594 Portrait of Edward 1.-Schools of Painting. Knight of the Garter, &c. &c. She was memorial of their respect and gratitude for the virtues of the best of mothers." Perpetual Curates of Penkridge. James Reddings. Nathaniel Hyde. John Peploe. Thomas Perry. James Stafford, M. A. and Official. Richard Slaney, M. A. and Official. This Free Royal Chapel has within its jurisdiction four Chapels, Dunstan, Coppenhall, Shareshill, and Stretton. Here is a Charity School for 12 boys and 8 girls. In 1819 two excellent school rooms for the children of this and the neighbouring parishes, and a house for the Master and Mistress, were built by E. J. Littleton, Esq. M.P.-The Schools are on the Madras system, and the whole of the expense defrayed by him. According to the Parliamentary Returns of the Population in 1821, the Parish of Penkridge contained 1136 males, and 1166 females. Total of persons 2302. Mr. URBAN, P. May 13. "La connaissance des costumes, en général, est indispensable aux personnes qui exercent les beaux arts. Combien de peintres, de sculpteurs, et même de dessinateurs habiles n'ont ils pas gâté leurs ouvrages par des anachronismes ridicules !" ΤΗ HE foregoing observations of M. Le Noir, in his concise but excellent "Histoire des Arts in France," immediately occurred to me on viewing the portrait of "Edward the First, from the best existing documents:" thus it stands described in the catalogue of the present exhibition, No. 144. It would be interesting to know on what authority the lineaments of this portrait have been founded. No effigy appears to have been placed on his monument in Westminster Abbey, and pictorial representations of him must, from the remote period in which he lived, be looked upon rather sceptically: on his broad seal his lip and chin are closely shaven. In this particular the portrait differs most absolutely. The complete suit of plate armour, in which he is armed, partakes more of the character of that which was in use in the reign of Henry V. than that which was worn during the period under question. But the most glaring of the improprieties with which this work abounds, is in shewing to us King Edward the First vested in a surcoat, which bears the quartered arms of France and of England; an union which assuredly did not take place until the year 1340, more than thirty years after the death of this monarch. With an evident acknowledgment on the part of the artist, that a reference to some documents was required, how great must be the regret that such works as those of Montfaucon, “Antiq. de la Monarch. Franc.;" Strutt "On Dresses and Habits;" Stothard "On Sepulchral Effigies;" and Willement on "Regal Heraldry;" should have been unknown to him. T. d. COMPARATIVE SCALE OF MODERN PAINTING. Efe, is extracted from "PaHE following curious Statistic ramythea, or Mental Pastimes," reviewed in p. 438. "It is," says Mr. Watson, "confined to the French, English, and Dutch Schools; for of the modern Italian and German I have seen so little, that I cannot venture an opinion. I have forborne to illustrate my opinion by remarks on living artists." ORIGINALITY. French.-The French may be said to be in some degree copyists, more especially after the Roman school. Their early drilling, by perhaps a too scholastic education, may be the cause of it. They should be allowed to try their strength oftener while studying; their works will, therefore, seldom offend; but must necessarily have an air of pedantry, unless by the hands of such artists as the Poussins: their aim is laudable; it is perfection; which none can attain. English.The English certainly approach it nearer than either, being less servile in their imitations than the whole of the Dutch and Flemish masters, and not so hard, severe, and ideal as the French. If they lean to any school more particularly, it is to the Venetian and Flemish. As a proof that what I have advanced may be established, I will instance Sir J. Reynolds, Gainsborough, Wilson, Hogarth, &c. Of the latter, too little has FART 1.] French, English, and Dutch Schools of Painters compared. 595 has been said; his wit and moral have veiled the merits of pictures eminent for their composition, colour, effect, and expression. His series of the Marriage à la Mode is equal to the best of the Dutch school, even in their execution. The palm of originality, I think, we may triumphantly claim. Dutch and Flemish.-The Dutch have much originality; their talent is rather humour than wit, and there is nothing abstract. They take nature as they find it; and, as they have usually painted high-finished cabinetpictures, they are very precious, and more generally please than either the French or English. Nothing can go beyond Teniers and Ostade. STUDY. French.-The French are more academic; more devoted to the antique; have perhaps what may be called a better education; are longer in leading-strings; are generally better taught perspective and the principles of art; and less allowed to try the strength of their genius earlier than either the English or Dutch. English.The English are fonder of drawing from the living model than the antique; pay less attention to the minute mathematical demonstrations of perspective; are less fastened on system; less bigotted to any school; and claim public attention earlier. Fonder of colours than the French, they rather attempt the aggregate appearance of nature, than the minute detail of either Dutch or French artists. Dutch and Flemish.-The Dutch have ever made nature their exclusive study, and one hears little of their academies. For local subjects they are unrivalled. By the want of education they have lost dignity, and all claim to grave composition; but, by limiting their attempts, they have reached a perfection which may for ever defy competition. Paul Potter is certainly the Corregio of rustic nature; and Rembrant, when free from vulgarity, truly a great, powerful, and striking artist. EFFECT. French. The classical severity of the French school, and their minute attention to outline and detail, preclude a chance of great or striking effects. They seem afraid of masses, and are so captivated with form that they cannot prevail upon themselves to lose a line, even in shadow. English.In grand effect the Eng lish succeed well, because they have the courage to sacrifice parts to the whole, and are less fastidious about the perspective accuracy of their shadows. The effect becomes more the painter's own creation. If fortunately he is a man of genius, the picture will be very striking; but if not (as I have in another place observed) it will be worth nothing. Dutch and Flemish.-In local effect the Dutch are very successful, as Nature is still their object; and their aim not being so great, they are the more certain of success. I will instance Cuyp, Potter, and Ostade, for warmth; Du Jardin and W. Vandevelt, for freshness; Hobbima and Ruysdale, for the cool in landscape. COLOUR. French.-The French will excuse me if I say I think they are not so successful, as colorists, as the English and Dutch. They have too many other things, which they think more important to attend to in their pictures. When composition, draperies, and, above all, drawing, claims their attention, it is not to be wondered at if colouring should be somewhat neglected. It often happens that good draftsmen are bad colourists. English.The English are the best colourists for great works, because they take the aggregate tones of Nature for their model; because they rely more upon it, and allow a greater latitude of it in the construction of their pictures. See Reynolds, Wilson, and a host of living artists. Dutch and Flemish.-The Dutch and Flemish are the best colourists for most subjects. It is more essentially necessary to their works. Indeed, where pictures are only intended to be a faithful transcript of Nature, it is indispensable. Their success is beyond praise; witness Potter, Cuyp, the landscape and marine painters Vandeveld, Ostade, Rembrant, Reubens, and Vandyke. CHARACTERISTICKS. French.—Manner.—The French are certainly mannerists; their national character in a great measure occasions it; they think highly of themselves, their institutions, and academies; their language is universal; their great characters well known; their writers read and admired every where. It is therefore, pardonable, and, indeed, they cannot help it. They seldom look abroad. English. 596 French, English, and Dutch Schools of Painters compared. [xc. English.-Style.-I should rather call the English characteristick by the milder epithet of style. It is not so much the manner of doing, as secing; and that I think classes the distinction. From the contemplation of the works of their best masters (not the copying of them) arises that sort of resemblance which I denominate style. Dutch and Flemish.-Truth.-The Dutch and Flemish characteristick I shall call truth, with a drawback on account of vulgarity. They are freer from manner and style than either of the other two, because Nature is their idol, and a fac simile, as far as Art can go, their adoration. FEELING AND EXPRESSION. French.-The French have here to boast of great excellencies, but still I, think there is, in general, a drawback, arising, perhaps, from a too great and idolatrous admiration of the antique, which sometimes leads them to a fierceness of expression bordering on vulgarity. Extremes are said to meet, and perfection is not easily obtained. In dignified history N. Poussin is above criticism; Greuze at the top of the scale for domestic subjects; and Claude in landscapes may not be surpassed to the end of time. English.The English have a great claim on this score, and must, when they succeed at all, be eminently successful, as they take for their historic pictures the finest living models they can meet with; and for their landscapes, the most brilliant effects of sun and shade, among verdant and romantic scenery: witness Wilson's Solitude, and Niobe on landscape: and, in history, Sir Joshua's Count Ugolino and his sons. His smaller fancy subjects are also full of dignity, feeling, and expression. Dutch and Flemish. - The Dutch and Flemish are equal to either in many respects; still there is a drawback, arising, perhaps, from their having studied the antique too little, through which they have not sufficient dignity in form, and what is called ideal beauty. Rubens is above comparison, when free from excess and vulgarity; and Vandyke eminent both in history and portraits. In their landscape painting they are less romantic, more true, and, to say the least, equal in colour; witness P. Potter, Cuyp, Vandevelde, &c. COMPOSITION. French. The French are generally great and successful in composition: this still arising from their more orthodox and scholastic education. English. The English are grand in style, less theatric in composition, and less perfect in perspective and architecture. It may be said the French contrive the saloon and amphitheatre of their pictures first, and put their figures in afterwards; and that the English first form their groups, and then make up the best accommodation in their power to place them in. Dutch and Flemish.-The Dutch in the composition of their pictures seldom go beyond the rooms they sit in, and the scenery of the neighbourhood; the costume of their own country, or their friends and relations, for their dresses and groups. French.-Indifferent pictures of the French school are still worth something, because they are usually well drawn, with more finish and attention to parts, and the whole at least conducted upon the principles of art. English.-Indifferent pictures of the English school are of very little value; our aim being high, half measures will not do. Our second rate pictures are too loose to please. Dutch and Flemish.-Indifferent pictures of the Dutch school will still make very pretty furniture, and sell for money; because they approach the works of very great and favourite Mas ters, whose aim, being only to reach the representation of simple Nature, are more generally understood. Mr. PARTI.] The late Abp. of Armagh.—Remarks on Circulating Medium. 597 › Mr. URBAN, IN June 28. N your Magazine for May, p. 470, the following paragraph occurs, relating to the late Lord Primate of Ireland. "As his father had been Governor to his late Majesty, and afterwards Prime Minister of England, it is but little wonder that promotion should have poured in upon a son, whose manners, learning, and conduct, would have conferred credit upon any family." The readers of this paragraph will be naturally led by it to infer, that the eminent person in question obtained promotion early in life, speedily, and through the interest of his father, the Earl of Bute. As the want of minute information upon this point, seems alone to have caused the writer of this article to express himself in a manner liable to so much misconception, permit me to acquaint him, and your other readers, that the real fact was directly the reverse of that which the terms of this article are calculated to imply. In the first place, I have to state; that the Earl of Bute never held the appointment of Governor to his late Majesty. In the next place, Mr. William Stuart, for above fourteen years after he took Orders, possessed no other preferment whatever than the Vicarage of Luton; a living, now become of considerable value, but which, during the whole time that he held it, was worth only two hundred pounds per annum, although the duty was very laborious; the parish being of very great extent, and the population exceedingly numerous. His strict performance of that duty, added to his exemplary life, his abilities, and his birth, rendered it a matter of much surprise, (as many will remember,) that he was suffered to remain thus long in so obscure a station. He did so, nevertheless, until his father's eyes were closed. The Earl of Bute died on the 10th of March, 1792; and it was not until the 23rd of March, of the following year, 1793, that Dr. Stuart became Canon of Windsor, which was his first dignity in the Church. This situation placing him under the immediate observation of his late Majesty, a much higher promotion, undoubtedly, followed it in the same year, when he was raised to the See of St. David's. But it cannot be denied, that the apprenticeship (if we may use that term,) which he had served to his profession, was sufficiently long and severe; though by no means useless, for, from thence it probably was, that he learned to appreciate so justly the office and character of a good Parish Priest. From thence also it probably proceeded, that whenever a living in his gift fell vacant within his diocese, he invariably bestowed it upon the resident Curate, if a deserving Clergyman, however unknown or unfriended the individual, and whatever powerful solicitations might be made in behalf of another person. Although it is proposed to communicate to the Editors of the "Annual Register" a fuller article concerning this distinguished and lamented personage, yet the respectable character of the Gentleman's Magazine makes me desirous to transmit to you the present letter, in order to correct any erroneous impression that may have been unintentionally conveyed by the paragraph which I have quoted. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, G.P. June 25. I AM a man of a plain understanding, and therefore not able to comprehend how a return to Cash Payments hath, in the first place, diminished the circulating medium; and, in the second place, how it hath lowered the price of almost every article of human consumption. For instance, suppose I had possessed one hundred or one thousand pounds, in one, and two pounds, Bank of England notes, and had taken them to the Bank to be exchanged for cash or sovereigns, should I not have brought away with me the same number of sovereigns in value that I had left notes behind me, and consequently dispersed these sovereigns for purchasable articles in the very same way, and to the very same amount that I should have dispersed the paper notes? Where, then, is the diminution of circulating medium? And if this be the case, that the Circulating Medium is not diminished, how comes it to pass that I cannot afford, with a golden sovereign, to give as large a price for my consum We should most willingly have given admission to this more complete article had we been favoured with it. EDIT. able 598 On Depreciation of Price, &c.-Island of Ferro. able articles, as I could with a paper note of the same denominative value? I say that these matters are above my comprehension. The only way in which I can solve the first difficulty is, by supposing that the Bank of England will not be able to discount so freely as it hath hitherto done, by reason of its not having a sufficient quantity of gold to issue as it hath heretofore had of paper, and consequently, a large quantity of fictitious floating capital, for which there hath never been any real value received, will be withheld from circulation. And this solution, if correct, will answer the purpose of explaining the second difficulty, that is, why I cannot afford to give as much for my consumable commodities now that gold is the medium of purchase, as I could when paper was, namely, because there is less of it, or of money, in circulation. There is another mode also of accounting for the depreciation of the price of all inarketable commodities, and that is, in consequence of Government not having had occasion for any more loans since the expiration of the war. These loans being a principal sum of money or capital, were brought forward at once into the market, and produced an immense quantity of circulating medium, consisting indeed only of paper, which enabled the hands through which they passed to give a larger price for commodities of all descriptions than was their real and intrinsic value, compared with the value of the labour that produced them. For as these loans were generally advanced in paper money, that is, from a false and artificial capital, which derived currency only because it was sanctioned by the Legislature, so the quantity of it brought into circulation gave a false and artificial value to all the articles of human consumption, as well as the value of landed property. I remember the celebrated financier Monsieur Necker says, in his History of his own Administration, "that Administrators considered it a glorious time when, by the unrestricted use of paper money, they could not only supply all wants known and unknown, but have a fund ready to start up on the very day and hour it shall be called for. They have only to procure a papermill, a stamp, a plate, and a printing press, and the public Treasury is se cure, and they themselves may recline on the couch of indolence and repose." If the foregoing observations will throw any light upon a subject which is at this time agitated in every corner of the kingdom, and but little understood, or elicit any more satisfactory explanations than I have been able to suggest, the end of your present Correspondent will be answered, who respectfully subscribes himself Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, PARSIMONIUS. Queen-square, June 21. Island of Ferro or Hiero*, THE the most Westerly of the Canary Islands. The ascent from the sea is difficult, as it is on all sides high and craggy; but on its summit it is tolerably level and fruitful, abounding with many kinds of trees and shrubs. It produces better grass, herbs, and flowers, than any of the other Islands; so that bees thrive and multiply here exceedingly, and yield excellent honey. The greater part of the wine of this Island, which is bad, is distilled into brandy. There are only three fountains of water in the Island. On account of the scarcity of water, sheep, goats, and swine, do not drink in summer, but they are accustomed to dig up the roots of fern, and chew them in order to quench their thirst. The larger cattle are watered at those fountains, and at a place where water distils from the leaves of a tree. The following account of this tree, which is called the Fountain Tree, is extracted from the Universal History, 1765, vol. XVI. fol. edit. p. 157: "In the Island of Ferro there is neither river, spring, fountain, nor well, though 25 leagues in circumference, but was formerly supplied with abundance of wholesome fresh water by means of this wonderful tree. This tree is as thick as our oak, between 6 or 7 fathoms high, the branches spreading somewhat loose and open, and the leaves are like those of the laurel, but white within, and green without. It bears neither fruit nor blossoms, dries, and seems to wither in the day-time, when the sun shines, and drops about its top. Under each of these trees, water all night; when a cloud always hovers of which there are many in the Island, there was a cistern or basin, capable of holding Ferro, or Hiero, about 15 miles in breadth, and 45 in circumference, from Paris N. lat. 27° 45', W. long. 17° 46′. suf |
