it may be questioned whether the warmth of tint on the infant's cheek, does not partake of the character of sleep, rather than of death. Criticism, however, stands disarmed before a picture of such overpowering beauty.

Purchased by J. Atkyns Wright, Esq. M. P.

LANDSCAPES.

No. 177. A landscape.

S. W. Reynolds.

ALTHOUGH this painting is rather a bold sketch than a finished picture, it is very spiritedly executed. There are parts in it, especially in the middle ground, which remind one strongly of Gainsborough. The tone of colouring is, however, of too gloomy a cast.

Purchased by the Hon. Tho. Brand.

No. 189. Windermere.

W. Daniell.

A PLACID, natural picture. A knowledge of handling is, in some parts, very successfully displayed. The touch is soft, though firm; and the foreground well

contrasted with the repose of the dis

tant mountains.

Purchased by Tho. Hope, Esq.

No. 194. A Landscape with Cattle. B. Barker. ALTHOUн this is a very warm and pleasing picture, it wants variety in the composition. The size is too large to admit of such a simplicity of background, terminated by one strait horizontal line. The mountains are rather too remote to produce effect. Notwithstanding, it is a very scientific painting.

Purchased by the Rt. Hon. Charles Long, M. P.

No. 195. Pigs.

James Ward.

THE purchaser of this small picture may be congratulated on possessing one of the ablest specimens of the British Gallery. These pigs are, in truth, admirable. The touch is peculiarly firm, spirited, and correct; and there is a breadth and boldness of manner about the painting, which, while they remind

us of an ancient master, happily contribute to a just representation, of na

ture.

Purchased by

Watson, Esq.

Published by LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and ORME, Paternoster Row; J. HATCHARD, Bookseller, to Her Majesty, 190, Piccadilly; and WILLIAM MILLER, Albemarle Street.

William Savage, Printer, Bedford Bury.

THE DIRECTOR.

No. 15. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1807.

COMEDIA, non sine multa

Laude: sed in vitium libertas excidit, et vim

Dignam lege regi.

HOR.

My observations on the theatre have produced several letters upon the subject, four of which I have selected for this day's paper. But before I give them to the reader, I shall insert a letter, which I have just received from a gentleman of acknowledged taste and talent, on the subject of the Opera.

Dear Mr. Director,

ALLOW me to pour my grief and indignation into your bosom. For a long

time past nothing had afforded me such satisfaction, as seeing announced for the Opera, the ballet of the SIEGE OF TROY.

Ar last, said I to myself, we have done with those everlasting Peruvians and Spaniards, Mexicans and Turks, and all the tribe of the barbarous and Gothic nations, who have hitherto almost exclusively engrossed our ballets d'action; at last we shall behold Deshayes, Moreau, Mesdames Deshayes, Parisot, Prêsle, Cranfield, &c. represent classic personages, and a classic subject: How delightful to the admirer of HOMER, and of VIRGIL!

THE fact is, that I foolishly expected to see this classic subject, classically treated; that, like a great noodle as I am, I expected in this our dear England, to feast my eyes on all the elegant and simple grandeur of the Grecian costume, and on all the magnificence of the Phrygian attire; that I promised myself the