FINE ARTS.
Captain Smsdhe's Drawings of the Captured Sikh, ataiS. Befbre us are two volumes, a quarto containing some sixty pages, and a broad folio of thirty pages. The latter is filled with engineering portraits of the guns captured from the Sikhs,—their horizontal section, showing the structure of the interior; and the elevation, showing the method of mounting the guns. The quarto is filled with fac-similes of the inscrip- tions on the guns, with the surrounding ornament. The work is litho- graphed from drawings by Captain Smythe of tha Bengal Artillery, who has executed his- task with consummate ability. With the accuracy of the engineer is combined much freedom and grace of handling,—a tombs that. enters thoroughly into the elegance of the decorative parts, and eon. veys no small intimation of pictorial character to the barbaric: creatures of war. The inscriptions, if our Occidental eyes deceive us not, are in Per- sian,—a character well suited to fit in with flowers and flowerlike tracery. The guns had been intrusted to Captain Smythe for transport from Lahore to Calcutta, and be improved that opportunity to make this pictorial record; a monument of industry. His work not only obtained the approval of Lord Harding° and the Members of Council, but that approval was signified substantially in the official order for the drawings to be published at the Government expense, and the gift of a situation worth 1,2001. a year. In the work we obseive that the painstaking and spirit continue undiminished to the very last,—a considerable test of power of band and industry, and also abundant testimony that the draughtsman has undergone long and diligent practice: he could not have advanced, so far in a difficult and valuable accomplishment without much past labour. His success may be a stimulus to others, in proving the value of self-culti- vation to the young officer. The drawings are highly useful to the student of Indian history, both by displaying the proficiency of the Sikhs in the military arts, and also their taste and skill in decorative art. In both they may claim consider- able merit: the finished make, the light and workmanlike mounting of the guns, well accord with the accounts of the activity and skill displayed by the Sikh artillerymen. The devices enclosing the descriptions are elegant and fanciful often to a high degree of beauty. The makers and adorn= of these guns must have been of a race capable of doing great things.
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