WEST.

CROMWELL DISSOLVING THE LONG
PARLIAMENT.

THE event commemorated in this picture took place April 10, 1653. The Long Parliament first met in 1640, and having sat nearly thirteen years, having maintained a successful contest with the supporters of arbitrary power and divine right, having first deposed the King and then brought him to the scaffold, having abolished royalty and episcopacy, and voted the house of Lords useless and dangerous, began at last to yield before the power of its own instrument, the army. Oliver Cromwell, to whom the active scenes of civil war had afforded many opportunities of displaying great abilities, had by perseverance, prudence, and dissimulation equal to his bravery, acquired an unlimited influence over his companions in arms, and seeing matters every way ripe for a change, he took his resolutions accordingly. Entering unexpectedly into the Parliament House in the midst of a debate he briefly reproached the members with their vices and unpopularity, and adding that the Lord had done with them, he made a signal to his soldiers who speedily cleared the house and locked the doors.

This incident, so decisive of character, is peculiarly adapted for the pencil, and has been successfully treated in the annexed picture. Cromwell, calm, dignified, imperturbable, occupies the center, he points to the mace, and the command to take away that shining bauble has just passed his lips; Lambert, Fleetwood, and Ireton, are near him. The Speaker, Lenthall, is roughly accosted by Colonel Harrison. The principal figure on the left is Sir H. Vane, near to him are Fairfax, Rous, and Harry Martin. The composition, action, expression, and drawing of this picture, are in strict unison, and of a superior order it was painted for Lord Grosvenor's collec tion, and has been ably engraved by J. Hall.

KIDD.

LE VOYAGEUR TOURMENTÉ

Il est peu de personnes qui ne sympathisent avec le personnage infortuné que figure ce tableau ; après avoir voyagé toute la nuit par le froid, joint à ce que quelque mésaventure l'a forcé le soir précédent de se priver de son souper, il vient de mettre pied à terre moitié gelé, et presque mort de faim, devant une auberge où les voyageurs doivent déjeuner. Déjà il a pris place auprès d'un feu pétillant, tout en s'appropriant ces paroles de Falstaff: « Pourquoi ne prendrai - je pas mes aises dans mon auberge.» Déjà il a commencé une attaque sur les mets étalés devant lui avec profusion..... soudain le conducteur annonce, au son de sa trompette, que la voiture est sur le point de continuer sa route. Cet avis retentissant est bientôt confirmé par l'arrivée d'un garçon ; l'indignation du voyageur est à son comble, lorsqu'il voit porté sur la carte ce qu'il ne lui a pas même été permis de consommer.

Il est aisé de voir dans ce tableau que le peintre a bien su rendre le sujet qu'il s'était proposé. L'histoire qu'il a voulu raconter s'explique bien, l'exécution en est soignée et correcte. Il a été gravé par J.-L. Busby.

THE TRAVELLER DISTURBED.

FEW persons but will sympathize with the unlucky wight who figures in this production. He has apparently travelled all night in the cold, and probably has been defrauded by some mischance of his supper the previous evening; he has at length arrived late in the morning, half frozen, and half starved, at the inn where, in the technical phrase, the coach breakfasts. Here he has taken up a position before a blazing fire, and soliloquizing in the words of Falstaff « shall I not take mine ease in mine inn, has divested himself of his boots, and commenced an attack on the good things which are pleutifully spread before him, when the guard's horn suddenly announces that the vehicle is about to resume its progress; this assounding information is confirmed by the entrance of the waiter, and our traveller's indignation is completely rouzed on being presented with a bill for what he has not been allowed time to consume.

An inspection of the engraving will show that the painter has succeeded in the aim he proposed, the story being clearly told, and the manual execution of the picture careful and correct. It has been engraved by T.-L. Busby.