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to have occasion to inquire within himself what he was to say. In fine, all who were closely connected with him must feel that with him one great charm of their existence is In public life his loss will be long and severely felt; in private it is irreparable. In the walks of science his place may be supplied. Another traveller equally patriotic and enlightened, may like him enrich his country with the spoils of other ages, or of other climes; and his mantle may be caught by some gifted academic, who will perhaps remind his audience of the genius and eloquence they have lost; but the void occasioned by his death in the breasts of his family and friends, can never be filled up."

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It is about the sufferings of the early Christians, the severities of Julian, the fortunes, love and fate of Islaor. It is useless for us to abridge this recital, or make any extracts from it. The interest is well kept up to the end of the story, when Clodoald finding there are no more tales to tell, orders the old man to be thrown into the fire, and so ends the volume. It is a creditable production, and worth cutting down to the size and form of "A Tale for Boarding Schools."

Five Years' Residence in the Canadas; including a Tour
through part of the United States in 1823. By E. A.
TALBOT, Esq. of the Talbot Settlement, Upper Canada.
London: Longman and Co. 2 vols. 8vo. 1824.
(Continued from p. 352.)

WHEN We consider the quantity of information con

Islaor ou le Barde Chretien. Nouvelle Gauloise par N. A. DE SALVANDY. Paris: Baudouin frezes, 1824. THIS is a most melancholy period of the year for persons of our profession. As critics, we are nothing unless we have something to criticise; and what can we review when no one will publish. We know ourselves too well to think of writing books for the pur-tained in these volumes, we almost feel desirous of pose, although this has been ingeniously done by the retracting some of the harsh censure which was expeope who write in Blackwood. In the dearth of pressed in our notice of last week. The exaggeration English works, we are obliged to turn towards our of statement, and singular extravagance of style, howneighbours, and see if they can assist us in this dis-ever, are enough to injure and impair the value of any agreeable emergency. The first thing we find is knowledge. If the work ever reaches a second edition, Islaor," by M. De Salvandy. This gentleman is not it would be well to suffer some judicious person to without a certain portion of reputation as a novelist. || prune away all the luxurious excrescences, which in the There was a story about Spain a short time since, which way of imagery, lofty sentences, useless digression, was well spoken of by the periodical writers. The and endless quotation, now deforin it. present is a less adventurous attempt, and is executed with a fair degree of ability. It is a story about a Christian bard in the times of Julian the Apostate, and the scene is laid in Lower Normandy. M. de S. tells us in his preface that the notion of writing it was engendered by excursions made in that province whilst he was garrisoned at Cherburg. "My leisure hours therefore when every thing was calculated to make the "Shortly after my arrival in the country, and at a period were occupied in making excursions into the interior deepest impression on my mind, I was eye and ear-witness of the country, and researches amongst its antiquities. to a scene of this sort, and noted down the whole of the The incidents which I now publish struck me as table-talk, to furnish you with the means of half an hour's abounding in that interest which belongs to antique profitably employed. The place in which it occurred was amusement some time, when you are not otherwise more and lofty associations, attached by tradition to the a hotel in the London District; and the company consisted beautiful scenery of that country: they present a faith-of three Irishmen, a Scotchman, a true-born Yorkshireman, ful picture of one of the most remarkable epochs in the the whole party took their seats sans ceremonie. Mr. A., and a full-blooded Yankee. When dinner was announced, earlier periods of the Bas-Empire; and they enable Mr. B., and Mr. C., for such were the initials of our counme to speak of the reign of Julian the Apostate, and trymen's sirnames, took their seats on one side of the table, his efforts to overthrow Christianity, which had, from while Jonathan, Sawney, and John Bull occupied the other, the time of Constantine, made great progress in the leaving no one for the head or foot. The dinner consisted of a young roasted pig, a pair of boiled chickens, some cold beef, apple-pies, and gooseberry-tarts, with tea, and cakes of various descriptions, &c. &c.

dominions of Rome."

The population of Upper Canada, Mr. Talbot judges to be about 150,000, exclusive of the Indians and the military. Miscellaneous as this population is, their manners and habits of life are peculiar and uniform. The picture of them is not unamusing:

"Mr. A. was requested to dissect the young pig, and Mr. B. the chickens.

A horde of the Sicambri had during the invasion of Visigoths taken possession of the delightful peninsula of the Venelli, (now known by the name of Coutances) "Mr. A.-Gentlemen, will you grant me the permission in Lower Normandy. In the course of their excurto do myself the felicity of helping you to some fresh sions they discover an ancient sepulchre, near which pork?' sits in melancholy and despair an old man of eighty. "Mr. C.-If you'll be condescending enough to give me It is the father of Islaor the Christian bard. They lead a piece, I'll be under many obligations to you, Sir.' A.-Pray, what piece will you have, Sir?' him to the camp, and present him to Clodoald, the "C.-A bit of the flitch, if you have no objection.' cruel and ferocious chief of these invaders. The de- "This put Mr. A. to the utmost stretch of his knowledge, scription of the bard, the chieftain, and of their inter- as he had not yet taken off either legs or wings; but, after view is spiritedly written, though somewhat too pom-it on its back, and, with a good deal of address, succeeded turning the pig up and down half a dozen times, he placed pously. The old man is spared, and tells his story. in taking out a well-shaped flitch, and placing it on Mr.

C.'s plate,-not, however, before he had dashed a moderate portion of gravy in the Yorkshireman's face, who, with more real politeness than the others would have exhibited in similar circumstances, quietly drew his handkerchief|| across his ey s, and, as a poet would say,smiled, like an April-day,' through his tears.

Mr. A., to make amends for his faux pas, next addressed himself with great politeness to John Bull, and begged to know if he would be helped to some of the pork.

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"Noa! Noa!' cried the Yorshireman; I'll be troublesome to Mr. B. for a small morsel of them there stewed hens of his!'

Mr. B.-What part will you take, Sir?' "YORK.-The fore-shouder, Sir, if you have no objection.'

"Mr. B. helped him to the collar-bone; though it was very evident, that poor John Bull wished for a more substantial joint.

"The Scot's turn came next, Mr. A. requesting to know if he would be after helping him ?

"I'll have a ham of your wee pig,' said Sawney, with the utmost impatience; while he reached his plate across the table with his left hand, his elbow resting in the interim on the cold beef.

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"All this time, the Yankee, regardless of ceremony, was feasting himself on the beef and a ple-pye. Mr. B., when every one else was helped, and brother Jonathan had nearly finished his dinner, asked him to take a small piece of a hin; and, without waiting for a reply, desired to know || he would pitch upon. What partculate, mid the Columbian, that I'll take the

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breast, with a small bit of the sole.'

"Mr. B. gave him the breast; and then cutting off one of the feet at the lower joint, laid it on his plate, with There, my suate fellow, there is sole, and upper, and all and a delicate morsel it is for a gentleman of your portly appearance!'

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lover of Canada, or at least of its inhabitants. He therefore stoutly maintained, that men were paid no better in America, than in Ould Hingland; notwithstanding all the fuss that was made about fortune-making in the New World, and such hironical stuff.'

"Mr. C. replied, I calculate,'-for they all by this time had acquired the habits of calculating and guessing, though in reality fresh as imported a few months before. I calculate, Mr. Englishman, that you are a little too fast there; for, to my own sartan knowledge, them there jontlemen, mean Mr. A. and Mr. B., have this day been offered fifty shillings a week, and their board, washing, and lodging,and all that, at Mr. Roger O'Flannaghan's, the mastertailor, as honest a jontleman as ever padded a shoulder or flattened a seam.'

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"The valorous knights of the needle being asked, Why they did not accept so liberal un offer? answered with the utmost sang froid, that on inspecting the bed-rooms in which they were to lie, they found one of them uncarpeted, and the other without either basin, wash-hand stand, or dressing-table.'

"After this, a variety of other subjects occupied the attention of the company, among the most prominent of which was, the propriety of admitting EX-PARTE and circumstantial evidence in cases of life and death.' The Scotchman contended for the principle, and our more enlightened countrymen against it: While John Bull and brother Jonathan, totally uninterested, having never thought of putting their necks in danger, withdrew to another apartment, convinced that they had at least circumstantial evidence of the impertinent vanity stron

countrymen.

"Of all vapid coxcombs upon earth, an Irish emigrant without education is the most intolerable, the least amiable, and the most preposterous: a perfect model of affectation! You must recollect, however, that I speak only of the lowest classes."

Jonathan, provoked with the ignorant loquacity of his pragmatical companions, and accustomed to help himself, Mr. Talbot divides the society into two classes, the stuck his fork into the chicken that yet remained unfirst composed of professional men, merchants, militouched, and removed it to his plate. When he had helped himself to as much of it as he wished, he very coolly re-tary and civil officers: the second of farmers, mechastored it to the dish, and, holding up a part of the sole on nics, and labourers. His descriptions are neither the point of his fork, informed Mr. B., There, d-you! very friendly nor favourable, and yet allowing somethere's the sole of a chicken! Upon my shoul, and I believe you,' replied Pat; for thing for the writer's characteristic extravagance, we it looks as if it had seen a good dale of service on the claggy doubt not they are mainly true. Of their inhospitality he speaks in very decided terms, and certainly supports his opinion by the most indubitable proofs. Even his own personal experience would be conclusive on this head. Education is at the lowest ebb, and an universal ignorance appears to have taken possession of the country. Religion and morals are nearly in the same state. Their enjoyments and amusements are therefore of the most sensual kind. Nothing very tempting is mentioned on this point by Mr. Talbot,

roads of Canada. But you must excuse me, Sir; for in
swate Ireland, the hins, as well as the mins, instead of car-
rying their soles in their bellies, make their soles carry
them.
"The pies and tarts were next handed about; after the
due demolition of which, tea-drinking commenced, and
Mr. A. thus addressed Mr. B.

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Will you permit me to be after spelling you out a cup of the tay? It's a delightful thing after a hearty dinner; and, I guess, if it were not for it, myself would be under the sod half a dozen years before I came to America: -though, if the truth were known, I dare say we should find that he never tasted of the cups which cheer but not inebriate,' previous to his arrival in Canada, and was as little acquainted with the use of tea as the Highlander, who, when he was enrolled in a regiment, and came for his allowance of coffee, refused to be content with the wishwash,' and desired that he might have a goodly portion of the grains to eat,' as they bore a greater resemblance to

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his crowdy.'

"The conversation now turned on the rate of Mechanics' wages; for Mr. A. and Mr. B. were Tailors by profession, and consequently interested in the subject. Honest John Bull, who alone remained as unaffected in his manners and deportment, and in his speech also, as on the day when he departed from his native Hull, was no great

With respect to emigration, Mr. T. thinks that Upper Canada presents more advantages than any part of the United States. His details are certainly very full, but we cannot perceive how they justify such a conclusion. He censures the government for the enormous fees and duties they impose upon the settler, and tells us at the same time that there is little or no commerce. He says that land with all its improvements, may be purchased in every part of the province for a great deal less than the cost of the improvements. He says, too, that there is another want, that of markets for the sale of produce. Now if these

statements be true, what, we would ask, are the inducements to emigration?

Mr. Talbot after a five years residence, set out on a visit to the United States. His account of the travelling through the uncultivated parts of Canada is very entertaining. Here the traveller's virtue contributes to our amusement in the right way. Of Lower Canada, through which he passed, he speaks with great dispraise.

His sketches of American manners are similar to those of former travellers. They enable us however to detect the sources of our old favorite Mathews' pictures. The following for instance is the account of a militia review :

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"Tention, the whole then! Please to observe, gentlemen, that at the word fire! you must fire; that is, if any but only make pretence, like; and all you gentlemen felof your guns are loaden'd, you must not shoot in yearnest, low-soldiers, who's armed with nothing but sticks and riding-switches, and corn-stalks, needn't go through the firings, but stand as you are, and keep yourselves to yourselves.'

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Half cock foolk!-Very well done. “S, h,u,t, (Spelling) Shet pan-That, too, would have been very handsomely done, if you hadn't have handled the cartridge instead; but I suppose you wasn't Now, 'tention one and all, gentlemen, and do that motion again.

"At twelve o'clock, about one third, perhaps half, the men had collected; and an inspector's return of the number present would have stood nearly thus: One Captain, one Lieutenant, Ensign none, Serjeants two, Corporals none, Drummers none, Fifers none, Privates present twenty-noticing. five, ditto absent thirty, guns fifteen, gun-locks twelve, ramrods ten, rifle-pouches three, bayonets none, belts none, spare flints none, cartridges none, horse-whips, walkingcanes, and umbrellas, twenty-two.

"A little before one o'clock, the Captain, whom I shall distinguish by the name of CLODPOLE, gave directions for forming the line of parade. In obedience to this order, one of the Serjeants, the strength of whose lungs had long supplied the place of a drum and fife, placed himself in front of the house, and began to bawl with great vehemence, All Captain Clodpole's company to parade there! Come, gentlemen, parade here! Parade here!' says he; and all you that hasn't guns, fall into the lower eend.' He might have bawled till this time, with as little success as the Syrens sung to Ulysses, had he not changed his post to a neighbouring shade; there he was immediately joined by all who were then at leisure: The others were at that time engaged either as parties or spectators at a game of fives, and could not just then attend. However, in less than half an hour the game was finished, and the Captain was enabled to form his company, and proceed in the duties of the day. "Look to the right, and dress!'

"They were soon, by the help of the non-commissioned officers, placed in a straight line; but, as every man was anxious to see how the rest stood, those on the wings pressed forward for that purpose, till the whole line assumed nearly the form of a crescent.

Whew! Look at 'em!' says the Captain. Why, gentlemen, you are all crooking here at both eends, so that you will get on to me by and by: Come, gentlemen, dress! dress!'

"This was accordingly done; but, impelled by the same motive as before, they soon resumed their former figure, and so they were permitted to remain.

Now, gentlemen,' says the Captain, I am going to carry you through the revolutions of the manual exercise; and I want you, gentlemen, if you please, to pay every particular attention to the word of command, just exactly as I give it out to you. I hope you will have a little patience, gentlemen, if you please, and I'll be as short as possible; and it I should be a-going wrong, I will be much obliged to any of you, gentlemen, to put me right again, for I mean all for the best, and I hope you will excuse me, if you please. And one thing, gentlemen, I must caution you against, in particular, and that is this, not to make any mistakes, if you can possibly help it; and the best way to do this, will be to do all the motions right at first, and that will help us to get along so much the faster, and I will try to have it over as soon as possible. Come, boys, come to a shoulder!

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"Shet pan!-Very good, very well indeed: you did that motion equal to any old soldiers; you improve astonishingly. "Handle cartridge !-Pretty well, considering you done it wrong eend foremost, as if you took the cartridge out of your mouth, and bit off the twist with the cartridgebox.

Draw rammer!-Those who have no rammers to their guns need not draw, but only make the motion; it will do just as well, and save a great deal of time.

"Return rammer !-Very well again. But that would have been done, I think, with greater expertness, if you had performed the motion with a little more dexterity.

"Shoulder foolk !-Very handsomely done, indeed, if you had only brought the foolk to the other shoulder, gentlemen. Do that motion again, gentlemen, and bring the foolk up to the left shoulder.

"Shoulder foolk !-Very good.

"Order foolk !-Not quite so well, gentlemen; not quite altogether but, perhaps, I did not speak loud enough for you to hear me all at once. Try once more, if you please; I hope you will be patient, gentlemen; we will soon be through.

Order foolk!-Handsomely done, gentlemen! veryhandsomely done! and all together too, cxcept that a few were a leetle to soon, and others a leetle too late.

"In laying down your guns, gentlemen, take care to lay the locks up, and the other sides down.

"Tention the whole! Ground foolk !-Very well.' Charge bagonet !'

"(Some of the men.)- That can't be right, Captain; pray look again, for how can we charge bagonet without our guns?'

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(Captain)- I don't know as to that, but I know I'm right; for here it is printed in the book, c,h,a,r, yes, charge bagonet, that's right, that's the word, if I know how to read: Come, gentlemen, do pray charge the bagonet! Charge, I say! Why don't you charge? Do you think it an't so? Do you think I have lived to this time of day, and don't know what charge bagonet is? Here, come here, you may see for yourselves; it's as plain as the nose on your fa-stop-stay-no!-halt! no, no! 'faith I'm wrong! I'm wrong! I turned over two leaves at once. But I beg your pardon, gentlemen; we will not stay out long; and we'll have something to drink, as soon as we've done. Come, boys, get off the stumps and logs, and take up your guns, and we'll soon be done; excuse me, if you please. "Fix bagonet !""

And so on. But the Americans can bear a little

laughing at their irregularities. They are living them down every day. The road by which Mr. T. travelled affords the most astonishing picture of national improvement and prosperity that the world ever presented. Take a single specimen :—

"Rochester is situated on the banks of the Erie Canal; and although the spot on which the village stands was, ten years ago, a perfect wilderness, it now contains upwards of 5,000 inhabitants, and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Although it boasts of no less than five extensive and excellent hotels, each of which is capable of accommodating between filty and seventy persons, I could not procure a bed on the night of my arrival. Every public bed of the town was occupied, and I was compelled to sleep on a sofa. The next morning I breakfasted at the Mansion-house Hotel, in company with about 100 persons, of fashionable appearance and genteel address. The breakfast, as in Canada, consisted of a variety of meats, pies, cakes, tarts, &c.; and as each individual finished his last cup, he rose from the table and walked out without any sort of ceremony. The streets of Rochester are laid out at right angles with each other. The houses are built of brick, and neatly painted red and pointed out with white: this embellishment, with Venetian blinds, piazzas, verandas, balconies, &c. gives the village a very delightful aspect, and designates the inhabitants as tasteful, enterprising, industrious, and opulent; but, I believe it is more owing to the other qualities than to their opulence.

"From Rochester I proceeded on the canal by the packet-boat to Utica, a distance of 166 miles. The fare in boats of this description is six dollars, exclusive of eating || and drinking, both of which are furnished at a moderate price and are very excellent. We passed through several villages, the most considerable of which was Canandaigua, which is situate near the outlet of the lake from which it derives its name.

"The houses here, as well as in every other village which I have seen in the United States, are generally built of brick, and painted. Willow and poplar trees are also planted along the sides of the ways, which combined with the light, airy, and elegant appearance of the buildings, the bustle and activity of the inhabitants, and the commercial aspect of the mercantile houses, cannot fail to convey a very favourable idea of American enterprize and industry. The principal street of Canandaigua is nearly two miles

long: In the centre of the village is a sort of square, where the Court-house and several other public offices are situated. This village is superior to any that I ever saw, either in Europe or in America. In Europe we commonly associate the name of village with poverty; but an American

village presents to the beholder's view all the business-like

air and all the wealth and taste of a city."

We will also extract our traveller's description of the great and almost the only American fashionable watering place :-

"The next place which we visited, after we left Schuylersville was Saratoga, principally famous on account of its numerous springs, and as a place of fashionable resort duthe summer months. When I arrived at Saratoga, many of the fashionables had returned to their respective homes, for the season was then pretty far advanced. But there was still a great number of visitors at all the hotels in the village. The inn at which I stopped was the Congress Hall, which is the largest in the place, being one hundred and ninety-six feet and a half long, two stories and a half high, with two wings, each extending backward sixty feet. In the front is a neat and commodious piazza, that opens upon a beautiful garden, and a small grove of pine-trees which appertain to the establishment. This hotel is said to be

capable of accommodating two hundred persons, all of whom breakfast, dine and sup at the same table. A number of waiters, I dare say not less than twenty, are in attendance; and, as in this land of independence no gentleman ever deigns to carve a dish, the duty of a waiter is very arduous. The plan pursued at table, here as well as in every other part of the United States which I have visited, is this: When the company have taken their seats, each person casts his eye right and left along the whole range of the table, for the purpose of noting what is the nature of its contents. As soon as he has fixed upon a particular dish, he calls out for it to the waiter, who brings it from its station on the table, and, setting it before the person who asked for it, waits until he has carved whatever part of it he prefers, and then returns it to its former situation. This practice creates a great deal of confusion; for, during the whole of the repast, nothing can be heard but cries of "Waiter, bring me this!' and 'Waiter, bring me the other!' and nothing can be seen, but waiter bumping against waiter, and dish rattling against dish. There is no sort of ceremony observed at the most fashionable houses; for as soon as a gentleman has satisfied his appetite, he rises from his seat, and, walking out in the Piazza, begins to smoke his cigar. The generality of Americans eat so fast, that one might suppose they were engaged in determining a wager; for by the time that a man of moderation, both as it respects the quantity which he eats and the time which he consumes in mastication, has nearly done his dinner, the whole table is deserted as well by the company as by the meats. I have hitherto spoken of the visitors to Saratoga as if they were all gentlemen; but I should not forget to say, that many ladies resort to the springs of this place, though few of them, I think, on account of any sickness they wish to get rid of. At Congress Hall, the house which I have just described, there were ladies whom I frequently had the pleasure of meeting in a morning at a neighbouring spring, called the Congress Spring. They used to make a regular practice of drinking a small portion of the waters; and I then thought, from the emaciated and sallow appearance of their countenances, they did so for the purpose of curing the jaundice or some other similar complaint. But when I arrived in New York and observed the faces of the females in that city, I found that these were characteristic of the American females, and by no means betokened sickness or ill health."

Of New York, the city, and its inhabitants, Mr. Talbot writes in a gentlemanly and candid style. There is little or no pretension about this part of his work, and it forms a pleasing contrast with the rest. The volume concludes with an appendix containing some notices of the American Indians. Those who

know nothing of Canada and the United States, will

find information, and those who are not fastidious about style, will find amusement in the work of Mr. Talbot. If this be praise it is at his service, for we have no higher commendation to give.

THE SHAKSPEARE GALLERY TRAVESTIED.

To the Editor of the Somerset House Gazette.
SIR,

YOUR good humoured correspondent in his Artistical Scraps, mentions the apotheosis of the late Mr. John Boydell, by that audacious caricaturist Gillray. I agree with him, that that piece of graphic satire was disgraceful to the designer, and to all persons concerned in so unwarrantable

an attack upon a spirited projector, who had done more for the promotion of the arts of our country than all the patrons, connoisseurs and publishers in the land.

Yet, such is the general love of satirical fun and humour among Englishmen, that even many of the artists who had benefitted largely by the employment derived from the worthy alderman, could neither eat, drink, nor sleep until they had procured this print, which held their old friend up to public ridicule and contempt. I know this, and could illustrate my assertion by various facts. Among others, a royal academician had an impression of this identical caricature, which was of a folio size, loosely pinned on a piece of drapery upon a lay figure, from which he was studying for one of the finest pictures that subsequently adorned the Shakspeare Gallery in Pall Mall. Mr. Boydell was announced by the servant Peter, and the painter received him with smiling courtesy, at the door of his painting room. You, Mr. Hardcastle, well know what sort of elegant lumber crowds the genuine painter's workshop.

In this museum, were plaster casts and busts, as large as life, and larger still; some heads colossal, others whole lengths, yet figures scarcely in length a span-mere Lilliputian attomies, as painters' house-maids say. Here a helmet, there a corslet, armour for horse and foot; belts, boots, and spurs; pistols, swords, and spears, and all the countless prototypes and models essential to the making up an historical design.

Here in the midst, the alderman unbidden, sat him down casi-ly upon a crimson velvet stool, or rather on a palette, placed upon that stool, nicely laid with paints, which stuck of course fast to Mr. Boydell's seat, and played the devil with the alderman's plush breeches.

"Peter bring the palette knife." Peter scraped red, yellow, blue, and black, and all the thousand tints and shades away, and wiped that seat, that sometime filled the city civic chair, with curriers' shavings. Meanwhile, the good and gentle mayor jocosely said, "I've only stole a proof impression of your art," which proves at least, that one lord mayor of London was a wit.

"What have we here that looks so fine ?" enquired the alderman, feeling for his spectacles. "Some caricature I do suppose," judging by its gaudy colouring. Ye Gods! it was the apotheosis itself! Which, whilst the questioner was fumbling for his shagreen case, to find his other eyes, the dextrous, ready-witted Peter, whipped from the pins, and with which, by a prompt renewal of civility, tucking up the tail of the old gentleman's coat, he pretended to remove what the curriers' shavings might have left behind upon the new plush galligaskins, and crumpling the print of Gillray in his hand, threw it behind the fire.

That Peter I remember well," the honest rogue," as his kind master used to say, "he never was at his wit's end, and would have made a special general."

What absent mortals are your men of genius, painters in particular, your portrait painters most of all! Once, I remember, (it was many years ago, and all the parties now are dead and gone,) the wife of a city knight, was sitting for her picture to a fashionable limner at the court end; she was a fine, handsome, portly dame. It was on a tenth of November, the day succeeding that of my Lord Mayor's || feast. The painter, a thoughtless genius, forgot, as evening approached, that he had a sitter on hand, and fell fast asleep. The lady, finding the room so still, and fatigued with the banquetting of the preceding night, also closed her eyes, and there they might have remained comfortably napping, until the next Lord Mayor's day perchance, only, that the knight at six o'clock was impatient for his dinner. Alarmed at the absence of his wife, who had not been heard of since noon, and famished to boot, he posted off to the painter's, and there met his carriage in waiting. It was on the stroke of seven. He loudly thundered at the door-was admitted-desired to be lighted up stairs, and

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being there, and in a confounded rage, found my lady, hoisted up in the throne chair, upon the painter's platform -snoring in all her finery, and Mr. Painter snugly behind his canvas, alike agreeably occupied. But, for all this, believe me, Sir, scandal never whispered more than-that Lady was found in the dark with Mr. the painter, and each in the arms of--Morpheus. Not many months before the death of Sir Joshua, I well remember a lady of title observing, that she had some years before sat for her picture to that great artist, and in conversation found him a very weak man. But as the nephew of her ladyship said, whom she had spoiled, "You must not mind that, for my aunt is an old fool." The graceless young Etonian was not far from the truth howI have often felt surprised, Mr. Editor, how the portrait painters contrive to abstract their minds sufficiently from the peculiar arduous study of their art, to enable them to hold conversation with their sitters all the while they are painting.

ever.

Sir Joshua I have been told, would reason with great acuteness on various subjects, with personages of high rank, and distinguished for learning, the whilst he was producing some of those splendid pictures, which will immortalize him and the art of portraiture. In other arts, sufficient mental exertion is called forth, to enable a professor to do one thing well at a time.

Are we to infer from this, that the painter's is less difficult than other arts? If so, how happens it that painting has ever been the last of the arts that has attained to eminence in all civilized nations? Or are we at liberty to draw the inference the other way, that this art then, being so difficult, the painter by his divisibility of mind, must possess a greater extent of mental power than other men of genius.

One thing I soberly believe of portrait painting, that the professor to make any thing of it, should be endued by the Fates with a measure-full more than the usual allotment of human patience. Sir Joshua, famed for equanimity of temper, has been known in a fit of nervous irritability, in not being able to hit off the tone and texture of a powdered wig, to have been in danger of a visit from Dr. Monro; and his great imitator Hoppner, certainly had his life curtailed of some years, by the fidgetting of his sitters, and the everlasting perplexities which the old tormentor threw in the way of his art. Master , the limner, managed the affair very originally, but he was an original. The wife of a banker, a lady of great gentleness and beauty, like Patience on a monument, sat elevated on this painter's throne, between whom and himself, was a large bishop's whole length canvas: so large indeed, and the room so small, that he was obliged ever and anon, to step aside and peep round the corner to snatch a look at the fair lady. He too was one of your absent geniuses. Perplexed beyond all mortal forbearance, and tantalized out of his wits, he was be-deviling the picture at a merciless rate; when totally forgetting that any one was under the roof save and except himself, he seized the handfull of hog's hair tools, scumblers, sweetners and all, and with a most horrible volley of oaths, projected them--bang! against the canvas, with report of a bursting bomb.

It is said, that there is a remedy for all evils. I relate this story then for the advantage of the rising school of portrait painters. Mr.・・・ got rid of the difficulty by this one single act of absence. He spoiled the picture, and disincumbered himself of the patronage of the muniticer.t banker, his lady, and all their worthy family!

NEW PANORAMA.

During the recent reparation of St. Paul's Cathedral it must be remembered that a scaffold was erected several

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