CORRESPONDENCE. 10^ 



the picture " informs the spectator of the mode of his death, that he 

 was not slain in close combat, but received a mortal wound from a 

 distant gun-shot, and died soon after, in the moment of victory, 

 surrounded by his officers," Mr. Carey says — " The uniforms shew 

 that the General and his army are British, and the tattooed Indian 

 warrior tells the country in which the battle was fought." Here is 

 a most apt illustration of my argument, for all these signs would be 

 of no avail, without much foregone knowledge, both of localities 

 and events, ^x. gra. — We must be acquainted with the British 

 uniform, in order to recognize it — we must know the characteristic 

 features of the American Indians, before the introduced portrait of 

 one can be any guide to the scene of the depicted event. The pic- 

 ture serves as a correct illustration to written or verbal descriptions 

 of the circumstances represented in it ; but it cannot convey abso- 

 lute information. Barry's fine, but ill-judged, picture of the same 

 subject is mentioned in jMr. Carey's evidence to prove that, being 

 conceived and executed in a manner inconsistent with the fashion 

 and habits of the time, it failed in conveying the required informa- 

 tion, — when the ability to discover its deficiency only arose from the 

 accurate fore-knowledge every one possessed on so familiar a topic, 

 enabling them to claim acquaintance, as it were, with the various 

 telling points in the popular canvass version of the story. To a 

 person ignorant of our national uniform, of the tattooed faces and 

 figures of the Indians, and of all the other '^ appliances and means 

 to boot," supposed to convey the information in this picture, Barry's 

 " Battle of Naked Warriors" would be quite as intelligible, nay, 

 more so, than the fully-accoutred group of officers in West's praised 

 work ; but, of themselves, neither could give information ; they 

 could only cause vague impressions. 



Mr. Carey considers West as expressing an opinion contrary to 

 Johnson's, in this remark on the picture of Wolfe — " It is a topic 

 that history will proudly record, and the saine truth that guides the 

 pen of the historian, should govern the pencil of the artist." In 

 this very sentence. West describes himself as acting with the histo- 

 rian, illustrating the event which ke will relate ; and, accordingly, 

 is scrupulously exact in every accessory matter, " to mark the date, 

 place, and the parties engaged in the event," that his picture may 

 agree with the historian's account. 



In a few sentences of his essay, Mr. Carey himself half renounces 

 the very faith I have been combating ; but I shall not withdraw 

 my remarks on some of his pages, because he has thought fit to 

 contradict himself in others. 



Mr. Carey wonders *' how any educated and considerate person 



