1831.] Ajf'a'u-s in General. 195 



his picture of the Deluge, has painted bods, not then invented. St. Jerome, in 

 another place with a clock by his side, a thing unknown in that saint's days. A 

 painter of Toledo represented the three wise men of the East coming to w^orship, 

 and bringing their presents to our Lord upon his birth at Bethlehem, and three 

 Arabian or Indian kings ; two of them are white, and one of them black; but, 

 unhappily, when he drew the latter part of them kneeling, their legs being 

 •necessarily a little intermixed, he made three black feet for the negro king, and 

 but three wldte feet for the two w-hite kings ; and yet never discovered the mistake 

 till the piece was presented to the king, and hung up in the great church. —The 

 monks of a certain monastery at J'v'Iessina exhibited, with great triumph, a letter 

 written by the Virgin Mary with her oicii hand. Unluckily, this was not, as it 

 might have been, written on the ancient papyrus, but on paper made of rags. 

 On some occasion a visitor, to wdiom this was shewn, observed, with affected 

 solemnity, that the letter involved also a miiacle, for the paper on which it was 

 written \vas not in existence till several hundred years after the Virgin had ascended 

 into Heaven. — In the church of St. Zacharia, at Venice, is the picture of a Virgin 

 and Child, whom an angel is entertaining with an air upon the violin! So also in 

 the College Library of Aberdeen, to a very neat Dutch missal are appended elegant 

 paintings on the margin, of angels appearing to the shepherds, with one of them 

 playing on the bay-iripes. — There is a picture in a church of Bruges, that puts not 

 only all chronology, but every thing else out of countenance. It is the marriage 

 of our Saviour with St. Catherine of Sienna. St. Dominic the Patron of the Church, 

 marries thT.i! the rir(jin Mary joins their hands ; and, to crown the anachronism. 

 King David plays the harp at the wedding." 



How oddly fame is distributed in this world. Old IMajor Cartwright, 

 M-ho never did any thing " good, bad, or indifferent," as the Irish 

 category of life says ; who prascd the very soul out of Reform by his 

 long-winded essays, and v/ho was neither imprisoned, banished, nor 

 hanged, for his illustrious cause, has actually been remembered by his 

 compatriots, and flourishes in copperplate and bronze. The newspapers 

 tell us 



" A faithful portrait of this distinguished reformer has been published. At a 

 time when the principles which, throughout a life of lengthened consistency, the 

 individual whose features are here presented to us advocated, are on the eve of 

 completing their resistless triumph, such a portrait is endeared to all who hold 

 the same principles and opinions." 



We have no desire to dispute about the taste of this matter, and those 

 who tliought the IMajor a Cato- IMajor, are welcome to purchase the plate. 

 But political gratitude has gone even the length of erecting a statue to 

 the Reformer ; and Burton Crescent has the honour of its reception. It is 

 odd enough that the vicinage of Russell Square should be the only part of 

 the town in which any attempt has been made to erect public memorials 

 to the dead, for the royal effigies which adorn the squares in tlie West End 

 had but little connection with any public impulse, however they might 

 have gratified either the taste or the loyalty of the people. But it is 

 equally odd, that if royalty takes possession of the West End, Whiggery, 

 with its darker associate Radicalism, should have taken possession of the 

 nortli ; and we have within a few streets of each other, Charles Fox, the 

 late Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Kent, and Major Cartwright. The 

 scale could not be more completely graduated. 



Yet in speaking with utter contempt of the Major's political views, 

 we would separate the man from the politician. Tlie Major was a gen- 

 tleman ; and was thus incapable of the shiftings, supplenesses, and 

 miserable trimming of the traders in politics. He adopted his views on 



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