36 Old Pielures: Juy, 
and expression are quite correspondent. Among the mere landscapes, 
there are several of exquisite truth and beauty, and others of wonderful 
force and spirit. All those of Ruisdael are of the first class of his works; 
there are two by Hobbema (122 and 135) that are perfect in their way ; 
Vanderneer has four night-scenes (91, 132, 150, 169) of rare merit ; and 
there is one large piece by Cuyp (145), which, if our limits would per- 
mit, we should offer a detailed description. Then here are several admi- 
rable sea-pieces by Vandervelde and Backhuysen ; and a set of five most 
astonishing sketches by Rubens (159 to 163) ; and, finally, some of those 
singular specimens of Da Hooge, which produce an effect. of reality, by 
means of light and shade, that no other artist has surpassed. 
Let us conclude our notice of these exquisite works by repeating, that, 
while the Directors of the British Institution continue to furnish us 
annually with a collection of old pictures equal in merit and value to 
these, they will have a claim upon our gratitude, which may fairly set at 
nought all the carpings of all the critics and academicians extant, on all 
their other proceedings. They may even go the length of giving an 
annual prize to Popkins, or withholding one from Hopkins, with perfect 
impunity: for we shall always be ready to insist, on their behalf, that 
nothing they can do, in reference to living artists, will be capable of 
counteracting the benefit anddelight they will thus afford us, through the 
medium of dead ones. 
A LEAF FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
An accident that happened to me some little time ago deserves to be 
recorded in these pages. To begin with my own portrait—It is well 
known what age is attributed to me by the Register-book ; and though, 
perhaps, I may be delicate on that point, yet I will stand out against 
many good friends of mine, and declare that such an age is very manly 
and appropriate, not one whit too advanced. I have been married, and 
indeed am or may be still so. Marriage is an odd conventional treaty, 
and the less said of it the better. My wife and I went on for a short 
time in an uneasy manner ; for her temper (as I thought) was ricketty, 
and she had strange notions about living in London, and such things. 
It seems to me that I was a very compliant man in those days, and, with- 
out doubt, behaved very kindly toher. But it would not answer. She 
asked for a separate maintenance, and I granted it her. 
Whoever has once been a family man is sure to be full of crotchets as 
a bachelor. The first independence leads him into puerilities. *Gad! 
how he travels the country, and spends money without accounting for it! 
What clubs he enters! what parti-coloured clothes he wears !—My first 
act was to become a mason ; then, as an energetic man, I was elevated 
to the office of secretary to two glee, one beef-steak, three debating, and 
seven benefit societies. I chuckled through life, and believed myself one 
of the jolliest dogs in creation. But these were the freaks of a season. 
The reaction had a marvellous effect. From a gay, devil-may-care fellow, 
I fell into a stupid moroseness, attended by paroxysms of hysterical 
whims. My joviality was not cut short by gradual retrenchments, but 
at “one fell swoop.” Off went my claret surtout. Many were the retire- 
ments read by my successors in office, when poor Joshua was elected an 
