extension within the diocese. And the chapter, which came into existence in order to be his counsel in all things, must have followed in this respect the example which he set. What right have the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to evade responsibilities which they have deprived both the bishop and chapter of the means to discharge? In regard to expediency, it is very clear that, so long as you leave the heart of a great empire unsound, its members must do their work imperfectly. But London, which comprises a full sixth of the entire population of England and Wales, is, so far as church accommodation goes, the most destitute portion of the empire. Are we wise in leaving it in this state, with funds so large and so constantly accumulating, and arising from London itself, at our disposal?

Here, then, are the outlines of a plan elaborated after a good deal of consideration, and submitted with much humility, though without any misgiving as to its feasibleness, to public criticism. It implies some sacrifices, both of money and of prejudices, on the part of individuals; some zeal in such as are willing to take the lead in it, and some deflection from the beaten limits of thought both by the people and the Legislature. We must put in abeyance, for example, our old fastidiousness as to rendering God's house worthy in all respects of the purposes to which it is dedicated. The highest purpose for which the house of God exists is to win souls to Christ, and the edifice which best achieves this purpose must in His sight be the most becoming. We must fuse into one High Church, Low Church, Broad Church, and No Church. The battle which we brace ourselves to fight is not one of ceremonies and ornaments, or of this or that article of abstract belief. It is the war of religion against irreligionof morality against immorality-of order and decency and respect for the laws against the opposites of these principles. support such a war as it needs to be supported we must give liberally of our time and of our substance, knowing that every gift in a holy cause brings as much benefit to the giver as to the receiver. We shall be satisfied if to the minister of each chapel-school a permanent endowment can be secured of not less than 1507. a-year. This is, indeed, very little, but it will suffice, because these ministers of chapel-schools must be considered as missionary curates; acting, indeed, more than other curates under the immediate eye both of the diocesan and of the Crown-but still only curates, responsible to the incumbents with whom they are locally connected. They must at the same time be held to establish the first claims, according to the success of their operations, on the preferments of which the Bishop and the Crown are the custodians; and the knowledge of this fact

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will certainly not be without its effect in bracing and sustaining their energies to a work, which, though arduous and trying, especially at the outset, is surely not beyond the compass of human strength. For, not to speak of the help which is never withheld to such as seek it, our missionary curates, if they can command no other companionship, will at least enjoy that of their clerical neighbours round about them; and their spirits, when they begin to droop, will be cheered by the reflection that, in addition to the consciousness of duty done, the sympathies of a watchful public are with them. How different at this moment is the condition of that handful of clergymen whom we have scattered at random amid the mass of practical heathenism which swelters in the East of London! They come up full of zeal from the Universities, many of them young, not a few men of considerable mark; they fling themselves into the missionary undertaking, as they call it, and in less than six months, from the absence of all sympathy and all results, they become brokenhearted. But plant your curates, like sentinels, within hail of one another, form by their instrumentality a chain of well-connected religious posts running through the dark places of this great city, and we venture to foretell that ere long results will be produced far surpassing the most sanguine of our present expectations. Only let us be careful in the selection of our men, and all the rest must follow as a matter of course. This seems to be an age of lay agency. Such curates as we have now in our eye will not be slow in gathering lay agents round them. The best of all Scripture-readers and district visitors are the poor who visit the poor, not for the sake of the annual stipend which is paid to them, but for the love which they bear to the souls of their neighbours; and we may safely refer to Mr. Rowsell, Mr. Brady, and many other competent judges, for confirmation of this statement, that a clergyman who makes himself beloved for his work's sake finds no difficulty in getting the very poorest of his people to work with him.

Here we would gladly bring our essay to a close, but there is an obverse to the picture, from the contemplation of which it would be unwise to turn absolutely away. It is a fact well known to the police, and not to the police only, but to every man who' has had an opportunity of observing the state into which the masses are falling, that there never was a time when the temper of the lower orders in this country was less satisfactory than it is now. There are whole streets within easy walk of Charing Cross —there are miles and miles of lanes and alleys on either side of the river below London Bridge-where the people live literally without God in the world; where there seems to be no know

ledge

ledge of the difference between moral right and moral wrong; no belief whatever in a future state, or of man's responsibility to any other authority than that of the law, if it can catch him. We could name entire quarters in which it seems to be a custom that men and women should live in promiscuous concubinage→→ where the most frightful debauchery goes on night and day in the lowest public-houses-where the very shopkeepers make a profession of atheism, and encourage their poor customers to do the same. Nor are other, and to the mere politician, more alarming signs of the times wanting. Socialism, in one form or another, is making prodigious progress among our workpeople generally. It has its teachers, who know exactly how to adapt their language to the feelings and capacities of those to whom they are sent; and they are indefatigable in their endeavours to make converts. To the rude, the old doctrine of indiscriminate confiscation is preached; to the more thoughtful, a different-view of the case is presented. In private rooms, in the dwellings of journeymen and mechanics, small social meetings take place, which attract no attention from without, but within which dangerous and enticing themes are continually broached and enlarged upon. Whether it has been with a view to conciliate socialism that the principle of taxation has been so much modified of låte years we do not pretend to say; but of this we are quite sure, that no merely fiscal arrangements, however excellent in themselves, will touch the root of an evil so insidious and so full of peril to society. They may suffice to keep the surface of things smooth till times of trouble come; but woe to the nation which in time of trouble, has not been taught to look higher than to the decrees of earthly sovereigns or the enactments of earthly legislatures.

"

ART. V.-Handbook of Painting-The German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Based on the Handbook of Kugler. By Dr. Waagen. Two vols. 1860.

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NEVEN years ago we noticed Dr. Waagen's three volumes on the Treasures of Art in Great Britain.'* A fourth volume has since completed the work. It is not perhaps much to say in Dr. Waagen's praise, that the blundering criticisms of Mr. Coningham and the persistent malice of Mr. Morris Moore have not tended to shake his authority as a critic or to make us less mindful of the services he has rendered to art in England.

* Quarterly Review, No. 188.

He

He has now re-written Kugler's Handbook of the German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools of Painting,' adding to it much interesting new matter derived from his own investigations and from books recently published. The work, enlarged to two volumes, and illustrated by excellent woodcuts, forms a valuable addition to Mr. Murray's admirable series of art-manuals.

As Director of the Royal Gallery of Berlin, and from his intimate acquaintance with the principal art-collections of Europe, Dr. Waagen was well qualified for the task he has undertaken. His careful and laborious research, his quickness and accuracy of observation, and his judicious criticisms render the work he has produced eminently useful, not only to the intelligent traveller who would seek profit and amusement in the galleries of the Continent, but to the collector and student. He has been fortunate in securing the services, as his translator, of the accomplished lady who has before introduced his literary labours to the English public.

We prefer Dr. Waagen's style to Kugler's. The latter too often indulges in that vague German declamation, which appears to those who are not followers of Mr. Carlyle to consist of the very smallest amount of meaning conveyed in the largest possible number of big-sounding words. His criticisms frequently show an affectation of sentiment and an attempt at discovering hidden and mystic meanings in common things, which seem well-nigh ridiculous to the matter-of-fact English reader. Dr. Waagen has generally avoided these faults of style, although he is not always free from them. For instance, we find such a sentence as the following in the description of a picture of St. John the Baptist :-In the lively action of the last-named saint is seen the energy which characterises German sculpture, while the warmly-coloured head with the aquiline nose shows a burning eagerness to bear witness to Him whose symbol, a weakly drawn lamb, is upon his arm'! (i. 48). His descriptions, although perhaps a little dry, and sometimes too technical for the general reader, are clear and intelligible, and his observations just and sensible. They may be depended upon, as he tells us that he has himself examined, with very few exceptions, every picture he describes. If we have any fault to find with the translator, it would be for the use of conventional art-terms and phrases which may be very good German, but do not bear transplantation into our vernacular. For instance, there is the word 'motive:' whatever meaning may attach to it in German, it certainly does not signify, in simple English, the original intention or the principle of action, attitude, and composition in a single figure or group,' notwithstanding the

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high authority of the English annotator of Kugler's Schools of Painting in Italy.'* In the volumes before us we find endless changes rung upon it: we have angular motives in the draperies' and 'speaking motives,' ill-understood motives,' (i. 17), violent and rather clumsy motives' (i. 38), animated and free motives' (i. 82), &c. &c. A German critic describes a picture of the death of King Charles I. as excellent in the motives and admirable in the execution'! Singing angels showing a high stage of development,' may answer to the German conception embodied in the stout winged messengers of the early Teutonic painters, or the flabby nondescripts of Rubens and his school, but the epithet of 'highly developed' scarcely admits of respectful application to these sacred members of the celestial hierarchy. Objective' and 'subjective,' boastfully paraded in Germanized English books, threaten, to our great discomfort, to become household words.' Even young ladies deep in German philosophy are now taught to lisp them.†

German writers undoubtedly deserve the credit of having done more than any others to generalise and to reduce to a system the laws relating to art. They have, indeed, carried this spirit of generalisation and of analysis so far that it is frequently fatal to the exercise of the taste and the imagination. Their criticisms are consequently often pedantic and unsatisfactory as regards the highest merits of a work of art, and appear cold and unsympathising to the English reader. They were, however, the first to point out the importance of art to the philosophical study of the history of the human mind, and, consequently, of human civilization. They first treated the fine arts as outward manifestations of the various phases of man's development and of the condition of society at any given period, showing how they followed the course of this development, and did not in any way promote it. Thus the study of the arts became invested with a double interest. Whilst affording exquisite pleasure to the cultivated taste and delightful and pure enjoyment to all, they furnish, at the same time, important illustrations of the history of our race.

Acting upon principles founded upon these considerations, Dr. Waagen adopted in the Berlin Museum the system of chronological arrangement, according to schools. The importance he has thus given to the gallery confided to his care must be evident to every educated and intelligent man who visits it. He

* Vol. i. p. 18.

We would suggest that a more copious index, not confined to the mere names of artists, should be added to Dr. Waagen's work: its usefulness would be much increased.

has