The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-31

prosecution, encumbers himself, not only with
an idiot child, ten years old, but takes along
| with him whole boxes and bales OF goods
wares, clothing. Jewels, money, &C., belonging
to said child, and that in France during the
administration of the Directory, only one year
after the overflow of the Jacobins, when the
| government habitualy exercised degree OF
activity to prevent reaction, ofwhich there is
no example in all history. The thing is IN
credible. The fugitives would have been
stopped and examined at the first barrier town,
let them have Fed in what direction they
might. They could never have evaded the
terrible police ofthe Directory.
| We very much fear that the answer to the
| question, which we have put to the head of
this article, must be in the negative.
Mr.. THAcKERAY's LECTURE, No. OF THE
SECOND CoURsE.-Tuesday night Mr.. Thack-
cray had for the subject of his lecture, at the
Atheneum, HoGARTH, SMoLLET and FIELD
ING. He took an interesting survey of the
general principles OF the construction of novels
and the uses they subserve. The Hogart.iaa
Nore5 was like all great novels which appeal
to the common feelings of humanity, simple,
and the moral as obvious as that of the tale of
Goody Two Shoes, immortal while nurseries
shall exist. In Hogarh there was neither the
bitterness of satire, nor the mawkshness of
sentiment. He desired not to excite a laugh
| merely for its sake; nor did he endeavor TO
elicit compassion for rogues whose exploits ne
| COMMUNICATED. 1t is only in one instance
that we see him recognising pity for his male
factors, viz: the mad-house scene in the Rake's
| Progress-where the poor victim is represented
as weeping and waiting pom her seducer. Mr.
t. remarked that a great change seemed to have
taken place since the days of Hogarth. Then
| to see rogue suffer and an honest man sue.
coed, excited equal enjoyment. Now suffering
excited compassion and tenderness without re.
gard to its cause, and we are often tempted to
forget crime in plying its consequent evils.
| Mr.. Thackeray considered Hogarthian Com
edies as exhibiting the design and finish of a
master, in all their details and execution
There was a peculiar value in Hogarth's
i works to the historical student, and that was
the fidelity and minuteness of their delinea-
tons. His nobemen were the noblemen that
| fourished in his day in gold lace and coronets;
and his aldermen were exact representations
| of the men who then waxed fat on turtle. 1t
was, indeed, as ifthe men ofthat age had come
down to US embalmed by some art which not
only preserved their bodies, but repre- duced
their dress, their habits, and even their
thoughts. The marriage la mode formed
the most complete of the Hogarthian Come
dies. In connection with his remarks upon it,
Mr.. T. gave graphic account of the nobility
Of the day, their habits and manners. In re-
ference TO the scenes in the Rake's Progress,
he gave an entertaining sketch of the great
changes in London in the localities commem-
GRATED. Where stood the scafolding in the
pictures, now stands the Post Office, and d
| splendid marble arch now stands on the spot
where Tom Idle made his exit from the world.
Hogarth was represented by the lecturer as
nothing of hero but a jovial Londoner,
stout and sturdy, a plain spoken man, loving
his laugh, his glass, his friend and his roast
beef in short, loving everything English, rnd
|
reign airs, foreign fddlers, and foreign painters
He deprecated COrregio, and claimed superb
ority for his own pictures. 1t did not lessen
his own merits that he disparaged those of an
artist whom public opinion had placed above
him. The Shakespeare of the pencil believed
to the last that there was conspiracy to run
him down, among the ringleaders of which he
believed were John Wilkes, to whom so much
of the wit and wickedness of the day was
charged, and Churchill, both of whom, as he
was "good hater," he stamped upon his can
vass in no very fattering terms.
Tobias SmoUet had described himself in
his "Humphrey Clinker." He was the manly
kindly, irascible Scott, battered and bruised
by fortune, but brave and stout of heart-as
ready TO give blow when aroused as to be
stow a benefit when he could. His brair
seethed and teemed with hundred schemes
, He was reviewer, historian, critic and medical
! writer-a sturdy champion in the arena oil
controversy, seldom permitted to lay down hi.
, armor. He saw life in all its ups and downs
7 and his own experience was the sourcC
D whence he drew his inspiration.
g Fielding, like Smollet, also described the
q scenes of his own life in his works. Soon al
: ter his appearance in 1877, he vindcated hi
? claim TO position above the great wits OF tn,
day. His figure was tall and stalwart, ant
his face prepossessed all beholders. His vi
5 tally of spiri, was unquenchable, and, to tn.
/ last, unbowed, anbroken, by misfortu ne, h.
, lived with zest and earnestness. In this re
3 spect Lady Montague compared him to Steele
I saying that both of them should have live.
forever. He loved good living and gooc
, friends, and to relieve pressing necessities
wrote theatrical pieces with great rapidly
2 thinking little of them afterwards. He had 9
. deafness regard for trslh, and an instinctiv,
: scorn OF all shams, meanness, and hypocrisy
His weaknesses were not to be concealed bu
# stained and worn as he was by dissipation, h
h always exhibited some of the nobiest of the hu
. man feelings. His great novels were the of