Mentz, whence in 1442, issued two works, printed with the stolen characters. This testimony of Junius is not without support from other writers, apparently independent witnesses. hitherto employed sulphurs. Vasari and soot; but, whoever knows the pracsays he filled in his strokes with oil tice of engravers, knows that the oilstone on which they whet their tools, We come now to the discovery of- furnishes a ready material for this purnot the Art of Engraving, for the an- pose; and this, most probably, was the cients were doubtless in possession of first kind of ink, that was drawn out by that art, of which they have left us Finiguerra on paper, pressed in with many specimens, but, the art of print- his fingers, or strongly rubbed with his ing from plates already engraved, in burnisher. Encouraged, probably, by such a manner as to afford portable im- some accidental success, the master pressions. This discovery is without pursued the experiment, and at length question to be ascribed to Maso (or succeeded in taking off prints, and Tommaso) Finiguerra, a Goldsmith, or thereby multiplying representations of rather an ornamental engraver for the his performances, in a more compact embellishment of Goldsmiths' wares. form than that of sulphurs: a form He lived in the fifteenth century (1400 equally gratifying to friends, to students, to 1460) at which time it was customary to patrons, and perhaps more than to add to the value of chalices, reliquar-equally profitable to the artist. The ies, Paxes [small boxes for containing first prints, were, no doubt, as we have the Host] sword-hilts; also clasps, and said, rubbed on the back with the burother female ornaments, by engraving nisher: the following were taken off by on them subjects analogous to their a roller; of which the rolling press, is several applications. To render this now the perfection. It had been expattern more distinct, after it was ex- ceedingly regretted, that none of these ecuted with the graver, the excavated originals of Finiguerra were distinguishstrokes were filled with a compositionable, if they had been preserved; but called niello, which, by its blackness, contrasted the brightness of the silver. But this niello was fixed into the strokes by means of fire, being melted, and run in, so that, like a solder, when it had filled up those strokes, it could not be removed; and consequently no further corrections or improvements could be added to the performance. In order, therefore, to study the progress of his work, the artist filled in his strokes with some more compliant matter, and then took off impressions in sulphur, which drew out this matter, and retained it on its surface. This countermark was, of necessity, reverse from the original, and this reversion enabled the artist to detect defects, errors in drawing, &c. with the greater readiness. Several of these study-sulphurs are still preserved among the cabinets of the curious in Italy, especially in Genoa, where they have been for ages carefully framed and ornamented. It should seem, that Finiguerra was at the top of his profession as an engraver; and that he was the first who thought of making paper take an impression of the same kind, as that for which he had Mr. Ottley gratifies the curious with copies of two; one of them executed as he conjectures about 1450, [probably, in our opinion, some years earlier] the other confessedly the master piece of the artist, is known to have been executed in 1452; its weight is recorded in the archives of the church for which it was intended, which is fifty five ounces eleven denarii, of silver; and its cost was fifty six ounces of gold. Both these prints appear to be the lids of Pazes; they are both compositions in honour of the Virgin; and the latter, especially, is executed with singular taste, skill, and effect. They contain many figures. We confess, freely, that had we met with the latter print without previous information, we should never have suspected its origin. work of the graver, it is exquisite; as an impression of so great importance in the history of art, it is invaluable. The original sill exists; and the letters on this impression being reversed, sufficiently ascertain its character. In fact as it could not be taken off after the niello was melted into the strokes, it must have been taken off previously; As a and it corresponds to a line, a letter, and a mark, with the original plate, which is still existing. Mr. Ottley proceeds to describe other works in niello; performances of other masters; they are unquestionably curious; but, in point of merit they do not exceed those of the master already distinguished. The art long retained the execution and manner of the Goldsmith; and though various degrees of merit were communicated by different masters, in succession, to the composition and the out-line, the shadowing was still the same; feeble, simple, unvaried, without energy, and without character. tance into circles from which the proud and opulent of the sister kingdom, were excluded. Joining a perfect acquaintance with French literature to powers of observation and vivacity of feeling sharpened by continual excitement, she traces, in all she remarks the effect to the cause, and presents the scene before her, not as a disjointed fragment, but linking it with the past, by frequent and judicious reference to that Augustan epoch in the annals of the French Court, when Louis XIV. exhibited in his own person the finished gentleman, the tyrant, and the bigot; and laid the foundation for that mixture of ferocity and levity, which the continued contemplation of frivolous spectacles, and the desire of revenge, were certain to generate in those who suffered by Here we must close our report for the present. The history of art is at all times interesting; and especially of an art so universally useful and delight-intimacy with them. ful, as that of Engraving. It is saying hule to say, that Mr. Ottley has laid the literary and intellectual world under extensive obligations to his learning and diligence; we ought to add, that there are few persons who could have executed so arduous a task with equal spirit, perseverance, and accuracy, as are eminently displayed in the Volumes before us. [To be Continued.] France. By Lady Morgan. 4to. 21. 12s. 6d. 2 vols. 8vo. Colburn, London, 1817. THE title of this work will remind the reader of the late celebrated Madame de Stael's "Germany;" its contents are arranged on a similar plan, and in many parts are treated with similar ability, though by a genius of a very different description. Yet Lady Morgan's pictures, brilliant and animated as they are, it may be said, prefer colouring to design; or in other words they sacrifice accuracy to effect. Dazzled by the kindness of her reception among strangers, to whose favour admiration of themselves is a sure passport, she sees all around her in sunshine. The French peasantry are, according to her, free as the people of England, moral as the people of Scotland, and perhaps more prosperous than those of either country; the middle classes are distinguished for their domestic virtues, and love of simple pleasures; the higher ranks for their mental polish, the calmness and tranquillity of their outward deportment, the delicacy and firmness of their friendships, their unsuspecting simplicity, and the general rectitude of their conduct. Lady Morgan has visited the country that the reader is led to imagine that all which she professes to describe, under these benefits and improvements have circumstances extremely favourable to sprung into existence, under the fosterher introduction into society, and with ing influence of Louis le desiré. No; advantages both natural and acquired, a continual sneer at the Bourbons, a which gave acuteness to her perception, dislike, absolutely unfeminine, of the and variety to her information. With Duchess d'Angolême, prevails, and vitithe reputation of an authoress already ates whole pages. In proportion as we established, coming from a country are willing to admit the truth of many of whose distresses all must pity, a counher statements which exhibit the weaktry by its prevailing religion connected ness of the reigning government, the with the continent in bonds of sympa- presumptuous blindness which will not thy beyond what will ever be felt for be taught either by experience or exprotestant England, she found admit-ample, we are disposed to condemn that VOL. VII. No. 37. Lit. Pan. N. S. Oct. 1. C Not them, to complete the quantity of land which the size of their establishment demands. The pays de petite culture is composed the landlord finds the tenant in horses and of small farms, for the cultivation of which covert mode of attack which invokes ridicule on the objects it does not venture openly to censure. Fortunately for lovers of truth and fairness, persons of a very lively imagination are subject to certain lapses of memory or self contra-ploughs, and divides with him the profits. dictions, through which, at times, things Upon the large farms the condition of the may be discerned as they really are; and tenant is very much like that of our own with the help of these inconsistencies, or English Farmers; and in the pays de perather glimpses of facts, we have been tite culture, there exists a race, long disable to derive, with abundant entertain-appeared from England, of poor but indement, much useful information from the volume before us. Lady Morgan should have been aware, that the people she describes are famous for their tricks upon travellers; and that, to make an English dupe, is the boast and glory of a French knave. She has placed confidence where she ought to have exercised extreme caution. Her veracity suffers accordingly. pendent yeomen, who rear their families in a degree of comfort as perfect as it is remote from luxury. at the expense of other comforts, and sometimes even of necessaries. In this article, at least, the peasantry are wonderfully improved since the "beau siecle of Louis XIV;" that golden age which all the best æra of that prosperous reign, when “royalistes pures" wish to see restored. In Madame de Sevigné arrived at an inn, kept by a peasant, near the town of Nantes, she found only straw to lie on; and she describes it as a place “plus pauvre, plus miserable qu'on ne peut le representer; nous n'y avons trouvé que de la paille fraiche, sur qui nous avons tous couches sans nous deshareign that France ever witnessed; and in biller;" and this was in the most splendid the very provinces in which the peasant is peasant, when he becomes master of a One of the first objects with a French cottage is, to furnish it with an excellent bed. This luxury is carried to such an excess, that in many provinces, and in the West particularly, they ascend their bed by steps. Not to have a lofty bed is a sign of poverty, both in taste and in circumPassing over the Lady's attack in her and to meet the qu'en dira t'on?" of the stances, which all are anxious to avoid; Preface on the Quarterly Reviewers, for commune on this subject, the sumptuouscertain castigations, which they admi-ness of this piece of furniture is procured nistered to her some years since, with rather an unsparing hand, and the Publisher's attack on the Lady, for the illegibility of her manuscript, we shall proceed to the contents of her work, which begins with a view of the condition of the French peasantry, ameliorated as it has been by a revolution, the good effects of which may be traced after the horrors of prior events have subsided. The comforts they at present enjoy are heightened to the imagination of the reader. by a timely recalling of his attention to the miseries under which they laboured during the tyrannical administration of such laws as the corvée, the droit de chasse, the droit contumier, the gabelle, the tithe, and the taille. The agricultural surface of France is divided into what is called in the language of the country "le pays de grande, et de petite culture." In the former the size of the farms has been little affected by the Revolution: the only difference that has occurred is, that several farms belonging to one landlord, may have been purchased by the farmers who formerly cultivated them, or by a small proprietor, whose exertions are confined to the ground he has bought. The possession of small plots of ground, by the day-labourers has become very frequent; and it is sometimes usual in these countries to let them to the great farmers, who are desirous of having now such a coxcomb that he ascends his bed by steps. To the indispensable article of a good bed, the French peasants generally add a few silver forks and spoons; and their possession of such articles may be easily accounted for, when we bear in mind the virtues of frugality and temperance which they habitually practice they have likewise invariably their garden, their vineyard, and generally their bees: and when to all these objects of recreation and interest, we add the social ties which bind their families together, often in four successive generations, le bon Papa, le Mari, la bonne Femme, le petit bon homme, and contrast a house hold so situated with the disheartening same regard. If Louis himself believes spectacles which our parish workhouses in their efficacy he is to be pitied-if he afford, we cannot but think that the does not, we pity his people, that he French peasantry, naturally amiable, should think it necessary to degrade cheerful, and industrious, have many their intellects by such puny supersticapabilities in their favour on the questions. tion of happiness. The manners of France, both before and since the Revolution, are sketched by Lady Morgan in a very dexterous manner. We see the elegancies of the most voluptuous court in Europe suddenly exchanged for all the severities of republicanism: These again lost in the sensual enjoyments of a race of upstarts, who, unused to the command of money, strangers to its best uses, could only rest their hopes of consequence on the profusion with which they scattered about them their unjustly acquired wealth. According to Lady Morgan the country people preferred Buonaparte and toleration to Louis le desiré, and all the fasts and festivals which perpetually call them from the cultivation of their gardens, and the bleaching of their linen, to assist in religious ceremonies, and to walk in processions in honour of Saints bastily placed on pedestals for the occasion, and done in a style of workmanship sufficiently clumsy to secure them from adoration even by the most ignorant. Indeed throughout France, the religious ceremonies of the Catholic Under Consul Buonaparte we see an Church, revived by Louis XVIII. in the affectation of the simple habits of the present period of enlightened and dispassionate enquiry, with all the absurd- early Romans; that simplicity subseities which disgraced them in the dark-quently giving way to the splendours of est ages, seem to excite only the con the ancien regime under the Emperor tempt or anger of all, except the priests, * Compare PANORAMA, Vol. II. pp. 585, 785, VIII. 714. From the abode of royalism, the sounds of “Preux Chevalier veut mourir pour son Roi,” still vibrating on her ear, our author proceeds to a party where very different principles are entertained, and while she is, to use her own expression, "unshawling", in the Anti-room, she catches the first stanza of a song, which we give our readers as a specimen of the style of composition with which France is inundated by party witlings; who suit themselves admirably to the genius of the nation, which finds its "being's end and aim," in the vaudeville and the epigram. Ca ne tiendra pas. Comme il faut prendre en philosophe Les accidens fâcheux et bous, J'ai supporté la catastrophe Qui nous ramena les Bourbons. Pour me trouver sur leur passage, J'ai même fait deux ou trois pas, La dilitanté Trinité. Ils se donnaient pour des grands Princes Ce Roi, qui parmi des Francais, "Je doi ma couronne aux Anglais" Ca ne tiendra pas, çà ne tiendra pas. De tous ces faquins d'émigrés, Qui, par peur, ont quitté la France Et qui, par faim y sont rentrés. Pauvre petit fils de Henri quatre! Peux tu compter sur ces pieds-plats? Pour toi, quand il faudra se battre Ca ne tiendra pas, ça ne tiendra pas. On prodigue avec insolence Ces rubans, ces marques d'honneur Au vrai mérite à la valeur. Ces croix, ces rubaus, ces crachats; Cà ne tiendra pas, ça ne tiendra pas." We must accompany this revolutionary production with a portraiture from the courtly circles which it satirizes. It is in the salons of this party that anecdotes of royal sentiments aud specimens of royal wit, circulate in endless repetition. Here" l'esprit de Henri IV." is revived; "les sentimens nobles" of Louis the Great are added to the collection of royal anas, and the whole compendium of bon mots of the reigning family re-echoed with increasing admiration. Here the king is made to utter "le mot, qui part du cœur." Monsieur to express himself with that "tournure charmante, qui lui convient," the unrivalled courage of Mons, d'Angoulême is eternally set off by his repartee of "Mon ami, j'ai la vue basse"*--and the Duc de Berri, who affords no prise in wit or sentiment for loyal admiration, is extolled for a brusquerie Made in reply to a remark that he exposed his person too much during a reconnois sances. that recalls the charming frankness of the founder of his family; and "being little blessed with the set phrase of speech" is usually mentioned as a martial Prince, bred in camps, and endowed with a certain degree of "esprit de ganson qui lui sied a merveille." Terms hyperbolically ardent are applied to every member of the Royal Family, "les princes cheris" are adored by the ultras, and the “roi paternel” is "idolatré" by all the moderés. With the sentiments and intellectual condition of the nation, both parties are equally unacquainted, and the population of the land is again divided into the menu peuple, and gens comme il faut. the 6. Among those of the elder royalists attached to the person of the king, and believing that they contributed to his restoration, there is a sort of lifeless animation, resembling the organic movements which survive the extinction of animal life, and which are evinced in the hopping of a bird, after decapitation. I have frequently amused myself by following the groupings of these loyal vieilleries, who, like old Mercier seem to continue living on, merely "par curiosité, pour voir ce que ce la deviendra."-I remember one morning being present at a rencontre between two "voltigeurs de Louis XIV." on the terrace of the Thuilleries. They were distinguished by the most dramatic features of their class; --the one was in his court dress (for it was a levee day), and with his chapeau de bras, in one hand, and his snuff-box in the other, he exhibited a costume on which the bright eyes of a Pompadour had often rested, the other was en habit militaire, and might have been a spruce ensign “joli comme un cœur" at the battle of Fontenoy. Both were covered with crosses and ribbons, and they moved along under the trees that had shaded their youthful gail lardise with the conscious triumph of Moorish chiefs restored to their promised Alhambra.-Their telegraphic glasses communicated their mutual approach, and advancing chapeau bas, and shaking the powder from their ailes de pigeon through a series of profound bows, they took their scat on the bench which I occupied, and begun "les nouvelles à la main," to discuss the business of the day. "A levee, a review, a procession, and the installation of the King's bust, which in some remote town had been received with the cry of "Vive le roi, mille fois répétés" were the subjects which led to a boundless eulogium on the royal family. The speeches made by the King and the Duc de Berri to Count Lynch, were themes of extravagant admiration-" Ah mon dieu, |