SUBJECTS FOR PAINTINGS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
AMIDST all the talk about the decorations of the new Parliament- houses, there has been marvellously little said about the sub- jects of the paintings with which they are to be embellished. An eminent artist examined before the Committee suggested the in- surrection of Wat Tyler. He did not indeed expressly say that it ought to be adopted; but he dwelt with such gusto upon its cape. bihtes for pictorial representation, that it was clear be already saw himself, in his mind's eye, seated upon the scaffolding, bringing into play all his recondite knowledge of ancient costume, and all his mastery of the arrangement of colours, in order to astonish an admiring public.
But what has Wat Tyler to do with either the House of Lords or the House of Commons ? Jack Cade, indeed, might be appro- priately introduced in the frescoes of some national school, if it were only in commemoration of his righteous judgment in the case of the Clerk of Chatham.
The ornaments of the Legislative Halls ought to harmonize with the objects to which they are devoted. We cannot in con- science recommend allegory. Much, it is true, might be done in this way. The Speaker might be represented led to the chair by Justice and Liberty, while a swarm of little cherubs clustered about all its projections as thick as the elves about oak boughs and buttercups in Fuszia's illustrations of the Midsummer Night's Dream : or a host of the same cherubs might be introduced puffing and sweating beneath the goodly corporation of Charles James Fox, which they were bearing with pain up to the celestial regions, to which the spare figure of his rival Pitt was rising by the law of its own tenuity ; or the great men of past and present times might be grouped in some grand "Imaginary Conversations,"—Sir Harry Vane discussing theology with Sir Robert Inglis; O'Connell and Crom- well arranging the pacification of Ireland; Horace Walpole ex- plaining the merits of Strawberry Hill to Cobbett ; or Lord Falk- land conversing with Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. These are tempting ideas, but, for various reasons not necessary to enlarge upon, we prefer the illustrative historical.
A judicious selection of prominent events in the history of either House might be made, to leave upon the spectator a correct im- pression of its character, and the circumstances which have contri- buted to develop it Thus, with regard to the House of Com- mons— It is said of one Oriental potentate, that he caused the leathern apron be had worn when a mechanic to be borne before him as a banner when king ; and of another, that he had inscribed on a con- spicuous part of his royal hall, " Saladin the Great must die" : the House of Commons might combine both pieces of morality with felicitous effect, by placing opposite a picture of Queen Elizabeth boxing the Speaker 't; ears, one of Oliver Cromwell ordering the mace to be carried away. Then, to "fill the space between" this alpha and omega of a Representative Legislature, might be in- troduced pictures of incidents expressive of the character of the House of Commons, and the estimation in which it is held. For the first might be recommended—the Speaker ordering the Sheriffs into confinement; and the scene where Sir Robert Walpole and Pulteney having laid a wager about the correctness of a Latin quotation, and the Speaker having decided against the Minister, the Premier of England chucked the half-guinea across the House to the leader of the Opposition, amid the breathless attention of an admiring senate. The People's love for their own House might be expressed by a torch-light view of the soldiery mustered for its protection when it was engaged in passing the Corn-law of 1815. Suggestions throng upon us as deep calleth unto deep : but it is enough at present to direct attention to the subject, and to express a hope that when the time comes for laying hand to the work, the claims of Gsorms CHUIRSHANR. and HB may not be overlooked. Unfortunately, there is no Hoosiatt in our day—at least in painting.
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