dience of the king, by which it appeared that his Majesty knew nothing of Mr. Wyatt's message, and had never received Mr. West's letter.

"However, the result of the interview was, that the king said, go on with your work, West, go on with the pictures, and I will take care of you.' This was the last interview that Mr. West was permitted to enjoy with his early, constant, and to him truly royal patron; but he continued to execute the pictures, and in the usual quarterly payments received the thousand pounds per annum, till his majesty's final superannuation, when, without any intimation, on calling to receive it, he was informed that it had been stopped, and that the intended design of the chapel of Revealed Religion was suspended.' This was a severe stroke of misfortune to the artist, but he took no measures either to procure the renewal of the quarterly allowances, or the payment of the balance of his account; and having thus lost the patronage of the king, he determined to appeal to the public: with this view he resolved to paint several large pictures, and in the prosecution of this determination, he has been amply indemnified."

As early as the year 1766, Mr. West, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and several of the most eminent artists of London, anxious to introduce the practice of decorating churches with pictures, which tend in so great a degree to disseminate a taste for the fine arts, made a proposal to the Dean of St. Paul's, to present a gratuitous offering to that cathedral, of a series of pictures on appropriate subjects, for those large spaces which had been originally allotted for this purpose by the architect. The proposal was readily acceded to by the Dean and Chapter, but being opposed by the Bishop of London, the scheme was necessarily abandoned, to the great disappointment of those artists, who had so handsomely tendered their services on the occasion.

The opposition thus so illiberally interposed by the bishop, was by none felt so keenly as by Mr. Barry, whose ardent love of his art prevailing over every consideration of pecuniary emolument, urged him to signalize himself by some great work, upon whatever terms he could procure employment; and therefore he next proposed to the Society of Arts in the Adelphi, to decorate their hall gratis, with a series of pictures illustrative of the objects of the institution. This offer was thankfully accepted by the society, who also agreed to provide materials. The subject he chose was the progress of society from a state of barbarism to refinement, and consisted of six pictures: the first, the Story of Orpheus, or the Dawnings of Civilization; the second, a Grecian Harvest Home; the third, Crowning the Victors at Olympia; the fourth, Commerce, or the Triumph of the Thames; the fifth, the Distribution of the Premiums at the Society of Arts; and the sixth, Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution. This great

See illustration of this series of designs in Barry's works.

work he accomplished in three years, a space of time wonderfully short, when we consider its magnitude, the amazing number of figures it contains, and that the whole was executed by his own hand. If any thing were wanting to excite our highest admiration of his generous enthusiasm, we have only to add, that during the whole period he was engaged in it, he sacrificed every personal comfort and enjoyment, subsisting on the produce of etchings and designs executed after the labours of the day were concluded. This work, being afterwards publicly exhibited for a few weeks, the proceeds amounting to about five hundred pounds, were the only pecuniary remuneration which he received for his labour.

About this time Alderman John Boydell, who by his spirited and extensive speculations as a print-publisher, had done more to improve the art of engraving in England than perhaps all its other patrons besides, conceived his grand project of the Shakspeare Gallery, designed to illustrate the most interesting scenes of our great bard, by a series of pictures, executed by the most eminent British artists. The benefit thus conferred on the art, by directing native talent to so great a national object, was of the highest importance to the English School, and to the character of the country, and afforded an example which was followed, though on a reduced scale, in several similar undertakings, such as illustrations of Milton, of the History of England, the British Poets, &c. The Shakspeare Gallery contained, amongst others, many fine specimens of Reynolds, West, Romney, Barry, Opie, Tresham, Smirke, Wright of Derby, Graham, Fuseli, Stothart and Northcote, &c.

But the British Institution, of all the patrons which the fine arts have yet acquired, has had the most extended influence, and promises to be the most permanently useful. It commenced its exertions at a period when historical painting may be said to have been absolutely discountenanced, and when the talent of the country, forced from its proper objects by the general apathy, was obliged to take shelter in Portrait Painting. By the liberality which characterized the proceedings of the institution, and the ample means which its judicious management put in its possession, there was assurance that merit would meet its reward; and thus an impulse was given to talent and industry, which had never before been paralleled in England. As the grand style of art is the chief object of its fostering care, the principles of beauty and grace are well understood, and impress with a feeling of elegance, even those scenes of familiar life, in which the present English masters have displayed so much excellence.

With regard to the influence of Mr. West on the fine arts in

Britain, we apprehend that it has been much more beneficial in promoting those establishments which we have noticed, than by any great excellence he possessed as an artist. He was destitute of those great powers of mind, and that daring originality of genius, which are essential to excellence in the highest walk of art. He was well versed in all its rules, and he gave way to no flights of fancy which might lead him to transgress them. He therefore uniformly displays correctness and propriety; and his composition and grouping are always scientific. His drawing, moreover, is correct; but his colouring, though agreeable, is not conducted on any great principle of harmonious arrangement, and is evidently the result of little study. He never astonishes by striking originality of thought, or intensity of feeling, and is generally deficient in that strength of character and expression which stamps a work of art with the impress of genius. But his pictures, from the technical learning they display, and the general respectability which reigns throughout, will always be viewed with attention and interest, if not with admiration. Comparing him with the Italian masters, he must be classed rather with the mechanical school of Pietro da Cortona, to whom he was inferior, or perhaps with our countryman Gavin Hamilton, whom he excelled, than with the great fathers of the Roman and Florentine Schools. From the circumstance, mentioned above, of the cutting off his quarterly allowance at the commencement of the late regency, he found himself under the necessity of appealing to the public, by painting several large pictures, though arrived at the seventieth year of his age, and when the decay of his mental powers had begun to manifest itself. Although greatly inferior to the productions of his more vigorous manhood, these works, from the imposing magnitude of their dimensions, we suspect, rather than their intrinsic merits, obtained general approbation, and in a great measure indemnified him for the loss he had sustained. principal works exhibited in this way were," Christ Healing the Sick and Lame," which was purchased by the British Institution'; "Christ Rejected;" and "Death on the Pale Horse;" and they procured him more admiration than his fine picture of "King Lear," painted for the Shakespeare Gallery, or " St. Paul in the Isle of Melita, shaking the Viper from his Hand," in the chapel of Greenwich Hospital, a work which, for composition, grouping, arrangement of the parts, and distribution of the chiaroscuro, is one of the finest pieces of art which the English School has produced.

The

ART. III.-Teutschland und die Revolution. Von J. Görres, &c. (Germany and the Fevolution. By J. Görres. Germany, 1819.)

WE embrace the opportunity which this work affords us of laying before our readers some account of the internal political state of a country, the movements of which, situated as it is in the very heart of the great European commonwealth, cannot be contemplated by its neighbours without considerable interest. We must regret, indeed, that, in consequence of circumstances to which we shall afterwards have occasion to advert, the present work does not furnish us with the means of entering very minutely into the detail of the subject of which it treats; but we trust that, in a future number, we shall be able to discuss it in a more satisfactory manner, with the help of more authentic and more ample materials.

Hitherto, it must be confessed, little attention appears to have been paid by the British public to the fermentation which has recently agitated, and threatened to convulse the various members of the German confederacy. We do not exactly know how to account for this unusual apathy. It may be ascribed, perhaps, in some measure, to the occurrence of domestic events, which we have been induced to consider as of paramount importance; and likewise to the want of authentic and impartial information, such as might have enabled us to form a correct opinion upon the subject. But when we look into the recent history of Europe, and examine the events which are daily passing before our eyes, the transactions to which we allude must be deemed to possess no small interest, as indicative of that general spirit which seems to have gone abroad in the world; and we have now arrived at that period, when it is quite possible to pronounce a judgment, without incurring the imputation of having formed a hasty and immature opinion. We shall, therefore, endeavour to present our readers with an analysis of the work before us, making such remarks, as we go along, as appear to us to be necessary to correct or to qualify those opinions and statements, which we conceive to be either erroneous, or extravagant, or doubtful.

This work of M. Görres is, undoubtedly, a singular production; and the reputation of the author is such, as must ensure him, at least, an attentive hearing from his countrymen. This publication, too, affords a very good specimen of the manner, both as to style and argument, in which political controversy is

conducted in a country which has recently asserted an eminent rank in literature and science. We, therefore, feel it to be our duty to examine it with considerable minuteness; the more especially, as the author propounds the peculiar views of his sect with a great parade of (what he seems to consider) philosophical reasoning.

During the whole course of our critical career, however, we do not remember to have met with any volume of which we felt it so extremely difficult to give an intelligible account. It was, we have no doubt, intended to contain the quintessence of political and philosophical speculation; but the spirit is so excessively refined, that it seems wholly to evaporate, before it reaches the perceptive faculties of ordinary mortals. The author, M. Görres, was, we believe, a pupil of the celebrated German philosopher Schelling, and wrote some treatises in support of his master's transcendental theory. He was, at one time, a public teacher in the University of Heidelberg, and afterwards a professor at Coblentz; and he published a work, in two large octavo volumes, on the Asiatic Mythology, which we remember having once made a vain attempt to peruse. He is also known as the editor of a collection of old German poetry, from the MSS. in the Heidelberg library. Towards the latter period of the late war, he appears to have addicted himself principally to politics; he was attached to the party which has acquired the distinctive and fashionable denomination of liberal; was suspected, at one time-perhaps unjustly-of being an agent in the pay of the French government, and became the editor of a periodical paper—the Rhenish Mercury-which was published for the purpose of propagating and defending the opinions of the sect to which he belonged. During the late effervescence of the public mind in Germany, M. Görres published the work before us; but dreading the consequences to which his boldness or indiscretion might possibly expose him, he thought it more prudent to avoid them by withdrawing from his native country. In point of fact, the work was immediately confiscated, and an order was issued by the King of Prussia, for the seizure of the author's papers; and it is said that this seizure was to have been accompanied by the arrest of his person, had he not contrived to effect his escape to Strasburgh.

The reputation of the author, the temporary interest of the subject, and the circumstances attending its publication, have given to this volume a degree of importance, in our opinion, far beyond its real merit. Had the work been originally published in the English language, and addressed to the people of this country, under analogous circumstances, we should have felt no