesely--- for inasmuch as thereby hangs (if no,
. tale, at any rate) au explanation. And the
splanatiou is el:10y this, that it was at the
:rat glance, but at the first glace only, that the
tester was for a passing meinent, deceived. Re-
amber, that forty-six years ago these famous etch-
ags from his hand—from his master-baud—were
irst produced. They are among his masterpieces.
Iwo or three of them, are all but his masterpieces.
'lough, to accord them the palm, off-hand, as such,
vou!d require some courage, recollecting the vast
uultitude of etchings this incomparable master of
,hat exquisite art has in his time with affluent
genius and marvellous industry—stroke upon
stroke, touch upon touch, with the needle's point—
er° lucel. One Cruiksbankian Collector alone
,estis to the pas Session of Sixteen Thousand original
etchings from that deft, and agile, and laborious
hand ! Reverting, however, to these particular
etchings in illustration of the German Stories, by
he Brothers Grimm, they were daintily scratched
AI the varnish, and bitten by the acid into the
metal, as we have said some six and forty years
ago. Thirty years ago, however, the very plates
themselves were suddenly missing. For sixteen
years they had served their purpose, but then_
nearly a whole generation back—they somehow
went astray. And for thirty years they were
supposed to have been lost, or stolen, or destroyed.
Several months since—this being the actual state
sf things in regard to the original plates—a friend
of George Cruikshank's, calling in upon him, related
bow he had bean told that these very plates had
then recently been discovered, and had been, there-
upon, purchased by Mr. Rotten, the publisher, of
Piccadilly—Cruikshank's friend chewing to the
Artist, at the same moment a couple of proofs which
be held out to bim with this inquiry—" Are
these your etchings ?" Then, it was, at the first
superficial glance—more particularly seeing his name
written (one might almost say forged) under each
subject--GeorgeCruikshank thought for the moment
they were his own—answering his querist, haphazard,
" Yes." Looking at them directly afterwards, how-
ever, a little more carefully—asecond glance showed
aim at once that they were copies. Examining them
through the very same magnifying glass, with the
Lid of which, nearly half 'a century before he had
produced the original etchings—the fact glared
ipon recognition that they were not Cruikshank's!
['rue, no doubt, that when scanned with the naked eye
hese copies appear to have been cleverly imitated.
slut the master himself protests to us —and we don't
wonder at it—that he should be very sorry in-
teed if his own work, more particularly the
Laced, were not better ! "At a distance," as he says,
they may pats; but a comparison, particularly
hrough a magnifying glass, will detect the differ-
:nce in an instant !" Not a doubt of it ! Conse-
'tient upon the recognition of which fact, we
sannot wonder in the least to know that George
Cruikshank has objected, in the strongest
nanner possible, to having his name or his
initials even placed under what, at the best, were
ally extremely good copies, or that ho has requested
,he publisher of this otherwise most acceptable
volume to have written under each subject, "Copied
roin George Cruikshank's original designs and etch-
iags." Ss also in regard to the external emblazoning
ipon Cie book of the famous Autograph. Naturally
mough the owner of that autograph regards as "an
in warrantable liberty," the use of a name which
se is very comprehensibly desirous of retaining
to distinguish exclusively as his, works of his
own actual production, and his own actual pro
perty. It cannot but be interesting to aid, here
for the information of Mr. Ruskin as the
tattier of the introduction, of Mr. Hatton, as the
sublishee of the volume, and of every purchaser
,f the book itself in its present guisa—that, by the
idlest coincidence, the hitherto missing Copp .r
Plates, with George Cruikshank's original etchings
ipon them—have been recently found, and are now
in the possession of a friend of the artist. The plates
30 long lying perdu were formerly the property
of the late Mr. Robins, of Tooley-street, in the

Borough, shortly after whose death these identical
plates were discovered, among a mass of
old rubbish, buried away in a cellar, the whole
stock, rubbish and all, being thereupon sold off,
and the etched copper- plates eagerly bought up by
this friend of George Cruikshanrs. Reverting,
however, from the' Originals to the exceedingly in-
genious Imitations here under review, we cannot
but commend, even in these shadowy reflections from
the etched copper-plate:-1, as they came, six and forty
years ago, from the hand of George Cruikshank—the
consummate art with which an almost microscopic
line or two, the faintest scratch, the merest dot,
serves to indicate a whole world of character. Look
at that grotesque procession of the Golden Goose
opposite p. 124, with Dumpling, staff in hand,
followed (one after another) by the three sisters, by
the parson, by the clerk, by the two labourers—all
treading on one another's heels ! Look at the Elves
capering with their (liter,illy) small-clothes opposite
p. 96—watched, from behind the cartain, by the
grinning shoemaker! Look at the ursine smirk upon
Bruin's face, or muzzle nither, opposite D. 192,
where he is dancing a pas seal to the sound of the
fiddle ! Look at the " 'leads Off" opposite p. 120 in
the embellishment to the King of the Golden Moun-
tain ! But—for that matter—we might run through
them all seriatim. For, they are, certainly, all of
them, deliciously humorous by reason of the same
subtle touches of droll extravagance. Our only regret,
and (as far as that goes) our principal wonder in re-
gard to this revival, or reissue, or republication of
Cruikshauk's Grimm, is that—the artist being, still,
as he indubitably is, in the fullness of his powers,
and, that, too, alike in his manipulative skill, and
in the grotesque sprightliness of his imagination—
our one regret, our sole wonder, is that George
Cruikshank himself was not employed to make
copies of his own ett:hingsl It would at the least
have been judicious. For, certainly, in his instance
—" none but himself can be his parallel."

George Cruikshank's Omnibus. New Edition. One
Vol., pp. 300. BM and addy.

Another old favourite, here, claims our attention.
Twenty years and more have sped by since it began
running. And, nevertheless, here it is once more
upon the road—true to time- up to time—and
ready for all comers. La.man Bl inclrard was
originally its Conductor. The Proprietor of the
" Omnibus" the driver of the team, an admirable
Whip, master of the ribbons—GeorgeCruikshank
himself—is still happily amongst us, though his con-
frere the Conductorhasyearssincepa,sedaway. Aud
•‘ I he Omnibus" appears in its new aspect under its
projector's own direction. Republished in a single
volume, the work is really worthy of preservation.
In its way, it is a comic classic. And, this we say,
Nitlt an eye at once to the letterpress and the illus-
trations. Who that knows the book at all, can fail
to bear in recollection the serial story of " Frank
Ideartwell; or, Fifty Years Ago," by Bowman 'tiller
--whoever be was. Au enthralling narrative of
adventures ashore and afloat, embellished by a suc-
cession of charming etchings from the masterhand
George Cruikshank—some of them finished pictures,
if regarded purely as works of art? Then, again, the
very exordium, or introduction, or prologue, or
however you may please to call it—George Cruik-
hank's illustrated fragment of Autobiography !
With the revelation of his first sense of pictorial
fun—his casual banning of a chance-seen bust of
73hakspere with a clay pipe stuck in its myr !
The portrait of the artist prefixed to this fragment
of his autobiography is, if possible, wore intereA-
ing even than it was of old, now that we glance atits
truthful delineation of him, as he looked then,
more than a quarter of a century ago—and, yet,
in spite of the lapse of tine since then, in the
expression of it—the very man himself, as he is
now, with the keen bright blue eyes, the acquiline
(and, as the French would call it, " pronounced")
nose, the half moustache from the corners
of the kindly, vigorous mouth, the tag of hair trail-
ing sideways down the forehead ! Among the tid-
bits that may still be relished with a gusto scattered
up and down the volume, maybe particularised that
wonderfully droll story about Little Spitz, told by
i\liebael Angelo Titrnarsh, and pencilled by
George Cruikshauk. That same M. A. Titmarsh
who wag aftcrwaid, to di up ti pueaudupu and
appear in the world of letters under his own proper
title as W. M. Thackeray—and who was to write
iii succession " Vanity Fair " and " Pen lennis,"
tied " The Newcomes," and '' Philip," and " The
Virginians," and what not. But, already, there,.
iu Cruikshank's Omnibus, even in that preposter-
ous story about " Little Spitz," be was giving
evidence of his extraordinary powers as a humorist
—evidence so umnistakeable that we have known
a reader of the tale [query, tail ?] cry with laugh-
ing over the comicality of that same whimsical little
story. Then, moreover, one might ask the readers of
"The Omnibus" when it first came out and appeared
from month to month among the magazines—have
they not still to this day (we have) the most vivid
recollection of Mrs. 7. ? Mrs. T., with her "little
bit black legs," and 'IA. " coal-scuttle bonnet," and
her apparently determined attempt at suicide—
and all the rest of it! Why—we used to look
out for her, with indescribable eagerness in
the successive numbers—as the " Omnibus" drove
on from stage to stage—and we used to dread the
appearance of a number without her putting
in an appearance! Altogether the book is full
of fun, frolic, and fascetiousness, open it where you
will. Say, at " Ghosts," or at " Frights," or at the
pictorial jest on Honim )pathy, or on Photography,
or on any of the then new wonders of the hour. As
an amusing miscellany we don't know any volume of
equal bulk to compare with this one of Cruikshank's
" Omnibus," a work produced
hy our great artist
when he was in the prime of his life and in the
fullness of his powers—the peerless master of the
art of etching and the prince of comic illustrators.