BIOGRAPHY.

Auto-Biography; a collection of the most instructive and amusing self-written Lives ever published, &c. 18mo.

The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright. 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 8s.

Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character of the late Thomas Hinderwell, Esq. By John Cole. 8vo. 5s.

The Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds (the Dramatist). Written by Himself. 2 vols. 8vo. 17. 8s.

Memoirs and Recollections of Count Segur. Vol. II. 8vo. French, 10s. 6d.

EDUCATION.

The Principles of Analytical Geometry. By H. P. Hamilton, M.A. 8vo. 14s.

A Word in favour of Female Schools, addressed to Parents, Guardians, and the Public at large. By a Lady. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

HISTORY.

Captain Maitland's Narrative of the Surrender of Napoleon, and of his Residence on board H. M. S. Bellerophon, with a detail of the principal events that occurred in that ship between the 24th of May and the 8th of August, 1815.

Ireland in Past Times; an Historical Retrospect, Ecclesiastical and Civil, with Illustrative Notes. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s.

JURISPRUDENCE.

Observations on the actual State of the English Laws of Real Property, with the Outlines of a Code. By James Humphreys. 8vo. 15s.

Considerations on the expediency of the Law of Entail in Scotland. By P. Irvine, Esq.

MEDICINE, SURGERY, &c. An Enquiry concerning that disturbed State of the Vital Functions usually denominated Constitutional Irritation. By B. Travers, F.R.S. 1 vol. 8vo. 14s.

Sketches of the most prevalent Diseases of India. By J. Annesley, Esq. 8vo. 18s.

MISCELLANEOUS.

An Elementary System of Physiology. By John Bostock. Vol. II. 8vo. 16s. The True History of the State Prisoner commonly called the Iron Mask, &c. By the Hon. G. A. Ellis. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Elements of Moral Philosophy and Christian Ethics. By Daniel Dewar, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s.

NOVELS, TALES, &c.

De Vavasour: a Tale of the 14th Century. 3 vols. post 8vo. 1. 11s. 6d.

The Boyne Water; a Tale. By the O'Hara Family, &c. 3 vols. 8vo. 11. 11s. 6d.

The Tre Giuli of Casti: translated from the Italian. 8vo. 7s. 6d.

Things Invisible and other Poems. By the Rev. G. Watts. 12mo. 5s. 6d.

De Clifford, a Romance of the Red Rose. A Poem. 8vo. 12s.

The Martyr, a Drama in three Acts. By Joanna Baillie. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

The Tour of the Dove. A Poem. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

Bruce's Invasion of Ireland. A Poem. 8vo.

Izram, a Mexican Tale, with other Poems. By the Author of Osric. 12mo. 6s. The Crazed Maid of Venice, and other Poems. By the Author of Giuseppino.' 5s.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Report of the Corn Trade and Agriculture in the North of Europe. By W. Jacob, Esq. 8vo. 9s.

THEOLOGY.

Natural Theology, by Paley, illustrated by a series of Plates and Explanatory Notes. By J. Paxton. 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 48.

Sermons, Expositions, and Addresses at the Holy Communion. By the late Rev. A. Waugh, A.M. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

A Defence of the Creed and Discipline of the Catholic Church, against the Rev. J. B. White's "Poor Man's Preservative against Popery," &c. By the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth. 2s. 6d.

A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Authorship of EIKON BAZIAIKH. By the Rev. H. J. Todd. 8vo. 7s.

DAVID, THE FRENCH PAINter.

"David was born at Paris in 1750, and at the commencement of his career gave an infallible pledge of talent. At that period, Boucher and his school still reigned in France. Success was certain to those who followed the beaten track. David quitted it; and protesting against the taste of his masters and of the public, dared to study Poussin. The sight of the pictures which were then the fashion produced on him the same effect that lettres de cachet and the abuses ¡of government produced on Mirabeau-it inflamed him with the wish for a revolution. Accord ingly, when Vien had given the signal of reform, and exhibited in his works a new style, David, eagerly following his steps, and it may be said appropriating his ideas, speedily found himself at the head of the reformers of art. He had the qualities of the chief of a school: an ardent and enthusiastic temper-an energetic will. Unfortunately, to this soul of an artist was added the spirit of a logician. To constitute an accomplished painter, the force and power of a Michael Angelo are above all things necessary; but, in order to guide that force and that power, there ought to be a mind open to all ideas, fond of Nature as she really is, observant, but devoid of system; in short, such a mind as that of Leonardo da Vinci. David, on the contrary, was endowed with one of those intellects which are more vigorous than extensive, which are capable of a lively conception of things, but on the condition of embracing only a limited number of them, and which, having once adopted any action, are absorbed by it, and pursue it to its last consequences, without taking the trouble to enquire whether or not it is consonant to truth. All that his mind was capable of conceiving, David had the gift of expressing on canvass with the superiority of genius. Hence the peculiar beauties which strike us in his pictures. But his mind was not capable of conceiving enough. And thus his finest works are incomplete, cold, inanimate. Such a mind, united with such a temper, must of necessity produce a fanatie in politics, a mannerist in the arts. Hence in the hall of the convention, as well as in his painting-room, the feelings of David were continually the dupes of his reason. What had struck him most forcibly in the painters whom he wished to dethrone was their incorrectness of drawing, and their systematic inattention to the human form. Pretending to be faithful to nature, they were guided only

by fashion. All their mouths smiled, and all their noses turned up. The disposition of David's character naturally drove him into the other extreme. From the moment that he began to attend to form, he thought of nothing else. With the soul within, with that internal power of which form is only the envelope and the manifestation, he did not trouble himself. 'The body of man is the whole man,' was his motto. Very soon Poussin did not satisfy him he must have something more decided, more absolute. The ancient statues attracted his notice. In them he discovered that purity of line and contour, that beauty, altogether external, to which he aspired; and thenceforward, without disturbing himself to inquire if the real object of the art was not escaping him, he endeavoured to make his pencil the rival of the Greek chisel. This is not to say that he abstained from the study of nature. Long and painful labour had disclosed to him all the secrets of anatomy; he constantly painted in the presence of living models; but these studies were not made by him for their intrinsic value. Nature never seemed to him to be an authority entitled to all his confidence; she was too various, too changeable. Even while affecting to imitate her, be subjected her to the control of those abstract types which he regarded as forming the law of beauty. A strict adherence to nature, he was apprehensive, might betray him into that arbitrary and capricious style of design with which his predecessors were justly reproachable. His mind could find no repose but in some predominating idea, in some system, or, as it is called in the present day, in the centre of feelings and doctrines. This explains the defective manner in which he saw nature: he studied her only as she contributed to, and never when she contradicted his system. Having entered on this new path, all his powers were concentrated in a single point. David arrived at his object with giant strides his first efforts were most masterly; all the innovations which he had been meditating he realized at once, and carried them to the highest perfection. The Horatii,' the Brutus,' the Belisarius,' are finished models of that simple and severe style, of that pure and dignified design, of which, until the period of their production, antiquity alone had exhibited any example. It is impossible to convey any notion of the enibusiasm with which these chefs-d'œuvre were received, At another period, perhaps,

:

the admiration which they excited would have been mixed with censure; but at the time at which they made their appearance the public mind was not in a condition to love or hate by halves: exclusive in politics, it was exclusive in every thing else. Delighted with David for the kind of beauty which he had elicited, it declared that it was the true beauty that it was the only beauty. Good taste seemed to have been recovered, and the golden age of painting to be about to be renewed: a sort of idolatry for ancient forms possessed every one;-it was one of the crises of the revolution. It may be imagined with what unanimous contempt the works of those unfortunate painters were treated which were before the objects of general admiration;-they were devoted to public indignation, with all the rest of the ancient regime; and yet, in those tasteless compositions, if there was no real merit, at least there was a good intention, which ought never to be despised-the intention of imitating life. No consideration, however, could rescue them from their fate. Even the Italian painters, who had been banished to the garret ever since the times of the Marchioness of Pompadour, did not gain much by this reaction. Some admirers they certainly found among the persons who had just been reading Lessing's 'Laocoon,' or who instinctively felt that the laws of painting and the laws of sculpture were not exactly the same; but in general their beautics were in little estiination they had not sufficiently studied the antique! Now that we are more tranquil, that we feel the imperfection of former systems, and begin to understand that a country may be a republic without the assumption of Roman names and habits, and that the beauty of the antique is not the only possible beauty, David's pictures have, in some degree, lost one of their merits-the merit of circumstances. Nevertheless, such is the power of the hand by which they were created, that it is impossible to contemplate them without that feeling of respect which is inspired by all works of genius. We cannot sympathise with beings whose features seem incapable of human emotion: we cannot but remark, in the way in which they are disposed, something too symmetrical, too analogous to the grouping of a bas-relief: but it is impossible (unless we are prejudiced by the opposite system) not to be struck with the harmony of all the parts, with the unity of conception which manifests itself in the smallest details, with the forms, ideal it is true, but having reference to a pure and perfect type. The pleasure with which a picture

"

by David is contemplated, is of that rational kind which accompanies the perusal of a classic tragedy. In either case the work ought to be regarded in the point of view in which the author intended it to be regarded. If you stop before the Horatii,' or before the Sabines,' just after having been looking at a head by Guido, or a Madonna by Correggio, all that portion of your soul which has been powerfully excited by the animated and passionate expression of the Italian painter, will find nothing to interest it : you will feel frozen in vain will reason call on you to admire the beauties which it has produced: you will exclaim,

These pictures have no expression!' and you will pass by with disdain. But turn your eyes from nature, such as she is; dream, as David did, of beings colder, more severe, less impassioned than human; imagine that this Horatii,' this 'Brutus,' this Leonidas,' were discovered amidst the ashes of Herculaneum,and then, having become less usurious in your demand, you will become more just; you will admire the beauties which the absence of other beauties prevented you from sooner observing. It is only in this way that we can fairly judge of men who have employed their genius in the service of a system. It is thus that Alfieri must be read-it is thus that we must listen to the music of Gluck. Alfieri, Gluck, and David-three great artists, three powerful minds-must nevertheless be admired for qualities somewhat foreign to the arts which they cultivated. Gluck often said,- When I compose, I endeavour to forget that I am a musician.' It was not music, but declamation which he wished to produce. Alfieri, although a dramatic writer, was jealous only of the title of a poet or thinker. David likewise seems sometimes to have exclaimed with Gluck,- Let me forget that I am a painter.' After all, however, we shall ill appreciate David's talent, if we believe that he was invariably the slave of his system. He excelled in certain kinds of expression. No one has represented better than he the reflecting courage, the strength of mind, which shows itself in the warrior seated on the left of Leonidas. And in the picture of the Sabines, what can be more graceful and more animated than the group of children? What can be more sweet and more tender than the daughters of Brutus? He has proved also that he was capable of quitting ideal nature witness his magnificent design of The Oath of the Tennis Court,' and, above all, the clerical group in the picture of The Coronation;' in which the pope, and all the ecclesiastics who surround

་

him, are absolutely alive. It is nature taken in the fact. What has become of this picture? Why not exhibit it in the Louvre? The Apotheosis of Napoleon,' painted by Appiani, is in the imperial palace at Milan, even in the hall of the throne. Shall we be less the friends of the arts than the Austrians are? After his banishment, David gave his talent a new direction, and turned his attention to colouring. On the two pictures which he sent to France, Cupid and Psyche, and Mars and Venus,' he may be said to have lavished all the riches of the Venetian palette. But, according to the custom of exclusive minds, he acquired one quality only by the loss of another. These two pictures do not every where possess the severe taste, and the pure and elegant drawing of the author of the Horatii' and 'Leonidas.' Although absent from Paris, David, during his life, preserved a sort of empire over our school of painting. Our artists, indeed, every day made attempts to pass the line which he had traced for them; but his naine was still venerated: in fact, he reigned still. Now that his throne is vacant, the possession of it is about to be disputed by two candidates, either of whom is worthy of sovereignty. The public and the art of painting will gain by the contest. Let each of them hasten to produce a chefd'œuvre it will be the finest tribute that they can pay to the memory of their master." This is extracted from the Globe, a French journal, which is held in high estimation by no mean portion of the French public.

MRS. CANNING.

Lately at her house in Rutland-square, Dublin, Jane, relict of Paul Canning, Esq. of Garvagh, co. Londonderry, and mother of the Right Hon. George Canning, Lord Garvagh. She was the second daughter of Conway Spencer, Esq. of Tremary, co. Down, and sister of General Sir Brent Spencer, G.C.B. and of Charlotte Marchioness of Donegal. Mrs. Canning was left a widow in November 1784. She had four children; one only lived to maturity, viz. George Lord Garvagh. Her husband, the late Paul Canning, of Garvagh, was the second son, but heir, of Stratford Canning, esq. of Garvagh, whose eldest son George died in his father's life-time, leaving issue the present distinguished minister, the Right Hon. George Canning.

SIR T. VAVASOUR.

Died at his seat at Haslewood Hall, Yorkshire, aged 80, Sir Thomas Vavasour, Bart. He was the second son of Sir Walter and his lady, Dorothy, eldest daughter of the Lord Langdale, of the Holme,

and succeeded his brother, Sir Walter, in the title and estates, in 1802. He was originally intended for business, and was apprenticed with one of the most respectable houses in Leeds, but family circumstances prevented it, and he lived, previous to the death of his brother, on the continent. The title, which was granted 24th October, 1628, is now extinct, and we believe the only male branch of this family is William Vavasour, Esq. of Wistow Hall, in Wharfedale, who is descended from a younger brother of Sir Mauger le Vavasor, living in the beginning of the 14th century. This very ancient Roman Catholic family have their name from their office, being formerly the King's Valvasors (a degree little inferior to a Baron). Sir Mauger le Vavasor, is mentioned in Domesday Book, in the 10th of William the Conqueror: he was the father of Sir William, Lord of Haslewood, and a judge in the reign of Henry II. They were great benefactors to York Minster; as it appears by a deed, that Robert le Vavasor granted to God, St. Peter, St. Mary, and the Church of York, for the health of his soul, and the soul of his wife Julia, and his ancestors, full and free use of his quarry at Tadcaster, in Thevedale, with liberty to take and carry thence a sufficient quantity of stone for the fabric of this church, as oft as they had need to repair, re-edify, or enlarge the same. memory of this extraordinary benefaction the Church thought fit to erect a statue on the West front, representing him with a piece of rough unhewn stone in his hands; there is also another statue on the East front with his shield hanging by him. Several of this family distinguished themselves in the civil wars: Thomas Vavasor was slain at Marston Moor, and after the battle, Sir Walter, his nephew, retired with the Marquis of Newcastle and a number of the nobility and gentry to Scarbro', whence they embarked for Hamburgh.

THE REV. C. J. CHAPMAN.

In

Lately at Norwich, aged 58, the Rev. Charles John Chapman, B.D. Upper Minister of St. Peter's Mancroft; to which situation (after having been Under-Minister for twelve years) he was unanimously elected by the parishioners in the year 1804, on the death of the Rev. John Peele. His kindness of heart, mildness of disposition, urbanity of manners, incorruptible integrity of conduct, and unbending honesty of principle, made him peculiarly an object of high respect and warm attachment to those who, by friendly intercourse with him, had the happiness of a more intimate knowledge of his worth. He was a very efficient member of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Weekly