has been confined to the affairs of buying and selling.

Mr Buchanan's book is, though treating of art, by no means got up secundum artem; but, to say the truth, we are not sure that we like it a bit the less for this. It certainly contains a great deal of very useful information in regard to the practical matters of the art pictorial, and must therefore be acceptable to artists. The connoisseurs and collectors, especially, will find it full of facts interesting to them; and few readers who have any taste for art at all, ean fail to be pleased with the details given as to the history of many particular masterpieces now in this country. Even the narratives of the different mercantile negotiations carried on by Mr Buchanan and his agents with the Italians and Spaniards, during their troubles, are by no means devoid of entertainmentsometimes, indeed, they throw light on the history of the period. And on the whole, the work is creditable to the writer; and will, we think, enjoy a considerable share of public favour; which consummation to accelerate, we shall now lay a few extracts before our readers.

The great Orleans Collection came divided into the English market. The Flemish and Dutch part of it was bought from the Duke Egalité, by an English gentleman, Mr Slade, in conjunction with Messrs Morland and Hammersley, and the late Lord Kinnaird who paid 350,000 francs for them, and made an excellent speculation of it. The Italian pictures were sold first to a banker of Brussels, Walkuers, then to M. Laborde de Meuville, who emigrated with them to England;

and when his affairs were such that he could no longer keep them, they were bought by Mr Bryan, for the late Duke of Bridgewater, the Earl of Carlisle, and Earl Gower, for the sum of 43,000/-and a most excellent bargain these noble co-partners had-for their lordships divided among themselves the pictures which they liked best, amounting in value to 39,0007.-and sold by auction the remainder for no less than 41,000%.-so that each of the three got his own share of the collection for nothing; in other words, made thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds by his venture. Mr Slade, in a letter to Mr Buchanan, gives the following

particulars as to his purchase of the Dutch and Flemish pictures of the Palais Royal.

"In the month of May, 1792, the late Lord Kinnaird and Messrs Morland and Hammersley asked me, if I would join them in the speculation of purchasing the whole of the Orleans Collection; for which they were to provide money, and I to find judgment as to their value. This proposal suiting me, I readily acquiesced in it; and on the 8th of June I set off from my house at Rochester for Paris, carrying with me a letter of credit on the house of Peregaux and Co. for fifty thousand pounds sterling. I arrived at Paris the very day the King had fled the city was in the greatest confusion, and under martial law; however, the keepers of the gallery had orders to let me have free access at all hours, and to take down any pictures which I wished to inspect.

"A negociation on the part of Lord Kinnaird had been begun through the means of a Mr Forth, a gentleman who was intimate in the family of the Duke of Orleans. After two or three days that I had been in Paris, I was requested, on the part of the Duke of Orleans, to make a valuation of all the pictures in the collection, and to make an offer. This, I represented, was contrary to all usage, as it was for His Royal Highness to fix the price, and to make a demandall expostulation, however, on this point was in vain for unless I acceded to these conditions the negotiation could not be entered into. I was therefore compelled to make a valuation, which I presented to the Duke; but when he saw it, he got into a rage, and said he was betrayed, and that I was in league with Monsieur le Brun, the director of His Royal Highness's gallery, as there was only 20,000 livres difference between his valuation and mine. I most positively assured the Duke that such coukl with Monsieur le Brun; had never spoken not be the case, as I was not acquainted to him in my life; and only knew him by reputation. This casualty, however, gave a check to the affair. The Orleans party at this time became every day stronger at Paris, and the Duke so popular, that he flattered himself he should speedily be elected regent. He suddenly, therefore, resolved not to sell that collection, on the credit of which he had already borrowed considerable sums of money for the purpose of influencing the public mind. Thus was this first and most important negociation broken off, to my great mortification, and I returned to England, having accomplished nothing.

"I had not long left France, when Lord Kinnaird informed me that the Italian part of the Orleans Collection had been dispo

sed of: that the Duke had lost a large sum of money at billiards to Monsieur la Borde, the elder; and that the bankers were so pressing upon him, that he was compelled to let them have the Italian pictures to pay his debt; that the Flemish and Dutch pictures still remained, but there was not a moment to be lost in endeavouring to secure them for this country. I accordingly set off a second time for Paris, and on my arrival was again required to make a valuation, which I did; and, strange to say, it again came within 10,000 livres of Monsieur le Brun's valuation.

"On this occasion my offer was accepted, a memorandum of agreement was signed, and I conceived all to be settled; but the Duke having learnt that he could obtain a larger sum from the Empress of Russia, objected to ratifying the sale, unless he was allowed the difference of exchange, which was at that time exceedingly favourable for England: this I acceded to, being anxious to terminate the affair, and I flattered myself that all obstacles had been removed; but no! the Duke had nearly outwitted himself by this delay. The numerous creditors, to whom he had pledged different parts of the palace, rose up, and claimed the pictures as a part of the furniture, and refused to let them be removed. I consulted an able advocate, who advised me, as I spoke the French language fluently, to plead my own cause. I accordingly

attended the first meeting of the creditors, in the great hall of the Palais Royal; from thirty to forty claimants were present: I urged the justice of my claim, which they did not seem te allow; and I boldly declared, that if they would not suffer me to remove the pictures, I had the power, and would enforce it, of lodging a protest against their being sold to any other person; in which case, the Duke could not satisfy their demands to any extent. This threat had the desired effect, and next day I was informed that I might remove them at my own risk. I lost no time in availing myself of this permission, and had them carried to a large warehouse adjoining the Palais Royal.

"Here again I had fresh difficulties to encounter; and, considering the state of the times, very considerable risk; for, while I was having them cased up, I was surrounded by a parcel of people, many of them artists, who declared that it was a shame so capital a collection should be permitted to go out of the kingdom, and seemed, from their language, determined to prevent it. Some of them asked privately by what route they were to go;-I had told the people employed in the embellage that they would be sent off by land for Calais; so soon, however, as the packing was completed, I had them all privately in the night put on board a barge, which was in readi

ness, and sent by the Seme to Havre de Grace; from whence they were immediately forwarded to England, and were safely landed at the Victualling Office at Chatham.

"I was at that time a man of good fortune, and held a place under government. My house was at Chatham, where I had a very excellent gallery of pictures for my own gratification. So soon as these pictures were landed, I had them arranged in my gallery, and, for some months, had an opportunity of gratifying visitors with a view of my acquisition; of which, considering the risks I had encountered, I was very proud.

"The following season the collection was carried to London, where it was exhibited for sale by private contract, at the Old Academy Rooms in Pall Mall, under the direction of Mr Wilson of the European Museum; and you may judge of the general interest which this collection created, when I inform you, that above one hundred pounds per day was received during the last week of the exhibition, at one shilling admittance only. I had the entire control over this valuable property, and fixed those prices which I considered as fair, but which have since proved to be much under the real value of the pictures."

Mr Buchanan thus introduces his

catalogue of the Talleyrand Gallery.

"The collection of cabinet pictures of the Flemish and Dutch schools, formed by Monsieur de Talleyrand, had long been considered one of the most select in France. It was composed of chefs-d'œuvres drawn from the various collections of Hesse Cassel, Malmaison, the Prince de Conti, the Duc de Valentinois, the Duc d'Alva, the Duc de Choisseuill, de Poullain, of Randon de Boisset, de Tolozan, Van Leyden, de Schmidt, Clos, Solirène, the Duc Dalberg, and Robit; and had the advantage of being formed under the direction of Monsieur le Brun, one of the most intelligent connoisseurs of the French capital.

"In the year 1817, Monsieur de Talleyrand having expressed himself inclined to dispose of his collection by private contract, the author of these sketches waited upon him in Paris for the purpose of making proposals to purchase the same, and after a short conversation with Monsieur de Talleyrand, and having examined the collection, he agreed to give him the sum at which the collection had been valued, provided he would reserve a Claude, which hung in a situation too high to be examined critically, and make a deduction of 30,000 francs for the same, being the sum at which it had been valued. To these terms Monsieur de Talleyrand would not consent at the time, and would make no deduction whatever; but he desired to take

the proposition regarding the Claude into consideration, and to give an answer the following day.

"In the meantime, a gentleman who had introduced Mr Buchanan to Monsieur de Talleyrand, wrote a letter to the secretary of that nobleman, without the knowledge of the former, proposing some modification of the offer in regard to the collection without the Claude, which it appears had given offence either to Monsieur de Talleyrand himself or to his secretary; for on the following day, when Mr Buchanan attended by appointment to conclude the transaction, (and he had determined not to allow the affair of the Claude to stand in the way of it,) he was informed that Monsieur de Talleyrand had gone from home, and that the pictures were no longer vi sible.

"Finding his views defeated from this casualty, and no probability of again having an interview with the proprietor himself, and being at the same time informed that Monsieur de Talleyrand had changed his intention of selling this fine collection of pictures, he returned to England, and had been there for several weeks, when he was again informed that this collection was to be sold on the 7th of July by public sale in Paris, of which he received a printed catalogue.

"Having previously received intimation that something of this kind might be the case, Mr Buchanan had taken care to have credits in readiness to operate on at a short notice, as one of the principal causes for not terminating the affair at the first interview with Monsieur de Talleyrand was, his not having carried credits with him for a sum adequate to that which would have been required, argent comptant, had the terms proposed been agreed to; and the affair of the Claude was intended either to create a diminution on the aggregate sum, if accepted, or to keep the affair open until the proper arrangement for the payinent of the whole should be made, and the money received from England. On the second occasion, therefore, as he was prepared for the affair, whatever shape it might assume, he set off immediately for Paris to negotiate with the gentleman who he was in formed had been named as agent for the disposal of these pictures, being anxious to secure for this country so celebrated a collection if it were possible.

"On Mr Buchanan's arrival in Paris he found that the pictures, although still on the walls of the Hotel de Talleyrand, had been placed entirely under the control of Monsieur Bonnemaison; and as he was informed that several competitors for them had come into the field, he lost no time in concluding a transaction with that gentleman, by which he was to pay 320,000 francs for the collection as it stood described in the printed catalogue, which con

tained forty-six pictures, the greater pro portion of which were of the first class."

The following will shew that there are tricks in all trades.

"After the purchase of the collection of Talleyrand, Mr Buchanan turned his attention to some of those collections which, he had for some time known, might be obtained in Flanders and in Holland, particularly that of Van Reyndaers at Brussels, the collection of Van Havre at Antwerp, in which were the Chapeau de Paille, the Chateau de Laaken, the Elizabeth Brants, and Helena Foreman, all by Reubens (the last of which Mr Buchanan purchased from that family, and made them large offers for the other three,) and the collection of the Burgomaster Hoguer, at Amsterdam, in which were several fine pictures by Paul Potter, Philip Wouvermans, Jan Steen, &c. &c. A short account of Mr Bucha nan's proceedings, in regard to the pur chases which he then made, will be found in a letter written from Amsterdam, which having been preserved by the friend to whom he then wrote, he is now enabled to give it here.

"Amsterdam, Aug. 25, 1817.

"After writing to you from Paris, a piece of information came to my knowledge which has brought me here in all haste. I learnt that the fine Paul Potter, belonging to the Burgomaster Hoguer, would be sold in the course of a few days, and that several amateurs were on the look-out for it.

"A few days ago Monsieur le R. did me the honour of a call, evidently for the purpose of learning my movements for the rest of the season. The conversation turned on the beauty of the south at this season of the year; and fearing that my views might have been directed towards Flanders or Holland, he strongly recommended my seeing the banks of the Loire before leaving France, especially as the vintage was fast approaching. I told him that I had long intended to make an excursion to Orleans, Tours, &c. and had some thoughts of going there before returning to England. This seemed to quiet his suspicions of finding me a competitor in the north; for having so recently purchased the Talleyrand Collection, which excited some degree of jealousy among the Parisians, he imagined to find me his opponent also in Flanders and Holland. I inquired where he meant to spend the autumn; when he said he was going in the course of a short time, on account of his health, to drink the mineral waters of Mont-d'Or. After some farther conversation upon indifferent matters, he then took his leave of me, and we parted, wishing each other bonne santé et un bon voyage.

"Having learned that much interest was likely to be excited among the amateurs