FINE ARTS.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK in his Illustrations of the " Novelist's Library," succeeds in giving effect to the broad humour of the story, without cari- cature, and with only a due seasoning of grimace ; at the same time preserving the identity of the characters, and rendering the persons of his youthful heroes comely, and his heroines even bewitching, not allow- ing the ludicrous expression of their countenances to destroy their beauty. The frontispiece to Volume IV. (the second of Peregrine Pickle) represents a board of tailors resisting, with a chevastx de frise of open shears, the descent of a couple of bailiffs through the hole in the sky- light which their prisoner had made in his precipitate escape. The va- rious attitudes and physiognomies of the knights of the needle, and their exulting grins of delight and defiance, contrasted with the chopfallen looks of the catcbpoles, whose faces peer despairingly through the aper- tures makes a most amusing scene. The visit of the lady of quality and Pickle to the conjuror, and the impatience of Hatchway, who, having broken his wooden leg in his hurry, leaves one half 8f his timber limb in the staircase, and unbuckling the broken prop, comes hopping into the room on his lone foot to meet Peregrine, are both worthy of SMOLLETT'S description.
The New Monthly Magazine gives this month a portrait of Miss Mit- ford. The Library of Pine Arts has two portraits, one of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the other of Miss Siddons, by Lawrence. La Belle Assemblee, a well-engraved miniature of Lady Agnes Buller. Fraser, a nondescript -*etch) the meaning of which we do not profess to comprehend. H. B. has given a waggish version of the " Bringing up of the Bill" to the Peers. Lord John Russell presents to the Lord Chancellor " the Bill," a short thick roll of parchment, having the appearance of a roll of tobacco, or a Stilton cheese. He is accompanied by Lord Althorp, and also by the Marquis of Chandos, Mr. Croker, Sir C. Wetherell, &c., who, as H. B. slily observes, " ought to have been there." The likenesses, that of the Lord Chancellor especially, are very sttiking. The contrast be- tween the ingenuous look of Lord John Russell and the crafty expression of Mr. Croker's smooth countenance—the blunt honesty of Lord Al- thorp's John Bull aspect, and the wily look of Lord Chandos—the acrid humour of Sir Charles Wetherell and the sarcastic subtlety of Lord Brougham, with other faces in the background, make an interesting pic- ture altogether.
[More copious notices of Fine Arts, and .an account of the Derby Musical Festival, in our next Number.]
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