mortification of stating that the designs which we have seen, and which have been prepared for the consideration of the Committee, are in our opinion totally unworthy of adoption: the best being essentially defective in all that relates to those high considerations, which can alone procure fame for the labours of the sculptor. In the event of any one of those models being adopted, or any other that is equally insipid, or equally bombastic, farewell to our fond expectation of a splendid and Attic display of meritorious and successful exertions! The more such a monument to Lord Nelson's memory may be concealed, the better, since its obscurity will prevent the future expence and trouble of its removal: a vexatious expence, and a degrading trouble, which, it is whispered, will be caused by the last two nameless national monuments that have been erected within St. Paul's Cathedral. If a third monument should submit to the same fate, it will be the more suitable to its demerits, and will afford relief to the now suffering eye! We return to Mr. Orme's Graphic history.' Plate 1. presents a commendable representation of a black chalk drawing, made from a marble bust of Lord Nelson; on which the elegant pen of the late Lord Orford might have equally bestowed the compliment applied by him to the Eagle of the same fair artist, "Non me Praxiteles fecit, at Anna Damer." The second plate is intended to represent young Nelson's attack and discomfiture of a Polar Bear; a remarkable instance of that fearlessness which ever marked his character. I he four following plates, which are scarcely more than large vignettes, are found in pages 19. 25*. 26. 31. and represent the four memorable sea-fights of this energetic ComWe will allow that these are neatly executed, but they produce a sensation rather pleasing than impressively striking, from a want of all that boldness and sublimity of effect which should seize the eye and harrow up the soul of the contemplator. We are next presented with a sketch of the memorable council held on board the Victory, previously to the action off Trafalgar. The sublimity of this subject, considered under all its varied and important relations, a subject so conspicuously epic,-demands from the powers of the painter a superiority of genius, and of highly cultivated talents: but for. these we here look in vain. Perhaps few painters adequate to it have been produced in England. The compositions The representation of the action off St Vincent's is strangely mingled with the details of the battle of Copenhagen. L. 310 Orme's Graphic History of Lord Nelson. required by historic art admit none of that mediocrity of conception, which is too often concealed under the specious garb of false colours. The decisive battle of Trafalgar was not less propitious to the glory, nor perhaps to the safety of Britain, than the fight at Salamis to the renown and the repose of Attica. When that action had proved fatal to the Persian invaders, whose superior fleets were vanquished by the intrepidity and valour of the Greeks, Minerva and the Muses, followed by Science and the Sister Arts, reascended the Acropolis; the statues of the deliverers of Greece arose in majestic solid brass; Pentelic marbles leaped into form under the influence of the creative chisel; and stately Athens eclipsed even her former glory. If we have imitated, nay surpassed, that memorable common-wealth in arms, why are found unnecessarily trifling with those arts in which it excelled; and which are so important to the dignity of civilization, and to those attributes which become a nation decidedly distinguished in all other branches of human culture? we We proceed to the next plate, representing Lord Nelson's funeral procession by water from Greenwich Hospital to WhiteHall, Jan. 8, 1806;' an imitation of a tinted drawing by Mr. Turner. It will not be essentially necessary for us to point out to the acute observer, that the mode in which this solemn subject is treated is very injudicious; that it portrays rather the tawdry festivity of a Lord Mayor's show, or the hoity-toity indecorous assemblage of laughing spectators at the contention for Doggett's coat and badge; and that, in fact, in point of conception, it wants every merit which the history was capable of conveying, to suitably impress the mind of the sympathizing spectator. Plate 8th. Funeral Procession of Lord Viscount Nelson.' Fitness and variety constitute the primary associations of every well defined composition, through each work of creative art : but these words are usually misunderstood, or are disregarded in painting, (we allude to colours;) the vulgar idea goes no farther than the appearance of a gaudy jumble of crudities, met in yellows, reds, blues, &c. neglecting the harmonious effect observable in the prism, the use of which experimental proof it is the skilful painter's province to exhibit, in every manner that may be most suitable to the subject on his canvas.-In this representation, the funeral car makes the central and most It is singular that these two celebrated battles should have occurred in the same month, and on the same day but one of that month, at the distance of 2285 years! conspicuous conspicuous object. While we cannot praise the whole of its form, which is indeed a despicable production, we must give due merit to the fitness of the ornaments introduced in the decorative parts of the canopy, which are skilfully conceived, and well adapted to the occasion. They are taken from the tops of Cenotaphs that enshrined the bodies of the dead at Pagan Rome; of which examples many fragmented parts still remain; and these ornaments were specifically applied to those particular purposes, never mistakenly introduced for ornaments called grotesque, or the fantastic. The propriety of their usage among the antients is decidedly illustrated by the fitness of the emblems, and the happy variety in their forms. Their angular, and sometimes elliptic external contours denote the instability of our lives, with the incidental changes in all mundane affairs; and these cenotaphics on the fascias are generally sunken into a panel, containing a flower, most commonly the honey-suckle, as emblematical of transitory vanity. When, however, we view such ornaments placed indiscriminately on the façades of a Bank, or in any other inapplicable situation, they no longer please; while they evince the distortion of all judgment in the composer, who, lost to every sense of fitness, looks for variety only in the delirium of distempered dream. "Non qui Sidonio contendere callidus ostro HOR. The last plate delineates the Ceremony of Interment.' This representation of the splendid and mournful finale, considered as a performance of art, has little merit: but it possesses interest, as commemorating the last honours bestowed by a grateful country on the remains of one of her most illustrious heroes. For the advancement of the arts above the usual productions,. in which only mediocrity seems to have been attained, we must look to the establishment of a National Museum, on a liberal and extensive scale: into which it is essential that not only students and professors, but the public at large, should enter without lett, hindrance, or molestation," and without any expence ; not for the student to make servile copies, which pernicious practice is an abuse of time, and produces those insufficient professors called mannerists, but to contemplate the best exemplars; to compare and to trace the mind and principles of those who raised the standard of excellence; and to embody the whole of the important instruction thus gained in an ori X 4 ginal ginal performance. Through the want of this essential aid and stimulus, the public loses the opportunity of forming correct judgments, the artist wanders in darkness, though little is expected yet less is produced, dulness and mediocrity supersede the higher attainments, the shadow is embraced for the substance, and all is deemed right that gives currency to commercial advantages. We say nothing of the outline plates at the end of this volume, which are merely keys to paintings and engravings that we have not seen; and of the biographical part, it may suffice to observe that it is a neat and concise compilation, sufficient for the purpose of illustration which it was here designed to fulfil. Art. XIII. An Enquiry into the Principles of Civil and Military Sub ordination. By John Macdiarmid, Esq. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Boards. C. and R. Baldwin. 1806. IT Pa..e. is the purport of this work to submit our administrative systems to the test of original principles; and to compare them with those laws by which the human mind is governed, and human actions are determined. If this be here done less profoundly than it might have been effected in the present advanced state of our knowlege in this department, we doubt much whether the work suffers materially from this circumstance on the score of practical utility. The inquiry is pursued in four parts; the first treating of natural subordination, or that subordination which prevails among mankind in their more rude state, previously to the introduction of positive institutions in the second are considered the effects of this species of subordination : in the third, a view is taken of the subordination which is created by positive institutions; and in the fourth, a detached branch of this artificial subordination, namely the military, is investigated. As this latter division refers to a subject which derives peculiar interest from the circumstances of the moment, we shall borrow from it a few extracts, which we shall submit to our readers as specimens of the author's sentiments and manner. One great defect in our military system, it is here contended, respects the appointment of officers of our army: This election (Mr. M. observes) is nominally vested in the King, but virtually in the Commander in Chief, who must be supposed to be well conversant with military affairs. But unfortunately other circumstances render this provision of no avail. Although the Commander in Chief may be very well qualified to appreciate the Qualifications of candidates for commissions, yet he cannot possibly turn turn his discriminating talents to any good account, if he can command no leisure to examine into the qualifications of the candidates. The British Commander in Chief, however, is necessarily immersed in a mass of business which has no connection with the election of officers but had he no other duty but this to perform, the talents and activity of no one man upon earth are capable of executing it to that perfection which the good of the public service requires. No one individual could possibly undertake to examine into the qualifications of the number of officers, which the present state of the British force requires to be continually appointed. But the Commander in Chief is subjected to none of these uneasinesses. Neither law nor usage calls upon him to examine into the qualifications of those on whom he bestows commissions; and consequently no such examination ever takes place. Although the laws direct no enquiry to be made into the qualifications of the candidates, were it the practice to cast lots among them, the public might sometimes have an equal chance of having properly qualified officers appointed. But by means of the tests usually employed to guide the choice of the electors, even this chance is removed; and while there are many public offices which men murmur to see filled by ill qualified persons, no one expects a military officer, on first receiving his commission, to be competent to the duties of his station. The Commander in Chief, as any other man would do in his situation, gives away the commissions to those, or the friends of those who have formed some claim on his favour. At other times he allows the commissions to be sold to such as are desirous and able to purchase them. That the possession of money or interest affords no probability that the owner also possesses either one description of skill and dexerity or another, we have already seen but from the consequences of this mode of election there are many chances against the military officers thus chosen being properly qualified. Those who have neither interest nor money, and who have to make their way in the world by their own exertions, qualify themselves for other professions in which their talents may give them some chance of succeeding while those who have interest or money save themselves the labour of acquiring qualifications, which they know to be altogether unnecessary to their success. A selection of properly qualified persons cannot therefore be made from among the candidates who present themselves.' Among other marvellous statements made respecting the extraordinary person who at this time controuls the destinies of Europe, we have heard it said that not a subaltern is employed in his immense armed force, with whose abilities and character he is not accurately acquainted.-On the qualifica tions of privates, the author thus remarks: The peculiar skill and dexterity requisite in the privates of an army is in some respects different from that of the superior officers, and perhaps of less difficult acquisition. Some prejudices, however, of a very pernicious tendency, have caused the degree of skill and dexterity |