Affairs in General. 345 



British Gallery, in such a situation, that it is impossible to make out any of its 

 beautiful details ? The artist has thrown a funeral gloom over the picture, that 

 wonderfully heightens the effect; but which, from the position in which it is 

 placed, makes it serve as a dark mirror to reflect the tawdry works of more 

 favoured artists : and why is it that the name of the painter is altogether 

 omitted in the catalogue ? We direct the attention of the noble patrons of this 

 Institution to these facts : they are illustrative of the system of favouritism 

 which marks the whole management ; but if they desire a specific proof of that 

 favouritism, we are prepared to shew that a courtesy was refused to one person, 

 and granted on the same day to another, although the parties were known to 

 apply for the same purpose, and that the favour would be an unjust advantage 

 to one if refused to the other. When we drew attention to the treatment of 

 Mr. Hall, of Salisbury, more than one nobleman asked for proof; this, in a 

 question of taste, is rather difficult, but proof of favouritism we now offer to any 

 noble director who shall think it worth while to desire it.'* 



JUVENILE ROYALTY. Modern philosophers have divided knowledge 

 into various species, the useful, the entertaining, and so on ; but it 

 would puzzle them, perhaps, to find a term descriptive of the peculiar 

 kind of knowledge, which we sometimes see paragraphed in the papers. 

 Fifty years hence, when the world shall have shaken off that slavish 

 devotion to mere rank, that demoralizing appetite to know something 

 concerning the whereabout of its " betters," which is the source of so 

 much mischief even yet, and which has been the cause of one-half of 

 the mistakes that mankind have committed the readers of the then 

 newspapers will wonder how it could possibly happen that, only half a 

 a century before, all classes of society felt so deep an interest in the 

 movements of a sullen-looking lad, about twelve years of age, as to 

 render it necessary to record his perambulations in public instructors, 

 that are usually considered to be devoted to the affairs of the nation. 

 What Ancient Britons must they think us, when they stumble on such 

 an announcement as this ! " Prince George of Cumberland, accompa- 

 nied by his tutor, honoured Drury Lane Theatre with his presence on 

 Friday evening." 



Here are two interesting facts recorded : First, that the son of a 

 duke, who is about as beloved as he is enlightened, is regarded as an 

 object of vast public curiosity ; and next, that he honours Drury Lane 

 Theatre, as often as he sets his little illustrious foot within the lobby. 

 Mr. Wordsworth and Mr. Bentham are common-place people they 

 only " visit" Drury Lane ; Prince George of Cumberland " honours it 

 with his presence." It may be said, that we are cavilling about terms, 

 the mere frippery of court-phraseology ; but it must be remembered 

 that all customs are not harmless because they are contemptible. Of 

 course two-thirds of society laugh at the absurdity of the thing ; but 

 the remaining third is dazzled by its effrontery, and cheated into a fit 

 of admiration of the little Cumberland Colossus, under whose legs our 

 Brutuses are to peep about for their renown. If Ulysses were living 

 in 1832, he might well say, 



" The world is still deceived by ornament." 



There are people (we have seen them) who not only stand contemplat- 

 ing Prince George's spurs and pony with rapture and reverence, but, 

 who extend their idolatry to the laced jacket of his footboy. The only 

 thing that at all counteracts the debasing effects of this absurd curiosity 

 is that they invariably walk away with the conviction that the footboy, 



M.M. New Series.- VOL. XIII. No. 75. 2 A 



