NOTES AND EVENTS OP THE MONTH. 573 



character to the attitude and contour of his hero (manifestly designed to 

 supply the defect of outline) ; and the background and mid- distance are 

 thoroughly enveloped in darkness. In this contrivance we discover the 

 chief point which tells in the work ; a Rembrandt-like effect is produced 

 a spot of light amidst a mass of blackness which helps the interest 

 and deepens the charm of mystery. Nevertheless, we do not think 

 that the production will either become a lasting favourite with the pub- 

 lic, or contribute to the painter's reputation. The drawing is harsh, and 

 singularly unequal, the handling unsteady, and the colouring, though 

 designedly dark, is cloudy, muddled, and infelicitously laid on as though 

 the artist had employed a dirty brush ; indeed, the greenish* tint which 

 prevails throughout the composition detracts from the imposing effect 

 which grandeur of guilt, whenever well delineated, is" sure to convey. 

 There is, in truth, nothing F^or-ous in the whole composition ; but a ge- 

 neral and ludicrously apparent flatness every where predominates. Our 

 own opinion is that the painter is unequal to the task he has undertaken, 

 and we are borne out in this suspicion by the general glazing and redun- 

 dancy of varnish he has had recourse to by way of concealing certain 

 conscious defects of drawing and colouring. The work, we believe, 

 was painted on commission, but it is doubtful if ever he will be repaid 

 for the loss of trouble and materiel that have been expended. 



JUSTICE'S JUSTICE. The chairman of the Middlesex Sessions has 

 made another " mistake." Not long ago the worshipful Bench, under 

 that learned person's presidentship, appointed a whole calendar of delin- 

 quents to various exercises for the benefit of their health and morals, 

 when it was suddenly and just in time discovered, that a little juridicial 

 precipitancy nullified the whole of the sentences ; in other words, that 

 those expounders of the law had been expounding with illegal celerity. 

 That was a sad enough blunder of "judgment" in very truth, and not 

 a little humiliating. One might have reasonably supposed [that, made 

 cautiously wise by unpleasant experience, and with the remembrance of 

 such a mishap staring them in the face, nothing supereminently rash 

 would have speedily occurred again ; but, 'Las-a-day ! a second blunder 

 has just been perpetrated, more fatally hurtful to their reputation than 

 the first. The learned chairman (in his own name, some say, though, 

 strictly speaking, in the name of his worshipful colleagues for, judicially 

 considered, he was nobody if he were not their organ) has been ap- 

 pending his name to reports highly deregatory to the character of His 

 Majesty's goal of Newgate ! which gaol being specially under the super- 

 vision of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the good city of London, 

 some of that excellent body took occasion to repel the alleged slander, 

 with befitting promptitude and indignation. What was the consequence ? 

 The worshipful chairman before mentioned, taking immediate umbrage, 

 thereat, and considering that the impugned Bench ought to require 

 gentlemanly satisfaction, at the hands of the impugning Bench ; and 

 furthermore considering that a passage of arms between all the civic 



* There may be some extenution in this particular ; the subject is essentially un- 

 palateable, and he should have exclusively confined himself to chalks. 



