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ARE THE DRAWINGS OF RAPHAEL TO BE SUFFERED

TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY?

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine.

Sir,-The lovers of the fine arts have heard with grief, and astonishment, that the divine collection of the drawings of Raphael, exhibited by the Messrs. Woodburn, of St. Martin's Lane, may possibly be suffered to quit the country, for want of efforts on the part of government to detain them. There they are, next door (so to speak,) to the very gallery now building for the reception of great paintings, and the encouragement of British art, and yet British art is to lose them! Raphael himself is our neighbour, and we are to let him go! The human angel is there, hardly less divine than the angels he painted. There he waits, ready to teach our students, to refine our spirits, to enlarge our charities, to perfect our fame, and we are to calculate the miserable cost of his reception, even though he would bring gold flowing in upon us, as well as grace and glory!

On whichever side this question is looked at, we have no excuse for our hesitation. Yes, there is one; and on the face of it, a fair one, though it can exist but for a moment. The government, it is understood, does not like to commit itself to any new expenses, however laudable, especially at a time like the present, till it knows whether the public approve them. The individuals that compose the government cannot be supposed to be indifferent to these divine productions. Lord Melbourne is surely a man to lend an ear to all intelligent and kindly propositions; Mr. Spring Rice is said to be a lover of poetry, consequently of all the liberalities which it includes; Lansdowne collections of the fine arts are already eminent; Lord Holland would much surprise the public if he omitted any one grace or generosity of taste in the list of his perceptions; in short, I believe we could go the whole round of the ministry and not find a name that would not gladly be foremost in the list of Raphael's detainers. If I am not mistaken, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has acknowledged to Messrs. Woodburn, that he would willingly advocate the purchase of the drawings, if he thought the public would side with him. It becomes him, perhaps, considering his office, to doubt. But why do not all parties and ranks of men vie with each other in seeing which can best do the doubt away? How is it that we have no man in parliament at present, who can pierce beyond the surface of such a question, enter into the metaphysics or moral depths of it, and make it as clear to everybody that we ought to purchase the drawings, as it is that we ought to do anything else that is both noble and profitable? Nay, there are such men; I could name them; but why do they not speak? Why is Bulwer silent? Why Talfourd? Why does not Sir Robert Peel, who has the taste and spirit to be a true patron of art, interfere in behalf of these models of all art? things, as Messrs. Woodburn justly observe, calculated to advance the manufactures, as well as the greater works of the country. The greatest art includes the less sometimes it literally serves it. In the present collection there is a design for "a chased silver dish," (the Nymphs and Tritons, No. 14,) which is a consummation of grace and fancy.

I am a Radical myself; and I think I can answer for it, that neither Mr. Hume, nor any other Radical, nor the Radicals as a body, would object to this purchase. Literature and the fine arts hang too much together to allow of such alienation from an intellectual sympathy; and the poorest classes of the community are too proud of the reputation they are acquiring for knowledge, and too instinctively feel the strength and future good of all intellectual co-operations, to offer any disturbance to the proposal on their part. They hope soon to be walking in their clean jackets, and with

respectful steps, through the rooms of the New National Gallery, as the fine-eyed Tuscan peasantry do in theirs; and in making friends of the fine forms of Raphael and Correggio, they will instinctively cultivate the quietest and best shaping forth of their very political wishes. There is a hackneyed quotation from Ovid, which has nevertheless not had full justice done to the niceties of its meaning,

"Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes,

Emollit mores, nec SINIT esse feros ;"

That is to say,-to acquire such a taste for the fine arts, as to expand our perceptions of truth and beauty in general, and give us a faith in them, softens the manners by delivering us from narrowness and exclusiveness, and will not suffer us to be ferocious, even if wrong and passion incline us to be so.

But there are districts in Ireland starving! Should we give fifteen thousand pounds for the most marvellous collection of drawings, as long as such is the case? Sir, the fact is a very frightful one; and if the purchase prevented our relieving it, of course I should say, Let our fellow-creatures eat, and the drawings perish: Ovid has just said it for me. Humanity itself is the first of graces, as well as duties; and the sweet soul of Raphael (which was full of it, or it would not have been what it was), would blush to see itself stand in its way. Vasari records of him, that "his goodnature was still more enchanting than his art," and that he was "all over amiableness and loving kindness,-pieno di gentilezza, e colmo di carità.” Out of what else, indeed, could these enchanting shapes and faces proceed, that encircle, as it were, the very spectators of this Exhibition, with balmy and exalting arms, with a new sense of the capabilities and beautiful-mindedness of their fellow-creature man, and incline him to love his very species the better? Do we think that anything could feign such feelings? No; no more than a ditch could throw forth a crystal fountain, or a scorpion be a dove. Well, Sir, how it is that the starvation of the Irish is not instantly relieved would be above my comprehension, if I did not know how one evil habit is mixed up with another, and throws obstacles in the way of the most obvious and easy measures of justice. Government think sometimes, or at least fancy (and circumstances must excuse them for the fancy) that they cannot instantly set about one of the most elemental pieces of justice, for fear of reducing society itself to its elements, or at least hazarding the gradual disengagement of its workings from the worst part of their alloy. All I can say on this point is, that most certainly no kindness towards the Irish will be secured by the saving of the money proposed to be laid out on these pictures, and as certainly none will be hindered by the laying it out. He that votes for the purchase will not be the less likely, but so much the more likely, to assist his fellow-creatures; just as you would sooner be likely to see a man who issues from the Exhibition give a sixpence to a beggar, than one who would spend nothing to go in-who would feel no impulse to go and gaze upon the kind faces in the pictures. I do not say that every admirer of art is a generous man; for he may admire it more or less, as it happens, and not feel those sources of liberal emotion stirred within him, which all the truest graces of perception possess in common. But I do say that the chances, by reason of that co-operation of the sympathies, are in favour of his generosity; and if any question of assistance to Ireland could disengage itself from considerations that really have nothing to do with it-if the proposition of help to these famishing districts for instance were merely, as it ought to be, one of sending them food and comfort at once, as to a fellowcreature dying at one's door, it is not only a likely, it is an identical proposition, depend upon it, that every hearty voter for the purchase of the pictures would be as hearty a one for sending the food. It would be, to say the least of it, a pleasure which he could not deny himself.

I confess I should wonder how the most eminent of the patrons of art in

this country could abstain from taking the matter to themselves, and subscribing to make a gift to the nation. did I not know how often the richest men may have the greatest calls and drains upon their purse; not to mention the unwillingness of any one moving or seeming to dictate, where he is not sure that he is trespassing upon no delicacies or difficulties on the part of others. It was even suggested to me the other day, by a friend, that it would be handsome on the part of the Messrs. Woodburn themselves to make the gift, as they have the reputation of being rich. My friend, however, with his natural feeling for a delicacy, laughed while he said it; for be the wealth of these gentlemen what it may, it could not be as handsome on the part of the nation to expect, or to allow the gift. The Messrs. Woodburn, though liberal men, are dealers by profession, who are no more to be expected to give up profits in this wholesale manner, than hosiers or bakers. It is enough, if they show the superiority of their trade over hosiers and bakers, by the liberality which they really do exercise. The sum of fifteen thousand pounds (which abstractedly is a mere nothing for a collection so truly unique, exquisite, and by its nature priceless, and therefore worth all which it could fetch, though it were jewels instead of guineas), is, as they truly say, a much smaller sum than it would cost to make a similar collection; for example, to repurchase it from another nation, supposing it possible for another nation to let it go. It is therefore very handsome in them to offer it as they do, and to show themselves anxious for their country's having it. The trustees of the National Gallery have, it seems, "not felt themselves justified to recommend a purchase, unless based on the sum named in the will of the late lamented collector, which was almost one-third of their true value:" but this sum, for many reasons unnecessary to mention, might have been purposely made too small by this lamented gentleman, and at all events is no guide for a real love of the drawings, and a knowledge of their value. "With every respect for those distinguished individuals, the trus tees," the Messrs. Woodburn beg to observe, in their prospectus, "that had a committee of members of the Royal Academy, and amateurs who collect drawings, inspected the Raffaelles, they are confident the price asked would have been awarded them. To be able, in one room, to trace the practice in art of this prince of painters, from the dawn of his genius to the end of his short but glorious career, by means of indisputably authentic works of his own hand, is an advantage which the most zealous artist or amateur might have dreamed of, but could not expect to see realized."

It is capitally well said, and as truly.-The price would have been nothing to such a consideration, had it been twice as much.

I confess Lam one of those who think that no collections or academies will make great ses in art, any more than they ever did make them. The great geniuses come first, or by nature. But then I can never be one of those who think that academies will hinder the rise of truly great genius, till the recollection of old English poetry and the new generation of Wordsworths and Coleridges be done away. I would not swear that a greater poet than Shakspeare himself may not be seen by posterity, though it will require as great events as the Reformation and the publication of the Bible to bring him about; and even then, the pre-existence of the former Shakspeare might be a hinderance to his perfection. But the very greatest geniuses of all are not the only great geniuses; otherwise, since the time of Shakspeare, we should have had no Miltons and Wordsworths; and, therefore, even should the world have no more Raphaels or Titians, it may have names still great and august,-it may have new Caraceis and Claudes; and the good of collections of these great men, like that of our great English poets, is, that they serve to call back the principles of the finest taste, and save us, at all events, from an eternal succession of bad works, and the contentedness of vanity. New Caraccis will not be hindered, and daubers will.

I could say a great deal more on every part of this subject, and have an extreme desire to do so; but time, and other circumstances, cut me short

It is no matter, provided I shall not have to tear my hair, when I look over it, at finding I have omitted something which would have "convinced the most incredulous." But I hope, Sir, that others will take up the proposal, and urge it better. Above all, let everybody who has not seen the drawings, go to St. Martin's-lane while yet he has time, and convince himself. If that room were my private sitting-room, or if I could transport the drawings into another where I pleased, I do not think that one ill or angry thought could ever touch me further. It would be like living with angels, or what is the next thing, with Raphael himself; of whom his biographer records, that all who did so, became imbued with such love and admiration of the sweetness of his nature, that they dropped their heats and jealousies, and all poor, proud, and ungenial feelings, and astonished the world with the only like spectacle ever beheld among an irritable generation. Every crea ture that breathed, he says, loved him *.

I am, Sir, your humble Servant,

A LOVER OF ART.

* Good, old, honest, enthusiastic Vasari! It is delightful to read his earnest words:" E certo (says he) fra le sue doti singolari ne scorgo una di tal valore, éhe in me stesso stupisco; che il cielo gli diede forza di poter mostrare nell' arte nos tra un effetto sì contrario alle complessioni di noi pittori; questo è, che hanno umore d'esser grandi (come di questo umore l'arte produce infiniti) lavorando nell' opera in compagnia di Raffaello, stavano uniti, e di concordia tale, che tutti i mal' umori, nel veder lui, s' ammorzavano, ed ogni vile e basso pensiero cadeva loro di mente; la quale unione mai non fu più in altro tempo, che nel suo; e questo avveniva, perchè restavano vinti dalla cortesia, e dall' arte sua, ma più dal genio della sua buona natura, la qual era sì piena di gentilezza, e sì colma di carità, ch' egli si vedeva, che fino gli animali l'onoravano, non che gli uomini." And then he proceeds to give accounts of Raphael's practical and active kindness to all his brethren in art.-Vite di Pittori, &c. 4to. 1759, tome ii., p. 133.

JOYS, WHERE are they?

FLEE o'er the bare earth, winter winds-
I mark ye not, in your onward flow;
They say you're sad-yet the sad heart finds
No kindred in ye, with its weary woe!
No-O no

Bloom o'er the glad earth, spring-time flowe
I see ye not in your beauty's glow:
They call ye bright-but are yours the powers
That light the sunk eye of a weary woe?
No-O no!

Shine on, ye long bright summer days,
When day after day moveth onward slow;
They say you are sweet-can your lingering rays
Bring slumber at eve to a weary woe?

No-O no!

Burn brightly then, deep autumn hues,
For an hour, like love, then sink ye low:
They mourn ye dead-but may that infuse
A hope of long rest to a weary woe?

No-still no !

K.

"THE DÉSENNUYÉE," AND FEMALE DOMINATION."*

We sincerely congratulate Mr. Colburn on the premier pas he has made upon his return to the World of Literature,-the Publishing World, we should rather say-over which he was for so many years one of the presidents when it was in its high and palmy state. We remember the time when his list contained all that was desirable in the realms of fiction-when he sought out and brought forward whatever was excellent-and exchanged sterling gold for thoughts which otherwise would have remained concealed, like lights beneath a bushel, for want of some judicious hand to remove the obstruction which shrouded them from observation. Why he has withheld his influence for so long a period, it is not here our business to inquire,-but this we know, that its reexercise will give an energy and spirit to book-writing, as well as bookselling, which, considered even in a mercantile point of view, they stand much in need of.

The fact of Mr. Colburn being the Proprietor of this Magazine need not-nay, ought not to prevent us from giving publicity to the above. circumstance accompanied by words of sincere congratulation upon it, to the "craft" with which we are ourselves so immediately connected, and the interests of which we so directly represent. There are few modern authors of high rank and acknowledged merit, who will not readily admit their obligations to Mr. Colburn as having been, fortunately for himself, the means of introducing them to the world. The announcements he will shortly issue, must, if we are correctly informed, afford proof that the connexions formed by him during a period of nearly twenty years, are still retained by him, and that the objects of past exertions will be, ere long, again realized.

"THE DIARY OF A DESENNUYÉE" is an exceedingly brilliant and entertaining book. The listlessness felt by a young and beautiful widow, (beautiful, and richly dowered)-as she moves through the undeviating circle of London and Parisian society, is admirably depicted. She imagines that she returns to the world with a heart steeled to insensibility, and a resolution to be indebted to her head alone for future pleasures! There is something irresistibly amusing in the idea of a young fascinating woman trusting to her head for her happiness, while every line she writes convinces you more and more that she is one of all others whose heart will dispose of her destiny-whose heraldry, is "hearts, not heads,"-imagining herself forearmed. Our heroine resolves never more to be either ennuyéed, or bored, and places herself forthwith under the chaperonage of her cousin, a certain Lady Cecilia Delaval, who is drawn not only from the life, but to the life-her adviser is quite in character with the set she belongs to.

"No one," she says, "living in society, can be independent. The world is like a watch-dog, which fawns upon, or tears you to pieces-if

"The Diary of a Désennuyée," 2 vols. Published by H. Colburn, 13, Great Marlborough Street.

"Mrs. Armytage, or Female Domination;" by Mrs. Charles Gore, 3 vols. Published by H. Colburn, 13, Great Marlborough Street.

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