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The systems of Knox and Calvin are only institutions which, mutato nomine, preserve the essentials of popery.

The ascendancy of the Catholic Church through auricular confession and excommunication, was to be preserved by means of this "separation from the world" and " 'expulsion from the sacrament." In the

opinion of both these political agita

tors (for such they were) the laws and the people were alike to be subservient to the ecclesiastical office.

Upon the accession of Mary, Knox very prudently emigrated; and became acquainted with Calvin, who was schoolmaster in spirituals to a large society of exiles at Francfort. In the year 1557, he was invited to return from exile, and founded that Reformation which now obtains in

Scotland.

With the merits or demerits of that system we have nothing to do. We only know that real apostleship implies attention to morals, philanthropy, and civilization, and that mere mob apostles are only firebrands. We speak with truth, and think in horror. Knox was a low violent man, who regarded not crime; and we deny that the accusations were, as our author says, "false re

ANCIENT CARVINGS.

church writers, or modern admirers of Queen Mary."-p. xxxix.

Camden was a writer subject to no such imputations. He informs us, "that in 1567 James prior of St. Andrew's wished to obtain the administration of the realm of Scotland ex habuit, used often to acclaim that doctrina Knoxii, quem pro Patriarchá crowns should be conferred by merit, excluded from succession, and that not by family, that women should be

their government was monstrous." Camden also says, that Knox recommended the deposition and public execution of Mary.t

We decline adding more, because fuller illustrations have been lately given by a Correspondent. (Supplement, p. 599.)

We value too highly the talent, morality, and bravery of our northern fellow countrymen, to assign such results to a vulgar ferocious Calvinist; nor do we hold that man to be an apostle, who is no other than a sanguinary fanatic, that makes the founder of Christianity to be of similar character to himself.

The editor has done his duty; and the work is of great use to those who are fond of ecclesiastical history. *Annales, p. 111.

The once wealthy and celebrated Abbey of Parc, situated near Louvain, in Belgium, has lately been dismantled of all the ancient embellishments, consisting of Gothic and Roman carvings, and other works of art, with which it had been successively enriched for the last 700 years. The stonewalls and other remains are shortly to be sold. The corridor, which was spacious, contained forty-one richly stained glass windows, which have been purchased with the intention of bringing them to England. The fine panels of the chapel have been brought to London, and are now for private inspection at Mr. Rogers's, carver and gilder, Church-street, Soho. It is only to be regretted that the entire of the fittings-up of this chapel are not in his possession. The two chairs belonging to the communion table, and which were intended for his late Majesty, were purchased last year by Dawkins Pennant, Esq. M.P. for 160 guineas. So precarious and uncertain, however, is the disposal of works of art, that the extensive and magnificent carved oak library from the

+ Id. 118.

convent was lately sold in this country for a sum not exceeding two-thirds of the freight and duties paid. The rich stalls, with the cornices and frame-work which contained the panels, still remain in the Netherlands. The oak figures which decorated the walls, about twenty in number, are in London; we have seen one, of the natural size, representing Vigilance holding a cock in one hand, and in the other the cup of health, of pure and classical design.

The eighteen panels, which we have had the pleasure of inspecting, were carved in 1730, by Birgé, to whom Brussels is indebted for the beautiful fountain au Grand Sablon. The subjects they represent are:1. The Presentation in the Temple; 2. The Circumcision; 3. Samuel presented to the High Priest; 4. The Passage of the Red Sea; 5. Moses preaching in the Wilderness; 6. David playing on the Harp; 7. Baruch and the Roll; 8. The Conversion of Constantine; 9. Hezekiah and Isaiah; 10. His Holiness and two of the Brethren; 11. Saiut Cecilia and the Angel; 12. The Ascension; 13. Nebuchadnezzar; 14. The Flight in

Egypt. (The fourteen pictures, or panels, are valued at 680l.) 15. A Trophy of Music; 16. Ditto; 17. The Arms of the Convent ; 18. Ditto.-We have been informed that the convent of Parc was once the studio of the late Mr. Nollekins, and these very panels his delight. The Brethren of this convent defrayed his expenses to Rome, and did all they could to bring him forward in the world.

We also observed two finely carved chairs from the Convent of Black Nuns, at Ghent, executed in the time of Francis I.; a large communion table, with 140 small Gothic figures; 16 Gothic chairs; and some curious friezes from Germany and Holland.

Mr. Rogers has also in his possession, and intended for private inspection, a curious and valuable collection of oak carvings of Grinling Gibbons, who lived in the time of Charles II. and who may be said to have surpassed all other competitors in this particular branch of art. The peculiar characteristics of Gibbons's chisel were lightness, elegance, and freedom. The finest and most elaborate specimens of his works are at Chatsworth, Petworth, Houghton, Burghley, Hampton, Windsor, St. James's Palace, and many churches in London. The choir of St. Paul's was from his design and workmanship. In his productions Gibbons always attempted a story; for instance, in Mr. Rogers's collection we have represented the four Elements. At the top is Fire, with all its different emblems; the bottom is Water, with the representations of crabs and shells; Earth has the lively bounding squirrels, &c.; Air shows the foliage of the trees and fantastically shaped birds, whose downy feathers appear as if they would yield to a pressure. If Gibbons decorated a dining-room he dressed the panels with all sorts of game and fruit, and trophies of hunting and fishing; the music-room had the lyre, the tabor, the

*Grinling Gibbons was born in Spuralley, in the Strand, and afterwards resided in Bell Savage-court, Ludgate-hill, where he carved a pot of flowers which shook surprisingly with the motion of the coaches that passed by. There is no instance (says Lord Orford) of a man before Gibbons, who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder natural to each species. He lived afterwards at Deptford, where Mr. Evelyn, discovering his wonderful talents, recommended him to Charles II. who gave him a place in the Board of Works, and employed him in the chapel at Windsor. His carved work here is done in lime-tree, representing a great variety of pelicans, doves, palms, and other allusions to scripture history, with the star and garter and other ornaments, finished with great perfection.

[Aug.

flute, and the harp with its silver strings. He chiefly cut in the limetree, sometimes in oak, and sometimes in stone, as the vases and pedestals at the north and south entrance of St. Paul's, and the pedestal of King Charles's horse at Charing-cross.

There were numerous other curious specimens of ancient carving, obtained from the dismantled shrines and sacristies of religious edifices, which excited our admiration; the gold and paint with which they were once decorated having been washed away by strong solutions of alkali.

MEDAL ENGRAVING.

We have been favoured with the Prospectus of a "Society for the Encouragement of Medal Engraving," to which we think the public attention may very properly be drawn. Upon the historical value of medalling we need not enlarge, but while attaching to the science, as antiquaries and lovers of the fine arts, its full share of importance, we read with great regret the statement that "Captain Mudie was obliged to have the greater part of his series of medals engraved in France;" the continuance of such a necessity would be a national discredit, and we shall therefore watch the progress of this infant society with solicitude.

The third part of Mr. Major's beautiful cabinet edition of Hogarth's Works, contains twelve copper plates, and four subjects on steel, etched with surprising attention to the character of the heads as exhibited in the originals by Hogarth. These are etched by Mr. Geo. Cruikshank, a truly kindred spirit with the great master. The plates he has selected are the Laughing Audience, the Company of Undertakers, the Oratorio, and the Public Lecture. The originals of these prints were etched in a free manner by Hogarth himself, and are justly considered superior to the more finished engravings by his own burin. The spirit of the originals is wonderfully preserved in these small copies; and the superiority makes us wish Mr. Cruikshank had engraved more plates for Mr. Major's edition. The Strolling Players is beautifully copied by T. E. Nicholson. In Pl. 5 of Marriage à-laMode, Mr. Watt has made the back-ground too dark, and not copied the minor parts correctly. The 2d Pl. of the Election is well engraved by Worthington; as is Pl. 7, of Industry and Idleness, by P. Audinet. Pl. 5, of the Rake's Progress, we consider a failure, and the minor parts are unfaithful. Mr. Duncan has engraved Pl. 12, of Industry and Idleness, and Beer Street and Gin Lane, in a very creditable manner. We are glad to see that Mr. Major has taken our hint, and engrafted on Dr. Trusler's text some judicious additions from the works of Mr. Ireland, Mr. Cunningham, and other writers.

1831.]

?"

Having disposed of the scriptural arguments employed by the colonial advocates in favour of slavery, Mr. Clarkson proceeded at ouce to consider the question of immediate emancipation. "Its consequences? is the first query that meets us. Was it so very alarming a measure, even on the threshhold, when the late Lord Melville (no very intemperate innovator) was willing that British colonial slavery should cease in 1800. But look to the consequences, iterate the colonists! Look to facts, said the lecturer. Hundreds of thousands of negroes have been emancipated at Cuba, at the Brazils, at Sierra Leone, at Mexico, at Hayti, and in our own colonies. Here is an experimental argument. Did those emancipated negroes rise to cut the throats of their benefactors? to wound the hand that smote off their chains? Did they rebel, to acquire that which they had already acquired without rebellion? Preposterous argument! Did any evil consequence to any party result from their freedom? None whatever. Those free negroes were as respectable, as industrious, and as well disposed as the white proprietors. At Mexico, a decree without preparation or notice liberated all the black slaves in one day. Did the negroes revenge themselves on their benefactors? Were they turbulent and disorderly? Nothing of the kind. There was nothing but reciprocal congratulation and rejoicing; nothing but emulation in social duties with their white brethren; nothing but zeal to serve the state into which they were admitted. So, when the French republic abolished slavery in Hayti, all accounts concur in attesting the immediate advantages to all parties, and the increased prosperity of the proprietors and the whole colony. "Its march to prosperity was rapidly accelerated," says a contemporary writer and eye-witness; "and its improvement like magic." It was when Buonaparte (apostate as he was from his early vow of liberty, in both hemispheres, and to his ultimate bane) attempted to re-impose their broken chains on the necks of the slaves, that blood and devastation covered the island. The negroes justly fought for freedom and independence" to the knife." But from the time the Haytians have recovered their freedom, they have constantly advanced in prosperity, and their free black peasantry are more prosperous, comfortable, and happy, than any GENT. MAG. Aug. 1831.

161

peasantry in the world, not excepting our own, at this time. Of this allegation the lecturer adduced concurring proofs, and read the testimony of recent eye-witnesses and correspondents.

Mr. Clarkson stated, that the plan adopted for free labour, on the liberation of the Haytian negroes, was to give one-fourth of the produce to the labourer, and the other three-fourths to the capitalist or planter. And he proposed a plan into which the division of profits entered, and of which he gave elaborate details, as the basis of a future RURAL CODE, that might be established in our colonies, with advantage to the planters as well as the negro slaves, were the British legislature, in imitation of the magnificent promptitude of Mexico, immediately to pronounce slavery abolished throughout the British dominions.

Mr. Clarkson then went into the question of compensation, which, he said, was generally considered in the light of a bugbear, deterring from all compromise, and closing the door on all adjustment; but in which, he added, he would prove that there was no real difficulty whatever. His hypothesis was, that even were the claim to compensation demanded by the West Indian proprietors conceded, the British nation would gain, in a financial point of view, by the concession. He should not, therefore, deny that there was ground for compensation, as our late colonial secretary, Sir George Murray, had denied. He should not insist on the legal exception, that immoral occupation and defective title-deeds abrogated all claim to compensation for property. But he would at once join issue with the planters, and take the estimate of some of their own body, either as regarded income arising from the property in slaves, or its value per head. And he averred, that after making fair setsfor the cost, military and naval, of maintaining the system, and the losses sustained through it by our East India, Chinese, and African commerce, that in the article of the West Indian protecting duties alone, England would be a LARGE ANNUAL GAINER, by admitting the claim thus equitably adjusted. But in order to clear the ground of all quibbles, he moreover maintained, that she would be a gainer, even in admitting the whole claim without the above sets-off and reductions. (We are compelled to omit Mr. Clarkson's arithmetical calculations to this effect.) But he proceeded to urge, that she would be infinitely more a gainer indirectly than directly, by the renewed spring the abolition would give to East Indian and Chinese trade, aud by the illimitable vent it would open for our commodities throughout the African Peninsula, when its immense and unexplored exterior shall be allowed to develope all the wants and demands of im proving civilization.