punishing the mifconduct, (however notoriously influenced by venal motives) of a Reprefentative towards his Conftituents.?

In our opinion, the author would not find this inequality fo ftriking, perhaps he could not find it at all, if he had properly defined the terms People and Legislature. In their collective capacity, neither can be profecuted nor punished; in their individual capacities, both may. If fome individuals affemble to bring about a reform, or any other meafure, by force or violence, they certainly might and would be indicted: but, were the whole people with one voice to call for and infift on having a parliamentary reform, who could indict them, where could grand juries be found to return bills against them, where petit juries to try them, where the poffe comitatus to enable the fheriffs to carry the verdicts into effect? Againft the Legislature, the law could not have provided any proceeding; because, exercifing the fovereignty of the state, it could not be liable to punishment. Against the House of Commons no action is given to the people; because the people, by the conftitution, are fupposed to be there affembled; and it would be abfurd to give a man an action against himself. Should an individual member offend against the law, he is as punishable as any of his conftituents: fhould be be convicted of bribery or corruption in getting into parliament, there are laws for inflicting pretty fevere penalties on him; and fhould he be proved to have fold his vote in the houfe, he is liable to imprisonment, and finally to expulfion. Such proceedings are perhaps not fo frequent as fome people think they might be: but inftances of the kind have occurred, as appears from the Journals of the Houfe of Commons.

In the pamphlet before us we fee much to approve, and little to condemn: but we must confefs that in one place, at least, we difcover fymptoms of fomething bordering on an approbation of the idea of paffing-by parliament, and calling on the people to take the bufinefs of reform into their own hands. We allude to the following paffage: No folecifm, (fays our author, page 9,) can be more grofs than to imagine that corruption will purify itself.” In this short sentence, our imagination, without being over-lively, or very ready to catch alarms, fees the poffibility of difturbance, confufion, and civil war, if the idea which it conveys were entertained by a great body of men. When the people move, there is no power in the ftate to stop them. Nothing, it is true, but great provocation, and a conviction that redrefs could not otherwise be obtained, would ever make them rife: but, when once rifen, nothing but their own moderation could make them put an end to their movement, and fit down in peace. Moderation from millions is what may rather be wished than expected; and, before it fhould begin to act, much mischief

might be done. On the other hand, we believe that parliament will not reform itself, until it fhall appear to be the general fenfe of the people that it should. Let that sense be once fairly and clearly expreffed by petitions or addreffes, and all oppofition to reform muft die away within the walls of St. Stephen's chapel. The people never yet spoke in vain: but, if parliament hear the voice only of this or that fociety, is it to blame for not confidering it as the voice of the people? Let the counties, the cities, the towns, explain themselves clearly on the fubject; and we will not hesitate to give it as our opinion that their wishes, whatever they may be, will prevail, without tumult, confufion, or ftrife: for furely no minifter would ever be hardy enough to advise his fovereign to refift the general fenfe of the nation; or, could fuch a minifter ever arife, he certainly will never find a king either weak or mad enough to follow his advice.

ART. XV. An Essay on the Picturefque, as compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful; and on the Ufe of ftudying Pictures, for the Purpose of improving real Landscape. By Uvedale Price, Efq. 8vo. pp. 288. 5s. Boards. Robfon. 1794.

WE E fhall fay the lefs of this effay, here, as the extracts, which will be found in the two following articles, will fpeak our fentiments of it with better effect than any which our own affertions could fingly produce. Its origin and hiftory are given by the Author in his Preface:

This unfinished work (and fuch, I fear, it is in every respect) I did not intend publishing till it was more complete, and till I had endeavoured, at least, to render it more worthy the public infpection. I have, however, been induced to send it into the world earlier than I wifhed, from the general curiofity which my friend Mr. Knight's poem has awakened on the fubject.

It would have been more prudent in me not to have afforded the public fuch an opportunity of judging, how much I am indebted to the effufion of friendship and poetry, for the high compliment he has paid me; were I now to fay what I feel about my friend's poem, it might appear like a return of compliment; and whatever could in any way be fo mifconftrued, would be equally unworthy of us both.

I cannot however, refift the fatisfaction of mentioning one circumftance, highly flattering to me, as it accounts for my not chufing to delay this publication. I had mentioned to Mr. Knight that I had written fome papers on the prefent ftyle of improvement, but that I defpaired of ever getting them ready for the prefs; though I was very anxious that the abfurdities of that ftyle fhould be expofed. Upon this he conceived the idea of a poem on the fame subject; and having all his materials arranged in his mind, from that activity and perfeverance which fo strongly marked his character, he never delayed or abandoned the execution till the whole was completed. When it

was

was nearly finished, he wrote to me to propofe, what I confider as the highest poffible compliment, and the ftrongest mark of confidence in my tafte, that my papers (when properly modelled) should be published with his poem, in the fame manner as Sir Joshua Reynolds's notes were published with Mr. Mafon's Du Frefnoy.

This propofal, could it have been made at an earlier period, I fhould have accepted with pride; but my work had then taken too much of a form and character of its own to be incorporated with any thing elfe; for indeed almost the whole of what I have now published had been written some time before.'

We cannot but differ fomewhat from Mr. Price, respecting his idea of the fuccefs of Mr. K.'s poem *. We, on the contrary, entertain fome apprehenfion that, fo far from having excited the general curiofity, there feems reafon to conclude that no work of equal poetic merit has, for many years paft, lefs engaged the public mind: a fact which, if it be established, will furnish a proof that the subject matter of it is not suitable to the general tafte; and hence it may be inferred that Mr. P.'s motive for abruptly drawing forth his referved forces is fo far from being, as we are indirectly led to understand, that of fharing in the victory, that he has evidently haftened to the field for the purpose of preventing the defeat of his ingenious and fpirited ally.

We are not infenfible to Mr. Price's high merits as a writer: but we regret that fo much genius and learning fhould have been bestowed fo unprofitably. We will not, however, in endeavouring to support, with generofity, the caufe of the late Mr. Brown, (who cannot now defend his own well-earn'd fame,) retaliate with injuftice.

In defining with intelligence, and in feparating with fufficient discrimination, the picturefque from the beautiful, Mr. Price has fhewn great knowlege of painting, as well as an intimate acquaintance with the best masters in that charming art; and he deferves highly of the critic in that art, for having furnifhed him with trefh aids to his decifions:-but, in the improvement of a place in which Nature has furnished few materials, in which the groundwork of improvement is tame, and in which fuitable distances cannot be had, the rules of fcience and the "ready-made tafte" of connoiffeurs are of little avail to the artift. A ftudy of natural fcenery and of the given fubject to be improved, with fonie judgment previously acquired from practice in fimilar fituations, are much more requifite to the layer-out of grounds. It would not be lefs abfurd to fuffer Art to bufy itself in the lovely Dingles, and among the picturesque fcenery, which Nature has bountifully fcattered on the Confines

* For our account of "The Landscape, a Poem," see our Review for May 1794, P. 78.

of

of the Cambro British mountains, than it would be to fpurn its affifiance where the nature of the fituation requires it.

As a fpecimen of Mr. P.'s manner of writing, and of his knowlege in painting, we give the following extract:

This art of preferving breadth with detail and brilliancy has been ftudied with great fuccefs by Teniers Ian Steen, and many of the Dutch mafters. Oftade's pictures and etchings are among the happieft examples of it; but above all others, the works of that fcarce and wonderful mafter, Gerard Dow. His eye feems to have had a microfcopic power in regard to the minute texture of objects, (for in bis paintings they bear the fevere trial of the strongest magnifier,) and at the fame time the oppofite faculty of excluding all particulars with refpect to breadth and general effect. His mafter, Rembrant, though he did not attend to minute detail, yet by that commanding manner of marking, with equal force and juftnefs, the leading character of each object, produced an idea of detail much beyond what is really expreffed. Many of the great Italian mafters have done this alfo, and with a tate, and a grandeur and nobleness of stile unknown to the inferior schools, though none have exceeded or even equalled Rembrant in truth, force, and effect. But when artifts, neglecting the variety of detail, and thofe characteristic features that well fupply its place, content themselves with mere breadth, and propofe that as the final object of attainment, their productions, and the intereft excited by them, will be, in comparison of the ftyles I have mentioned, what a metaphyfical treatife is to Shakespeare or Fielding; they will be rather illuftrations of a principle than reprefentations of what is real; a fort of abstract idea of nature, not very unlike Crambe's abstract idea of a lord mayor.

As nothing is more flattering to the vanity and indolence of mankind, than the being able to produce a pleafing general effect with little labour or study, fo nothing more obftructs the progrefs of the art than such a facility: yet ftill these abftracts are by no means without their comparative merit, and they have their ufe as well as their danger; they fhew how much may be effected by the mere naked principle, and the great fuperiority that alone gives to whatever is formed upon it, over those things which are done on no principle at all; where the separate objects are fet down as it were article by article, and where the confufion of lights fo perplexes the eye, that one might fuppofe the artist had looked at them through a multiplying glafs.'

Although we are not of our author's party in regard to the controverted points in which he is here engaged, yet we freely acknowlege that we have attended to his obfervations with pleafure. His abilities and connoiffeurfhip, in the delightful and elegant ftudies which are fo ingeniously difcuffed in the present volume, must certainly entitle him to rank among the foremost Dilettanti in this country.

ART.

ART. XVI. A Sketch from the Landscape, a Didactic Poem. Addrefied to R. P. Knight, Efq. With Notes, Illuftrations, and a Poftfcript*. 4to. 25. Faulder. 1794.

WE E were fo much attracted by a Vignette in the title-page of this little playful poem, that it was with fome difficulty that we turned our eyes from it to look over the poem itself. The artist, be he whom he may, is a merry man. Availing himself of one of the open paffages in the "Landfcape," he has given us a tasteful fketch of the tomb of CAPABILITY, surrounded by a groupe of landfcape-garden men, with fpade and mattock, fcythe and roller; while the knight of the landscape,' with glee in his countenance and a modern vafe in his hands, bespatters the edifice with its contents; which are so extremely offenfive to the unconscious crew, that they are turned quite fick, and thrown into the greatest disorder.

The poetry keeps up the laugh which the pencil had raifed, and with equal effect. We quote the gravest passage : Nature, I own a mother kind,

Yet to her faults I am not blind;

In her long work fometimes the dozes;
To make spruce firs, how ftrange the whim,
The upright larch, and poplar trim!

In thefe her skill he much expofes.

Since the good dame thought fit to fend 'em,
We must do all we can to mend 'em,

And make their ftiff, hard outlines fainter;
Good hits by cropping, browfing, breaking,
Perhaps we stand some chance of making,

As with his sponge the old Greek painter.

PAINE blufters for the Rights of Man;
Of Woman, on the fame bold plan,

The fair Mifs WOLLSTONCRAFT does prattle:
I trust your patience to be heard,

Whilft foftly I put in a word

In favour of the Rights of Cattle.

To mould the fir, of form fo starch,

To crop th' afpiring, faucy larch,

O men of clump, ye greatly need 'em ;

For this, O let 'em not be found

In durance vile, yclep'd a pound:

They'll give you grace, O give them freedom.

Much, too, the free-born Muse bewails

Thofe curs'd defpotic things call'd pales,

In which is included A Word to Uvedale Price, Efq.'