The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-19 00:00:00

THE EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS.

We again resume our lucubrations.
No. 168. "The Passions. From Collins's Ode." By G.
Patten, A. R. A. This is one of the chief paintings in the
exhibition, if not the chief. The idea is taken from Coltins'e
Ode--

" When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The passions oft to hear her shell,
Througed around her magic cell.
* *
First Fear --

Next Anger -
* * * *
With woful measure wan despair.
* * * , *
But thou, Oh Hope, with eves so fair.
**• - * *

Revenge impatient rose.
* * * *

Several of our contemporaries have entered into minute cri-
ticisms on this painting, and it has already been greatly
scanned : there is the less need, therefore, for us to do this.
No one will doubt of the difficulty of embodying a picture
from Collins's Ode. A poetic picture is drawn, yet with
such latitude and absence of particularity that no two
minds would conceive the same idea of it. Let the spec-
tator read the ode, and try mentally to embody what it de-
scribes, and paint in fancy the scene, forgetting Patten's
picture, and we will vouch for it, with the same description
to guide him, he will build an aerial vision far different to
this painting; and so would another man differ from him.
Having then thus established the unconfined boundary of the
description, let no man quarrel with Mr. Patten's embodi-
ment of it, because it may differ from his own idea of it. Mr.
Patten here gives us his conception. We confess, to us, that
it is not a plain tale, and that part of it we cannot understand.
A part of it, however, does well picture the ode, and for
the rest we attribute it to a poetic fancy or a painter's
license. Music, represented by a female form, appears
as described in the ode. reclining in her " magic cell,"
wrapt as it were in a soft hallucination produced by the
tones of her own sweet " shell." Fear is represented
as stetting away, a robe floating in the wind, over
him. This appears to us to be the most faulty figure
in the picture. The prominent shoulder is not according to
the symmetry of nature; it looks in fact like painted canvas.
Anger is a fine bold, symmetrical figure of a man, excited to
violent attitudes and contortions. Despair is appropriately
drawn sitting "wan" and wretched, by the side of a pool of
water, brooding on her troubles, and contemplating the placid
waters as if to seek in them oblivion from her misery. Hope,
"with eyes so fair," is an exquisitely drawn and painted fe-
male figure. advancing with a lute. I?etenge, in tie form of
an armour clad wart ior, is represented as `• impatient rising."
Other exquisitely drawn and coloured female figures fill up
the centre of the painting, whose chief beauty consists in
their elegance and beautiful colouring. Much has been said
about the colouring of the characters in this painting, and
learned dispute entered into to prove that the style of colour-
ing belongs to this and to that old master. For our parts, we
give Mr. Patten credit for having chiefly studied and copied
the oldest, and only infallible master—nature. We fancy
that his sky is such an one as Guido delighted to paint, and
which we have seen in several of Guido's paintings, but
which is not the sky of nature. Whether or no Mr. Patten
is here a copiest, from a fallible copy, we will not say. We
have often been amused at the kind of veneration with which
the paintings of a Titian, a Reubens, a Raphael, or a Van-
dycke have been observed. The question has not been whe-
ther they are good paintings according to
"Nature's just standard whieh is still the same,"
and let that

"Your judgment frame,"
but, who are they by? "Oh, sir, this is a Guido." "Oh !
then it must be excellent." It is taken for granted; the
thing is done ; and by this silly veneration for an old master
the "judgment" is "framed" after the "standard" of Guido,
and not after that of nature. Now Guido was a fallible
painter, and moreover his excellence did not growall at once,
but like the excellence of most other men, by patient toiling
upwards step by step, and many scores of the early
productions of Guido yet exist, and are almost adored
by their present possessors, which Guido himself—the
Guido of after years would have been heartily ashamed of.
And besides, in what consisted the secret of Guido's fame ?
Was it in some essence in the man, possessed only by him ?
No such thing. It was only in his superiority over his con-
temporaries, in faithfully copying nature, and painting her
in all her attitudes and appearances as she is. How silly
then, in a painter, when he has the original in unchanged
excellence before nim, to be content with a copy—that is, if
his ambition is excellence in his art. How silly to set up
these old masters as the standards of excellence; and how
very silly, if a painter succeeds in giving a good idea of the
original, to say that be has copied this and that old master,
because they have each given a good idea of the original.
We hate this acknowledgment of lack of genius—this shrink-
ing from grappling with nature, and hiding behind a Titian
or a Vandycke. It is as bad as the Tom Noddyism of the
lawyers, in letting a precedent be a license and permission
for any absurdity. Well then, let nature be our standaid,
and let us try this picture by it, and by that shall we find out
its faults and beauties. We do not like the drawing of the
most naked of the figures, as we think it in some respects
faulty. It is, however, exquisitely painted. The drawing of
each of the central group is superior, and the figure of Hope
is especially beautiful in form, proportion, and colouring.
As a whole, however, the painting is a very splendid one,
and a credit to the exhibition and to the town.

No. 139. "Boy and Goat."—This is one of Mrs. Sayer's
characteristic paintings. Her style of painting is a minute
copy of peculiarities, and, by correct shading, her figures
stand prominently forward on the canvass. There is, how-
ever, a poverty of colouring about them.
No. 140. " Llangollen Mill, Denbighshire," is a tolerable
landscape painting.
No. 141. " A Landscape."-142. " Windsor Castle—
early morning."-143. " View from Shooter's Hill."-144.
"Italian Landscape." And 145. " The Approaching
Storm," are placed too high for observation.
No. 146. " Christ blessing the bread and wine."—ls a
richly coloured painting, but is one of those matter of fact
sort of things which require little draught on the genius of
an artist.

No. 148. " Train up a child in the way he should go,"—is
faulty in more senses than one. It represents a child, at that
age when the mind thinks of nothing but riding across sticks,
kite flying, and sugar candy, leaning over a big bible, with
his grandmother over him. Till the years of thought and re-
flection come, the good example of a parent is worth all the
bible reading in the world. We know two or three saturnine
feminine specimens of little pride, " envy, hatred, and
malice, and ail uncharitableness," who think they admirably
train up their children in the way they should go," by
dosing them with tasks in the scriptures. The child reads
and thinks little, if at. all, of what he reads and then sees his
inonima vexing his father with a few unainiable airs, or hears
her unreasonably scolding the servants, or enviously talking
of a neighbour, and thus gets his " training up." He re-
members the proud look, or the spiteful air, or the unbecom-
ing anger, because surrounding objects.remind him of it, and
he forgets the precepts of the bible, because abstract un-
assisted thinking is not theibrie of a child. We do not like,
therefore, this notion of "training up," &c. As a painting,
it is a daub.

No. 150. " An old Fisherman, painted from the life,"—is
a clever painting after nature. The old fisherman is repre-
sented surrounded by the insignia of his office—baskets of
cod, &c.

No. 152. "` The Goatherd—Evening—ltaly,"—is a beau-
tiful glowing scene by Havel'. There is an extraordinary
and beautiful flood of light thrown over the whole painting.
Like most of Havell's productions it has been sold.
No. 153. " Bolton Ahbev,"—by W. Linton, is a very
beautiful drawing, but is sketchy in finish and deficient in
colouring.

No. ".Ulswater, Cumberland,"—is a pretty and well
painted little landscape.
No. 155. " View of Conniston, Cumberland—Winter,"—
is one of Pennington's winter scenes. Nearly all Penning-
ton's winter paintings are alike. 'l'here is
,a great peculi-
arity about the style, which is yet very beautiful.
go. 157. " Terrace on Richard Hill, Surrey."—This is an
extraordinarily beautiful sunset scene, on a small scale, by
Havell. It partakes of all the beautiful glowing richness of
colouring which characterises all his paintings, but which is
scarcely applicable to English scenery.
No. 159. " Cromwell's Troopers gambling for Church
Property in Canterbury Cathedral,"—by Charles Landseer.
A.R.A. The idea of this painting is novel. An interior of
a cathedral is represented, with a number of troopers scat-
tered about. A docr, torn off its hinges, is propped up for a
table, and on it lay various rows of beads, crucifixes, &c., for
which two of the troopers are gambling. A wounded trooper
is lying asleep, with his head bound up, in one corner, and
in another, another trooper is lolling asleep on the pulpit
cushion, and a war-horse behind him is picking some oats out
of a sack. It is an exceedingly fine painting.

No. 160. " Displaying theeatch,'l—by \V. F. Withering-
ton, A.R.A. This is also a superior painting, and is full of
points of character. It represents two gentlemen fishing in
a pool, who are presumed to have been successful, from a
large heap of fine fish, " the catch," which a boy, apparently
of their party, is exultingly " displaying" to two lads, who
appear to have been unsuccessful. The elder lad, who car-
ries the rod, is surveying the catch with cool and envious
surprise: his little brother, beside him, appears to be ex-
claiming with mingled astonishment and admiration at the
sight of the fish. The whole is exceedingly well drawn, and
the colouring is judicious. It is full of points of study, and
as an old piscator, we can pronounce the painting of the fish
to be excellent.

The peroxide of iron is said to be an efficient agent in coun-
teracting the effect of arsenic when taken into the stomach.
SUPPORTING THE PRESS.—Taking a newspaper three or
four years, and, when dunned for the money, getting into a
pet, refusing to pay, and discontinuing the paper.—New
York Daily Express.
Mr. Van Amburgb's lions, which have attracted such ex-
traordinary houses at Astley's, are engaged at Drury-lane,
and will appear there in a few days.
THE HONOURABLE DESEIZTER.—The scion of a noble fa-
mily who was examined some time since at Guildhall, and
subsequently tried by a court martial for desertion, has been
sentenced to three mouths' imprisonment, and to be branded
with the letter D.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.—Few persons are likely to be more
seriously affected by rail-roads than the creditors (to a vast
amount) on most of the present turnpikes. What is to be-
come both of the principal andinterest, are questions begin-
ning to be asked, but by no means easily answered.
AnctiEny.—There was a tfrand gala dayof the Royal Bow-
men at Wynnstay, the hospitable seat of that fine old British
gentleman, Sir W. W. Wynn, on Friday week. Nearly four
hundred guests partook of an early dinner, and were present
at the ball and supper that closed the day's proceedings, the
whole arrangements of which were such as did honour to the
goodness of heart and princely disposition of the worthy ba-
ronet.—Chester Gazette.

WRITING IN NEWSPAPERS.—A postmaster in the neigh-
bourhood informs us, that he had a letter a few days ago from
the General Postoffiee, requesting him to call upon a person
with a newspaper, in which he had sent a written communi-
cation, and demand of £2 2s. as the postage upon it. In
case of refusal to pay that sum, he was to inform him that
the Postmaster-General would be andel the necessity of pro-
secuting him for a misdemeanour, under the Ist Victoria,
c. 36, s. 5, in attempting to defraud the revenue.—Maccles-
field Courier.
EFFECTS OF II IGII PRICES.—It is in the nature of high
prices to encourage cupidity, and when this occurs in the
article of bread, the first necessary of life, it greatly aggra-
vates the evil. In the town of Alaidstone alone, it seems,
that upwards of forty bakers have been accused of selling
bread short of weight, and it may, we fear, be too safely
inferred that Maidstone, though singular, we hope, in the
extent of the offence, is far from standing alone in its com-
mission. Now is the time when leet juries and uther
inspectors of weights and measures should be especially on
the alert; considering that this is a subject which concerns
all classes of the community, but especially that class who
have the least power to help themselves. Fancy bread, of
which a vast deal is now used, is not liable to be weighed at
all. it would be as well if it were. At any rate buyers
would do well to inform themselves what the weight is which
they get for their money.— Aforning Herald.
DUTIES ON SOAP.—We understand that considerable alarm
has existed among the manufacturers, in consequence of its
being supposed, that the allowances of the duties of excise
paid on soap used in certain manufactures and processes, as
set forth in 3 and 4 Wm. IV, cap. 16, and continued by 5- and
6 Wm. IV, cap. 16, had altogether ceased with the last session
of Parliament. We have, however, ascertained that the last-
mentioned act is still in force, and continues until the end of
the next session ; and that general instructions have been
issued by the excise to their collectors to govern themselves
accordingly. These drawbacks will therefore continue to be
paid as heretofore, *eta the close of the ensuing session.

Derrynane Abbey, Oct. 4, 1838.
Sta,—You wrong me much in supposing Clt. I do not
know you. " Not to know you were to bespeak myself un-
known " Little do von imagine how many persons besides
myself have been delighted with the poetic imaginings which
inspired those lines on one of the wonders of my fancy—the
varying sounds emitted by marine shells—
: " Pleased, they remember their august abodes
And murmur as the ocean murmurs there."
Would that I had you here. to show you " their august
abode" in its most awful beauty. I could show you at noon-
tide, when the stern south-wester had blown long and rudely,
the mountain waves coining in from the illimitable ocean in
majestic succession, expending their gigantic force, and
throwing up stupendous masses of foam against the more
gigantic and more stupendous mountain-cliffs that fence not
only this, my native spot, but forms that eternal harrier which
prevents the wild Atlantic from submerging the cultivated
plains and high-steepled villages of proud Britain herself.
Or, were you with ine amidst the Alpine scenery that sur-
rounds my humble abode, listening to the eternal roar of the
mountain torrent as it bounds through the rocky defiles of
my native glens, I would venture to tell you how I was born
within the sound of the everlasting wave, and how my
dreamy 'ooyhood dwelt upon imaginary intercourse with
those who are dead of yore, and fed its fond fancies upon the
ancient and long-faded glories of that land which preserved
literature and Christianity when the rest of the now civilised
Europe was shrouded in the darkness of godless ignorance.
Yes! my expanding spirit delighted in these day dreams;
till, catching from them au enthusiasm which no disappoint-
ment can embitter nor accumulating years diminish, 1
formed the high resolve to leave my native land better after
my death than I found her at my birth, and, if possible, to
make her what she ought to be—
" Great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea."

Perhaps, if I could show you the calm andexquisite beauty
of these capacious bays and mountain promontories, softened
in the pale moonlight which shines this lovely evening, till
all which during the day wag grand and terrific, has become
calm and serene in the silent tranquillity of the clear night
—perhaps you would readily admit that the man who has
been so often called a ferocious demagogue, is, in truth, a
gentle lover of nature, an enthusiast of all her beauties—
" Fond of each gentle and each dreary scene,"
and catching from the loveliness as well as the dreariness of
the ocean and Alpine scenes with which he is surrounded, a
greater ardour to promote the good of man, in his overwhelm-
ing admiration of the mighty works of God.
Let me now proceed to answer the matters of your letter.
They are various, desultory, unconnected ; something of the
disorder of unsettled poetry, and a good deal of its imagina-
tion and fiction. Sometimes you make statements, and then
again you ask questions which imply the allegation of facts
that never existed. I will follow you as well as I can, de-
ploring that a man of your talent should be so entirely igno-
rant of the real state of Ireland. You speak to me as to a
man familiar with fallacious hopes and unexpected disappoint-
ments. lam not so. My experience is of a success almost
equal to my own hopes, and beyond the expectations of those
who acted with me. lam the organ of a brave, a generous,
and, above all, a religious people. Why should I despair?
You tell me authoritatively " not to believe that, by recon-
structing a House of Commons in Ireland, I will obtain my
object." Sir, I place no faith in your counsel. I know as
fact, that no country ever progressed so fast and so exten-
sively in at:ricultural, manufacturing, and commercial pros-
perity, as Ireland did during the period that intervened be-
tween her assertion of legislative independence and its ex-
tinction. It is much safer to judge of the future from the
past than to confide in your own opinion, who seem, indeed,
to know nothing of the matter.
You next proceed to ask me, " Was there ever so desperate
a gang of scoundrels united in one confraternity as the last
Irish House of Commons ?" Your question is an indiscreet
one, but I reply to it at once. Yes—l have seen a more
desperate and despicable gang of scoundrels—of scoundrels
with infinitely less of temptation, yet infinitely more voraci-
ous of rascality. Yes—l have known scoundrels of so atro-
cious a description as to cant incessantly about religion—as
perpetually to boast of the purity of Protestantism and their
zeal for its maintenance, and yet to adopt, as one great mode
of sustaining their pious objects, the most gross injustice
committed through the medium of diabolical perjury !
You are, indeed, an incautious advocate of the continu-
ance of the Union ! The Irish people are entitled to have
their parliament continued, unless it has Leen extinguished
by a valid law. It is a maxim of British jurisprudence that
fraud vitiates everything. More than one act of parliament
has been set aside for fraud by your Court of Chancery—your
Court of Conscience. You say that the Union was the act
of the most desperate gang of scoundrels that ever existed—
the proof of their scoundrelism consisting in their having
passed that very act. Can the rnaananitnous people of Ire-
land be hound by that desperate scoundrelism? Are the peo-
le of Great Britain justified in conscience, in justice, in
honour, in availing themselves of a scoundrel trick ? I thank
you, good sir, for your character of the last Irish parliament,
and for giving me as a proof of that character—the Union.
Anxious as I sin to avail myself of this admission, I must,
however, proclaim that you do injustice even to the Union
House of Commons; for, in the first place, a majority of
the members in 1799 rejected the Union proposal; a majority
of the Irish members were against it even in the year 1800.
But bow was that majority turned into a minority? Why,
by the government, the infamous Castlereagh at its head,
purchasing up a sufficient number of the rotten boroughs,
and returning for them Scotch and English officers and ad-
venturers. It is some comfort, at least, that it was Scotch
and English scoundrels who really carried the Union; and 1
wish yen joy of being the cause of making this fact also pro-
minent.
You proceed to ask how few of the Irish House of Com-
mons abstained from the open sale of their constituents.
You seem to be completely ignorant of the facts. Almost
all those who had constituencies refrained from the sale of
them. When the Union vote was carried in a house of 278
members by no greater majority than 43, the minority was
117; and, if it had come to a casting vote, the Speaker
would have voted with the members who composed the mi-
nority-. The men who refused to sell their constituents were
thus 118 to 160. Twenty•two more Irishmen would have
rendered the Union impossible; and yet the existing 118
are confounded in your indiscriminate vituperation with the
desperate gang of scoundrels, Scotch and English, as well
as Irish, who belonged to the majority.
If you knew the history of that period, too, you would
estimate highly the virtue of the glorious majority, who with-
stood every temptatation to barter away the rights and liber-
ties of their country. Show me any 118 Englishmen or
Scotchmen that ever resisted such unparalleled powers of in-
timidation and corruption. The pecuniary bribery alone
exceeded three millions stifling, exclusive of one million two
hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds, which more re-
cent parliamentary papers prove to have been laid out in the
mere purchase of boroughs. Why, the teeth of your modern
parliamentary scoundrels (for fuse your own, your gentle
word) would water at the idea of three millions in solid
bribes !—I suppose that you are convinced that it would be
impossible with that money to bribe one hundrend and sixty
of the present House of Commons!!! I shall leave you in
the undisturbed possession of that opinion. But it is my
duty to tell you that other and equally vile instruments were
used in order to influence the majority. Perhaps you do not
know that the " habeas corpus" act was suspended, and
martial-law was proclaimed during the entire period of the
Union discussion.
The means, supplementary to mere corruption, by which
the Union was carried, I shall describe, not in my own words,
but in those of Lord Plunkett, the present Lord Chancellor
of Ireland. Listen, I pray you, to Lord Chancellor Plun-
ket's description of these secondary means. They were, he
said, and he said truly—
" The deprivation of all legal protection to liberty or life.
" The familiar use of torture.
" The trial by cow ts.martial.
" The forcible suppression of public meetings.
" The total stifling of public opinion, and the use of armed
violence."
You may imagine that men of the rank of members of
parliament were not likely to be intimidated by these means.
But in Ireland, at that period, no rank, no station, no re-
spectability, could protect the victim of despotic power; it
was a reign of terror. Sir Edward Crosbie, a baronet of
ancient and most respectable family, of unquestionable
loyalty, was hanged by the sanguinary caprice of some offi-
cers of the Carlow garrison. Mr. Devereux, of the county
Wexford, was hanged, it was afterwards said, by mistake!
and the fate of young Mr. Byrne, of Ballymanus, acquitted,
but executed—left no man secure for one moment of his li-
berty or his life.
Sir, the Union was carried by more cruses than have ever
as yet been inserted in your calendar. Calling the Irish
members scoundrels will not do ; it will not cover the hide-
ous atrocities by which that fatal measure, the Uniony was
achieved. More of the villany that achieved it was perpe-