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Mr Burke then obferves on the Duke defpots) will abolish with contumely of Bedford's eftates as follows:

"The Duke of Bedford conceives that he is obliged to call the attention of the House of Peers to his Majefty's grant to me, which he confiders as exceffive and out of all bounds.

"I know not how it has happened, but it really seems, that, while his Grace was meditating his well confidered cenfure upon me, he fell into a fort of fleep. Homer nods; and the Duke of Bedford may dream; and as dreams (even his golden dreams) are apt to be ill-pieced and incongruously put together, his Grace preferved his idea of reproach to me, but took the fubje&t matter from the Crown grants to his own family. This is "the ftuff of which his dreams are made." In that way of putting things together, his Grace is perfectly in the right. The grants to the houfe of Ruffel were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility. The Duke of Bedford is the Leviathan among all the creatures of the crown. He tumbles about his unwieldy bulk; he plays and frolicks in the ocean of the royal bounty. Huge as he is, and while he lies floating many a rood," he is ftill a creature. His ribs, his fins, his whalebone, his blubber, the very fpiracles through which he fpouts a torrent of brine against his own origin, and covers me all over with the fpray-every thing of him and about him is from the throne. Is it for him to question the difpenfation of the royal favour ?

"Why will his Grace, by attacking me, force me reluctantly to compare my little merit with that which obtained from the Crown thofe prodigies of profafe donation, by which he tramples on the mediocrity of humble and laborious individuals? I would willingly leave him to the Herald's College, which the philofophy of the fans cullottes (prouder by far than all the Garters, and Nor. roys, and Clarenciex, and Rouge Dragons, that ever pranced in a proceffion of what his friends call ariftocrats and

and fcorn. Thefe hiftorians, recorders, and blazoners of virtues and arms, differ wholly from that other defcription of hiftorians, who never affign any act of politicians to a good motive. Thefe gentle hiftorians, on the contrary, dip their pens in nothing but the milk of human kindness. They feek no further for merit than the preamble of a patent, or the infcription on a tomb. With them every man created a peer is first a hero ready made. They judge of every man's capacity for office by the offices he has filled; and the more offices, the more ability. Every general officer with them is a Marlborough ; every statesman a Burleigh; every judge a Murray, or a York. They, who alive were⚫ laughed. at or pitied by all their acquaintance, make as good a hgure as the best of them in the pages of Guillim, Edmonfon, and Collins.

"Is the genius of philofophy not yet known? You may as well think the garden of the Thuilleries was well protected with the cords of ribbon infultingly ftretched by the national affembly to keep the fovereign canaille from intruding on the retirement of the poor King of the French, as that fuch flimfy cobwebs will stand between the favages of the revolution and their natural prey. Deep philofophers are no triflers; brave fans culottes are no formalifts. They will no more regard a Marquis of Ta viftock than an Abbot of Tavistock; the Lord of Wooburn will not be more refpectable in their eyes than the Prior of Wooburn: they will make no difference between the fuperior of a Covent Garden of nuns and of a Covent Garden of another defcription. They will not care a rush whether his coat is long or fhort, or whether the colour be purple, or blue and buff. They will not trouble their heads, with what part of his head his hair is cut from; and they will look with equal respect on a tonfure and a crop. Their only quef tion will be that of their Legendre, or fome other of their legislative butchers,

how

how he cuts up! how he tallows in the penfioner of his Grace's houfe; and cawl or on the kidnies." concludes his pamphlet by a most graceful tribute of affection to the memory of his late fon; and to that of Admiral Keppel.

Mr Burke next enters into a long hiftory of the different grants made to the Bedford family, from the time of Henry the eighth, to the time of the last

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

APhilofophical and Critical History of the Fine Arts, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture; with occafional Obfervations on the progrefs of Engraving in its-feveral branches; deduced from the earlieft Records through every Country in which thofe Arts have been cherished, to their prefent Enablishment in Great Britain, under the auspices of his Majefty King George III. In four parts, Vol. II. By the Rev. Robert Anthony Bromley. B. D. &c. 4to. Il. Is. Boards.-Vol. I. Il. is. was published in 1794.

AS this is a work of confiderable magnitude and the fubject of importance, we fhall give fome extracts from each lume, to enable our readers to judge of the authors ftyle and matter.

VO

In order to how the fuperiority of Painting to Poetry, this author fays:

"THE death of Hector, and particularly in that moment when his body was brought back into Troy, will give us an example in every way circumftanced to do juftice to our fentiment. On the fide of writing it has every advantage that writing can have-the most mafterly difplay of the most original and lofty poet, who was equal not only to the first attractions that could be given to real incident, but to the livelieft and yet the correcteft fallies of imagination, who knew human nature confummately well, knew where and how to give the fineft touches to its feelings, and was perfectly poffeffed of that great touchftone of true erudition, the art of coming, by the fhorteft and choiceft expreffions, to the most forcible ideas; with a language too in his hands, which by its peculiar combinations was moft happily calculated to facilitate this point. Befides this, if ever there was a fubject that could call forth the abilities of a Homer, that could make him collect himfelf, and pour forth all the animation of his mind to meet with all imaginable rapidity the ardent expectations of his

readers, it was that great event, fo fraught with every thing that could ftrike a feeling mind, or fuggeft impatience to a curious mind, because fo difaftrous to all that hero's family, fo fatal to the city whofe gallant defender he had been, fo final to every hope, and fo ruinous in its whole complexion, that beyond it nothing farther was left for that exalted writer to extend his poem.

He has done as much as the pen in the hand of Genius could do, to croud that grand event into the smallest compafs. Scarcely three common pages are employed, in which almost every line, and often words themselves, are a fentence. He has bestowed lefs upon embellishment than ever poet or writer bestowed on the like occafion; for, in fact, every incident and expreffion that Nature and fituation dictated, were themselves the very quinteffence of embellishment. He has evidently haftened to the principal groupe, in which was centered all the dignity and pathos of the scene; at the fame time that in touching more lightly the introductory and furrounding ima ges, language could not give to each a more pointed selection of expreffion.

Yet what reader does not feel even the

language and the dispatch of Homer in this inftance, too flow for the anxiety with which his mind fwells to anticipate all that is untold? We no fooner fee, with Caffandra from the tower, the aged father returning with his dear fon's remains, but we are eager to behold, before words can tell us, the afflicted throng that burfts in cries from the Trojan gates, to take their last view of their loft protector; but, most of all, to hear the heart-rending diftrefs of the widowed Andromache, with her defolate infant, and the maternal lamentations of the aged Hecuba. We are repaid indeed for waiting the progrefs of the narrative, in the mingled tears of the generous, grateful Helen, which give us more

perhaps

perhaps than the imagination could have ftretched itself to meet, but which form the fineft close to the character of the beloved hero, over whom it is natural indeed that a fond mother, and a diftracted wife, should hang in bitter lamentations: but when Helen weeps for the lofs of that amiable friend, whofe mild and kind deportment towards her, under circumstances which had shaken the temper of almoft every one in Priam's house, was invariable to the laft; this gives a finish to the scene, and endears to every reader the univerfalylamented man, who now becomes not more the darling of his family, and of his country, than the darling of humanity.

But might not all this fcope of detail be embraced by the pencil with the fame effect, nay, with a more abundant one? forafmuch as the whole is caught at once upon the canvas, and abides upon the fenfes; whereas, in the poem, it rifes only in fucceffion, wherein every fucceeding gratification treads out in fome degree the impreffion of that which is gone by. Caffandra on the top of Pergamus, announcing the arrival of the body, and calling to the Trojans; the Trojan throng affembled below; are circumstances which doubtlefs speak with more variety and glow of expreflion on the canvas than any language can give them. The weeping matrons and the infant around the body are beheld with no lefs ftriking effect. If there is any thing in which the poet may feem to have the advantage over the painter, it is perhaps in that great effort of pathetic, beyond which fobs muft choak all farther utterance of the heart-broken Andromache" O! that thou hadft, in thy laft moments, grafped my hand in thine, and faid fomething which I might have remembered day and night, amidst my tears, for ever!" But why may not Andromache, hanging with streaming eyes over her loft husband― his hand clasped in her's-her every fea ture marking affection mingled with agony-the hoplefs wifh juft Itarting from her lips-speak the same sentiment with the fame eloquence? Even the filler grief of friendship in the Grecian Helen is capable of being expressed by the pen cil; and perhaps with a stronger contraft to the more interefting and vehement diftrefs of the two Trojan matrons than the poet has given her; while her's and

t

Hecuba's certainly contribute to form the grand climax of grief, which has its completion in Andromache."

Respecting the revival of these arts at Conftantinople, and the first introduction of fubjects taken from holy writ, he fays:

"THE writers who made us acquainted with those works of art, and who, by their language, would lead us to fuppofe that the nature of things was at once counteracted in the new feat of empire, by the cure of that declenfion which had preceded the age of Conftantine, muft be read in that refpect with caution; they must be confidered as hiftorians, but perhaps it was the leaft part of their character to be critics in the arts. Or, if they were, they would fee with thofe eyes which were given to the age around them; their notions of tafte would be fuch as were derived from the taste which they had feen produced: they would fpeak of the works which came forth in their own times, or near them, as the Florentines spoke in exultation over the first picture of Cimablue, which they conceived to be wonderful, because they had feen no better. Even Petrus Gyllius, who flourished in the age of Leo X, if he had ftudied the fine arts as much as the antiquities of literature, and if his miffion from Francis I. into Italy and Greece, had been to collect works of art as well as ancient manuscripts, cannot be supposed to have beheld them with accuracy of tafte, at a time when hardly any of thofe antiques were recovered, by the ftudy of which that accuracy of tafte has chiefly been attained by the moderns. If other authorities were not fufficient to fhew that, with all the encouragements given to sculpture in the age of Conftantine, it cannot be confidered as affording any models of art, the converfation which is recorded to have passed bebetween Conftantius the fon and fucceffor of Conftantine, and Hormifda the Perfian architect, is decifive on the point. Surveying the brazen horfe in the forum of Trajan at Rome, along with the superb buildings adjacent, Conftantius faid that "his utmost wish would be, to find abilitics in his empire, which could execute fuch another fculpture as that;" when he had fome fcores of brazen horfes on the columns, and in the Hippodrom, of Conftantinople. Hormifda's reply did not mend the matter much, when he obferved, with no little vanity intermixed,

that

that" before the Emperor could produce fuch another horfe, a proper stable should be provided-and then he himself must build it."

"The encouragements with which Conftantine was enabled to keep up the powers of art around him, received a very important ftrength and increafe from the fubjects of holy writ, which then opened a new and extenfive field for the encouragement of ingenious talents. In thofe powerful and affecting histories, in all the various fcenes arifing from the fcope of divine revelation, wider and more attractive interefts were disclosed to the views of the pencil, ever guided before by the hands of heathens, who were aliens to the commonwealth of If rael, who counted the doctrines of the gofpel foolishnets, and who lived without God in the world. Conftantine gave full effect to the zeal, which as a new convert he felt. The arts both of painting and sculpture were fully employed in the fervice of Chriftianity, and not of Christianity only, but of the older revelation. Eufebius enlarged much in commendation of that Emperor, for the opportunities he took of making the arts contributory to useful instruction, while they decorated the city." Thus, (fays he) "the fountains were adorned by fculptural skill, with the emblems of a good paftor, well known to thofe who underftand the facred writings; and among other attentions of that kind you might fee the hiftory of Daniel and the lions, figured in brais, and hiding with plates of gold."

"It was natural for thofe arts to direct their attention not only to leffons and events, but to thofe great characters from whom both had flowed. They feized with rapture, as well they might, the reprefentation of those chofen apoftles, who planted the gofpel through the world at the experce of their own lives ---of thofe firft difciples and martyis, who helped forward that glorious work, not lefs by their death than their labours― and, above all, of that divine perfon, whom to view in the well felected traits by which the imagination of the artist would approach to the expreffion of that "human form divine," has ever been the higheft of contemplative enjoyments; but to behold him in any aflured traits of likeness would juftify, we do not he Etate to fay, nay, would command, the internal adoration of all enlightened minds to all eternity.

On the patronage of the fine arts, our author has the following remarks:

"THERE is certainly a great difference between the ftate of patronage in the modern world and that which carried the arts to their high celebrity in antient Greece; that difference is juft. as great as the political fituation of different countries, or of the fame countries in paft and prefent ages. The profeffor of fine art, in common with all who move in other profeffions, looks naturally and properly for patronage to his abilities: but the door which opens to it is much wider to all others than to him.

"The man of letters reposes himself on that good sense, or that refined intelligence, which is diffused through the world: nor does he ever quarrel with another, merely becaufe that other ftan is as high as himself in the estimation of the learned, even in his own path of excellence: perhaps thofe parties of merit, where no special differences of principles arife, are more generally feen to be the bond and cement of amiable and literary fociety.

"The profeffor of law rifes on that univerfal call for his abilities, which is miniftered by the never-ceafing generation and intercourfe of human tranfactions, and which he knows will evermore fuftain and elevate infinite numbers befides himself, in fpite of all that he can do or fay: his jealoufies there fore of others, or his oppofition to those who move in his own immediate line, would probably never throw the smallest fhade on their fituation, nor an wer any end but the vexation of his own heart.

"The physical and the ecclefiaftical man, although both of them perhaps come nearer than many others to that peevishness of fpirit, which counts every thing gained by others as fo much loft to itfelf, yet move on fo broad a ground that if one man does in fact ftand there in the way of another, the fhade is too indiftinct to irritate the temper, and the origin of it is too remote or too diffused, to be controuled by any schemes of envy or ill nature.

"The profeffor of the fine art labours under different circumstances, and experiences patronage in a different meafure. It rifes to him more limited in its compafs. It is capable of feeding infinitely fewer numbers. And if the number of artifts be every where fmaller in fact, than of other profeffors, yet a

mong

mong the former every individual is a candidate for the fame reward. They all seek to gather the fame rays of light and warmth: they muft all bafk in the fame local funshine, or be left in the fhade. If, to thofe circumstances, nature fhould add in the individual the spirit of a Diogenes, will he not be as fevere and cynical as that philosopher? Every man that comes acrofs him will intercept his comfort. Of a scanty and confined stock every particle intercepted is a grievous lofs. He grudges it; he cannot bear it. Malevolence fucceeds to difappointment, or even to the fear of it. And thould the spirit of a Caravaggio be uppermoft, violence will presently become engrafted on ill will: all will be inftant uproar.

"Thus it is that the world of art, for want of being tempered by those dispositions which are at all times neceffary to extract the fting from rivalship, and to render emulation fair, and honourable, and pleafant, or for want of that patronage which might open a wider field to the efforts of the profeffor, has too often become a world of ftrife; and in countries where that ftrife might be indulged to a greater extent by the connivance of the civil power, it has fometimes become a field of blood.

"But the fine arts can never thrive very much, or very long, where fuch a spirit prevails. With unanimity and an harmonious contribution of abilities for carrying the arts to perfection, great advantages may be gained even where patronage is rare. That patronage will become infenfibly extended. Those who have no tafte will gather it from profeffional men, they will gather the zeal of thofe who can beft display the attractions of art, and whofe zeal goes hand in hand with their amiableness of temper. They will come to admire what excites general admiration; and having fancied in themselves fomething that is fed agreeably by the taste around them, they will be difpofed to nourish the growth of that tafte in themselves, and to fhed favour and patronage upon it in others., It was by fuch harmonious efforts of profeffional men that the fine arts every where gained their firft footing, and that flourishing academies grew into existence. It was a cordial communication and mutual candour, which produced fome of the firft ftandards in art and antiquity. From thence came forth the Laocoon, VOL. LVIII.

the united work of three men equally zealous for the perfection of their art, and who have fhewn us, in that great example, how much may be reached, whenever the efforts of human genius are fairly concentrated, and earnestly directed to their object, and when all meaner paffions are absorbed in a common zeal to excel.

"Reverse the cafe, and let contradiction, and strife, and malevolent cenfure occupy the theatre of art, the taste which would otherwise rise in a country is chilled at once. The private gentleman has no encouragement to admire what is elegant, or to promote what he would admire. The progrefs of the arts is chilled in the very hands of artists, whofe genius is unquestionably affected by the confideration, that it is fure to be followed by the keen severity and malevolence of cotemporary antagonists. In fuch a state of things, where would you find three men, all equal in art, like the three Rhodians who formed the Laocoon, to unite in the accomplishment of any great work?

"But that is not the only misfortune which flows from a bitterness of contention. It entails on the arts as well as on their profeffors an opprobrium not eafily to be removed. When we fee thofe profeffors indulging a common rapine on each others talents, or each others fame, we forget that the arts which they profefs are arts of elegance; the painter or fculptor fiaks into the mere mechanic, who abufes the commodities of his neighbours in the fame trade, looks with anger on their gains, and has no other object but the low and wretched one of bringing every customer to his own fhop, by every mifreprefentation of others."

A Reply to the Inftructions given by the Common Council of Oxford, to F. Burton and A. Annefley, Efqrs. their representatives in Parliament. By an Oxfordshire Farmer. Ridgway.

THE fubject of this pamphlet, viz. the causes of the present high prices of grain is of confiderable importance, and has been the fubject of much inquiry of late. Among other caufes, the enlargement of farms and making enclosures have been alledged as contributing to that effect. We shall prefent our readers with the author's remarks on this branch his fubject:

If

"How,

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