Or the brave Belgians run away,

"To fight again another day!"

All this, and more—let Whigs condemn me!—

I gather from my staunch "St. Jemmy!"
Whose honest face I duly seek

Three days of each revolving week;

For 't is a dose against the vapours,
Worth some half dozen "morning papers."

This is a puff-I own it too;

Would that all puffs were half as true! †

But give me, if you can or will,
Some tidings of the "Sacred Hill;"
By which I mean, as well you know,
Of Murray, Colburn, and "the Row!"
Of pictures-taste-of wits and asses;
The "mould of form and fashion's glasses."
Is Bulwer's last accomplished rogue,
Or Siam and its Twins, the vogue'
(I trust, when next he tries a hit,
He'll shew his heart, as well as wit!)

* See the controversy lately carried on between the Times and Courier, as to their respective claims to ministerial patronage.

+ The masterly talent of the leading editor of the St. James's Chronicle and Standard is, I believe, recognised in all political circles. Whatever may be a man's principles, it is pleasant to find him advocating them with a steady and straight forward integrity of purpose.

Has Hood worked out his vein of jokes? *
Will Colburn dare a second hoax

As shameless, and with fraud as rife,
As Lawrence's catch-guinea Life?

Or patrons print his private letters,
To shew how poor may be their betters.
Will Paganini e'er go from us,

Or Rothwell prove a new Sir Thomas?
Will Fraser e'er a fortune gain,

By manufacturing mock champagne;
Roberts convince us by his strictures,
That sketches rival finished pictures;
And that an artist's worth is small,
Unless he takes no pains at all?†

It must not be supposed that there is any covert sneer in this inquiry. No one jokes with more perfect good humour than Hood: there is much wit, and no malice whatever in his composition. He can shine whenever he pleases, without the adventitious assistance of blacking. Long may he live, as the worthy Shepherd would say, to "rax the jaws" of the rising generation with all the quiddities and oddities for which his cachinnatory genius is so celebrated. Those who take Hood for a mere buffoon, however, will do him a grave injustice; for although the public will not allow a dependant upon its smiles, who is skilful in one kind of performance, to attempt another with any chance of success, it is a truth, of which all who will refer to his "Plea of the Midsummer Fairies" may easily satisfy themselves, that he is entitled to take a high rank as a writer of serious poetry. Barring a few affectations of the quaintnesses of our early poets, I scarcely know a more graceful and imaginative poem, than the one referred to.

+ An extensive dealer in water-colour paintings (not the artist of the same name), who has been mainly instrumental

Will England's Claude forswear his passion
For yellow-Patmore set a fashion?

Or Chalon paint a lady's face,

Nor stamp it with an added grace?
**** become a thinker,

Has empty

Or Pat Maginn a water-drinker?
Is T. K. Hervey gone to work?
Will humour ever leave a Smirke?
Collins untrue to Nature prove,

Or Sapphos sing of aught but love?

Will any painter yet to be,

Write with more sterling sense than Shee!

Rival Fuseli's demonology,

Or classic Howard's Greek mythology!
Conceive and paint a new Creation,
With Martin's fine imagination;
Or canvass with more meaning fill,
Wrought richly out, than Pickersgill,
When he depicts an eastern lady,

Or Grecian girl, like Byron's Haidee?
Will Stothard's genius cease to charm,

Or truthful Constable take harm,

in promoting the present taste for pictorial crudities. Sketches seem to be valued by some modern collectors in exact proportion to their incompleteness. The first idea of a man of genius is, no doubt, valuable; not less as a matter of curiosity, than for its artistical qualities; but the finished work must be incomparably more worthy of attention. There can be no reasonable objection to sketches, save when they are sold at the price of finished pictures.

Because some Grub-street scribe may choose

Their taste to scorn, their art abuse?
Let judges, such as this, in future,

Keep to their courts, or else be neuter,—
Reserve their low and ribald jeers,
To tickle sweet St. Giles's ears;

Nor wander farther west to teach

Their rules of art-and flowers of speech! *
Has Brougham stopped Dr. Croly's mouth?
Have Scotchmen ceased to travel south?
Will Sporus 'scape another kicking;
Cochrane grow rich by Mr. Picken; †

* I allude to some very gross personalities in the newspapers, professing to be criticisms of pictures in the Exhibitions of Somerset-house and Suffolk-street, and attributed to the pen of one of the judges of a certain court, not a hundred miles from the purlieus of St. Giles's. It is really revolting to every sentiment of common decency, to see the successful results of many months of anxious consideration and labour, decried and prejudiced, merely because the name of the painter or his subject may happen to suggest materiel for a vulgar sarcasm or an indecent pun. I have known several amiable and highlygifted artists, whose sensitive minds have been so much disgusted by the application to their pictures, of some low and ribald equivoque, as to have been incapacitated from pursuing their profession for weeks. Censure, confined within the legitimate bounds of criticism, every person who caters for the public taste, must be content to endure; but let us have strictures on the Art, and not vulgar libels on its Professors.

+ See the Club Book-a triad of volumes, formed by the eleemosynary contributions of various acquaintances of the Editor. 1 rather suspect that Mr. Bulwer might have purchased the

Colburn and Co. abandon quacking,
Or Mr. Whiting leave off blacking ? *
Sooner, methinks, I hear you say
Will C ―e his debts of honour pay;
Barnes cease to bully, Bell to libel, †
Or Satan's chaplain ‡ read the Bible.
Sooner, will "see-saw critics" learn
The "puff reciprocal" to spurn;

good word of Mr. P.'s associates in the mock-Blackwood, and at an easy rate, had he considered it worth his while so to do. Let the tyro in the art of reciprocal puffing, look at some of the reviews of this book, for as happy specimens of the system as are to be met with in even these piping times of disinterested praise.

*This gentleman, who is the proprietor of the "Atlas" newspaper, refused to require the people in his employ to contradict a statement they had made respecting me, although the proofs of its utter falsehood were volunteered to him; but kindly offered to publish my private letter on the subject! I suppose the word "advertisement" would have been placed at the head of it, and a charge of five or ten guineas demanded, after the custom of the "Times," for its insertion. Lord Tenterden was right, when he pronounced this trade to be a thriving one. It is, perhaps, hardly worth while to remark that Mr. Moore's autograph of the poem which these people accused me of forging, with such vindictive scurrility, has been offered to their inspection.

One of the underlings of the "Times" wrote a letter to the "Globe" newspaper some time ago, complaining of being identified with his employers. He thought it the extreme of bad taste to mention the name of the editor of a newspaper! I do not recognise this gentleman's principles of inviolability.

The Rev. Robert Taylor.