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Supposing that no relations of friendship or enmity had ever existed between this island and France, supposing that it had moved from one part of the world to another, and had unexpectedly been placed in the immediate neighbourhood of a great and powerful empire, ever celebrated for the military ardour of its people, and with three times our population, would it not have been accounted imprudent to seek occasions of war against this mighty neighbour? But when it came to be discovered that this large adjacent territory produced articles of which we stood much in need, while it wanted many of our manufactures and commerce; would it not be accounted still more imprudent to exchange the advantages of commerce and mutual intercourse, for the privations of war, and the incalculable detriment of mutual enmity? If we were placed in the situation of Japan, we should, by parity of reasoning, enter into constant warfare, patriotic rancour, and most honourable jealousy against the potent empire of China."

The author represents the geographical situation of Great Britain and France as exactly similar to that of the kingdoms of Japan and China.-We shall not attend to his new plan of restoring the balance of power in Europe under the form of five great empires: since the sword of the conqueror, and not the discussions of philosophers, will mark the boundaries of nations.

The letters to Mr. P. from his Polish friend Mr. Orchowski, on Polish literature, and on the present state of Poland, are of some interest: but they do not belong to his professed subject.

Mixing intimately with the respectable society of the French capital, the author was qualified for discussing the forms of etiquette, and for stating the order of the dishes at a fashionable French dinner. The superiority of the luxury of Paris compared with that of London is asserted, however reluctant Englishmen may be to credit it.—A distinct chapter is assigned to the geography of French wines,' from which it might be inferred that the Parisians are addicted to the pleasures of the bottle: but the contrary, however, is the fact. Their potations are moderate, in spite of the temptation of an abundant variety; the abominable practice of toasts,' as Mr. P. terms it, is not in use among them; drunkenness is a phænomenon in the superior classes of the community; and it is added that the head of the empire is a model of the severest temperance.'

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In giving these views of the Parisian character, and even in the accounts which are presented of the mineralogy of the environs of the French metropolis, Mr. Pinkerton may have drawn on the bank of his Recollection:--but certain make-weight articles appear, which are evidently derived from another quarter. The chapters intitled Small Talk,' and Fragments,' are mostly extracted from journals, and books of bon mots; and many

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many of them no otherwise pay for their transcription than by occupying space. This species of patch-work is very easy. Unus et alter assuitur pannus; and thus handsome looking volumes are produced.

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The route of the author's return to his own country being through Flanders and Holland, sketches of the characters of those people, as well as of their chief towns, are subjoined. It is said that the devotion of the Flemings, which formerly depended on the wealth and influence of the clergy, has disappeared, and has given place to a taste for the theatre and other social amusements;' and of the Dutch it is observed that money and Calvinism form' the sole objects of their meditations. On his taking leave of the continent, he cautions us against French Emigrants, as the betrayers of their unsuspecting benefactors, and urges the policy of sending them all, with grants of land, to Canada; and though a strong predilection for French manners seems to betray itself in his delineation of Parisian enjoyments, a flush of satisfaction which doubled the sensation of existence' was felt by Mr. P., as he informs us, at the moment of alighting on English ground, on being delivered from the police of Paris, from passports, garrisons, commissaries, and consuls.'

Some pompous words occur, as well as a few errors; and some things are recollected twice, as the derivation of the word calembourg in vol. i. p. 462. and vol. ii. p. 370.

ART. X. An Inquiry into the Requisite Cultivation and Present State of the Arts of Design in England. By Prince Hoare. Boards. R. Phillips.

INQUIRY

12mo. 75.

NQUIRY is a term of high import, and a duty of sacred obligation. If ably and rigorously executed, it may materially promote the rights of truth and the interests of knowlege: but if superficially or partially pursued, it may either seriously injure or finally retard them.-When our scientific luminary, the illustrious Bacon, had dispersed the mists of vulgar and interested prejudice, which had been thickened into overshadowing obscurities by the intrigue and selfishness of the cloistered ages, nothing was taken for granted, but was submitted to the ordeal of investigation. Yet so tenacious of their dogmas had been the cowl'd impostors, that it was heresy to doubt their promulgated tenets, however repugnant to common sense, to truth, and to the advantages that might be derived from the knowlege and practice of true religion: while with superstition the genius of the Arts lay buried in legen

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dary tales-The good Erasmus also exposed to the world the venality, pride, and intolerance which had coalesced to stifle. reason, and the noblest function of man,-the use of his senses; and he manifested how much the Cloisters were aware that ignorance and credulity have ever been inseparable companions.

Since that period, many writers have assumed the specious name of Inquirers; perhaps to answer very little other purpose than to make a plausible attempt at establishing some party hypothesis favourable to a Sect, Society, or Institution: to all which cases, we may apply the emphatic expression of the great promoter of science already mentioned, "such are Liable to suspect."-Where flattery has much concern, it may be feared that truth is little consulted; and how often are realities found totally different from their superficial appearances:

"So may the outward shows be least themselves;
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
But, being season'd with a gracious voice
Obscures the show of evil?" SHAKSPEARE,

Philosophy, stedfast to the investigation of truth, is of no party; neither have been the liberal Arts, in those countries in which they most have flourished: but the very term, of liberal Arts, should tell us that to thrive they must be free.

False critics have produced as much mischief perhaps as false prophets; since, instead of aiding the progress of true Art, they have contributed to weaken it by the incongruities of flippant observations and erroneous conclusions. Whether this evil proceeded from vanity, from interest, or from any other cause, is immaterial; the effect produced on the public mind is the same. We regret to say that, in several instances, blame of this nature attaches to the late ingenious Horace Walpole; who has given a certain degree of currency to assumed corol laries and trifling remarks. If "a little learning is a dangerous thing," so is a little knowlege of the vast field of Art.

Experience amply shews that the state of public manners and morals has ever influenced and regulated that of the liberal Arts. In every age and country, in which the generality of pursuits are at best trifling, the study of the Arts will be proportionably insignificant. It was more the labours of the mind than of the hand, that gave to the culture and execution of them in Greece the high pre-eminence to which they had attained. The minds of Pericles and of Phidias were equally illumined; and their abilities differed only in relation to the mechanism of workmanship, by drawing the existing figure from its

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concealment, in the unsculptured block of Pentelic or of Parian marble." Modern institutions, however necessary to the splendour of variety, are too much connected with parade; and they have often proved not only insufficient, but inimical to the true culture of the Arts, in their progress to the higher excellencies. Their state in the Grecian Republics of Antiquity depended on the dispositions of the citizens, and the manners of the several commonwealths. As these were virtuous in promoting the enthusiastic love of country, or as the pure flame of liberty abated in their bosoms, so arose or fell the thermometer of excellence in the Sister Arts of Design.

Wherever the arts are considered merely as matters of capricious ostentation, where patronage is made a stalking horse, and little or nothing is done essentially to cultivate that which alone is truly valuable, what rational benefit can be expected by multiplying institutions? To give birth to works that constitute sound Art, the generality of artists, and the public at large, should be supplied with the means of obtaining better information than they possess, by the exhibition of the first examples of human skill. This object might be obtained by forming a public gallery on a magnificent scale of collection, and by adopting a liberal system of general admission. We would hope, though we fear that the hope is vain, that the rare example of the Marquis of Stafford will be followed by the majority of the numerous other possessors of private collections, though some objections to the mode of admission at Cleveland Row may be fairly made; for the churlish manner, in which the public are debarred access to most of these repositories, meets no parallel in the civilized world. To the discredit even of the Legislature, free ingress and egress have formerly been denied at a National Museum, of which the rarities have been chiefly purchased and are maintained at the National charge: but we learn with sincere satisfaction that here a more liberal regulation will henceforth be adopted.

It may be inferred from these preliminary observations, that we regard the subject of the present work as of considerable interest and importance; and we are disposed to offer our remarks on it at rather unusual length.-Mr. Hoare states in his preface;

It is not my design, in this short treatise, to present to the reader a complete investigation of the faculties of Painting and Sculpture, but to offer to his perusal such remarks as my particular situation has enabled me to form. The Honorary Office which I hold in the Royal Academy, and the task in which I have there engaged, have led me to many reflections on the various degrees of exertion

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made by different States, in proportion to their respective powers, for the advancement of the Plastic Arts; and thence, forsaking the ungrateful office of comparison, I have been induced to examine abstractedly, how far, in this particular point, a full and adequate use has been made of the means and talents of my own country, for the discharge of that most important of all trusts, the due cultivation of the strength and faculties of a nation.'

This object is pursued in three Parts, (subdivided into Chapters and Sections) treating, 1st, Of the Advantages arising from the Cultivation of the Arts, and on the Methods most conducive to their Advancement; 2dly, Of the Establishment, Design, and Progress of the Royal Academy of Arts, and of its Annual Exhibitions; and, 3dly, Of the Powers of English Genius, conducive to Excellence in the Arts.

Respecting the importance of the Arts in exalting the National Character, and their influence in the Grecian republics, Mr. H. cites the following remarks from Mr. Harris:

"The Grecian commonwealths," says the elegant author of Hermes," (while they maintained their liberty), were the most heroic confederacy that ever existed; they were the politest, the bravest, and the wisest of men: in the short space of little more than a century, they became such statesmen, warriors, orators, historians, physicians, poets, critics, painters, sculptors, architects, and philosophers, that one can hardly help considering that golden period as a providential event in honour of human nature, to shew to what perfection the species might ascend."

Now, (adds Mr. Hoare) if the fame of the Greek states be thus pre-eminent, and if it must necessarily occur to every reader of history, that, of all the various parts of character enumerated in the passage from Hermes above mentioned, the three which regard the plastic arts, are those alone wherein the Greeks have as yet found no equal competitor, it appears just to conclude, either that those arts possess ia themselves, exclusively, the privilege of conferring the laurel of fame, or that their influential effect on the nation that cultivates them is that of rousing it to such superiority of effort, as equally to deserve the palm in all the various points of character. Either of these conclusions must sufficiently demonstrate the importance of the arts to the fame of a nation,

The propriety of the preceding quotation, on this occasion, must be admitted; and it is evident that the excellence, thus strongly depicted, is materially to be attributed to a combination of propitious circumstances, at Athens under Pericles, and at Rome under the virtuous Antonines, and under the pontificate of the second Julius.-In France, where a noble foundation was laid by Francis I. great talents have existed; and these were regulated by the times.-It is but justice to say also of our countrymen, that England has felt no want of sufficient talents to cultivate the Arts with the best success, in all their highest depart

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