of lectures on his art, said to be complete.

His reading lay much in the field of fiction, doubtless as novels abound more in pictures than any other class of works. He admired stories having something of the terrible in them, and I have heard him mention with approbation a novel called the "Five Nights of St. Albans," that most readers would not find to their taste from its diablerie. Anything deep, however, in metaphysics, anything that went down into the matter, and was not bungled, fixed itself under his roof as a companion.

Of all critics, he was that one into whose hands it was safe for the artist to commit his design. So far was he removed from the ready sneer at immaturity which characterizes many who pretend to judge, that his kindness, his careful fidelity, his sincere love of good intentions in others, has made his loss almost irreparable among American artists. He had reached the age when young painters came to him trustingly for his opinion, nor did they misplace their confidence. Thus he has been called the "Father of American art." A new artist, if a true lover of art, was a treasure to him. He loved all sincere followers of the muse, and named them often in his home, as if glad to have them mentioned. He expected good things of each, and delightedly prophesied their renown. If he said nothing favorable of an artist, he forbore comment yet not as some, who by their silence dispraise. He mused as it were, as if those who sought art, had thereby won a peculiar regard from him, and were to be a hope, if not a present fulfilment. He forbore to add to the dissatisfaction, so abundant in the world, with works of art.

It has been said that Allston had not been much before the public latterly; but by the exhibition of all his principal pictures in America at Boston, a year or two since, he was brought before the public more emphatically than he could have been in any other shape. Seeing how sudden was his decease, we must look with singular satisfaction upon that glorious display of art. In that gallery we saw specimens of his earlier and later styles; the Italian landscape, painted-abroad, the last female head completed in his silent studio at home. We were privileged to mark his eminent advances to loftier

ideals in each new conception, and we felt how gratifying it was to the artist, thus to be criticised by his own works. But one feeling inspired the spectator, that he was a truly rich man to have been permitted a sight so instructive, and that no prouder monument of fame could well be reared. The gathered treasures of a life, devoted to embalming the choicest images of beauty, were open before the public.

Some persons have remarked, knowing he rarely went abroad in the fields and woods, (hardly at all, for some period before his death,) that his landscapes would have been better, or at least more real, if he had not been so domestic. We remember describing some woods we had visited, when the scene recalled a similar one of his boyhood, forty years before, and he surprised us by the extreme fidelity of his memory, of the admirable portrait of the forest; then he said, "It seems, sir, as if I had visited the spot to-day, so vivid is my recollection of it." Indeed, the tenacity of his memory, was only equalled by the surprising store of facts, anecdotes, and criticism, he had gathered, in an education the most favorable in its influences, both at home and abroad.

His manner of painting was distinguished by its minute attention to all those details which heighten the singular effects of coloring. An artist who successfully copied his "Lorenzo and Jessica," a picture on which he lavished his skill, was told by him that he must have pursued the same course of tactics, to produce the same effect, but when the great painter was asked to repeat the various steps, he said he could not recall them. He was so rich in design, that he could afford to invent an individual method adapted to the piece before him. He shared with the great masters their desire for mechanical perfection, and no toil was too great for him, if he could but thereby accomplish his purpose. As an instance of this, an alteration in his "Belshazzar's Feast" may be taken, where some change in the figures required the lamp to be lowered, that hung from the ceiling. To effect this, the whole perspective of the immense picture was altered; every line drawn over in chalk, requiring at least a month's incessant labor, preparatory to putting on the dead color. He preferred to draw as much as possible from

reality; to be perfect in small things, as well as in great.

When his picture of the "Blood 'Hound," from Mrs. Radcliffe's novel of the "Italian," was exhibited, a little girl was observed shutting the blinds in the room, one after the other, and when asked why, she said, "I want to shut out that light on the picture." In his great picture of "Jeremiah," the water jar on the left has attracted the notice of many, despite the majestic figure of the prophet. The minutest parts of his pictures bear impress of the master's hand, no less than the general idea of the composition. In his earliest drawings, in his last finished pictures, he never any where slighted or undervalued his genius.

He describes the method of painting the light, in his celebrated picture of "Uriel," where that angel dwelt, in the following manner: "I surrounded him, and the rock of adamant on which he sat, with the prismatic colors, in the order in which the ray of light is decomposed by the prism. I laid them in with the strongest colors, and next with transparent color so intimately blended them, I re-produced the original ray! It was so bright, that it made your eyes twinkle as you looked at it." A young man who had a taste for painting, and was looking about after a profession, consulted Allston, through a friend, for his opinion. The great painter replied: "It is a calling full of delays and disappointments, and I can never recommend any one to pursue it. If he must be a painter, let him come prepared to bear up a mighty burden." It was his opinion that artists and literary men must of necessity be poor, yet he added, "I, surely, cannot complain of the public." Of pictures he used to say, that their interior meaning should be as much attended to, as their superficial effect. His advice to a young artist was: "Do not be anxious, but put faith in your fingers. When I paint I often do not look at my palette; I take off my colors by a secret sympathy between my hand and the pigments." Being asked whether he did not prefer a certain picture of his above the rest, he replied: "I love all mychildren. Yet in his chalk outline of a scene from the "Midsummer Night's Dream," he pointed out a dancing figure to an artist, as happily drawn.

At one time, in London, he was reVOL. XIII.NO. LXIV.

duced to his last sixpence, when he suddenly received the payment for his picture of the "Resuscitation of the young man on touching the bones of the prophet in the cave. If this had gone only to his own benefit, it would not have been worth mentioning, but when we learn that liberally and at once he applied a part of this sum to the needs of a brother artist, and gave him the means of visiting Paris, where the latter had long wished to proceed, we feel the noble generosity of Allston.

His criticism on pictures was not spread out in those sprawling Italianisms common with amateurs. "Your trees do not look as if the birds could fly through them," was his remark to the student.

He used to mention with peculiar satisfaction the skill possessed by Powers in the making of busts; how closely he had imitated flesh; for other American sculptors too he showed the warmest admiration; while Greenough was very near and dear to him. The modern German school of painting he considered very promising, and the great work illustrating their pictures had been sent to him from the compiler.

His great picture, as it is called, of Belshazzar's Feast, which was to have contained two hundred figures, is left incomplete; the scale of the piece having been often changed, and the chief figure, that of the king, once nearly finished, quite erased. He was once asked how he got his light for this picture, when he said, "from the mysterious letters on the wall;-the MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. The lamp in the vast hall grows dim, in the brightness of that supernatural light.'

Mr. Allston's health had never been fully established, since a severe sickness he had abroad, some thirty years since; but until within the last two years, no anxiety of a painful kind had been felt. He died very suddenly on the evening of the 9th of June, 1843, aged sixty-three years, after painting as usual during the day, and conversing with his friends almost to the hour of his death.

In so brief a notice of so eminent a painter, no particular criticism of his various works can be looked for, and it belongs to his biographer fully to portray his moral excellencies. It has been said, that he will not be chiefly celebrated in future times as an histori

THE imports of the month have slightly increased, but the effect of the tariff of the Twenty-seventh Congress upon the finances of the Government

has been ruinous, and exhibits itself chiefly in the fact, that although the national debt had been increased as follows

66

since then a $7,000,000 stock has been issued for the redemption of Treasury Notes, and the revenue is still $5,000,000 deficit for the year ending January, 1844. This amount, it is understood, will be issued in Treasury Notes in the old form, which according to existing laws may be done to that extent, or in notes bearing a nominal rate of interest, redeemable on demand in the city of New York, and receivable for all Government dues. This latter will be a mere Government paper money, and is now in contemplation.

The general appearance of the fall trade thus far has been good. The dealers from the country who have visited the city, have been numerous and have purchased fairly at prices which, for most descriptions of goods, show a reasonable advance from the extreme low rates to which they had fallen. This has grown out of an advance in most articles of agricultural products, giving the consumers of goods the means of paying their store bills, and the dealers in their turn the means of coming to the city, and both paying old accounts and making new purchases. In a former article we alluded to the advance in price which most articles had undergone in the interior, consequent upon a belief that the crop of

.8,381,555 ..27,394,261

.$19,012,706

England would be short. The Atlantic cities are now feeling the benefit of that advance. In the Western States, at the opening of the spring, the farmers, although possessed of good stocks, were not disposed to accept the extreme low prices then current. In May and June, the accounts from abroad gave an impulse to prices, which brought forth stocks and stimulated trade. In the valley of the Illinois in particular, wheat was at 30 a 35 cents, and farmers would not part with their stock; when the rate rose, however, to 50 a 55 cents, extensive sales immediately took place. The proceeds passed from the farmers into the hands of the storekeepers, who were thus, in a great measure unexpectedly placed in a position to make their accustomed visits to the sea-board, and both in New York and sister cities the presence of Illinois traders has been both welcome and profitable. No class of dealers stand in better credit or have paid up more promptly. The same gratifying result has been evinced in other sections, and although prices of agricultural products have not been sustained, their effects in drawing forth produce are indicated in the following table of wheat and flour arrived at tide water by the Erie canal for several years: