an ample drapery is thrown. Visconti also asserts that the Neptune is the river god Ilissus, likewise recumbent, but in the act of raising himself in a transport of joy, caused by the victory of Minerva. The manner in which the effect of a spontaneous motion is given to this figure is a triumphant example of the power of art. The fragments of these two deities, together with the horse's head, are the most valuable specimens of statuary, properly so called, brought from the Parthenon.

The British Museum is also indebted to Lord Elgin for fifteen of the metopes which, alternately with the triglyphs, adorned the entablature, by which the whole colonnade was surmounted.Phidias had represented on them the battle of the Lapithæ and the Centaurs, a subject which was considered as national, since Theseus, at the head of a body of Athenians, had decided the victory in favour of the Lapithæ. These fragments are remarkable for correctness of design, though their execution is unequal. Phidias was probably assisted by one of his pupils in these, as well as in the magnificent and almost marvellous basso-relievo of the frize of the Cella, in which the ceremony of the great Panathenœa is represented with such powerful poetic effect. It is impossible to avoid a momentary illusion on beholding the procession of this festival, instituted in honour of the tutelary goddess of Athens. The spectator experiences that kind of emotion which the imposing spectacle of consecrated rights naturally produces; and if, notwithstanding the difference of

faith, he cannot entirely escape the magic influence of art, within the walls of a museum, can we wonder at the excitement experienced by a Chateaubriand and a Byron when contemplating the divine relics beneath the pure sky of the land which gave them birth?

The Phigalian marbles represented the same subjects as those of the Parthenon, and though inferior to them, they form, notwithstanding, an interesting appendage to the Elgin collection. It would require the space of a large volume to examine all these antiquities, and to compare the different specimens of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum: and besides, such an undertaking would carry me in some measure out of England. I prefer taking a rapid survey of the public buildings of London, to look for specimens of English sculpture, and to see in what manner it has contributed to adorn the British metropolis. I must not, however, quit the Museum without remarking, that the building itself offers a tribute to French art, being the work of Puget, of Marseilles, who was sent for by Lord Montague to superintend its construction.

Statues in the open air are not very common in London. Usurpation has respected all those erected to the memory of the Stuarts, which, if I were king of England, of the House of Hanover, would make me tremble, by reminding me that, (as Junius expresses it) since a Revolution gave my family the throne, a Revolution may also deprive me of it. The English sculptors, it is

true, have, like the French, generally disguised historical personages by what I should call anachronisms in costume. Thus we see the Charleses and the Jameses clothed in the Roman toga, and the royal perriwigs are disregarded; an omission very creditable to the taste of the artists. In our busts and statues of Louis XIV. the wig usually encircles the brow of the grand monarque.

There is, however, nothing offensive in the figure of Charles Fox, represented in a consular robe, in Bloomsbury-square; for there was a certain degree of Roman eloquence in the Parliamentary speeches of that leader of the opposition. He is represented seated, with his right arm extended and supporting Magna Charta. His name forms the only inscription on the pedestal. The countenance is said to present a striking resemblance to that of the distinguished statesman. The attitude is dignified and the statue, upon the whole, reflects great credit on the talent of Westmacott. In Russel-square, in a situation facing the monument of Fox, there is another statue, which also calls to mind one of those illustrious statesmen of ancient Rome, whose time was divided between the labours of the senate and the care of their Sabine farms. This statue represents

with one hand resting

the late Duke of Bedford, on a plough, and in the other holding some ears of corn. There are four emblematic figures of the Seasons at the pedestal of the monument, which is adorned with various rural attributes, in bas-relief.

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I shall take another opportunity of speaking of Westmacott and his rivals in sculpture.

LETTER XI.

TO M. C. NODIER.

MY DEAR CHARLES,

THOUGH rich in architecture, England has been obliged to acknowledge the still greater riches and comparative superiority of France in edifices of every style; but she has addressed to us a reproach which we may repeat without blushing, since your magnificent work has developed to us the poetry of our religious and historical monuments.

The English have said that they renounce the honour which has sometimes been claimed for them, of having been the inventors of the gothic architecture; but, it is affirmed that the English alone seek to preserve the monuments of Normandy, which have been doomed to destruction by the shameful and ignorant apathy of the French. It is observed that the English topographers, who, indeed, are for the most part a wretched class of writers, could never have risen up except among a people fondly attached to their native soil, and to every thing connected with their history. In France, on the contrary, all that revives the recollections of old times is regarded with indifference,

or even with hatred. In the opinion of the English, no work having for its object the celebration of the national edifices of France, would meet with success; and it is asserted that the task of describing the antiquities of France has devolved on the English. "We have not,” they say, "either conceived or executed those noble pledges of the piety and magnificence of past ages; but while the inhabitants of the soil to which they belong, remain insensible to their beauty, we make them English property, as we have already done by the Alhambra and the Parthenon, the temples of Elora, and the sepulchres of Thebes, the mosques of Delhi, and the ruins of Palmyra."

Such is the disgrace to which France may be exposed by the negligence of the ministers of his most Christian Majesty! Such are the consequences of consigning to government the task of erecting and preserving public monuments! The statues of Richard Coeur de Lion, and other kings of the race of the Plantagenets, remained buried in France near a well, and daily exposed to mutilation. Can it be true that an English artist, Mr. Stothard, was the first to call the attention of the minister of the interior to these outrages, and to solicit permission, in the name of his countrymen, to transport to the royal tombs of Westminster Abbey, the sacred monuments which were thus shamefully neglected? Is the French territory no longer worthy to contain the glorious depository of the ashes of the brave? Did it remain for Mr. Stothard to discover and restore to the tomb the head and the statue of