warriors. I answered, that the event to be commemorated happened in the year 1758, in a region of the world unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and at a period of time when no warriors who wore such costume existed. The subject I have to represent is a great battle fought and won, and the same truth which gives law to the historian should rule the painter. If instead of the facts of the action I introduce fictions, how shall I be understood by posterity? The classic dress is certainly picturesque, but by using it I shall lose in sentiment what I gain in external grace. I want to mark the place, the time, and the people, and to do this I must abide by truth. They went away then, and returned again when I had the painting finished. Reynolds seated himself before the picture, examined it with deep and minute attention for half an hour; then rising, said to Drummond, West has conquered; he has treated his subject as it ought to be treated; I retract my objections. I foresee that this picture will not only become one of the most popular, but will occasion a revolution in art."" "I wish," said the King, "that I had known all this before, for the objection has been the means of Lord Grosvenor's getting the picture, but you shall make a copy for me."

West had now obtained the personal confidence of the King and the favour of the public; his commissions were numerous, but of course the works for the palace had precedence. His Majesty employed him to paint the death of Epaminondas, as a companion to that of Wolfe, the death of the Chevalier Bayard, Cyrus liberating the family of the King of Armenia, and Segestus and his daughter brought before Germanicus. The air of the palace had some influence on the mind of the prudent Quaker. The great Leibnitz had pointed out the descendants of Segestus in our own royal line, and West communicated a little of the lineaments of the living to the images of the dead. The good King was much pleased with the work.

It is said, that Sir Joshua Reynolds now began to observe West's favour somewhat resentfully, thinking that a ray or two of the royal sunshine might in fairness have fallen upon himself. The President was not fool enough to complain, but his friends did so for him; while West, too prudent to carry himself loftily because of his good fortune, enjoyed his success in secret, and continued in the outward man submissive and thankful. To Reynolds had fallen the whole portrait department of church and state, which lay without the gates of the palace; while within, West reigned triumphant. Thus they divided the British world of art between them, while Barry and Wilson, by toiling without distinction, were earning precarious bread.

West was not a man to remain insensible to the advantage of having a young, amiable, and patriotic sovereign for his patron. The painter expressed his regret that the Italians had dipped their pencils in the monkish miracles and incredible legends of the church, to the almost total neglect of their national history; the King instantly bethought him of the victorious reign of our third Edward, and of St. George's Hall in Windsor Castle. West had a ready hand; he sketched out the following subjects, seven of which are from real and one from fabulous history:

1. Edward the Third embracing the Black Prince, after the Battle of Cressy. 2. The Installation of the order of the Garter. 3. The Black Prince receiving the King of France and his son prisoners, at Poictiers. 4. St. George vanquishing the Dragon. 5. Queen Phillipa defeating David of Scotland, in the Battle of Neville's Cross. 6. Queen Phillipa interceding with Edward for the Burgesses of Calais. 7. King Edward forcing the passage of the Somme. 8. King Edward crowning Sir Eustace de Ribaumont at Calais. These works are very large. They were the fruit of long study and much labour, and with the exception of the Death of Wolfe and the Battle of La Hogue,

they are the best of all the numerous works of this artist. Their lustre is fresh and unfaded; their colouring natural and harmonious: they present a lively image of the times and the people; but they are deficient in strength and variety of character; they seize attention, but are unable to detain it.

West, however, had the good fortune to maintain his influence at Windsor. When the King grew weary of courts, and camps, and battles, the observing artist took new ground, and appealed to the religious feelings of his royal patron. He suggested to the King a series of pictures on the progress of revealed religion: a splendid Oratory was projected for their reception; and half-a-dozen dignitaries of the church were summoned to consider the propriety of introducing paintings into a place of worship "When I reflect," said the King, "that the Reformation condemned religious paintings in churches, and that the parliament in the unhappy days of Charles the First did the same, I am fearful of introducing any thing which my people might think popish. Will you give me your opinions on the subject?" After some deliberation Bishop Hurd delivered in the name of his brethren and himself their unanimous opinion, that the introduction of religious paintings into his Majesty's Chapel would in no respect whatever violate the laws or the usages of the Church of England. "We have examined too," continued Hurd, "thirtyfive subjects which the painter proposed for our choice, and we feel that there is not one of them but may be treated in a way that even a Quaker might contemplate with edification." The King

conceived this to be an ironical allusion to West, and was a little nettled. "The Quakers," he replied, 66 are a body of Christians for whom I have a high respect. I love their peaceful tenets and their benevolence to one another, and, but for the obligations of birth, I would be a Quaker." The Bishop bowed submissively and retired.

VOL. II.-D

No subtle divine ever laboured more diligently on controversial texts, than did our painter in evolving his pictures out of the grand and awful subject of revealed religion. He divided it into Four Dispensations-the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the Mosaical, and the Prophetical. They contained in all thirty-six subjects, eighteen of which belonged to the Old Testament, the rest to the New. They were all sketched, and twenty-eight were executed, for which West received in all twenty-one thousand seven hundred and five pounds. A work so varied, so extensive, and so noble in its nature, was never before undertaken by any painter. But the imagination of West was unable to cope with such glorious themes; the soft, the graceful, and the domestic were more suited to his talents. Several of the subjects too were necessarily the same as those painted by the great masters-the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Annunciation had been over and over again handled by artists higher in mental stature than West; and in the competition he had nothing to hope, and every thing to fear. He was daring in his undertakings; not so in his genius.

During the progress of these works, he painted many pictures of lesser importance. The King, the Queen, the young Princes and Princesses sat for their portraits, sometimes singly and sometimes in groups, forming in all nine pictures, for which West received two thousand guineas-a royal price, when we consider the charges of Reynolds and Gainsborough at this time. They are well conceived and prettily drawn, but want soul and substance, and seem the shadows of what is noble and lovely. There is no deception; they are flat, and the eye seems to see through both colour and canvass; but time and frail materials may be mainly blameable for this.

The war which broke out between Britain and her colonies was a sore trial to the feelings of West;

his early friends and his present patrons were in volved in the bloody controversy. He was not, according to his own account, silent; he was too much in the palace and alone with his Majesty to avoid some allusion to the strife; the King inquired anxiously respecting the resources of his foes and the talents of their chiefs, and the artist gave, or imagined he gave, more correct information concerning the American leaders and their objects than could be acquired through official channels. West had been long away from his native land; his literary talents were not of an order to allure correspondents, and with few, if any, of the influential insurgents can it be supposed that he was at all acquainted. But not few were the delusions under which this amiable man lived. How he contrived both to keep his place in the King's opinion, and the respect of the spirits who stirred in the American revolution, he has not told us, but it is not difficult to guess. He was of a nature cold and unimpassioned; his religion taught him peace, his situation whispered prudence, and the artist dismissed civil broils from his mind, and addressed himself to more profitable contemplations. He saw his reward in fortune, and perhaps in fame, for those days of toil and nights of study, in which he painted and pored over history, sacred and profane, and he closed his eyes on all else save elaborate outlines and the effect of light and shade.

He was now moving in the first circles, and the word of West was the courtly sanction in matters of taste. His various and extensive works left little leisure for the acquisition of extra-professional knowledge, and he probably thought that excellence in art was enough. By dining with divines, he had learned to skim the surface of religious knowledge, and his professional and general society gave him hints as to what was passing in the world of literature and fashion. He made the little that he did