adversity in which the present duke was bred, and in which he so long struggled for a bare subsistence, was far more profitable to virtue and intellect, than that of Belle chasse, governed as it was by the presiding Minerva of the Palais Royale. One probable result of this rough tuition, was his sending his son and heir apparent to a public seminary, to come in contact with his fellow-citizens, to stand the rubs and checks of equality, and to require those practical notions of life and society, which public schools alone can teach. Between the European education and manly boyhood of the Duc de Chartres, and the go-cart breeding of his cousin, the Duc de Bourdeaux, (that hot-house plant of the old noyal nursery,) there is a formidable difference.

Being at a ball at Lord Stuart's, I observed a young man passing hastily through a group of his gay military contemporaries, with a nod for one, and a word for another, and leading out his partner to the first vacant place he could find, in one of the quadrilles. He

might have been Ensign any body, of any regiment, or a simple attaché to some of the embassies, (except that upon this occasion, the attachés were in a splendid masquerade costume,) so little notice or distinction did he receive or claim. This young man was the Duc de Chartres. But, "O how unlike" the Duc de Chartres of the old times of the Loraine Minuet! No special place reserved in the dance for the possible successor of Louis XIV. on the throne of France! No homage to Monseigneur ! No personal address of "Grand Prince!" Spirit of Dan

geau! if thou couldst look

down from the

celestial antichambers of your limbo of valets and courtiers, what would you say to this!

When we arrived in Paris, the receptions at the Palais Royale were over; the Duke and Duchess, with their family, had retired to their villa, in the vicinity of the capital, and the Duc de Chartres had, immediately after the ambassador's ball, set out on his visit to England and Ireland. Some one, however, pro

posed to us, to see the Orleans Gallery. We were, at the moment, loitering through that gallery of galleries, the Musée; and so we proceeded straight from the old Italian master's, (to which, by-the-bye, after our first visits to the Louvre, we always hurried,) and entered the modern school in the Palais Royale-a most trying transfer of our dazzled observation.

It is a cynical, but a just remark, that men suffer more by their good nature, than by their selfish qualities. The exertions of good nature, like those of charity, being made either in favour of the unfortunate, (too frequently another word for the unwise,) or of the vicious, it must, in nine cases out of ten, prove a source of vexation and disappointment. This is especially true in the arts. Excellence there, requires no protection, and leaves no scope for good nature; while mediocrity, whatever may be done in its behalf, will, after all, find its own level. In my little sphere, I have found this to hold good almost invariably. Those I have endea

voured to serve, by what is called pushing them, (when their own merits have not at once raised them above all dependence on others,) have rarely forgiven me the failure of my kind but ill-judged exertions.*

The patriotism of the Duc d'Orleans has induced him to lavish large sums on the works of young French artists, sometimes judiciously expended, sometimes perhaps indiscreetly: but in both cases, the artists are just where they were in public estimation. Among the various cants of criticism, there is none more erroneous than that which is for ever deploring the neglect of the modern school. To buy an old picture at an enormous price, simply because it is old, is

* This may look like arrogance: but where there is sympathy for those who have to struggle along the up-hill path to professional eminence, and an hearty good will to lose no opportunity of befriending them, much may be done without either the rank or the fortune which are implied in the vulgar and ordinary signification of patronage.

an undoubted act of spurious taste, and like all other affectations, ridiculous. But to forego a good picture when within reach, for the purpose of giving a preference to contemporary art, merely because it is contemporary, is no less absurd. There is but one legitimate reason for purchasing works of art, and that is to be found in their merit; and the

* The complaint of want of patronage, so frequently uttered by British artists and critics, if in any degree well founded, is much more the result of superabundant mediocrity and an overstocked market. Excessive taxation, growing habits of luxury, a taste for the positive in pleasure, and, above all, the universal ambition to get up the stick' (as it is called) in society, contribute to render the English public indifferent to the possession of works of art; and the narrow scale of the national domestic architecture is still a greater obstacle to collecting: but after all, painters of decided eminence find little or no difficulty in selling their works; and there is no more reason why bad pictures should be bought, than any other defective article of commerce. Of the mediocre, the production far exceeds any possible market, in any, the most picture-loving community.