ture of the
American Senate, during the debate so famous for the passages between
Mr. Webster and Col. Hayne. Mr. Healey is said to be a very worthy
person, and it is to be regretted that his skill and genius are not
equal to his morals, in which case we might not despair of his producing
a work not altogether unworthy of this subject. Some accident introduced
Mr. Healey to the late King of the French, who gave him various orders,
the reception of which was so noticed in the journals as to be of the
greatest possible advantage to him. He was suddenly elevated in the
common opinion to the condition of the first rank of artists. But he is
really a painter of very ordinary capacities. We have probably some
hundreds who are very much superior to him. It is impossible to point to
even _one_ portrait by him that is remarkable for any excellence; and
all his fame rests, rather than upon his productions, upon his having
received orders from Louis Philippe. We remember the general surprise
with which groups of his portraits, displayed in the rotunda of the
capitol, were viewed by critics. The "study" of Daniel Webster, upon
whose every feature God has set the visible stamp of greatness, was
among them, and it looked like the prim keeper of the accounts in a
respectable grocery-store. So of all the rest. Men sat to him from
deference to the wishes of the King, but every body felt that he was not
an artist. Accidents and newspapers may confer a transient reputation,
but they can endow no one with abilities; and to espouse the cause of
newspapers against the cause of nature is a grievous wrong, in the end,
to both newspapers and nature.

* * * * *

AN ELEGANT work of much value to the students of modern art has lately
appeared at Berlin, under the title of _Rimische Studien_ (Roman
Studies), from the pen of VON KESTNER, a diplomatist by profession. The
author, who by the way is a son of the famous CHARLOTTE, the heroine of
Goeethe's "Werther," dwells with the utmost partiality on these German
artists, who have developed their talents by long and intimate
acquaintance with Roman art, and who are now at work in the fatherland.
To the productions of "Cornelius," he devotes a great deal of space. The
special purpose of the work, as the author says in his preface, is to
glorify Germany in the great creations of its artists.

* * * * *

THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY of Paris, a