the life, for correcting the parts I had not perfectly enough remembered, and then I transferred them to my compofitions. tory, without a ray of genius. There is a living inftance, well known to the connoiffeurs in this town, of one of the best copiers of pictures, particularly those by Rubens, who is almost His opinions on Portrait Painting. an idiot*. Mere correctnefs, thereAs to portrait painting, the chief fore, if in ftill life, from an apple or branch of the art by which a paint a rofe, to the face, nay, even the er can procure himself a tolerable live- whole figure, if you take it merely lihood, and the only one by which a as it prefents itself, requires only an lover of money can get a fortune; a exact eye, and an adroit hand. Their man of very moderate talents may pattern is before them, and much have great fuccefs in it, as the arti- practice, with little ftudy, is ufually fice and addreís of a mercer is infinite- fufficient to bring them into high ly more ufeful than the abilities of a vogue. By perpetual attention to painter. By the manner in which this branch only, one should imagine the prefent race of profeffors in Eng- they would attain a certain ftroke; land conduct it, that alfo becomes quite the reverfe,-for, though the fill life, as much as any of the pre- whole bufinefs lies in an oval of four ceding. Admitting that the artist inches long, which they have before has no farther view than merely copy- them, they are obliged to repeat and ing the figure, this must be admitted alter the eyes, mouth, and nofe, three to its full extent; for the fitter ought or four times, before they can make to be fill as a ftatue, and no one it what they think right. The little will difpute a ftatue being as much praise due to their productions ought, Still life as fruit, flowers, a gallipot, in moft cafes, to be given to the draor a broken earthen pan. It muft, pery man, whofe pay is only one part indeed, be acknowledged, they do in ten, while the other nine, as well not feem afhamed of the title, for as all the reputation, is engroffed by their figures are frequently fo exe- the Mafter phiz-monger, for a proporcuted as to be as ftill as a poft. Pol- tion which he may complete in five ture and drapery, as it is called, is or fix hours: and even this, little as ufually fupplied by a journeyman, it is, gives him fo much importance who puts a coat, &c. on a wooden in his own eyes, that he affumes a figure, like a jointed doll, which they confequential air, fets his arms a kimcall a layman, and copies it in every bo, and ftrutting among the hiftorical fold as it chances to come; and all artifts, cries, how we apples fwim! this is done at fo eafy a rate, as enables the principal to get more money in a week than a man of the first profeffional talents can in three months. If they have a fufficient quantity of filks, fatins, and velvets to dress their layman, they may thus carry on a very profitable manufac For men who drudge in this mechanical part, merely for gain, to commence dealers in pictures is natural. In this alfo, great advantage may accrue from the labour and ingenuity of others. They ftand in the catalogue of painters, and having little to study in their own way, become great *Hogarth may poffibly allude to Ranelagh Barrett, who, I learn from Mr Walpole, was thus employed; and, being countenanced by Sir Robert Walpole, copied feveral of his collection, and others for the Duke of Devonshire and Dr Meade. He was indefatigable,-executed a vast number of works,-fucceeded greatly in copying Rubens, and died in 1768: his pictures were fold by auction in the December of that year. great connoiffeurs; not in the points where real perfection lies, for there they must be deficient, as their ideas have been confined to the oval; but their great enquiry is, how the old mafters ftand in the public estimation, that they may regulate their prices accordingly, both in buying and felling. You may know thefe painter dealers by their conftant attendance at auctions. They collect, under pretence of a love for the arts; but fell, knowing the reputation they have ftamped on the commodity they have once purchased, in the opinion of the ignorant admirer of pictures, drawings, and prints; which thus warranted, almoft invariably produce them treble their original purchasemoney, and treble their real worth. Unfanctioned by their authority *, and unafcertained by tradition, the beft preferved and highest finished picture (though it fhould have been painted by Raphael,) will not, at a public auction, produce five fhillings; while a despicable, damaged, and repaired old canvas, fanctioned by their praise, fhall be purchased at any price, and find a place in the nobleft collections. All this is very well underftood by the dealers, who, on every occafion where their own intereft is concerned, are wonderously loquacious in adoring the myfterious beauties! fpirited touches! brilliant colours! and the Lord knows what, of thefe ancient worn-out wonders ;but whoever fhould dare to hint that (admitting them to be originally painted by Raphael,) there is little left to admire in them, would be in A ftantly ftigmatized as vilifying the great mafters, and to invalidate his judgment, accused of envy and selfconceit. By thefe mifreprefentations, if he has an independent fortune, he only fuffers the odium; but if a young man, without any other property than talents, prefumes boldly to give an opinion, he may be undone by his temerity; for the whole herd will unite, and try to hunt him down. Such is the fituation of the arts and artifts at this time. Credulity,— an implicit confidence in the opinions of others, and not daring to think for themfelves, leads the whole town into error, and thus they become the prey of ignorant and defigning knaves. With refpect to portrait painting, whatever talents a profeffor may have, if he is not in fashion, and cannot afford to hire a drapery-man, he will not do; but if he is in vogue, and can employ a journeyman, and place a lay-man in the garret of his manufactory, his fortune is made; and as his two coadjutors are kept in the back-ground, his own fame is eftablifhed. If a painter comes from abroad, his being an exotic will be much in his favour; and if he has addrefs e-nough to persuade the public that he has brought a new difcovered mode of colouring, and paints his faces all red, all blue, or all purple, he has nothing to do but to hire one of these painter tailors as an affiftant, for without him the manufactory cannot go on, and my life for his fuccefs. CHARACTER OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, BY GOVERNOR POWNALL. (From Coxe's Memoirs, &c. Vol. III.) LIFE of active politics, exer. oppofing parties, in acquiring and cifed and trained in forming and holding a lead among ftmen, had given Wal In part of this violent philippic, Hogarth may poffibly glance at the late prefident of the Royal Academy, whom it has been faid, but I think unjustly, he envieda In Sir Joshua's very early pictures there is not much to envy ; they gave little promife of the tafle and talents which blaze in his later works. Walpole experimental knowledge of the human heart. He had lived with men in their hones in private; he had acted with men abroad in public; he had feen them in all tempers and feafons; he knew them to the quick, intus & in cute: he had experience to feel how ntle (what ever they might pretend) they were connected by general principle, where the fpirit of party ceafed; and how ready many of them were to betray one another, or to forfake their leaders, if any offer could make it worth their while to enlist with others. He had on all fides, and almost in every period, had experience of their prone. nefs to change. Many were ready to promote a bitrary measures: he ufed the influence of government only to make them, free and obedient fubjects of a limited government. Even against his enemies, and the enemies of the conftitution, where he might have used force, he employ ed only influence fo far as to difarm mifchief; and at the fame time, with the fame influence, taught thofe enemies to find it their intereft to be come in fome degree friends. Yet, as thefe profelyte and mercenary friends could not be trufted in principle, he led them, bound to obedience, by fuch notions as had and did continue to operate on them. With this difcernment of the fpirits of men, with his temper and mo deration, he fixed a new establish ment. He fecured the house of Hanover on the throne without bloodthed, except of thofe who were mad enough to run obftinately on the point of the fword of state. Having perfected and fecured the foundations of liberty, having eftablished effective government, having fettled the nation in peace, he introduced fyftem into the bufinefs of the ftate, and order, connexion, and fubordination amongst all the departments. He recovered the adminiftration of the finances out of confufion, and refcued them from corrupt and ruinous management: he established them on a folid bafis, and opened fources which might not only have given a continually increafing fupply, but through which they might have become refervoirs to the most extenfive credit. Had this fyltem of finance, by a general excife, advancing in an increafing feries of aggregate furpluffes, taken place, the refources of this country would have forerun the calls of any fervice that common fenfe or common honefly could have engaged in; would have been equal to any accident which in the ordinary courfe of human affairs could have come into event. As it was, the funds of which he formed the plan, and the part only which he established, laid the foundation of our greatness. Whilft he maintain. cd the ftation of this nation amidst the nations of Europe by a system of peace, commerce flourished, and was extended; and Great Britain became a rich and powerful empire. Although he could not but feel confcious of the degree of power to which he had raised his country, yet, fo long as he maintained his authority in government, he never fuffered the foreign views of a stranger king, the pride of the nation, the prefumption of military men, or the avarice of merchants to involve this king: dom in the foolish enterprises of war. He had a courage that felt no fear when the meeting of danger was neceffary; he had wifdom that knew how to fear it when it was not neceffary. Although he acquired a high degree of power, aud poffeffed a degree of influence which would have enabled him as a man to do any thing; yet, under every provocation that can exafperate, he never did an injury, fcarce ever revenged one. He had a magnanimity above all the refentments of the private man. On the contrary, from the fuggeftions of the the fame magnanimity, he spared the lives and fortunes of many who had forfeited both, and who would have taken his. He did many kind things to irreconcileable enemies, and conferred many benefits on ungrateful friends. Although he had established and fecured the liberties of his country in peace, yet his own fituation was an unceafing warfare. A fpirit, however, which always took the afcen dant, rendered his poft impregnable to his enemies without, and main tained fubordination to his command within. The human conftitution, both in mind and body, is fo framed, that, if always on the ftretch of ex ertian, it mult at length lofe part of its energy. As the activity of his fpirit at times abated, he at times, ceafing to act as fole minifter, entrufted parts of his command to thofe who fhould have been friends. In proportion as they were entrusted, they had it in their power to betray. Some who were admitted to this communication as friends, having by this confidence the means of feeing that he began to abate of his activity, meditated a defertion, in order to enlit under a capitulation with the enemy. Many who had offered him fervice, but whom he had rejected, turned their views to a new party, on which a rifing fun feemed to fhine. Sir Robert Walpole thus loft the majority of the House of Commons, and furrendered his poft. He difdained to capitulate: difarmed as he was of all power, and at the mercy of his enemies in their quarters, he difdained to ask quarter. They meant to deftroy him; but here they found his innocence as invulnerable, as they had before found his fpirit impregnable. They appointed a committee of inquifition, to fearch for proof of crimes which for twenty years they had imputed to him with out proof. Proofs light as air would have ferved for conviction; but even thefe could not be found; and fo unfubftantial were even the imputed crimes, that they vanished upon the touch. His enemies, to their eternal infamy and difhonour, established upon their own inquifition this only fact, that they had been fortwenty years writ ing, fpeaking, and acting upon ground that was flie. He retired not with a fortune greater than his fame: while his character became every day more and more admired and prailed, as it became understood; and every day more brilliant and illuftrious while it was reviewed under the aggravating fenfe of regret. Men could not but fee in the comparifon, how unequal the fortunes which he had left to his family were to the fupport of the honour with which he had graced and adorned it; how much below the degree of profperity to which he had elevated his country. He retained his anxiety and zeal for the fafety of his country to his latest breath, which in a critical and dangerous period (in the year 1743,) he expreffed in one of the finelt fpeeches ever made in the House of Lords, in his laft fpeech, fpoken to apprize the nation of its danger, to which it remained infenfible. Thofe who fucceeded him fhut their eyes againft a danger that they dared not own they faw; because they dared not look it in the face, and had taken no precaution to ward it off: they therefore neglected the wisdom of his fear and advice. They affected in themfelves, and attempted in others, to ftifle all apprehenfions, while the danger increased, and continued advancing into event. The danger which had been thus imminent fell upon the nation in 1745, by a rebellion, in which the British crown was (as he had told the Houfe of Lords it would be,) fought for on British ground. He died in the interval of thefe periods; periods; and his immediate fuccef. fyftem, which they had laboured to fors lived upon the fragments of his deftroy. MAJOR RENNELL'S AND MR EDWARDS'S REPORT TO THE AFRICAN ASSOCIA UNTIL TION. NTIL Mr Park's Journal is publifhed by himself, the following notices from Major Rennell and Mr Bryan Edwards, printed for the fatisfaction of the African Affociation, may be confidered as matters equally curious and important. The discoveries of Park give a new face to the phyfical geography of Weftern Africa. They afcertain the fources of the Gambia, the Senegal, and the Niger; and prove, by the courfes of thefe great rivers, that a belt of mountains, running from Weft to Eaft, occupies the parallels between 10 and 11 degrees of N. L. and at least between the 2d and 10th degrees of W. L. from Greenwich. The higheft part of this chain of mountains is fituated between the 6th and 10th degrees of W. L. fince within this space are found the four ces of the Gambia and the Senegal, which run to the North Weft; and alfo the fource of the Joliba, or Niger, which runs to the North Eaft. The head of the principal branch of the Senegal is 80 geographical miles to the Weft of the Niger; and the head of the Gambia is 100 Weft of the Senegal. Mr Park firft difcovered the Niger at the town of Sego, fituate near the 14th degree of Northern latitude, and 2 and a half degrees Weft longitude from Greenwich; and therefore above 14 degrees from the Weftern coaft of Africa, from whence he began his travels; which were continued from Sego to Silla, 70 miles in the direction of N. E. along the banks of the river. The vaft continent which he had traversed, Mr P. found to be every where divided into petty ftates, inhabited by Negroes or by Moors: the former kind and hofpitable; the latter the molt perfidious of the human race, combining in their character the blind fuperftition of the African Negro with the favage treachery of the Arab, and all of them taught to regard the Chriftian name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to confider it nearly as lawful to murder a European as it would be to kill a dog. By thefe Moors, Mr P. was kept in merciless and infulting durance upwards of two months, at Benown, fituate in 15 degrees N. L. and 7 W. L. Finding that it was in contemplation to deprive him of life, or put out his eyes, he determined, rather than remain longer among fuch monfters, whose tendereft mercies were cruelty, to risk perishing in the woods by hunger, or the fury of wild beatis. He fortunately procured at his departure his horfe and his pocket compafs; which laft he had, during hia confinement; concealed in the fand. He rode forwards without ftopping the whole of the first day. His horfe grew tired: he experienced the torments of thirst. Whenever he came to a tree, he climbed it, in hopes of difcovering, a watering place; he chewed the leaves, but found them all bitter. Towards the evening of the fecond day, he muft inevitably have perished, had he not lighted upon a few scattered huts of Toulah Shepherds. Perceiving an aged negro woman among them who gazed on him, he tendered her his handkerchief, and requefted in exchange a little corn. She kindly invited him into her hut, and produced a large wooden bowl of koufcous, or boiled corn; procuring him at the fame time corn and water for his horse. In |