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Leader (1850-1860), 7th October 1854, Edition Town of 2, Page 953

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      Untitled Article

      Had varnishes always kept as hard , clear , and durable as glass , the preservation of the works of the old painters had been an easy matter ; but , unfortunately , the colours of many of the finest pictures are rendered almost invisible by the discoloration and cracking of the varnishes themselves . The simple removal of these injurious incrustations is the work of the modern picture cleaner . It is this removing of the old varnish with its accumulated dirt that is so dangerous ; the use of solvents such as alcohol or naphtha is often fatal ; scraping and rubbing are perhaps even more hazardous on account of the varied surface of the old painting . It is a process that cannot be conducted too cautiously , and only adopted -when the picture is invisible from dirt or actually decaying before otar eyes . When valuable pictures have once been cleaned they should be glazed over , especially if shown in large smoky cities , and the backs well sealed up from the attacks of insects and the settling of dust : —

      Whole galleries of fine pictures have perished of neglect , arising from an utter indifference to their beauties and ignorance of their worth . It is easier to understand such a state of things in private families , than in public bodies . Pictures bought by and for the public for daily contemplation , ought to be made an example of precaution , which private owners and collectors might follow . For it is too true that here and there the sense of responsibility is dead as regards the preservation of the works of genius , which are in their royal nature a legacy to the nation in which they exist , and to the inhabitants of successive ages . Legitimate restoring is confined to supplying actual deficiencies in a picture , not attempting ^ to improve upon the master . Neither should it turn the work of an inferior master into a picture-that may he called a Correggio by the application of the-tricks- of the trade . The following remarks show a conscientious study of the subject : —

      The practical restorer should study to the end ; that his mind may become , as it were , an index of the various styles of painting practised by the masters whose works are his care . Be the style of a painter simple or complex , graceful or ungraceful , it should be registered in its place . The restorer , lake the physician , should have no bias . It is for him to trace with untiring industry , and unerring precision , the many fine distinctions in each particular work he may have to treat . He ought to comprehend , not only the meaning arid spirit of each work , but be able to trace , bit by hit , with microscopic exactness , the means and the method which the artist employed to accomplish it . It as not enough for the restorer to know the results , he must also penetrate their causes—that the effects may not suffer . It would seem that nothing less than a master mind could achieve the successful treatment of a master work , htit it comes out in the end , that restorers of inferior power , profiting by the creations of the artist , may be able to appreciate their excellencies though unable to produce them : just as the critic discovers in another the qualities he could , never have invented himself . In a word , the restorer has wholly to devote himself to the study of pictures , until he has made himself as familiar with the productions of many pencils as the ambitious painter does -with a few select examples .

      Mr . Merritt's book consists principally of papers contributed to the Leader and Athenceum . Tliey have a special value , as coming from , a practical man , and one well acquainted with the style and method of painting followed by the old masters . After such dangerous experiments performed by the professors upon our Rubenses and Claudes in the national collection , it is most desirable that all that the practical and thoughtful men know of the subject should be told : we may then-eveatually know for certain which is the best way of cleaning , restoring , and preserving a picture .

      Untitled Article

      HISTORY OF THE CHARTIST MOVEMENT . The Ilistory of the Chartist Movement , from its Commencement down to the Present Time . With an Appendix . By K . G . Gammage . Part I . Holyoake and Co ., Fleet-street . We have here the first part of a work which appears , so far as we have yet read , to supply £ i very fair historical resume of the Chartist movement . It is of course from the Chartist point of view , but , as we might expect from the house of publication , it presents neither a violent nor an unphilosophical version of the Chartist statement ; and if it continue in the same strain , it will be useful to the political inquirer and historian- We shall , however , be able to judge better when we have the work complete .

      Untitled Article

      THE CENSUS . The Census of Great Britain in 1861 , comprising an Account of the Numbers and Dutributton of the People , their Ages , Conjugal Condition , Occupations , and Birthplaces , with Returns of the Blind , Deaf and Dumb , and the Inmates of Public Institutions , and an Analytical Index . Reprinted , in a Condensed Form , from the Official Reports and Tables . Longmans . This volume is one which cvci'y man ought to possess who really desires to know the actual condition of his country , so fur as tliat is indicated by its numerical distribution . Tho numerical distribution of the people is brought about by many circumstances connected , for example , with tho past history , the existing industry , tho moral state of tho community ; and it has in turn a material influence on tho intelligence , actions , moral condition , and

      matcnal progress of that community . It is of course quite impossible thnt a numerical Census of tho people should comprise an exposition of these circumstances , but by a masterly comprehension of treatment tho assistants of the Registrar-General have done much to » how tho relation which the figures ot the Census have to the o . xplnnntory literature existing . Tho Census , bo fur as it sots forth tho numbers and distribution of the people , its ngCB , conjugal condition , occupation , birthplace , infirmities , crime , and public institutions , is here re- comprised , without losing much of t , lie elucidatory comment tlmt gives so much value to the whole . Tnke the chapter on tho conjugul condition of the people ulono , and see what a key in hero given to understand the poet , to estimate the present , and to guide tho moralist in the consideration of tho future .

      Untitled Article

      FENN'S COMPENDIUM . Fenris Compendium of the English and Foreign Funds , with Statements of the Debts and Revenues of all Nations , also of Banks , Railways , Mines , and the Principal Joint Stock Companies ; forming an Epitome of the various objects of Investment and Speculation which are Negotiable in London , with Laws and Regulation * of the Stock Exchange Tables , cf-c . fourth Edition , revised and corrected , and brought down to the present time , by Edward Ayres , Editor of the " Banker ' s Circular . " Not -very long since there was a prevalent opinion that financial or monetary affairs required some special genius to understand them . We have made some advance since that time , and although we are inclined to think that a very profound perception , of financial matters demands qualities seldom found combined in one man , yet there is no doubt that a competent knowledge of the subject is open to most who have sufficient faculty to cast up an inn-bill , or attain the end of a railway journey with a solvent purse . The

      whole is made up of the parts ; bi g funds belonging to nations do not essentially differ from little funds belonging to private persons . The only difference lies in arbitrary regulations to which very fine names have beeu given ., and in devices by which the uninitiated are made to understand that one tiling is accomplished when another is really done . We doubt , for example , whether there were not really people who believed that Mr . Pitt borrowed a hundred pounds at a moderate per centage , when by some wonderful hocus pocus the capitalists had to pay something less than 60 Z . for 1001 . stock . They called it 100 / ., and they called It stock , and they professed to pay 5 per cent , for it . The great profound monopolizers of monetary knowledge , the practical men "Who pocketed round sums by the transaction , declared that the minister was heaven-born ; the vulgar felt that they could not understand it | and by favour of that submissive ignorance such things were done . In . our days we disbelieve the mystery , — -we ask

      what is really borrowed , —we learn the real price for the loan , and we will not support ministers who are for hurrying us into liabilities on the heavenborn plan . One of the reasons why we have arrived at this more practical view of the subject in its humbler relations , is the existence of manuals like the present book . Here , in a small octavo volume , we have a complete account of the English funds , their origin in various loans contracted at different times , their vicissitudes , redemptions , " conversions , reductions , consolidations , additions , &c , their present state , and equivalent values . We have the same explanation , rapidly of course , respecting foreign funds ; we have also an account of that important body the Stock Exchange , with its rules and regulations ; the standing rules and practices respecting bills of exchange , and other instruments current in the commercial world ; equations of foreign moneys , state of railway stocks , with a mass of other things

      bearing on the great trade in money . Fenri's Compendium of the Funds had acquired , repute , but in taking it up to fit it for republication in our own day , Mr . Ayres found that so much had happened since the last edition , in 1840 , to alter the very substance of the book , that it necessarily became to a great extent a new work . And so it is . The mere enlargement of financial operations is but a small part of the change within the last fourteen years . Opinions on the subject have been materially modified in this country ; and within the last twelve months immense light has been thrown upon some important sections of the subject at home and abroad . To take one example , —the reputed solvency and high principle of Russia have been completely exploded by the events of the present year . All such facts are brought down to the

      present time . The most recent events , for example , respecting the foreign debt of Spain , the financial efforts of Turkey , the reckless measures of Russia , are all here given . We even find extracted from the official French journal that expose of the singular relation between tlie Russian Government and the land-owners , wlio are the principal tax-payers , which exhibits the Imperial Government in . partnership with its own debtors to the extent of 120 , 000 , 000 ^ . It is , we say , to the ready command which the public has of works like the present that we must ascribe the general diffusion of intelligent comprehension on the subject of finance - , placing the best of all checks upon tlie heaven-born antics -which have plunged thia country more deeply into debt than any state in the world , and for which our humblest classes to this day are paying far more than will be demanded from them for making the Emperor of Russiakuow his place .

      Untitled Article

      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . A Voice from the East , tty lira . St . Jolin . Saunders and Otley . The Principles of 'School Architecture , hy Henry Barnard . Triibner and Co . Houses with the Fronts off . By Hein Friawdl . Illustrated by W . M'Conncll . J , ondon : T . Bluckwood . The JUritish Commonwealth ; a . Commentary on tho Institutions and Principles of Hritish Government , liy Hotnor » liaut Cox , IU . A ., &c . ILongman , Drown , Green , and Longmans . Outlines of Botany : being an Introduction to the Study of ( he Structure ' , Functions , Clasn-Jcation , and Distribution of Plants . By John Hutton BaMbur , M . P ., F . L . S ., K . U . S . K ., &c . Adam undChurlcu 15 lack . The Lofty and the Lowly : or , Good in Ally and None all Good . By M . I . Mclntoah .

      Gcorgo ltoullodfto « nd Co My Comrade and My Colours : or , Men who know not when they're Beaten , lly tho Kov Erskino Neulo , M . A . Trikbnor will Co The Synodicmi . Parts I . to IV . Eiwuxd Thompson . The Mosaic Record in Harmony with the Geological . Thomn » Constable wndCo , Milton ' s Paradise Lost und Paradise Regained , uiith Kxplunatory A'ate * . Vy *'"' | ' - < jr Kdmonoton . T . Nol « on wi . l hoiw . The Floivcr of the Family . A Tale . l N " " «''«' ««»« Raniierah < tn , tha frith Fuiri / niau : and Legends of Carrkk . Hy Joint O'Neill . ^ " •»» •'" Introduction by Mrs . S . 0 . Hull . , „ w ; Jwo « . ( iii . The I ' ro / hmmml , and Magazinefhr tho People . I ' nrl I . , lUirM ' Al liml >» l '»™ a-Cholera Cfiemiaaltj , Cvnmkrcd . 15 y I ) . Griillth J »» v * , >»¦»• . W - - , ,, rH « ll nndSliirrcsH . The Pulaco < f tk . Foul vmu- the Cr ^ ol / W «« , in ro Wim ™< »«\^™^ ^ Life's Lesson . A Tulo . Snm » " ' tSon 'Uld Co '

      Untitled Article

      October 7 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 953

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 7, 1854, page 953, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2059/page/17/