The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-10 00:00:00

" the best artists are always the most at
ferior ones may, from adventitious circumstances, obtain

patronage in high places, but they do n(
with this advantage, the popular voice

Whose names

the highest talent has made menaorabl

Around what

ietures in an.exhibition are the largest and most admir-

ing crowds collected? The pictures which high talent
has made glorious." " Fashion," r•turned Sharpson,

" holds sway more or less in every thing, and crowds tie-
get crowds. Besides, there are some kinds of power
which, employed on certain suhjefits, will always interest
even the dull herd. But rarely, indeed, save under the
influence of fashion and flock-following, do the dull t.

They prefer to

seek pasturage on the eminences of art
leave the ' fair mountain,' to batten on this moor,
their low spirits are quite at home. Of course they do
not go away without getting a glimpse of the pictures. th
frames at all events, to which great names at

attached

which they move, be it wide or narrow. they are required
to take part ; and they are alive to the nece,sity of tallipg
into ecstasies, whether the present performances of th6se

leading artists be exquisite or so•so. But it is the com-
mon-place that in reality enchants them ; the portrait of
a lady, the kitten with the hail of cotton, the intolerable
hamper of game, the detestable bunch of flowers, and the

execrable basket of truit." "'I hat such execrables are
yearly exhibited in sundry places is admitted, but you are
not thence to assume that they are admired -" '' I
prove it," interposed Sharpson, " when 1 prove that thf y

The great painter, indeed, may find a liberal purchaser
for his work, but the profound incapable is almost sure of
a customer. Why, what becomes of the hundreds of
odious outrages annually set forth ! Do you t'tink they
are burned? They are bought. Somewhere shines the
sun upon their horrible varnish, and some poor wretches'
eyes have daily to endure the sight of them." " Nay, if
they are bought," cried I, " they cease to be atrocious.
.

They instantly acquire a moral glow that gives a mellow-
ing tone to their flaring hut-s ; they are wrapped in a
p.etry of sentiment that rekl..rms them from contempt.
The act of purchase seals it pretensions as valuable

terests of trade, in promoting the welfare of the poor, In
consolidating our strength at home, in vindicating our
power abroad. It is, perhaps, not beyond his province to

consider how far, by the exercise of a wise policy, they
may be rendered subservient to these great ends. This
mass of railway enterprise, domestic and foreign, is the
strong and distinctive t vidence of a mighty stride in the
progress of nations; one of those great eras which mark
the world's history. It may be fraught with the ruin of
hundreds; it professes to be big with the happiness of
mill ons. It is looked upon as the precursor of great good,
because it comprises as essential ingredients to its accom-
plishment whatever is calculated to clevate, improve, and
extend the interests of all classes !—the circulation of

the people—the improvement of the facilities of inter-
course at home and abroad. It is impossible to say what

important results may spring from these facilities—what
increased resources may be acquired at home—what new
relations may be formed abroad. With countries into
which we have scarcely yet penetrated, it may be our pri-
vilege to enter into the most advantageous alliance—W
open out an intercourse that may provide food and em-
ployment fur millions unborn. It
into the closest intimacy of family r

al new and c,,m

paratively unkno-wn re

to form set-

tlements' raise cities, and extend all the advantages of
trade and the blessings of religion, where the sound of
hammer has never yet rung, the rush of steam never yet
been heard, nor the tidings of salvation yet been pro-
claimed. Holding such sentiments as these, we would be
th,t last to throw a damp upon any legitimate enterprise,

. .
or to cloud with prejudice and doubt the unknown, the
n-seen future. This generation

revolutions effected by

las witnessed

)f a few years

Where is the infidel who would venture to define the
limit of improvement, the boundary of science? How
many sciences are known by experience to be still in their
infancy? Is not the universe one vast storehouse of
linncol.ricrp in uvhirli we are_ one dal,' after another, mak-

ink; new and importmt discoveries? The greatest philo-
sopher,
.in the midst of his brightest acquirements, can
only adopt the sentiment of the immortal Newt'n, and

say, that

.els as a c

pebbles into the mighty ocean of truth that
before him !—New Quarterly Review.
SIR JAVOS GRAHAM AS A RADICAL AND AS A CON-
sERVATIVE MINISTER.-Sir James Graham has always
been equal to his position. Various as have been the
parts he has played in the political drama of his time, be

rst actors

rising naturally to t

b,,rometer of his political position. On whichever side
of politics they were made,.t hey have always been marked
by great aptitude, readiness, tact, vigour, and ower.
/NI I, I I, bßen

Except Lord Druu6......
perhaps, the most actively militant r
When he was down he attacked
most; now he is in power, he wages perp,„
those who are out. Whether attacking institutions or
"ending them, however, he has shewn equal ability and
'Ae was a

his day

hose who

I war with

determination to conquer at all h,ixards. When h..
radical, or at least so very ultra a whig that the steady
ones of the party were almost ashamed or at least afraid
of him, he was so thoroughly uncompron.ising in his de-
nunciations, that Mr. Duncombe; whom be is now nightly
striving to extinguish with all the awful terrors of law and
order, would have been by his side but a mere wretched
shadow of a demagogue. In fact, we have no such radi-.
cats now as Sir James was then. They are all fat, jocular
men, growing wealthy upon coronerships, and suchlike
abominations; or blasi dandies :in search of an excite-
ment. Some of the speeches of Sir James Graham, whe-
ther in parliament, at the hustings, or at public meetings,
at the time referred to, would in the present day be ac-
counte.; almost too bold for the most determined aspirant
for the honours of political martyrdom. For they. were
unredeemed by the philosophy of liberalism : they had
not even the dignity and tone of chartism. They. were
sittple, unadulterated, partisan speeches, made to serve a
purpose, and forgotten as soon' as uttered. But about
their talent.there was no mistake. It was not that they
were distinguished for high eloquence, but for power and
downright hard hitting. They gave the speaker a claim
on the rising party of the time; and in a few years the
quasi-demagogue shot up into a minister. And a capital
minister he made. His most determined enemies do not
deny this. Whatever may be thought of Si: James Gra-
ham as a politician, no one hesitates to admit that he is
one of the best administrative officers this country has for
many years produced. The same talent, the tact and
aptitude, which had made him so clever an assailant of
the former government, rendered him immediately fit for
office. He was here, as before, equal to his position. As
a speaker on behalf of the government, too. he proved
himself a most valuable ally,—turning the flank of his
quondam radical associates with provoking skill and un.
erring precision. But the prior claims of those who were
already designated as the successors to the chief posts in
the whig party still kept Sir James in the background,
and forbade the hope of his taking that distinguished po-
sition for which his talents and ambition alike indicated
him. The reorganisation of the party at that time, and
their adoption of a policy of dangerous progress, afforded
an opportunity for a change; and accordingly, in a very
short time we find Sir James Graham (after a short time
spent 'in a chrysalis state) a full' blown conservative.,
Here, again, he was fully equal to his position ; and as it
was during the long and glorious struggle of the conser-
vative opposition headed by Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stan-
ley, and Sir James Graham, that the latter made his best
speeches, a better opportunity cannot be taken to treat of
his peculiarities as an orator—which was the part he then
laid himself out to fill—before attempting to describe him
as be now is in his new character of -repressor-general of
the insubordinates in the House of Commons, or
" crusher"-in• chief to the ministry.--" Contemporary
Orators," in Fraser'e Magasine,