and the English school of painting may now be said to stand as proudly pre-eminent among those of the other parts of Europe, as it was previously obscure and degraded. Let it not be forgotten that it is chiefly to Reynolds that we are indebted for so important a change; and when we look on the partial defects of his works, let us view them as spots in the sun, which are lost in the splendour of the light that his genius has thrown far around us.

presents, such as those which had been offered by foreign nations to Elizabeth and James, of which the richness of the materials constituted the only value, were no longer thought in character with the taste of the English court, and the choicest works of art were now substituted in lieu of them. The Cain

and Abel of John di Bologna, and Titian's Venus del Pardo, were presented by the King of Spain; and other states sent presents of a similar nature. Charles employed skilful painters to copy what he could not purchase, and obtained the Cartoons of Raphael through the interposition of Rubens, and the collection of the Duke of Mantua, consisting of eighty-two pictures, chiefly by Giulio Romano, Titian, and Correggio, through the medium of the Duke of Buckingham. He wrote a letter with his own hand, inviting Albano to England, and though it failed of success, yet the merit of the attempt is due to him, and the wish to improve English art by the introduction of foreign artists into the country. Accident, however, effected what kingly influence was unable to accomplish; and British talent must indeed have been inert, when the genius of Rubens could not rouse it. This great painter was despatched to the English monarch, ostensibly in his professional capacity, but charged, at the same time, with a private mission from the court of Spain; he was welcomed with honour, and induced to employ his vigorous and brilliant pencil in embellishing the Banqueting-Room at Whitehall with a representation of the apotheosis of King James;

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which was not however painted on the spot, but sent over in a finished state. Rubens staid, unfortunately, but one year in England; yet his works were not without their effect on the taste of the nation, though they failed in calling forth the powers of British artists. A second stimulus was given by the arrival of Vandyke, with more success, yet without any proportionate result; and of this we had nearly been deprived by a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances. The reported liberality of the English monarch and his court induced Vandyke to make a journey to England: he arrived in London, in the year 1632, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, but found his reception so little satisfactory that he returned, after a short stay, to the Continent. The king was soon made acquainted with the value of the prize which he had lost, and employed Sir Kenelm Digby, with success, to prevail upon him to renew his visit. Vandyke was appointed one of the royal painters, and soon gave sufficient evidence of his abilities to establish his fame and his fortune. He painted several splendid portraits of Charles, and the lovely Henrietta still lives in his works in all her native grace and dignity. The exertions of the artist were not without their reward; he was honoured with the distinction of knighthood, and a pension of two hundred a year was assigned him, in those days, an ample allowance.*

* Scotland, at this period, produced an artist of considerable merit, occasionally distinguished as the Scottish Vandyke. George

Of the immediate result of so powerful a stimulus over the arts and the artists of England, we have not at present the means of judging; other matter than that of art was in general agitation, and "a change came o'er the spirit" of the time, as fatal to royalty itself as to the progress which painting might have made. Another general wreck of art ensued; and what survived the unfeeling bigotry of the Puritans was made subservient to the gratification of their avarice, and disposed of, without reference to any thing but profit, to supply their pretended or their actual necessities. The royal galleries afforded ample scope for the indulgence of superstition and covetousness; and the "war in the north" made an excellent pretence for the ravages to which they were subjected. Art was proclaimed to be profane or superfluous, and it was accounted meritorious to despise whatever tended to increase external dignity. The new government proceeded to sell by public auction the hereditary furniture of the palaces, and to dispose of the contents of

Jameson was a native of Aberdeen, the son of an architect, and went abroad to study under Rubens, at the time that Vandyke was also his pupil. He returned to Scotland in 1628, and commenced his professional career at Edinburgh. He made some successful attempts in landscape and history, but attached himself eventually to portrait-painting, and acquired much fame in that department. Many of his works are still to be found in the houses of the Scottish nobility and gentry, and some in the college of his native place. When Charles went to Scotland, in 1633, he sat to Jameson for his portrait, and rewarded him with a diamond ring from his own finger.

the royal collections, of which a list was made out, with imaginary prices, and the object named to which the sums obtained from the sale were said to be exclusively devoted. The journals of the House of Commons of July 23. 1645, afford us the following proclamation :—" Ordered; that all such pictures and statues there (York House is the place alluded to), as are without any superstition, shall be forthwith sold. for the benefit of Ireland and the North. Ordered;

that all such pictures there, as have the representation of the Virgin Mary upon them shall be forthwith burnt. Ordered; that all such pictures there, as have the representation of the second person in the Trinity upon them shall be forthwith burnt.""A worthy contrast," says Walpole, " to Archbishop Laud, who made a Star-Chamber business of a man who broke some painted glass in the Cathedral at Salisbury." It does not appear, however, that the order for the dispersion and destruction of the royal collections was immediately put in force, or ever, indeed, fully obeyed. The sales lingered for six or eight years, and were retarded by the unsettled state of the republican government, and the intrigues of the politic Cromwell. Even the order for the destruction of paintings representing the Virgin and the Saviour were very imperfectly fulfilled. The Puritans were satisfied with having voted them superstitious; and, having piously eased their consciences, did not scruple to fill their coffers with the profits of such works as were allowed to escape the flames, and to pass silently into the pos