actual baron, the bearer of an ancient name, the descendant of gallant gentlemen. Good heavens! what would Mrs. Trollope say to see his lordship here? His father the old baron had dissipated the family fortune, and here was this young nobleman, at about five-and-forty, compelled to bestride a clattering Flemish stallion, and bump over dusty pavements at the rate of five miles an hour. But see the beauty of high blood, with what a calm grace the man of family accommodates himself to fortune. Far from being cast down, his lordship met his fate like a man, he swore, and laughed, the whole of the journey, and, as we changed horses, condescended to partake of half a pint of Louvain beer, to which the farmer treated him- indeed the worthy rustic treated me to a glass too. Much delight and instruction have I had in the course of the journey from my guide, philosopher, and friend, the author of Murray's Handbook. He has gathered together, indeed, a store of information, and must, to make his single volume, have gutted many hundreds of guide-books. How the Continental ciceroni must hate him, whoever he is! Every English party I saw had this infalli ble red book in their hands, and gained a vast deal of historical and general information from it. Thus I heard, in confidence, many remarkable anecdotes of Charles V., the Duke of Alva, Count Egmont, all of which I had before perceived, with much satisfaction, not only in the Hand-book, but even in other works. The stateliest monument of human pride, heart Than these plain tablets by the soldier's band Raised to his comrades in a foreign land." There are lines for you! wonderful for justice, rich in thought and novel ideas. The passage concerning their gallant comrades' rank should be specially remarked. There indeed they lie, sure enough: the Honourable Colonel This of the The laureate is among the English poets evidently the great favourite of our guide: the choice does honour to his head and heart. A man must have a very strong bent for poetry, indeed, who carries Southey's works in his portmanteau, and quotes them proper time and occasion. course at Waterloo a spirit like our guide's cannot fail to be deeply moved, and to turn to his favourite poet for sympathy. Hark how the laureated bard sings about the tombstones at Waterloo : in Of "That temple to our hearts was hallow'd now, For many a wounded Briton there was laid, Guards, Captain That of the Hussars, Major So-and-so of the Dragoons, brave men and good, who did their duty by their country on that day, and died in the performance of it. looking at these tablets, I felt very Amen: but I confess fairly, that in much disappointed at not seeing the names of the men as well as the officers. Are they to be counted for nought? A few more inches of marble to each monument would have given space for all the names of the men; and the men of that day were the winners of the battle. We have a right to be as grateful individually to any given private as to any given officer, their duties were very much the same. Why should the country reserve its gratitude for the genteel occupiers of the army-list, and forget the gallant fellows whose humble names were written in the regimental books? In reading of the Wellington wars, and the conduct of the men engaged in them, I don't know whether to respect them or to wonder at them most. They have death, wounds, and poverty, in contemplation; in possession, poverty, hard labour, hard fare, and small thanks. If they do wrong, they are handed over to the inevitable provost-marshal; if they are heroes, heroes they may be, but they remain privates still, handling the old brown Bess, starving on the old twopence a-day. They grow grey in battle and victory, and, after thirty years of bloody service, a young gentleman of fifteen, fresh from a preparatory school, who can scarcely read, and came but yesterday with a pinafore on to papa's desert-such a young gentleman, I say, arrives in a spick and span red coat, and calmly takes the command over our veteran, who obeys him as if God and nature had ordained that so throughout time it should be. That privates should obey, and that they should be smartly punished if they disobey, this one can understand very well. But to say obey for ever and ever-to say that Private John Styles is, by some physical disproportion, hopelessly inferior to Cornet Snooks-to say that Snooks shall have honours, epaulets, and a marble tablet if he dies, and that Styles shall fight his fight, and have his twopence a-day, and when shot down shall be shovelled into a hole with other Styleses, and so forgotten; and to think that we had in the course of the last war some 400,000 of these Styleses, and some 10,000, say, of the Snooks sort Styles being by nature exactly as honest, clever, and brave as Snooks -and to think that the 400,000 should bear this, is the wonder! Suppose Snooks makes a speech. Look at these Frenchmen, British soldiers, says he, and remember who they are. Two-and-twenty years since they hurled their king from his throne and murdered him (groans). They flung out of their country their ancient and famous nobility-they publ'shed the audacious doctrine of equality-they made a cadet of artillery, a beggarly lawyer's son, into an emperor, and took ignoramuses from the ranks-drummers and privates, by Jove!-of whom they made kings, generals, and marshals! Is this to be borne? (cries of No! no!) Upon them, my boys! down with these godless revolutionists, and rally round the British lion! So saying, Ensign Snooks (whose flag, which he can't carry, is held by a huge grizzly colour-sergeant,) draws a little sword, and pipes out a feeble huzza. The men of his company, roaring curses at the Frenchmen, prepare to receive and repel a thun dering charge of French cuirassiers. The men fight, and Snooks is knighted because the men fought so well. But live or die, win or lose, what do they get? English glory is too genteel to meddle with those humble fellows. She does not condescend to ask the names of the poor devils whom she kills in her service. Why was not every private man's name written upon the stones in Waterloo Church as well as every officer's? Five hundred pounds to the stonecutters would have served to carve the whole catalogue, and paid the poor compliment of recognition to men who died in doing their duty. If the officers deserved a stone, the men did. But come, let us away and drop a tear over the Marquis of Anglesea's leg! As for Waterloo, has it not been talked of enough after dinner? Here are some oats that were plucked before Hougoumont, where grow not only oats, but flourishing crops of grape-shot, bayonets, and legion-ofhonour crosses, in amazing profusion. Well, though I made a vow not to talk about Waterloo either here or after dinner, there is one little secret admission that one must make after seeing it. Let an Englishman go and see that field, and he never for gets it. The sight is an event in his life; and, though it has been seen by millions of peaceable gents.—grocers from Bond Street, meek attorneys from Chancery Lane, and timid tailors from Piccadilly-I will wager that there is not one of them but feels a glow as he looks at the place, and remembers that he, too, is an Englishman. It is a wrong, egotistical, savage, unchristian feeling, and that's the truth of it. A man of peace has no right to be dazzled by that redcoated glory, and to intoxicate his vanity with those remembrances of carnage and triumph. The same sentence which tells us that on earth there ought to be peace and good will amongst men, tells us to whom GLORY belongs. ON DECORATIVE PAINTING FOR THE EMBELLISHMENT OF OUR Ir is a somewhat remarkable circumstance that, while the world has been making extraordinary advances in all those arts that minister more immediately to our physical wants, and are more especially devoted to purposes of utility, we should rather have retrograded than otherwise in all those that address themselves to our intellectual perceptions-to the more elevated, more refined part of our nature. The inquiry how this should have come about is pregnant with interest, and, if pursued in a proper spirit, would lead to some instructive results. It would be an error, however, we think, to judge of a nation's social condition or progress in civilisation by its attainments in the fine artsto imagine that the height of the latter marked the elevation of the former. All experience goes to shew that this has not been the case hitherto, and that there have been many instances of nations excelling in the fine arts, whose social institutions, customs, and habits were marked by extreme barbarism. At first sight this would appear to be an inversion of the natural order of things, but a little inquiry will shew ns that it is not so. It will shew us that the fanciful has always taken precedence of the useful; that, amongst all rude nations, manifestations of the imaginative faculties and indications of an appreciation of the graceful and beautiful are found coexisting with a very low intelligence the trained artisan an effort to surpass. But we need be at no loss to discover the reason of this. Works of fancy and taste are emanations of man's spiritual nature, of intuitive perceptions; requiring practice, indeed, for their perfection, but none for their suggestion. Works of convenience and utility, again, are the results of patient investigation, tedious experience, and abstruse calculation. If, however, we were to conclude that, because nations do not seem to advance in the fine arts as they advance in civilisation, there must, therefore, be something in the latter inimical to the former, we should commit another error, because knowledge, which is an essential element of success in these arts, is also one of the most essential elements of civilisation, and it should, therefore, follow, that the higher a nation rises in civilisation: the higher it should also rise in elegant attainments; for the civilised state being more favourable in all respects to the developement of genius than the uncivilised, it should give not only greater excellence in art, but should produce a more general and more just appreciation of its creations. Yet we do not find it so, particularly in this country. While we excel in the merely mechanical arts, we have but little to boast of, on the whole, as regards those whose amiable purpose is to embellish the scene of existence, to surround us with pleasing objects of contemplation, and thus add to our enjoyments, through the medium of the purest and most spiritual of as regards the convenient and useful. The untutored savage presents us with specimens of skill and dexterity in decorative art, in little works of taste and fancy, which it would cost our senses. There can, however, be little doubt that our deficiencies in the more ele 1. The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to Interior Decorations, &c. To which is now added, An Attempt to Define Esthetical Taste. By D. R. Hay, House-Painter and Decorator to the Queen, Edinburgh. Fraser and Co. London, W. S. Orr and Co. 2. The Natural Principles and AnaFifth edition. Edinburgh, logy of the Harmony of Form. By D. R. Hay, Decorative-Painter to the Queen, Edinburgh. 4to. Edinburgh, William Blackwood aud Sons. 3. Proportion, or the Geometric Principle of Beauty Analysed. By D. R. Hay, Decorative-Painter to the Queen, Edinburgh. 4to. Edinburgh, William Blackwood and Sons. 4. Original, Geometrical, Diaper Designs, for the use of Decorative-Painters, Carpet, Damask, and Shawl-Weavers, Calico-Printers, Stained-Glass Manufacturers, &c. Accompanied by an Essay on Ornamental Design. By D. R. Hay, Decorative-Painter to the Queen, Edinburgh. Parts I. to IV. London, D. Bogue. VOL. XXXI. NO. CLXXXI. H gant arts-we would here speak of them more especially as regards their application to domestic purposes— are owing, we should say almost wholly, to the want of a sufficiently general appreciation. A wider diffusion of taste in artistic decoration would necessarily lead at once to increased demand and improved effort. Under such impression, we do most cordially concur in the forcible observation of the author whose works are under notice, that to teach the generality of mankind to appreciate art is more necessary than even the instruction of artists. This is well and truly said, since, without such general appreciation, there can be no general excellence, whatever may be the eminence attained by individual skill. The next legitimate point of inquiry is, how it happens that we should be so far behind in all that relates to decorative art as applied to domestic purposes, both as regards the excellence of the thing itself, and its general employment. We are disposed to believe it proceeds almost wholly from the great, the pervading defect-deformity would, perhaps, be the more correct word-in our na tional character, the all-engrossing, money-getting propensity, which deadens us to all that is elegant and refined, which leaves us no time for the enjoyment of intellectual gratifications, which debases and vulgarises the mind, and renders it incapable of appreciating the merely beautifulwhich, in its blind and sordid bigotry, reckons all pursuits, all studies, all enjoyments worthless, save one-the acquisition of wealth, that moral upas-tree, beneath whose noxious exhalations no generous sentiment can live. We have said, and, as we believe, truly, that the height of a nation's civilisation cannot be safely estimated by its attainments in the fine arts. There is a much surer and better criterion to judge by-its domestic condition. In proportion to the taste and elegance which we find pervading the homes of the people, will be the amount of their intellectual refinement. As they advance in the former, so will they in the latter,— which is, indeed, neither more nor less than a manifestation of intellectual ascendancy. Taking this view of the matter, it is any thing but flattering to our national vanity to reflect on our grievous deficiencies in the respects alluded to. In the absence, in the general case, of all indications of taste in the internal decorations of our dwellings, or, which is, perhaps, yet more to be lamented, in the presence of the evidences of a bad one, our understandings have been hitherto wrapped in a kind of Cimmerian darkness, as regards the em ployment of decorative painting for domestic purposes, for the embellishment of our dwellings. A ray of light, however, and a brilliant one, has been let into this dark profound by Mr. Hay, who not only points to a better state of things, but leads the way. Urged by the irrepressible energies of an active, vigorous, and original mind, Mr. Hay has stepped from the ranks of a profession, hitherto of the humblest pretension a profession whose practice was thought to require little judgment, and still less taste, and has rendered himself remarkable by the ability with which he exposes this fallacy. Mr. Hay has, in truth, clevated house painting to the dignity of an art; an achievement which he has accomplished simply by recognising prin ciples, the power of which in producing the most beautiful, in both form and colour, his own practice has long illustrated. In his Laws of Harmonious Colouring, Mr. Hay blends the scientific with the prac tical, which, in popular language, means two things: first, that he be gins at the beginning of his subjects; and, second, that he gives reasons for all he advances. The work which we have just named has been too long before the public to render it necessary to give a detailed account of its objects and purposes here. We need but briefly state, that these are principally to introduce a better taste in hous painting or interior decoration than has hitherto prevailed; and to shew that this can be effected only by a vigilant attention to the ha monious relations of colours to each other throughout all their ramifica tions of hues, tints, and shades; taking care that no harsh contrasts nor incongruous associations offend the eye, but that the whole present that bland consistency which is so agreeable to contemplate, and which fills the mind with such pleasurable sensations. Such effect cannot, however, be produced without a rigid adherence to principles, without a knowledge of, and compliance with, the laws that regulate the harmonious disposition of colours. It cannot be produced by chance, neither can it be produced in all circumstances, nor at any time in greatest perfection, even by experience. Uniform and certain results can be derived from the operation of principle alone. This Mr. Hay well understands, and it is the doctrine, par excellence, which he most anxiously inculcates, and which, in all his works, he most urgently presses on the attention of the reader. He knows that amongst a thousand diverging paths there is but one that leads to the most beautiful, and that, therefore, it is next to an impossibility that this path should be taken by any but those who know the marks and signs by which it is indicated. As well might the mariner seek his way across the trackless ocean, without the aid of the compass, as the artist seek to attain the most perfect results in his art without a knowledge of, and adherence to, the principles on which it is founded. For what the compass is to the one, is such knowledge to the other. colours, Mr. Hay deduces all the others. The primary, giving by combination secondaries, and these again by a similar process producing tertiary colours, and so on ad infinitum. The three primaries thus form a centre, as it were, from which all other colours emanate, and to which they may, consequently, be retraced. Mr. Hay's first object, then, is to shew that all colours have a certain harmonious relation to each other, and that a knowledge of, and careful attention to, this relationship in their arrangement, will secure a consistency which, without such knowledge and attention, will almost always be violated to a greater or lesser extent, and a harsh and disagreeable effect be produced. He further shews the house painter, who would take something more than a mere mercenary interest in his profession-and no excellence ever was or ever can be attained in any pursuit where this is not the case-1 -that there is yet more to be attended to. He must, in the first place, thoroughly understand the nature of his materials, and must recollect that his work, unlike that of the picture-painter, can be seen in one light only, and cannot be shifted about till the most suitable is found. To meet this disadvantage, the colours, says Mr. Hay, must be toned in themselves, and thus rendered as far as possible independent of position. Again, he recommends that a perfect accordance should be maintained between the prevailing colour of the furniture of an apartment and that on the walls, a guide to which accordance will be found in his dissertation on the properties and relations Agreeably to the rigidly deductive manner of reasoning which Mr. Hay adopts in all his writings, he precedes the mechanical or practical portion of his treatise on colouring by an inquiry into the nature of colours themselves; and, with the aid of coloured diagrams of singular beauty and precision, exhibits the natural seale by which the lightest colours gradually sink into the darkest; and, vice versa, the darkest into the lightest; shewing, also, that the extremes are reached through a regular and harmonious series of gradations, and may be brought together without harshness or crudeness. Mr. Hay adopts the theory which allows but three primary colours, red, yellow, and blue, assigning as his reason for doing so (and a sound and forcible one it is), that he could not permit himself to believe that nature would require seven colours to accomplish what art could do with three. From these three fundamental of colours. ment. The propriety of this recommendation is too obvious to require comMr. Hay further recommends that in colouring an apartment a particular tone or key should be previously fixed on, the propriety of observing which condition is equally manifest as the first. It secures unity, consistency, and prevents the intrusion of discordant colouring by instantly detecting its presence. Hay, now addressing himself wholly to the practical part of his subject, next enjoins an attention on the part of the house-painter to the purposes and character of the various apartments, and points out, in general Mr. |