104 
THE STOEY OP A SCENE-PAINTEB. 
[Nature and Art, September 1, 1866. 
eighteenth, century, itncl conceitedly talk as if human 
reason had not a manacle left about her, but that 
philosophy had broken down all the strongholds of 
prejudice, ignorance, and superstition ; and yet, at 
this very time, Mesmer has got a hundred thousand 
pounds by animal magnetism in Paris, and Mainaduc 
is getting as much in London. There is a fortune- 
teller in Westminster who is making little less. 
Lavater’s physiognomy books sell at fifteen guineas 
a set. The diving [divining 1] rod is still considered 
as oracular in many places. Devils are cast out by 
seven ministers ; and, to complete the disgraceful 
catalogue, slavery is vindicated in print and defended 
in the House of Peers ! Poor human nature, when 
wilt thou come to years of discretion 1 ” Mr. W alpole 
writes back (he has always a proper tone for Miss 
More, reserving his levity and licence for less staid 
correspondents) : — “Alas ! while Folly has a shilling- 
left, there will be enthusiasts and quack doctors ■” 
and he adds, airing his pet affectation — a hatred of 
royalty, a love for republicanism — “ and there will 
be slaves while there are kings or sugar-planters.” 
Joseph Balsam o — more generally known by his 
pseudonym of Count Alexander De Cagliostro, ex- 
pelled from France, after nine months’ durance in 
the Bastille, on account of his complicity in the 
diamond necklace fraud and scandal — had taken 
refuge in England, bringing with him a long list of 
quackeries and impostures : among them, his art of 
making old women young again ; his system of 
“ Egyptian freemasonry,” as he termed it, by virtue 
of which the ghosts of the departed conld be beheld 
by their surviving friends ; and the secrets and dis- 
coveries of the great Doctor Mesmer in the so-called 
science of animal magnetism. Walpole at once 
proclaims the man a rascal, and proposes to have 
him locked up for his mummeries and impositions. 
Miss More laments that people will talk of nothing 
else. “ Cagliostro and the cardinal’s necklace,” she 
writes, “spoil all conversation, and destroyed a very 
good evening at Mr. Pepys’s last night.” A dis- 
cussion of such subjects was by no means compatible 
with Miss More’s notion of a good evening. 
What could have induced simple-minded Mr. 
De Loutberbourg to put trust in this arch -juggler ? 
Can it have been that from the painter’s native 
Strasbourg had come to him unimpeachable fables 
of Cagliostro’s feats during his stay there, which 
had preceded his nefarious expedition to Paris? 
But the artist is ever excitable, receptive, impressi- 
ble — the ready prey of the dealer in illusion and 
trickery. De Loutherbourg is soon at the feet of 
the quack Gamaliel ; soon he is proclaiming him- 
self an inspired physician, practising mesmerism. 
Cosway and his wife declared themselves clairvoy- 
ants. Other painters of the period were dreaming 
dreams and seeing visions. Nor was it only the 
artist world that took up with, and made much of, 
Count Cagliostro and his strange doings. Wiser 
people than Mr. De Loutherbourg were led astray 
by the mountebank, though they did not wander so 
far from the paths of reason and right, nor publish 
so glaringly the fact of their betrayal into error. 
Cagliostro was the rage of the hour. The disciples 
of Dr. Mesmer were without number. It was in 
ridicule of general rather than class credulity that 
Mrs. Inchbald wrote (or adapted) her comedy of 
“ Animal Magnetism,” produced on the stage of 
Covent Garden in 1788. 
After a time, however, the bubble burst. The 
duped were becoming desperate. A loud cry arose. 
As a doctor, De Loutherbourg failed utterly ; as 
a seer, his prophecies broke down lamentably. 
Presently there Avere very riotous proceedings 
outside his house at Hammersmith : throwing of 
stones and smashing of windows. De Louther- 
bourg prudently disappeared until the storm had 
passed away. He Avas believed to have gone to 
SAvitzerland with Cagliostro, proposing never to 
return. But soon news came of the arrest of 
Cagliostro in Rome, and of his condemnation to 
death for being a freemason — the sentence being 
afterwards commuted to perpetual imprisonment : 
and Cagliostro’s friend was found to be in England 
again, no longer practising as a physician, but 
folloAving his legitimate profession, hard at Avork 
before his easel as though he had never quitted it. 
His fanatical escapades seem soon to liaA 7 e been 
forgiven and forgotten. A highly esteemed painter, 
he Avas permitted to resume his place in society. 
In proof of the regard in Avhicli he was held, it may 
be noted that the guardians of the De Quinceys 
deemed it worth while to pay De Loutherbourg a 
premium of one thousand guineas, to receive as a 
pupil William, the elder brother of Thomas De 
Quincey, who had given promise of skill in drawing. 
The young fellow died, however, in his sixteenth 
year, about 1795, in the painter’s house at Hammer- 
smith. A more moderate sum had some years 
previously been demanded of Mr. Charles Bannister, 
the actor, for the art-education of his son John. 
For a payment of fifty pounds per annum for four 
years, it was agreed that John Bannister should be 
taught, boarded, and lodged. But the arrangement 
came to nothing. De Loutherbourg demanded the 
payment of the money in advance. He mistrusted 
the players. They had caricatured him on the 
stage as “ Mr. Lanternbug,” in General Bourgoyne’s 
comedy, “The Maid of the Oaks and then his 
mocking artist brethren caught ' at the nick -name, 
corrupting it, however, to “ Leatlierbag.” Mr. 
Bannister was unable or unAvilling to comply Avith 
the painter’s requirements : so young John was sent 
to the school of the Royal Academy, which he 
soon deserted, and finally trod the boards, and 
charmed the town as an actor. Another pupil of 
De Loutherbourg, and a close imitator of his Avorst 
manner, Avho is yet worthy of public notice as 
the founder of the Duhvich Gallery, Avas Francis 
Bourgeois, knighted by the King of Poland. 
Edward Dayes, artist, critic, and biographer of 
artists, is said to have exclaimed eccentrically in 
reference to Sir Francis : “ Dietricy begat Casanova, 
Casanova begat De Loutherbourg, De Loutherbourg 
begat Franky Bourgeois, a dirty dog, who quarrelled 
with nature, and bedaubed her works ! ” 
By his pictures of “ Lord Howe’s Victory on the 
1st of June, 1794,” and “The Storming of Valen- 
