they put themselves under the protection of the Duchess of Savoy, then regent there, who, as soon as she had been informed of their story, placed the lady in a convent, as the most secure asylum from the designs of her persecutors, and appointed Stradella her first musician. Here they lived for some time in the enjoyment of prosperity and happiness, and, favoured with the patronage and protection of the duchess regent, they almost forgot the malice and cruelty of their persecutors. This fancied dream of security, was not however of long duration, for as Stradella was one evening walking on the ramparts of the city, he was attacked by the father of his mistress and the two ruffians, who each wounded him with their poniards in the breast, and immediately fled to the house of the French Ambassador for protection. This atrocious act having been perpetrated in the sight of many spectators, occasioned great indignation in the city, and having soon come to the knowledge of the regent, she gave instant orders for the gates of the city to be shut, and the most diligent search to be made for the assassins. They were soon discovered to have taken refuge at the house of the Marquis of Villars, who insisted on his privilege, and refused to deliver them up; he wrote, however, to the French Ambassador at Venice, to know further particulars respecting the persons who had attempted to murder a inan so much beloved and admired as Stradella. He was answered by the ambassador, that the men were unknown to him any further than that they had been very strongly recommended to him by the Venetian nobleman. In the mean while Stradella, who happily had received no dangerous wound, recovered, and the Marquis of Villars suffered the ruffians to es

cape.

Another disappointment served only still more to enrage the Venetian, who employed spies to watch every motion of these unhappy lovers, and to give him intelligence when a more certain and more fatal blow might be struck. A year after the attack on Stradella, the duchess regent gave her sanction to his union with Hortensia, and they were accordingly married at Turin. Soon after their nuptials had taken place they travelled as far as Genoa, intending, after a short stay there, to return to Turin. But the Venetian, having intelligence of their departure, again dispatched after them two assassins,

accompanied by Hortensia's father, who reached Genoa the morning after Stradella and his wife had arrived, and having traced this unfortunate couple to the house where they lodged, entered a chamber where they were sitting, and in an instant stabbed them both to the heart. The assassins, having accomplished their purpose, escaped to a vessel which they had provided, in which they immediately set sail, and were never after

wards heard of.

Norwich, Jan. 30, 1807.*

THE ARTS.

E. D.

BY way of introduction to what will occasionally appear under this title in the Cabinet, it may be proper to make a few brief remarks on the present state of the Arts in this country. If they are not in the most flourishing condition, it certainly is not owing to any want of genius in the professors, who have produced, and are producing, under very unfavourable circumstances, the inost brilliant specimens of skill in every department of painting. Considered as a body, the English artists may contest and bear away the palm from any of the rival nations of Europe.†

It cannot however be denied that the national patronage is too limited and meagre to give the requisite energy to the Fine Arts§. Our public institutions are

*Mr. Hayley has amplified the circumstances of this tale into a poem, which was lately published under the title of the Triumphs of Musick.

+"From the productions of living genius at this moment in Great Britain, might be produced examples of excellence in every department of art, that would adorn the noblest collections, and reflect honour on any age or nation."

SHEE'S Rhymes of Art.

<< Though the wreath of art has for some years bloomed upon the brows of Britain, it must be confessed, that neither the spirit of the times, nor the liberality of the state have much contributed to place it there. If she has excelled her neighbours in every department of painting; in history, portrait and landscape; if she has displayed a power, a vigour, a spirit, a richness. of effect in water coloured drawings, which rival the productions of the easel, and surpass the efforts of every other age and na

few, and the establishments on which they are formed, by no means adequate to the important objects they were designed to promote. The ROYAL ACADEMY, though sanctioned by the countenance of the KING, has long been considered as little better than an Exhibition Room. The BRITISH INSTITUTION, promising as it does to assist the reputation, and benefit the pockets of our artists, is yet but in its infancy. Although many persons of rank and property appear to be warmly interested in its success, it wants the invigorating interference of the government to render its advantages permanent, and to fix it on a scale consistent with the dignity of the Arts, and the glory of the British Empire.*

From the Academic Correspondence for 1803, most laudably and diligently collected by Prince Hoare, Esq. a gentleman to whom literature and the fine arts are so variously indebted, it appears that the artists in Russia enjoy the most honourable and liberal consideration from the Emperor Alexander. "The munifi

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cence of our sovereign" says the Secretary of the Imperial Academy at Petersburgh, in his letter to Mr. Hoare," is unquestionably the most solid and infallible support that can be found for the advancement of our artists. Influenced by this principle, His Majesty, the reigning Emperor, has deigned not only to increase the salaries of the professors and other persons employed in the Academy, but still further to extend his bounty, by lately appro

tion; to her genius, her unfostered, unaided, uninvigorated genius the praise is due. We have seen no great exertions of power to stimulate ambition, or to reward desert; there have been no fruits forced in the hot-beds of patronage; individuals have done every thing---the nation nothing."---ibid.

The

*“ Amongst the ancients or the moderns, in Greece, Italy or in France, under Louis the fourteenth, it was neither the agency of the commercial spirit, nor even the more congenial operation of private patronage that kindled those lights of genius which irradiate with such splendour the hemisphere of taste. spark was struck by a collision more exalted. The impulse was given from above---from all that was powerful in the state respecting all that was ingenious in the time; attending with solitude to the birth of ability, fostering and invigorating the first struggles of his weakness----stimulating and rewarding the utmost exertions of his strength---setting an example of homage to genius, which rescued him from the ever ready contumely of vulgar greatness, and taught him to respect himself.”---ibid.

priating, for the maintenance of this institution the annual sum of 146,000 roubles instead of 60,000, formerly assigned for that purpose, and by moreover adding the yearly sum of 10,000 roubles, for the payment of those artists whose works shall be judged worthy of adorning the public institutions." Several of the members of the academy have, also, been recently decorated with various orders of the empire.

The neglect of living artists, and their productions, presents another lamentable obstacle to the advancement of the arts. Cur native genius languishes and desponds under this almost exclusive preference of foreign performances; being often obliged to descend from the noble heights he is so desirous of occupying, to grovel in the humblest and most degrading paths of the art. Such is the rage for old pictures of the foreign schools that, to satisfy the cravings of amateurs and connoiseurs "amateurs sans amour, et connoiseurs sans connois"sance" (to use the happy definition of Count de Stronganoff, the President of the Russian Academy) even the English painter is sometimes employed in their fabrication; and thus suffers the double mortification of being compelled to assist the purposes of venality and fraud, and, by his own act, to degrade the art he honours, and add to the impediments which obstruct its progress in his native country. This shameful encouragement of Picture dealers is very feelingly deplored and deprecated by Mr. SHEE, in his Rhymes of Art, a production which we know not whether it does him more honour as a poet than an artist (in utrumque paratus) and which, as our readers will perceive, has supplied many of the observations that form the subject of this paper.

Such are some of the causes which operate to the prejudice of the arts in England; still, however, from the fine genius and elastic spirit of our painters, much has been effected; and there is even some reason to hope that the present administration, more favourable, we trust, to the interests of literature and the polite arts

* Mr. West, now restored to the chair of the Royal Academy, in his last discourse, delivered on the anniversary of the establishment of that institution, observed "That the encouragement "extended to the genius of a single living artist in the higher "classes of art, though it may produce but one original work, ""adds more to the celebrity of a people, than all the collections "of accumulated foreign productions."

than the last, will not be backward in "stretching forth a hand to sustain the drooping genius of their country; in protecting the pursuits of peace amidst the operations of war; and calling forth her arts to emulation, while conducting her arms to victory."

It will be one endeavour of the Cabinet to promote, in a degree however inconsiderable, this interesting and important national object. We shall embrace every opportunity of paying an honourable tribute to the merits of the English School of Painting and Sculpture, not omitting however to do justice to the capital works of the Foreign Masters, both ancient and modern, of which it is our intention to take an occasional survey. Neither shall the minor art of Engraving, so assiduously and successfully cultivated in Britain, pass unnoticed in our pages.

These slight observations will not unsuitably be closed, by a notice of some of the Publications relative to the Fine Arts, which are shortly expected to make their appearance.

The Rev. Edward Forster has announced a British Gallery of Engravings, (upon the plan of the Dusseldorf and other Galleries on the Continent) from Pictures of the Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch and English Schools, now in the possession of the King, and the principal Nobility and Gentry of the United Kingdom; with some account of each picture, and the life of the Artist. And also a short history of the arts of Painting and Engraving, including the rise and progress of those arts in Great Britain.

We understand that a similar work is expected from another quarter, to be superintended by Mr. Tresham.

Mr. Landseer is about to print his course of Lectures, as delivered before the Members of the Royal Institution; and

The works of Hogarth are publishing in numbers, illustrated with biographical anecdotes, a chronological catalogue and commentary. By John Nichols F. S. A. and the late Mr. George Steevens.

Flaxman's designs from Dante are also preparing for publication. This excellent Artist is employed on a great national monument of Lord Howe; a statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds, at the expence (for the honour of the country we regret to say) of his relations; and-a statue of Mr. Pitt, for the City of Glasgow. The two former will be erected in St. Paul's Cathedral.