Mr. ALA.RIC WATTS has in some measure also forestalled our
recommendation, by totally repudiating the character of Annual for his Literary Souvenir, In future it will be his object to render it "a complete epitome, graphic and literary, of modern art it will be published at any period, whether Midsummer or Christ- mas, whenever the engravings may happen to be completed; and will, as we gather from its preface and its contents, contain no more of poetry and other staple stock of the Annuals, than may be sufficient to float the disquisitions on art, the notices of the lives and characters of artists, and the criticisms on specific paint- ings. For ourselves, if spirit, variety, and impartiality could be secured, we should not care if it acted up to the letter of one of its titles, and became entirely a Cabinet of Art. How fur supe- rior, in reality and interest, to maudlin tales or tawdry verses, is even the slight notice of Sir W. BEECHEY'S life and character, or the sketch of UNWIN'S career, with the very good account of "manufacturing engravers," or even Mr. HOWARD'S somewhat unphilosophical discussion on the respective characters of Poetry and Painting, and his estimate of the qualifications and acquire- ments necessary to success in art. The Souvenir, however, must undergo considerable improvement before it can fairly be said to fulfil our desiderata, and to "appear in a new mode and be ani- mated by a new spirit."
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