to succeeding travellers, who can surely derive little advantage from such items as these, which may be selected ad libitum J. Ruysdael-a rude country, thickly grown with trees, in which a brook forms a waterfall; very carefully executed.' And "Backhuysen-dark clouds cast their shadows over the sea, which is running very high, and is covered with several ships. Far more trut than usual; very harmonious in the cool tone, and of admirable effect.' It seems to us that annotations of this description, unaccompanied by the usual appliances for identification and accurate reference, can have value for none but the author, who may find them most useful for refreshing his own memory, but has no pretence for emptying the note-book that contains them on the heads of the public. Neither do we think that Mr. Waagen has been particularly successful in directing the attention of his readers to the works of principal merit and interest in the collections he visited. For this we hardly blame him. Criticism has no method of alge braical notation by which relative value can be strictly calculated and recorded. To make amends for this deficiency, his pages, at least, have the negative and rare merit of being free from the cant of affected enthusiasm, and vapid attempts at descriptive elo quence. Mr. Waagen's provincial excursion comprised a triangle, of which the base extended from London to Bath, and the apex was Castle Howard. In the performance of a journey of this extent, without a companion, his spirits seem to have been supported by minor aids, extrinsic to the numerous objects of curiosity which attracted him to the undertaking. Few foreigners have given so favourable a report of the appliances of the English kitchen, which often, on the contrary, fall under the severest lash of the continental tourist. Not only the turtle of Blackwall, and the grouse of Chatsworth, but the mutton-chops of the road-side inn, obtain his warm approbation; and, what we confess we have rarely been so fortunate as to meet with on this side of the Irish Channel, 'potatoes of the best kind, so boiled as to manifest all the valuable qualities with which nature has endowed them.' At Corsham House he partakes of the Sunday dinner of the courteous and excellent lady who officiates as guardian to Mr. P. Methuen's extensive collection, and is in absolute raptures with lamb, apple-tart, and custard. To give you an idea' (says he to his friend at Berlin) of a Sunday dinner among this class of people, I will tell you in what it consisted. First of all there was a joint of lamb admirably roasted-on which I must observe that the lambs in England do not, as with us, consist of hardly anything but skin and bone, but have, besides, plenty of tender and and sound flesh and fine fat. As for vegetables, we had the best potatoes and beans. After this came an apple-pie with custard; to which a very delicate taste was imparted by the juice of some flower unknown to me. Gloucester cheese and very good ale concluded the whole.'-vol. iii. pp. 8, 9. We hate a false conclusion like an unfilled can, and are proportionally satisfied with that of Mr. Waagen. There are many reasons why the lambs of England should have plenty of sound fat. We suspect, however, though the above passage gives us reviewers a most favourable impression of Mr. Methuen's establishment, that it conveys a very inadequate idea of either a Sunday or week-day dinner among this class of people;' and that, if the good professor had condescended to initiate himself into the mysteries of the steward's room in some of the other mansions on his route, his professorial eyes would have been further opened, and other items have been recorded in his notebook, beside which, lamb, apple-tart, and ale, would cut a most contemptible figure. This class of people, indeed!' come up, no more people than yourself, Mr. Waagen!' Among the best specimens of Mr. Waagen's detailed criticism. on an old subject we may mention his visit to the Cartoons at Hampton Court, where, by Lord Howe's intervention, he enjoyed the privilege of seeing these, and the other objects of art in that palace, at his leisure, instead of being goaded onward, amid an herd of bleating cockneys, by an inexorable drover. He, of course, notices the judicious arrangement by which these works, the most valuable which England possesses, enjoy the distinction of being lighted from below instead of from above, like vulgar collections, and by which two of retired habits are allowed almost to shun observation altogether. Marry, Mr. Waagen's national enthusiasm for music will make some passages in his volumes interesting to its lovers. We, albeit of the profane, are tempted to extract the following criticism on Rubini, arising out of that professor's performance at the Concert of Ancient Music. If the attorney-general be moved to prosecute Mr. Waagen for a libel, or worse, we are ready to share the costs and damages in case of a conviction. 'I was extremely desirous to hear, for the first time, the celebrated Malibran, and the first tenor singer, Rubini. My expectations of the latter were satisfied only in part. His voice certainly has an extraordinary charm; it combines great force with melting softness; and is so highly cultivated that it most delicately marks the variations even in pianissimo. But his mode of executing Mozart's two celebrated airs, Il mio Tesoro " and " Diess Bildniss ist bezaubernd schön," in an Italian translation, could not please anybody who is familiar with the spirit of Mozart's music. Without paying the slightest attention to the sense sense of the words, a violent forcing of the tone was succeeded at once by a scarcely audible, murmuring pianissimo-so that the enchanting flow, the peculiar blending, of the melody, were wholly lost. It was as if one would attempt to copy a picture of Correggio by putting white close to black; whereas, the charm of such a work is, that these extremes are never close to each other, but that the whole is connected by a series of insensible gradations.' We have mentioned the gratification we have experienced from the perusal of Mr. Hazlitt's essay; we must add a similar testimony in favour of his fellow-labourer, Mr. Haydon. His treatise seems to us the result of study and observation extensive and profound. Some evidence of these qualities was necessary to give weight and authority to the freedom and decision of his style of criticism. We recommend to our readers a very ingenious theory on a passage of Pliny which has puzzled all commentators-the anecdote of the visit of Apelles to the studio of Protogenes (p. 107); and which seems to us to offer as rational a solution of the difficulty as, at this distance of time, can be supplied. His opinions on the subject of our own, and all other possible academies, are well known; and his indignation against them in this treatise occupies fewer of its pages than we should have expected. We cannot controvert the fact that few men of eminence have been formed by acade mies; nor can we, at the same time, understand why or how sterling genius and talent should suffer itself to be depressed by any circumstances incident to the existence of an academy. Having under review this volume of Mr. Haydon, we should apologise for not having sooner noticed as an artist the painter of the Judgment of Solomon, of which, were we to say that it is superior to any contemporary English picture on a sacred subject, he would hardly take the assertion as a compliment. Few painters have been more unequal, and few we fear less fortunate; but his talents have been recognised by the most illustrious of his contemporaries in other departments-and the enthusiastic eulogies of Wordsworth in particular, will have due weight hereafter.* While * The following sonnet on 'Buonaparte at St. Helena,' in Sir R. Peel's Collection. is not in our copy of Wordsworth's Poems, and may be new to many of our readers HAYDON! let worthier judges praise the skill Here by thy pencil shown, in truth of lines While hastening to our conclusion, the opening of the first Exhibition in Trafalgar-square interrupts us with matter for comment--which might well delay us longer than most readers would approve of. Whether it affords us any reason for modifying our observations on the two great artists, against whose present system we have taken up our humble but sincere testimony, we leave to the learned to decide. If such should be disposed to think that Sir D. Wilkie's Queen in Council only corroborates our criticism, we have no fear of their drawing a contrary conclusion from the lady whom Mr. Turner is pleased to call Phryne. We have been, nevertheless, gratified by various features in the display of 1838; and especially, it affords more promise on the part of some of the younger artists than many of its predecessors. We have complained of the want of English Cuyps and Ruysdaelsmeaning thereby, of accomplished and faithful imitators of the features of English landscape. If any one be likely to rebuke us for this complaint it is Mr. Lee-who indeed bids fair to become the Hobbema of his time and country. The Young Giotto of Mr. Simpson, and the Italian Inn of Mr. Cope, give us the greater pleasure, inasmuch as we were not familiar with the names of these two artists. We know not whether any byelaw of the Academy forbids that body to reject works presented for admission by its own members-if so, there are pictures, statues, and busts in this exhibition which indicate an urgent necessity for the repeal of the provision. Since, however, we have alluded at all to sculpture, we must be allowed to express our heartfelt admiration of one article in that department-the Paolo and Francesca of the younger Westmacott. The most beautiful Episode of Dante never had such an interpreter and illustrator as it has found in this most graceful and touching relievo a work which at once places Mr. W. in the highest rank of his profession. ART. V.-1. Considérations Militaires sur les Mémoires du Maréchal Suchet, Duc d'Albufera; et sur la Bataille de Toulouse, &c. Par T. Choumara, Ancien Capitaine du Génie. Paris. 1838. pp. 278. With light reflected from the invisible sun- Set, like his fortunes; but not set for aye VOL. LXII. NO. CXXIII. M 2. Sur 2. Sur la Bataille de Toulouse; Examen de l'Ouvrage de M. Choumara, avec l'Addition de Nouveaux Détails Importans. Par le Général Juchereau de St. Denys. Paris. Mai, 1838. THE HE first, but evidently not the most substantial, object of M. Choumara's work is to maintain the military character of Marshal Soult in relation to his communications with Marshal Suchet during the Pyrennean campaign of 1813-14. In Suchet's Mémoires, recently published, there were given copies of certain dispatches between the two marshals and the minister of war in Paris, which seem-in the opinion of Marshal Soult and his friends-to charge him personally with a large share in the ill-success of that campaign; and Marshal Soult has farnished M. Choumara with his documents, which prove, as they allege, that the Suchet publication had garbled the materials, and given an erroneous view of the real state of the case, which wasthat Suchet, by his refusal to adopt Soult's plan of combined operations, was the main cause of all the mischief. This discussion is, of course, of importance to the partisans of the two marshals, and may also have some speculative interest for a military student; but for the general reader the only curiosity is the striking example of a fact that we have before alluded to-namely, that Buonaparte, all powerful as he seemed, was never able to esta blish any discipline or gradation of authority amongst his marshals. who, squabbling amongst themselves almost as often as they came into communication, had no resource to adjust their difference but an appeal to the emperor-while the emperor,-whether from the fear of displeasing this first order in his military hierarchy, or with the policy of keeping them disunited,-was always very reluctant to interfere, and generally allowed them to squabble it out. But the second, and, as we believe, the real object of M. Choumara, is the avowed purpose of General Juchereau de St. Denys; and it is one which our readers will hear of with great surprise, and with some curiosity-namely, to claim for Marsha Soult the crown of victory in the battle of Toulouse! The claim itself is so extravagant, and the pretences on which it is advanced are so utterly futile-that we should have no more thought of taking notice of them than if these writers had undertaken to prove that Marshal Soult had won the battle of Agincourt; but this attempt-so ridiculous in itself-assumes a certain degree of extraneous importance, when taken in connexion with other publications and other circumstances-which have been just at this mo ment directed from several different quarters to this special object. We know not whether our good friends the French may have speculated upon this as a favourable moment for advancing their claims to a victory over one whom they never had defeated, and who |