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To say nothing of the daily enormous contri- and drawing-rooms, by the nobles and priests, butions exacted, without a hope of kindlier who well knew the power of such an intellecprospects, we are more shamelessly misused tual bond of union; and now the question by our own soldiers than formerly by the arose, which of the two languages could be enemy. *** The Prince of Orange and deemed the vernacular." his creatures are always decrying Machiavel, whilst those same creatures are laboring to form their hero, the most unparallelled atheist, into another Machiavel, and to force his Sovereignty upon us. He rules this country as an absolute despot, without any right to do so, and perpetuates the war solely to plunder us, and enrich his German satellites with the booty. *

Innovations, un

heard of in this country, are attempted. The
new-fangled judges exercise an authority in
our city such as the Eighteen never possess-
ed.
Observe but the increase of the
public taxes, and of the excise, effected by
those who suck our life-blood like vampires.'
** The favoritism of the Prince of
Orange towards his own kindred and parti-
zans is painted in strong colors; he is said to
have smuggled into every office noblemen
who must otherwise have starved. 'Have

But the grounds of the separation, the rights and the wrongs of the Belgians, are not questions that ought to be treated super. ficially, and in merely reviewing Ernst Münch's present volumes no subject can well be treated otherwise. We will there. fore proceed to his sketches of William I.'s youth, and of his conduct during his years of adversity, which is, we apprehend, but little

known in this country.

William I., his father's second son, was born at the Hague, A.D. 1772. His educa. tion was carefully conducted and superin. tended by Euler of Deuxponts, Tollens of Breda, and Lieut. Gen. Van Stamford; and when of sufficient age, he was sent to divers German high-schools and universities. He we,' the pamphleteer proceeds, in Flanders acquired an extensive and solid acquaintance and the other provinces, any lack of nobles with history and jurisprudence, together with to lead our armies? Yet he incessantly calls considerable knowledge of mankind, and in strangers, modelled after himself. He great prudence and reserve. He was yet promotes and exalts the lowest people, more remarkable for a purity of morals and merely to consummate our ruin and reduce manners, but too unusual in those whose high us to slavery. Out of our purses he aggran- station lays them open to so much temptadises himself, and supports his frightfully tion. In 1791 he married, as much from profuse expenditure."

This vituperation of the Protestant hero, William the Taciturn, is certainly curious, but these samples of it may suffice; and we turn to Münch's remarks upon the modern Belgian complaints and discontents which led to the severance of the northern and south. ern portions of the kingdom of the Nether. lands. He says

mutual attachment as from political motives, his cousin, the Princess Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina of Prussia. Upon the breaking out of the war with France, both he and his elder brother took an active part in the military operations. Those unsuccessful opera. tions have been so completely superceded in interest by wars yet more disastrous or more brilliant, that it were idle to follow even our author's brief detail of them. It may suffice to say, that the young princes distin. guished themselves by courage, coolness, When the

cause of their country became desperate, they embarked with the Stadtholder and the rest of their family for England.

"The priests themselves, after their fourteen years' fierce battle against the new order of things and the altered aspect of the times, suddenly changed their colors and watchword perseverance, and prudence. in concert with the aristocracy, set up the banner of liberalism, and successfully labored to introduce divisions into the liberal camp; by false representations, by taking advantage But the young princes did not long remain of a certain sensitiveness touching disappoint- dependents upon foreign hospitality. They ed expectations, and by the adroit exaggera- presently returned to the Continent, collected tion of real grievances, they alienated some all the Dutch emigrants who were willing to friends of political liberty from the govern- follow their fortunes; and with the band thus ment, attaching them to their own party. Another fraction of liberals, partly formed in raised and organized joined the Prussian the Buonaparte school, partly still inspired standard, under which they fought gallantly, by the fame of the revolution, partly actuated until Prussia concluded the treaty of Basle by antipathy to Holland, and seduced and with the French republic. The little Dutch impelled by the witchery of the French lan- corps was then taken into the service of Great guage, literature, and manners, fixed their Britain. eyes yearningly upon the country with which, during a score of years, they had shared the common destinies of stormy times.

"The mother tongue of the Flemish-Walloon provinces was systematically excluded from the churches, lecture-rooms, tribunals,

The hereditary prince entered that of Austria, and, in the year 1799, died of a malady caught during an inspection of the military hospitals. The younger brother repaired to Berlin, to the court of his uncle and father

in-law, where he endeavored to procure by him, bespeaks the taste and the progress in diplomacy some compensation, at least, for cultivation and learning of the owner. No the dominions which his father had lost by the fortune of war. He so far succeeded that Prussian mediation obtained the promise of the future incorporation of the secularized bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg with the German patrimony of the House of Nas

sau.

new inquiry or discovery was unknown to him; and his correspondence with the most terati, as well as the numerous dedications distinguished German, Dutch, and foreign liaddressed to him, at a time when such compliments could not originate in flattery, but must have sprung solely from personal esteem, from a sense of his merits, bear witness to the intellectual life, the moral worth, of the hereditary Prince of Orange and Nassau."

The prince, now the heir, applied himself to the government and improvement of that German patriniony, whilst he strove further When the treaty of Luneville was regulatto ameliorate the condition of his family by ing the compensations to be allotted to the agricultural operations, for which he had al- several despoiled German sovereigns, the ways shown a decided taste. These he now hereditary Prince of Orange repaired to Paundertook upon a large scale, purchasing the ris, as Count of Dietz, to endeavor to secure extensive estates of the Polish Magnat Jab- the promised Bishoprics. This, amongst lonowski, situated near Posen; and he there the number of more powerful claimants, put in practice the principles of economy proved impossible; but he was treated with that he had derived from the study of Adam much personal consideration by the First Smith and other political philosophers.

Consul; and in the end obtained about seven secularized abbeys, including the abbey "His active spirit delighted in the thought principality of Fulda, with one free imperial of a creation according to his own ideas. He city. The old Stadtholder, who shrank from introduced a number of improvements into the villages of his Polish lordships, establish occupying the dominions of the church as ed several colonies, and studied to make the from sacrilege, at once resigned these new most of all extant resources. He devoted acquisitions to his son, and Prince William considerable sums of money to the rendering thenceforth fixed his residence at Fulda. their new homes agreeable to the colonists, a In these secularized abbey domains he

matter of no small difficulty. The colonists, had to contend with many of the difficulties who were mostly Germans, showed great re that he afterwards encountered in Belgium, pugnance to mingle with the natives, the ci- to wit, the detestation entertained by the bivilized man naturally shrinking from the

barbarian. His schemes required, neverthe-goted Catholic inhabitants for the heretical less, that this should be accomplished. The usurper of the rights of the church; that ignorance of the rude, bigoted Pole was to be usurper being, moreover, a foreigner, un. tempered by German cultivation, in order to known to them, and to whom they had been diffuse civilization through the district. The assigned, without their own consent, by ano. prince began with that which most ennobles ther foreigner; the necessity of laying on the heart of man, elevating his spirit to no- taxes in order to raise an income, sufficient bler objects. He bestowed freedom upon the to pension the dispossessed priests, in addibondsmen, or villains, whom he had purchas. tion to the ordinary expenses of government; ed; and freedom bore fruit a thousand-fold, reaped both by philanthropy and self-interest. an obstinate and slothful hatred of innova If the former enjoyed the thought of a duty tion, and the like. towards humanity discharged, the latter was gratified by the sight of improving agricultural industry, and increasing prosperity. Barbarism was gradually expelled from this district of Poland, and what had been half a desert was converted into habitable fields.

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"Little as the future promised of enjoy. ment, William of Orange was not disheartened. He possessed the persevering, healthful temper of the best of his race; misfortune had taught him their moderation and frugality; the convulsions that had shaken the world had given him steadiness of resolution; study and self-examination a knowledge of

The very difficulties of his situation afforded him a sort of enjoyment, in the consciousness that the energy of his own spirit would enable him to conquer them.

"Whilst Prince William labored thus zealously in training strangers, he did not neg-men, with their passions and their wants. lect the education of his two sons. He selected their preceptor, he watched over the first tasks of their youth, and discovered in everything the noblest care for their future weal, such care as only the tenderest private individuals extend over their families.

"He began the improvements that he deemed essential to the country, at home. In his "The prince at the same time endeavored house the utmost simplicity prevailed; and to collect, preserve, and increase whatever he would have carried his retrenchments yet works of art or of literature still existed in the further, had not his inclinations been checked country, especially whatever related to na- by considerations of justice and expediency. tional history, antiquities, and laws. The * He was, perhaps, the first sovereign Dillingen library, principally enriched by prince in Germany who did not copy the

VOL. XX.

24

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forms of great courts in a small one, without tions; but the arbitrary severing of old ties regard to extent of domains, or the financial and the virtual subjection to France, revoltresources of subjects, thus incurring ridicule ed alike his pride, his feelings, his princi by a complicated and cumbrous system of administration, and an artificially arranged ples, and his patriotism. If he could not even attempt to resist his forcible spoliation, hierarchy of servants. A single private sehe refused to concur in it, by the acceptance cretary, and a privy counsel consisting of a very few persons, afforded all the aid William of compensations, declaring, that the name required. He was every where personally of Orange must descend to posterity unspot. present, and personally active. All letters, ted! He retired to Prussia, accepted a comdespatches, regulations, petitions, passed mand in his brother-in-law's army, fought through his hands, and never was any thing at Jena, and was afterwards taken prisoner. unread signed by him or published in his When the peace of-Tilsit again put an end name, a practice to which he adhered upon the throne of the Netherlands. Affairs of to his military career, he fixed his residence weight were discussed in especial conversa. at Berlin as a private man, and gave his tions in all their details, and under every as- time and thoughts wholly up to the educapect, with the heads of the departments to tion of his children, study, and the managewhich they belonged, and this not in coun- ment of his Polish estates, then his sole cil, but at his leisure hours. ** He means of independent existence. could the more easily act up to these princiIt is needless to remind the reader that in ples, as he devoted all his time to the business 1813 the old cry of Oranien boven ! (Orange of a sovereign **** He found his enjoyment in his work, and disturbance only in for ever!) was again raised in Holland, and passions. **To be manfully opposed the prince was recalled to his native land by by a single individual when the rest of his the almost unanimous voice of the people. council agreed with himself, rather grieved But it is gratifying to be able to add, that, than angered him. He labored earnestly to in spite of the pains taken by the Catholic convince his opponent, and if obstinate perti- clergy to represent him as an heretical ty. nacity at length irritated him, he regretted rant, whose oppressions had ruined the his warmth and injustice before the day expired, and strove to atone for them by expres-ized abbey lands, solicited, almost as eagerly country, his former subjects, in the secularas the Dutch themselves, the restoration of his authority.

sions of kindness.

*

"William, who was usually the first person up in his palace, would often, when pressed by affairs of importance, surprise his private secretary in bed. Too impatient to wait for the sluggard's dressing, he then seated himself upon the bed, and conversed upon the subject that had brought him thither, un

til he had satisfied his own mind respecting ART. V.-Khudozhestvenaya Gazeta, na

it."

One of this prince's chief objects at the time of which we are speaking,was the enlightening his ignorant new subjects, whom their ecclesiastical masters had studiously kept in a state of tranquil darkness, by an improved system of education. He invited able teachers, and professors of reputation, from divers German universities, at the same time carefully avoiding, as far as was possible, to shock the prejudices of those whom, or whose children, he sought to raise in the social scale.

1837. Izdanannaya Nestorom Kukolnikom. (The Gazette of the Fine Arts for 1837. Edited by Nestor Kukolnik.) St. Petersburgh, 1837. No. I. to X.

MANY, even of the readers of the Foreign Quarterly Review, will, perhaps, be astonished at learning that a journal exclusively devoted to the Fine Arts has been established in Russia; and that, moreover, with a tolerable prospect of success, as we know to our regret, every number of the first volume being entirely out of print some months ago; But we are exceeding the limits that we so that we have been able to procure only had allotted to Ernst Münch, and must those from the commencement of the present hasten to conclude. A few weeks after the year. This forms rather a contrast to matdeath of the exiled Stadtholder had added ters here at home, where every attempt of a the actual sovereignty, instead of the re- similar nature has hitherto proved a signal gency, of the hereditary domains of the failure, in some instances not undeservedly House of Nassau, to its recent compensatory so, neither industry, nor literary exertion, acquisitions, the institution of the Confede- nor talent, having been manifested on the ration of the Rhine, with the various changes part of publishers or editors; while in others, thereby induced, robbed the Prince of after the work had struggled on for sufficient Orange of all his dominions, old and new. time to give it a fair trial with the public, it He was, indeed, again offered compensa- has fallen to the ground for want of encou

ragement, and the attempt has been aban- though it relates principally to this country, doned as hopeless and impracticable. With and to some of the choicest works of the old so many ominous examples before us, it is masters that we possess. But, instead of not likely that, in this country, we shall permitting ourselves to indulge in such reventure upon any similar experiment again marks, we must come at once to the Russian in a hurry; indeed the very latest periodical Gazeta. of the kind was conducted in such a man- Phenomenon as it may be considered by ner as to throw discredit on the scheme some, this Gazette is not the very first pubitself, since it betrayed, to a degree abso- lication of the kind that has appeared in lutely ludicrous, the strange notions enter- Russia; for about ten or twelve years ago tained by those who had the management of there was another work that came out under the work, and what odd sort of fare they, as the title of Jurnal Izyashtshtnik Iskustv, or caterers for the public taste, considered it Journal of the Fine Arts; to which, howadvisable to set before their readers,-a sal- ever, it did not answer very exactly, it being magundi of the most ill-assorted ingredients, rather a collection of papers, some original, -notices of children's books, meteorological but many only translations from books in journals, heavy topographical lumber, scraps other languages; besides which, it did not of namby-pamby rhyming, together with confine itself to the arts of design, to which such light reading, as papers on joint stock the term "Fine Arts" is restricted in this banking, and imprisonment for debt-the country, but included poetry likewise. It last-mentioned, no doubt, for the edification did not proceed beyond its second volume,— of that class who are rather the victims than which is the only one we have been able to the votaries of art. We do not mean to deny meet with; and although it does not contain that very clever papers, really valuable con- more than two or three articles which give tributions, are to be met with in some Eng- any information relative to Russian artists lish publications of this class, but they are and their works, there are papers of consioverlaid and buried under a mass of super-derable length, and not less interest, particuficial scribbling, puerile, schoolboy "es- larly that on the exhibition at the Imperial says," the substance of which has been, in Academy, and the one on the statues of schoolboy phrase, "cribbed" from the most Achilles and Hector, by Holberg and Kriordinary sources. lov.

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Abroad they manage such things very The plan of the Gazeta, on the contrary, differently-we need not add, very much conforms better with its title, and, if we may better; in Germany especially, where such judge from the comparatively few numbers publications as Schorn's Kunstblatt, the Ber- that have yet reached us, the work will at liner Kunstblatt, and a variety of others, all events collect a mass of materials for the have successfully maintained their ground, use of some future historian of the arts in and furnish not only a constant supply of Russia. Were it only on account of its fresh information, but a great deal of pro- biographical articles, it will prove a valuable found and instructive criticism;-to say auxiliary for such purpose; for at present nothing of the important disquisitions and very little information of the kind is to be other papers on topics of art that appear in derived from what has been written by Rusjournals of a more miscellaneous character, sians themselves; and even that is so scanty -the compositions of a Böttiger, and other and meagre as to serve no more than to tanmaster-pens. Germans may be said to excel talize curiosity. As yet, very few Russian in criticism of this kind, and are, according- names, whether of artists or literary men, ly, apt to deal in it rather largely, not unfre- have found their way into the very latest quently bestowing more of it upon a single biographical works published in other counpainting, or other work of art, than would tries, and fewest of all into any that have among ourselves be considered requisite for appeared in our own. A rather extensive an entire collection or exhibition of pictures. biographical work, by Dmetrii BantieshAs for works of sculpture or architecture, Kamensky, which is confined entirely to the they seem to be considered almost beneath more celebrated natives of Russia, (with the the notice of our critics and periodicals; and exception of a few foreigners, who may be if their merits are discussed at all, it must said to belong to that country,) has lately be-as Tom Hood tells us he read his Bible been published, in five large octavo volumes, - 'under the rose." That there is a very at Moscow; yet even in this, by far the wide difference in the importance attached to such matters by the Germans and by ourselves, scarcely admits of doubt, when we find that the English translation of Passavant's Kunstreise fell dead from the press,

greater proportion of names are of those who have distinguished themselves either in the state, the army, the church, or some other public capacity. Of literary men the number is much smaller than we should

have expected, several well-known names-he possessed considerable talent for hisbeing altogether omitted; while of artists it torical composition, of which he early gave is still smaller. That the latter should be proof in his "Battle of Khan Mamai," a the case did not very much surprise us, yet production displaying great force of imagi. there are one or two omissions which strike nation, and considerable boldness in its exeus as rather remarkable;-for instance, cution. those in respect to both Martos and the late Ivan Prokophiev,† who, with the exception of Martos himself, was the most eminent sculptor of his time that Russia had produced.

Unless his powers be greatly exaggerated, it would appear from two articles respecting him in the Gazeta, that Pheodor Antonovitch Bruni promises to confer no inconsiderable renown on his country. One of It is, therefore, all the more gratifying, to them gives a long description of a very large find that articles of biography will constitute picture executed by him, about a year and a a prominent feature in the Gazeta; and that half or two years ago, at Rome, and reprethey will not be merely of a necrological senting the Israelites attacked in the wildercharacter, but retrospective likewise; and ness by the fiery serpents. This is spoken thus we may hope that, in time, all the art of as a performance replete, not only with ists of any note to whom Russia has given talent, but with indubitable traits of genius: birth, or who may be considered as her yet, although its merits may be in some dechildren by adoption, will be duly recorded.gree overrated, it cannot have been in conAmong those who have already been so are, sequence of overweening national prejudice Tischbein and Thomond, the architects of and partiality, because the commendation the great Theatre at St. Petersburg; and Voronikhin, the architect of the Kazan Church; while under the head of necrology,‡ an account has been given of Kiprensky, who died in November last year, but as that article appeared in the volume for 1836, it has not been seen by us; all, therefore, that we can say respecting Kiprensky is that, besides being a very able portrait-painter,in which branch of the art Varnik was the only one of his countrymen and contemporaries who could be said at all to rival him,

This is the case even with Bogdanovitch and Khemnitzer, names of high repute in their own country, and not altogether unknown even in this, the one as that of the author of Dushenka, the other as that of him who has been styled the Russian La Fontaine. Ozerov, the tragic poet, is also passed over, although a life of him, by Prince Viazemsky, is attached to one edition of his works. To say the truth, a very long list might be made of omissions, some of them almost as startling and unaccountable as the above;for instance, Von Visin, celebrated as a comic writer; Podshivalov, Kheraskov, author of the Rossiada, and a great many others.

+ It is all the more singular that no notice should have been taken of this artist, because there is a rather long memoir of him and his works in the Otetchestvennieya Zapiski for 1828. We there learn that Ivan Prokophievitch Prokophiev was born at St. Petersburgh, January 25th, O.S. 1758, and that he studied under Gilet, a French artist, and then one of the professors in the Academy; after which he visited both Paris and Berlin. His productions, both statues and bas-reliefs, besides busts and models, are very numerous, and, although partaking more of the French school of that period than of the antique, charm by a certain gracefulness and air of nature. He died February 10th, 1828.

There is also among the notices of this class, one of John Field, an eminent musician, a native of Dublin, who died at Moscow, January 14th, of the present year (1837).

proceeds from the pen of an Italian critic, whose remarks on the picture are given by the Editor of the Gazeta in a Russian translation. As some of our readers may probably be desirous of learning how the artist has composed and treated the subject,we shall here extract some parts of the description :—

"The sky is overcast with dense clouds and filled with poisonous serpents of huge size, which dart down upon the Israelites, who, horror-stricken at this terrible prodigy, are seen running about in confusion, endeavoring to screen themselves from the attacks of their venomous focs. The murky atmosphere itself produces almost at the very first glance a strange and undefinable feeling, and forcibly impresses us with an awful sense of the dreadful vengeance which it pleased the Almighty in his wrath to inflict upon his ungrateful people, who rebelliously murmured against Moses,their divinely missioned leader, for having led them out of the pleasant and fertile Egypt into a land of desolation and barrenness. This is the principal subject; and all the episodes with which the artist has and in perfect unison with the sentiment of filled up his canvass, are poetically conceived the scene, since they all serve to heighten it, although by means of different modifications. Commencing from the right,-in the middle ground of the picture, a young female is seen flinging herself, in wild horror, into the arms of her lover, calling upon him to protect her; at the same time, turning around her head, she gazes with dismay on one of the Israelites,-a figure of athletic form and proportions, whose strength is vainly exerted against some of the serpents, which, having flung him down, are coiling themselves around his muscular but impotent limbs; while he, though the hand of death is already heavy upon him, seems to be breathing forth vain imprecations of revenge.-This figure is one of those

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