globe) wnich by forming a pointed termination to the whole, combines a lightness and solidity, which an equal body placed horizontally could not possess. But then the colossal statue injures the effect and the importance of the lesser ones beneath it, which appear to be supporting it: a circumstance that in the deviation from the first design does not seem to have been sufficiently attended to. Yet worse of all, this statue is not that of the illustrious man after whom the monument is named, and whose victories it records; but a Britannia-one of those prosopopæias, which although they might be well adapted to antiquity, in whose system of mythology they formed an essential portion, favour too much of hackneyed and forced allegory not to excite emotions in some degree unfavourable to the artist; yet were the statue in this respect invulnerable to criticism, it never can atone for the absence of that figure*, which the eye reproachfully solicits. Imperious pecuniary reasons however may have occasioned this substitution; and, perhaps after all, nothing is lost with regard to the effect of the ensemble, and the costume. A beautiful Grecian female, which presents to the eye of the connoisseur a Minerva,† although designated as Britannia, may, notwithstanding our remarks, be as classical, and as ap

The column at Dublin is surmounted by a statue of Nelson, as is also that at Montreal, in Canada.

it is in fact a copy of the well-known Minerva, in Mr. T. Hope's collection.

propriate a termination to a structure throughout purely Athenian, as the figure and modern habiliments of an English admiral.

This Britannia, or this Genius of naval valour, would undoubtedly have a fine and impressive effect, if looking across the ocean, she appeared to exhort our navies to emulate that prowess, for which England has been celebrated among nations: her trident, indeed, announces her empire over the waters, and the branch she extends in her right hand animates to conquest; but alas, she ungracefully turns her back upon that element upon which she might have gazed in conscious superiority. Her attitude ought not to bespeak dejection so much, as the pride of triumph, since the monument is not intended to record the death so much as the victories of Nelson. Compared with the impropriety just mentioned, the bronzed wreath and trident are trifles not deserving animadversion, although they destroy that unity of colour and material, which in other respects prevails; had bronze been introduced elsewhere, the keeping would at least have been better preserved.

1

The statue, which is formed of Coade's artificial stone, was moulded in eight pieces, that were not united until put up; the whole is held together by cement, and fixed on an iron rod, which rests on the spine, or rewel, around which the stairs wind, and which is continued to the roof, thus constituting the real, although not the apparent support

of the figure. It is intended to complete the design at some future period, by adding a sarcophagus, and surrounding the whole by an iron pallisading, forming a regular octagonal area, according to the plan marked out by the present temporary paling. The necessity for such enclosure, every man of taste must regret, but it is a matter of imperious duty to protect the edifice from the Vandalism of wanton outrage, instances of which have already appeared in the interior by names scrawled on the surface.* Thus it must unavoid

*The propensity of the English to deface, appropriate and destroy, whether statues, buildings, books, prints, or pictures, in whatever place they have public admission, is an extraordinary feature in the character of the people. No English party can be entrusted by themselves even in a garden where there are flowers or fruit. The flowers they pick from mere wantonness, and in a few moments throw them over into the road, or drop them in the paths. Ancient monuments they are sure to deface, in order to ornament their chimney pieces; and a friend of ours once in an old edition of an English poet that he picked up at a stall, found a bit of black paper stuck in one of the blank leaves of the beginning, with the following words written under it: "This is a bit of one of the celebrated cartoons at Hampton Court." So that this enthusiastic admirer of the cartoons must surreptitiously have torn off a bit by way of shewing his veneration for the fine arts, and for Raffaelle. When the French were in Egypt, a white sarcophagus in one of the Pyramids was suffered to remain for two years uninjured. The moment the English got posesssion of Cairo, the soldiers from the regiments went in with hatchets in their hands, and half destroyed it before the officers of engineers could counteract it, in order to carry away bits to their friends. What a singular contrast be

ably present the appearance of a beautiful exotic, transplanted from its congenial soil to one where it is necessary to provide for it artificial security, instead of the protection of public veneration, and popular feeling for art.

Yet although motives of such cogency demand and encrease, an exterior fence of pallisadoes, nothing can extenuate the vile and paltry effect of the iron gates before the four flights of steps which derogate from every idea of classical beauty, and destroy, the writer had almost said totally destroy, that air of triumphal dignity, for which, in a former passage (written previously to these degrading objects being affixed) he had commended this otherwise beautiful terrace. They are indeed

"Ut gratas inter mensas symphonia discors."

or-and conceive the vulgar profanation-as becoming as iron pattens to a Grecian Venus.

As the sarcophagus remains to be erected, here

tween the English and the French! In the Thuilleries gardens, the flowers blow and hang over the rails, without being picked, although the walks are full of servants and children. No person writes his name on any of the statues. The printroom at the Library is open to all classes of people, yet the prints are never lost or stolen ; whereas the first time leave was given at the British Museum for public inspection of the prints, without a guard, the whole of Rembrandt's fine etchings were stolen, and copies substituted. We cannot account for this, it may be a remnant of barbarous feeling not yet refined away.-ED.

† None of the prints hitherto published, represent either

will even yet be an opportunity of introducing a portraiture of the hero; since a medallion may with admirable propriety be attached to this Cenotaph. There would then be something more obvious than the inscriptions to assign this monument to Nelson; and this would impart a propriety, and an interest to the whole, which in spite of the extreme beauty of the design, are yet desiderata. A profile on a medallion would also in some respects be preferable even to a colossal statue in lieu of the present one of Britannia, because the head would be of about equal dimensions, and not at a greater elevation, than thirtyfour or thirty-six feet from the ground, consequently the features might be very plainly and conveniently discerned. Another advantage attending this method is, that the artist would not have to contend with the defects of modern costumes, which, although the eye is somewhat more reconciled to it than formerly, is incompatible with sculpture. The position of the sarcophagus will, in some measure, excuse the impropriety of that of Britannia, since it will at once lead the visitor to view the monument from this, as being the principal side.

Two fortunate circumstances, one, if not both of them, unpremeditated, will attend this arrangethese gates, or any exterior inclosure. The omission of them in Porter's engraving is a confession that the architect himself does not consider them as adding to the general beauty, since the plate was executed under Mr. Wilkins's direction.