PRADIER, JAMES. 



PRAM, CHRISTIAN HENRIKSEN. 



ning of January 1814, he proceeded to London, charged with a request 

 from the allied soTereigna that Lord Castlerengh might be sent over to 

 join their df liberation*. He soon returned to the Continent accom- 

 panied by the Englib minister, with whom he proceeded to Baden, 

 where the allied sovereigns were then assembled. He continued in 

 eloae attendance upon toe Emperor Alexander at the Congress of 

 Chatillon, where he strenuously opposed the reception of the offers 

 made by Bonaparte, and throughout the reat of the campaign of the 

 first months of 1814, till they had the satisfaction of entering Paris 

 together on the memorable 81st of March. Pozzo, to whom is attri- 

 buted greet influence in keeping Alexander steady and in determining 

 him in favour of the restoration of the Bourbon*, was now nominated 

 Russian commissioner to the provisional government, and was soon 

 after despatched to England to bring over Louis XVIII., with whom 

 he returned to Paris on the 3rd of May. He remained in the French 

 capital till the meeting of the Congress of Vienna in the beginning of 

 November. 



At the conferences there he advised that the dethroned emperor 

 should be sent out of Europe ; and be is said to have produced tome 

 coldm as towards him for a time on the part of Alexander by the oppo- 

 sition he made to the project then entertained by the Tzar of restoring 

 the old kingdom of Poland. The changed aspect of things however 

 that followed the escape of Bonaparte from ilba (March 1st, 1815), at 

 once chilled Alexander's liberalism and restored Pozzo to favour. 

 Pozzo immediately proceeded to Louis XVIII. at Ghent, and having 

 then joined the allied army as Russian commissioner, he was present 

 in that character at the battle of Waterloo, where he received a wound. 

 He now returned to Paris, and, declining Talleyrand's invitation to 

 take office in the French ministry, resumed his former functions of 

 Russian ambassador, and in that capacity he signed the Treaty of Paris 

 of the 20th of November. Soon after the Duke de Richelieu, then 

 head of the ministry, conferred upon him the rank of a count and peer 

 of France. He does not appear to have again left Paris till he was 

 sent, after the Spanish campaign of the Duke of Angoulcme in 1823, 

 on a mission to Madrid, from which however he soon returned to the 

 French capital The death of the Emperor Alexander and the accession 

 of Nicolas (March 31st, 1825) did not alter bis position ; and he 

 received new li-tters, of credence to King Louis-Philippe after the 

 Revolution of 1830; but he at last revisited St. Petersburg in 1834. 

 Passing on his journey thither through Vienna and Berlin, be had the 

 Order of the Red Eagle conferred upon him by the former court, and 

 that of St. Stephen by the latter. On the breaking out of the war of 

 the East in 1835 he was sent on a mission to London. After a stay of 

 only a few months be returned to his former post at Paris ; but he 

 was soon sent back to this country as ambassador-extraordinary to the 

 King of Great Britain, he returned to Paris however before long, 

 and remained there till his death on the 15th of February 1842. 



PRADIER, JAMES, was born at Geneva in May 1792. While quite 

 young he was sent to Paris, and placed in the studio of the popular 

 sculptor LemoL His firtt public success was gained in 1812, when 

 through a technical informality bis model being pronounced unqualified 

 to compete for the first prize of the Academy, an extra gold medal 

 was awarded to him for its unusual excellence. The next year he 

 obtained for bis group of Philoctetes the first prize, and with it the 

 privilege of proceeding as Academy Student to Rome. In that city he 

 remained five years, and produced during that time several original 

 works. Although he is said to have there diligently studied the 

 antique and formed his own style upon it, there can be little doubt 

 that the influence of Can ova was much more powerful, and that the 

 oftneM, finish, and elegance, for which that eminent sculptor was so 

 celebrated, were what Pradier most anxiously endeavoured to realise ; 

 but whilst in these qualities be at the leant rivalled Canova, he went 

 far beyond him in that tendency to the sensuous and the voluptuous 

 which was no less decidedly characteristic of the great Italian. The 

 countrymen of Pradier are enthusiastic in their admiration of his nude 

 fornu to " delicatomeut voluptueuses ;" but to a colder Knglish critic 

 the delicacy often seems wanting, and while he cannot but admire the 

 exquisite modelling of the form, bo in constrained to turn with regrot 

 from what seems the perverse merrtricionsness of the sentiment. 



From his return to France in 1819 down to his death, M. Pradier 

 enjoyed a career of unbroken Parisian popularity ; and during his later 

 years, while all admitted him to be one of the most accomplished, by 

 many he was regarded as the greatest of living French sculptors. Uf 

 the works by which he achieved and maintained his high position the 

 following are some of the more celebrated the date* are those of the 

 years in which they appeared at the Exposition :' Bacchante acd 

 Centaur,' 1819, now in the Museum at Rouen; 'The Children of 

 Niobe,' 1822; 'Psyche,' 1824; 'The Three Graces,' 1831, now at 

 Versailles ; ' Venus and Lore,' 1880 ; An Odalesque,' 1841 ; 'Cassandra,' 

 1843; 'Phryne,' 1845, well known in this country from having been 

 placed in the Great Exhibition of 1851 ; 'Sappho,' 1848, a favourite 

 subject with him there was a statue of Sappho in the Exposition 

 the year of his death ; ' Spring,' 1849 ; Hebes, Amazons, Pandoras (one 

 of these is in the possession of Queen Victoria), Satyrs and Bacchantes, 

 Venuirs and the like, make up the list of that class of subject* in 

 which be chiefly excelled, and which was most characteristic of bin 

 chisel He also produced a Urge number of religious pieces, and many 

 of them of considerable size, but oat of France they have found few 



admirers. Among these are a oolosaal figure of 'Christ on the Cross,' 

 executed for Prince Dem idoff; a ' Pieta,' executed in 1847, and now at 

 Toulon ; a ' Marriage of the Virgin ' for the Madelaine, four ' Apostles,' 

 a ' Virgin ' for the cathedral of Avignon, Ac, Of portrait-statues he 

 sculptured Gaston de Foix, Marshal Soult, General Damremont, 

 Vendume, Kou-eau (for Geneva), Jouffroy (for Beaancon), the Due 

 d'Orleans, &c. He also executed busts of Louis XV11I., Charles X, 

 and other persons distinguished by their rank or social celebrity. 

 Among his other works may be mentioned the Tomb of Napoleon I., 

 some fountains, vases, &c. He likewise modelled numerous small 

 statues of a very meretricious character. 



Pradier was mode a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1822. In 

 1827 he was elected Member of the Institute on the death of Lcmot, 

 He died somewhat suddenly on the 5th of June 1852. There are two 

 or three costs after Pradier among the modern sculptures in the Crystal 

 Palace at Sydendam. 



PRAED, WINTHROP MACKWORTH, son of Mr. Sergeant Praed, 

 was born in 1802. In 1820 a monthly magazine appeared, entitled 

 ' The Etonian.' George Canning, while at Eton, wrote some clever 

 essays in 'The Microcosm.' Rennell and the nephew of Canning 

 (the present Lord Stratford de Redclifle) subsequently produced ' The 

 Miniature.' These publications were regarded as exhibition! of youth- 

 ful talent, were admired in a email circle, and forgotten. But ' The 

 Etonian ' aimed at something higher than school-boy essays ; it paid 

 slight regard to the 'microcosm* of Eton, and presented no 'miniature' 

 of its scholastic life ; it gave vivid pictures of general society ; it was 

 bright with wit and poetry, with fuu and satire. There was little of 

 the boyish about it but the freshness of boyhood. The principal 

 writer in 'The Etonian' was Winthrop Mackworth Praed. From 

 Eton be went to Trinity College, Cambridge. His career at the 

 university corresponded with the expectations that bad been formed 

 of his brilliant talents. In 1822 he was a Browne's Medallist both for 

 Greek ode and epigrams ; in 1 823, for Greek ode ; in 1 824, for epi- 

 grams. In 1823 he obtained the Chancellor's prize for an English 

 poem, 'Australia;' and in 1 824 the same prize for ' Athens.' He, was 

 one of the chief speakers in the Union the famous Cambridge 

 Debating Society, his most formidable rival being Thomas Babington 

 Macaulay. Tht> Etonian' was printed at the office of Mr. Knight, 

 then editor of the ' Windsor Newspaper,' and the intimacy that conse- 

 quently arose led to the publication of ' Knight's Quarterly Magazine ' 

 in 1823, to which Mr. Praed was one of the chief contributors, both 

 in prose and verse. His poems are amongst the most original in our 

 language; their wit and pathos are as remarkable as their finished 

 elegance. A collection of some of these poems was published at 

 New York in 1844, but it is far from complete ; and those who desire 

 that justice should be done to the memory of one of the most remark- 

 able writers of bis time, regret that these works, so often announced, 

 should be so unaccountably delayed. 



Mr. Praed took bis degree of B.A. in 1825. In 1829 he was called 

 to the Bar ; and in 1830 and 1631 was returned to Parliament for St. 

 Germans. In the earnest and protracted conflicts that preceded the 

 passing of the Reform Bill, he took a decided part in opposition to 

 the Reformers. His speeches, as reported, exhibit a readinets of 

 debating power rather than the flashes of wit which were expected 

 from him. He was a most ardent opposer of the Whig administra- 

 tion, though wo can trace in him a generosity of feeling and a hatred 

 of mere party calumny, which was to be expected from the nobility 

 of his nature. In the election of 1832 be unsuccessfully contested St. 

 Ives ; but in 1835 he was returned to Parliament for Great 

 Yarmouth. In that year he married. During a short time he was 

 Secretary to the Board of Control. He was subsequently member for 

 Aylesbury, was Recorder of Rarnstaple, and Deputy High-Steward for 

 the University of Cambridge. Had Mr. Praed s life been longer 

 spared, there can be little doubt that some of the most important 

 offices of the state would have been within his reach ; and his con- 

 tributions to literature, like those of his friend Macaulay, might have 

 carried forward the promise of his youth into new fields of excellence. 

 He died on the 15th of July 1839, in his thirty-seventh year. 



PRAM, CHRISTIAN HENRIKSEN, who has left a name of some 

 eminence in Danish literature and poetry, was born September 4th, 

 1756, in Guldbrandsdalen. After having been educated by his father, 

 who was a clergyman, and next passing a short time at the school at 

 Ktt'dericksborg, ho was sent to the university of Copenhagen, \vl> ] 

 he applied himself to the study of law and political economy. He did 

 not however adopt the law an a profession, and though he afterwards 

 continued to give his attention to the other, poetry and literature 

 became his chief pursuits. His continuing to apply himself to political 

 economy, is accounted for by bis being appointed, in 1781, to a high 

 situation in the Chamber of Commerce. Shortly afterwards he 

 married, and, in order to increase his income, set up the ' Han- 

 delittidende,' or 'Commercial Journal,' which he first carried on 

 in conjunction with Cramer and Ehrhart, and afterwards by himself, 

 but gave it up at the end of five years, though the publication itself 

 was continued. 



From that time he devoted himself, as far as his official duties would 

 permit, to literature. Indeed be had already signalised himself in it 

 by his 'Stocrkodder,' which appeared in 1785. This poem was then 

 altogether a novelty in Danish literature, and though it does not 



