Harlowe did not redesign that principal figure. There are several
landscapes of Gainsborough's, and one portrait--the latter excellent,
the former poor. There is much vigour of colouring and handling in the
"Horses at a Fountain;" but as usual, it is a poor composition, and of
parts that ill agree. The mass of rock and foliage are quite out of
character with the bit of tame village scene, and the hideous figures.
Here, too, his "Girl and Pigs," for which he asked sixty guineas, and
Sir Joshua gave him a hundred. We do not think the President had a
bargain. There is not one of Wilson's best in this collection. The
"Celadon and Amelia" is dingy, and poor in all respects. It verifies as
it illustrates; for Thomson says,

"But who _can paint_ the lover as he stood?"

Very coarse is Opie's "Venus and Adonis." He had not grace for such a
subject--nor for "Lavinia." We should have been glad to have seen some
of his works where the subjects and handling agree. We are sorry to see
Hogarth's "March to Finchley" so injured by some ignorant cleaner. His
"Taste in High Life" is the perfection of caricature. We have not the
slightest idea what Constable meant when he painted the "Opening of
Waterloo Bridge." The poor "_Silver_ Thames" is converted into a smear
of white lead and black. "Charles the First demanding the Five Members,"
surprised us by its power--its effect is good. Here is no slovenly
painting, so common in Mr. Copley's day--the general colour too is good;
and the painting of individual heads is much after the manner of
Vandyck. There are some pictures on the walls which might have been
judiciously omitted in an exhibition which must be considered as
characteristic of English talent.

As the British Gallery is for a considerable period devoted to works of
English art, and as so many other exhibitions offer them in such
profusion, we would suggest that it would be more beneficial to art, and
to the success and improvement of British painters, if the original
intention of the governors of the institution were adhered to, of
exhibiting annually the choicest works of the old schools.

MARSTON, OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.

PART III.

"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in the pitched bat