As will be seen, though with two or three exceptions not of our greatest men, nor of the highest order of pictures, the donations are of an exceedingly interesting kind. But it is manifest that it is upon the purchased that reliance must be placed for keeping the collection up to the mark. All that the trustees can do as regards donations, is to decide whether the person represented has a title to a place among British worthies, and whether the portrait is authentic ; and to accept or decline it accordingly. To guard against improper admissions " three fourths at least of the trustees present at a meeting must approve " of any donation. The purchases, on the other baud, test at once the fitness and the diligence of the trustees. Had the gentle men selected as trustees been merely " distinguished patrons of art," habitude of the picture galleries, the spirit of dilettantism would have led them far astray before they could have been checked by public opinion. But among them were included politicians of all parties, historians, antiquaries, artists, and connoisseurs. The original trusteed were—The Lord President of the Council for the time bc.ng ; the Marquis of Lansdowne ; Earl Stanhope ; Earl of Ellesmere ; Lord Elcho ; Right Hon. Sidney Herbert ; Right Hon. B. Disraeli ; Lord Robert Cecil; Lord Macaulay ; Sir Francis Palgrave ; Sir Charles Eastlake, P.R.A. ; William Smith, and W. H. Carpenter, Esqrs. On the death of the Earl of Ellesmere, in 1857, Mr. Thomas Carlyle was appointed to supply the vacancy ; and on the death of Lord Macaulay the vacancy was filled by the election of Mr. Gladstone. As might be expected, therefore, therc has been no partisan or sectarian exclusive ness in their selections. The first regulation which the trustees laid down for their guidance was "in either making purchases or receiving presents, to look to the celebrity of the person represented rather than to the merit of the artist. They will attempt to estimate that celebrity without any bias to any political or religious party. Nor will they consider great faults and errors, even though admitted on all sides, as any sufficient ground for excluding any portrait which may be valuable as illustrating the civil, ecclesiastical, or literary history of the country." The second that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less than ten years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning sovereign, and of his or her consort, unless all the trustees in the United Kingdom, and not incapacitated by illness, shall either at a meeting or by letter, signify their approbation.' These were their rules, the following are their purchases. The Raleigh we have mentioned. The next purchase was Handel, by Hudson (the master of Reynolds), the great composer being repre sented in full dress, with gold lace and ruffies—the dress he used to put on when he sat down to compose a work of more than usual grandeur. Dr. Parr, by Dawe, a rough, course head, bought of Parr's nephew. Arthur Murphy, by Dance. The Speaker Lenthall, from Burford Priory, the seat of the Lenthall family. Horne Tooke, by Hardy. Mead, the physician, by Allan Ramsay, 1740. Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Sir William Wyndham, by Highmore. The first Earl Cadogan, by Laguerre. Richard Cumberland, by Romney. La Belle Hamilton, a copy by Eckardt from Lely, which might very well have been left unpurehased. William Huskisson, by Rothwell (1831). Archbishop Wake, probably by Gibson. Bishop Warburton, by C. Phillips : by the way there are at Hampton Court two portraits of a brother prelate, Hurd, whose name is indissolubly associated with Warburton's, one of which might well be sent to renew the companionship here. William Sharp, our best portrait engraver, by Lonsdale. Our great circumnavigator, Captain Cook, painted by John Webber, R.A., who accompanied him as drafts man Sir William Chambers, the architect, by Reynolds. Elizabeth Carter, the Greek scholar, a crayon drawing by Lawrence. Bishop Headley, by Mrs. Hoadley, but, as is believed, touched on by Hogarth. Cardinal Wolsey, a profile formerly at Weston, Warwickshire. Gene ral Ireton, by Walker, a stern, grave face admirably painted—from the Lenthall collection. William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, by Reynolds, but sadly faded. Sir William Windham, a fine manly head, by Lawrence, an early work, and more solidly painted than his later pictures. Theodore Hook, by Eddis. Sir Ralph Winwood. a very characteristic head, by Mirevelt—engraved by Vertue. Nell Gwynne, by Lely. The Princess Charlotte, by Dawe, the first of the many portraits which he painted of the princess, and retained by him till his death. Lord Clive, by Dance : the calm decision of the great commander well marked. Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted by himself before his visit to Italy, and consequently before the injury to his lip, which gives so peculiar an expression to his face in subsequent portraits : in all respects an admirable painting, as a work of art one of the very finest in the collection. Sir David Wilkie, a small but characteristic head, painted by himself at the age of twenty-nine. John Opie, R.A., painted by himself at the age of twenty-four—of no great value as a painting, but with the others serving as a good founda tion for a series of portraits of British painters. Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakspere, by Mirevelt (or, as we fancy, by Mytens). Judge Jeffreys (as Recorder of London), by Kneller. John Dryden. 'William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. George Colman, by Gainsborough. James I., when a child. Sidney's Sister—Pembroke's mother, so at least it is described in the catalogue, on what authority it is not stated, and the ascription is very far from satisfactory. William Powlett, first Marquis of Winchester. Antony Ashley, first Earl of Shaftes
bury. Congreve, by Kneller. Sir Robert Walpole, by Vanloo. Eliza beth of Bohemia, by Janssens. Lord Nelson, painted at Vienna in 1000, by H. Fuger. Abraham Cowley, by Mr. Beale Earl Howe, by Single ton. John Selden. John Hunter, a capital copy, by Jackson, of the celebrated portrait by Reynolds—now a ruin. James, second _duke of Ormond. The Seven Bishops, painted immediately after their acquittal. John Smeaton, with the Eddystone lighthouse in the distance. Warren Hastings. David Garrick. James Watt, by De Breda. Dr. Darwin, by Wright of ,Derby. Sir M. I. Brunel, by Drummond. Archbishop Tillotson, by Mrs. Beale. William Hunting ton—Sinner Saved. Sir William Herschel, by Abbot. Mary Queen of Scots. And nnally, John Howard.
We have gone through the entire list of portraits in the gallery up to August of the present year To them is however to be added, Hayter's large picture of the ' First Reformed House of Commons, which was purchased by the government on the recommendation of a Committee of the House of Commons, in order to sdd to the National Portrait Gallery. Its claim to a place in this gallery arises from Its containing a large number of the leading politicians %hose names are aseacated with the Reform Act, and other important measures which have acquired an historical interest. But we may regard the admission of this picture as important chiefly as forming a precedent for the Introduction of a most valuable class of works, thoto namely wheel are strictly contemporary representations of historical scenes or circum stances, instead of exclusively restricting the gallery to portraits ; though this should be the only deviation permitted.
This list will have shown that an excellent cumuneucenient has been made in the formation of a National Portrait Gallery. Many of our greatest names are wanting, and the trustees have been censured for purchasing portraita of emend or thintrate men, while there are no portraits of Bacon, Newton, Milton, and others of the highest order. But it must not be forgotten that authentic portraits of such men are, as his been said, almost as difficult to meet with as the men them selves; and the trustees appear to be fully alive to the importance of securing the portraits of our greatest men. An annual grant of 200)9/. is made for the purposes of the gallery; but the trustees, desirous of availing themselves of opportunities for large acquisitions by " a sale at some great country-house, or a dispersion of some celebrated collec tion." du not expend this sum unless portraits of unquestionable importance offer. On the whole, there can be little hesitation in acknowledging, on lo ,king through the list of their purchases, that the trustees have acted up to the spirit of the rule they laid down for their guidance, and that the selection has been wade in a liberal and comprehensive spirit. At present the pictures are placed in apart ments in a private house, No. 29 Great George Street, Westminster, which barely afford room for those already obtained, and are most unsuitable for their public exhibition. Until sufficient room is obtained no attenist can be made to arrange the portr tits in any chronological order or aeries. When adequate room is provided we may hope to see added to them at least a selection from the British portraits now hung out of sight over the stuffed birds in the British Museum. In the National Portrait Gallery, portraits of Queen Elizabeth, Oliver Cromwell, William the Third, Cranmcr, Drake, Algernon Sidney, Marlborough, Bacon, Newton, Locke, Pope, and the like, would find a fitting home and associates ; whereas nothing can possibly be more inappropriate than their present locality. it cannot be said that these portraits are inalienable or irremovable, for in the National Gallery there is at least one portrait "deposited by the Trustees of the British Museum," and that of one (Sir William Hamilton) who, from his connection with one of the collections in the British Museum, it might have seemed especially desirable to retain in that institution. And why might not the British Portraits in the National Gallery be also transferred to the National Portrait Gallery f Among them are several of considerable interest on account of thu persons represented, yet of but inferior consequence as works of art. The property in these portraits might of course be retained by the respective trustees, although united in this gallery. If this were dune, a noble National Portrait Gallery might be at once opened, and owners of the portraits of eminent British worthies wuuld soon be found eager to add their contributions to the national collection.
Hampton Court —There remain two other galleries which, though not strictly, are virtually national—those at Hampton Court Palace, and Creenaich Ilospiusl. The paintings at Hampton Court are the property of the crown, and the bulk of them are those which have been removed here from the other royal palaces. in all they are no lees than 1850 in number. For thu last twenty years the whole of the state apartments, in which the pictures are hung, have been theme openly freely to the public. The grand feature of the collection is the unrivalled series of seven Cartoons of subjects front the Life of the Savionr and the Acts of the Apostles, by Itall'aelle, which are by universal consent admitted to rank as the noblest works of their class in the world. They have until lately betel seeu to great dis advantage in the room built expressly for them by Sir Christopher 'Wren But recently they have been lowered considerably, to the manifest improvement of their appearance. It has also been deemed advisable to cover them with glass, which however, whatever may be said on the score of security, can hardly be commended as adding to their beauty.