culprit, deposited in a shell, were hoisted into a waggon, and conveyed to the prison. In twenty minutes, all was over; and the Grande Place nearly cleared of its thousands, on whom the dreadful scene seemed to have made, as usual, the slightest possible impression.

Since the period of my former visit, in 1816, the fine collection of the Museum has been arranged with great care and judgment. The suites of rooms, however, are of a size better suited for the display of cabinet pictures than of the grand altar-pieces now placed there. Of the former class are-View of the environs of Venice along the Brenta, and the Interior of St. Mark's, by Canaletti; the Siege of Tournay, by Vander Meulen, an interesting production of the free, spirited, and accurate pencil of that able and judicious draughtsman; an Interior of Antwerp Cathedral, by the elder Neefs, offers a fine effect of candle-light on the perspective detail and decorative richness of Gothic architecture. A woodland landscape, by A. Verbroom, and a subject of Still Life, by Stommé, are both highly meritorious specimens of the modern Flemish school.

Among the large pictures taken away by the French to decorate the walls of the Louvre, but at the epocha of 1815 restored to the Belgic Government, are the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, by Crayer; St. Martin casting out a devil from a possessed person, by J. Jordaens; a St. Sebastian, by C. Procaccini; Beheading of St. John, by J. B. Franks; Presentation in the Temple, by Philip De Champagne; and the Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew, by Barroccio. In the same class of church ornaments are, Rubens' Christ carrying the Cross; and his Crowning of the Virgin, even in the celestial group of which you see

his favourite female face: the composition however is full of talent; and the carnations have all the freshness and transparency of life itself. In the Martyrdom of St. Lievin, the same painter has represented the executioner as having pulled out the tongue of the holy man with pincers, and in the act of giving it to a dog: for the eye of humanity, "it is too shocking." I regarded his picture of Le Seigneur voulant foudroyer le monde, with unabated sentiments of admiration at the genius which it attests in the artist, and with augmented feelings of repugnance to the subject itself. In my former recollections of this extraordinary piece, I noticed the horror-frozen figure of the supplicating Saint (Francis not Dominic) and the dreadful majesty of the offended Saviour armed with the thunder of heaven, and ready to burl its consuming fulminations on the devoted globe. But in that hasty description a most material personage of the supernatural drama was omitted to be mentioned: namely, the Virgin Mary, who appears in the clouds, arresting the hand of her Son.-It is Jesus Christ wishing to destroy the world, which he died to save; but deterred from his vindictive purpose by the irresistible intercession of his more clement mother!* God forgive me for repeating such profaneness; and pardon

* This picture relates to one of those miraculous visions, which are the familiar embellishments of Monkish legends, and is especially designed to show that "the all-seeing and all powerful Virgin of the Romish Mythology preserves the world." It illustrates a passage in the ample volume of tales by which, as Doctor SOUTHEY in his luminous view of the papal system, observes, "that figment was supported which takes from the Redeemer his attribute of mercy and invests the Virgin with it in its stead. Should you tell me (adds that distinguished writer) that these are only pious frauds, I must exclaim with St. Peter Damian, but using the words in a different sense from that in which he intended them, impia pietas!" Vindiciæ Eccles. Angl. p. 458.

those who have invented and represented it. Rubens painted this picture for a Convent of Franciscans: the doctrine which it serves to inculcate is worthy of the school of the Stigmata. But can any one, whose religion is founded on the evangelical gospels and apostolic epistles, regret for a single moment the suppression of monastic institutions, in which the image of Christianity has been so defaced and deformed, and its spirit so libelled and degraded!

The damages occasioned by fire to the Royal Palace were very extensive and have not yet been entirely repaired. The Hall of the States General (formerly the Conseil-de-Brabant) have however been splendidly rebuilt. The Chamber of Peers is decorated with two large pictures by J. Odevaere, of Brussels; one represents the Battle of Waterloo, and the artist has chosen the time and place of the action in which the Prince of Orange was wounded. There is no want of attention to local resemblance or to military correctness, in this performance which bears the date of 1818; but the manner is hard and stiff. The companion to it by the same hand is Prince Maurice at the Battle of Nieuport, executed in 1820.

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The newly-erected Chamber of Deputies is of a semicircular form; and in its general plan much resembles that at Paris. The throne is in the middle, on the cord of the arc: a very handsome dome through which the hall receives its light is supported by a marble colonnade of Ionic pillars, surmounting a tier of the Corinthian order.

After a ramble through the Park, to which the careful horticulture of the last few years has restored its former claim to be included among the most handsome and pleasant public walks in Europe, I visited the small but

choice gallery of pictures, at M. Danoot's the banker. This collection contains several works of the younger D. Teniers: among them is a large and very fine winter scene; his Archers shooting at butts, is an exquisite production : Gipsies telling fortunes has about it all his characteristic freedom, delicacy and transparence, with more than his usual force of stile and body of colouring; his Peasants playing at bowls is also a charming picture, on rather a large scale. There are two remarkably fine landscapes by Ruysdaal; one of them, a mountain scene with solemn woods and foaming cascades, is a striking image of nature in her most attractive combination of loveliness and grandeur; the other is not less beautiful though not so romantic, and has the additional enrichment of figures by Ostade or by Wouvermans. Another sweetly finished Flemish landscape presents itself from the pencil of an equally diligent observer and successful imitator of nature, Lucas Vanuden; the figures are said to have been put in for him by his admirer and employer Rubens. In this collection are Murillo's Deux Mendians-(ragged boys eating grapes); a Danae of Titian's; a fine portrait of St. Gregory, by Bosschart; head of a man reading, by Rembrandt, and worthy of the master. The same can hardly be said of the Holy Family returning from Egypt, ascribed to Rubens; the Disciples at Emaus is a less questionable specimen of that great artist; Honthorst's Femme-à-la-chandelle, displays his excellence in a fine effect of light and shadow. There is a view of Scheveling by Van Goyen, a simple beach scene, rendered interesting by its truly natural style, and pleasing by its calm repose; an excellent fruit and dead game piece, by Snyders; the portrait of a woman in semi-transparent drapery, by Frank Floris; and Raphael's Virgin, St. John,

and Child Jesus asleep, which exhibits the dryness of his first manner, as a disciple of Perugino's.

On my way from the Grande Place to the Legislative Chambers, I could not pass the Collegiate Church without again indulging myself with a view of that famous Gothic temple. Begun under Lambert Balderic, Duke of Brabant, in 1010, it was originally dedicated to St. Michael, Arch-victor over the Prince of Darkness. For the same building having afterwards been placed under the virgin patronage of Gudila, or Gudule, it is not easy to account, except perhaps by supposing a blessed Angel's triumph over a fallen one was no subject for a long legend; and that on the other hand there is something infinitely more ad captandum vulgus in the story of a young female Saint going to chapel at night, lantern in hand, supported on one side by an angel, and assailed on the other by the devil; the latter puffing her light out with a pair of bellows, and the former re-illuming it by the flame of a heavenly taper. Be this as it may; the Church of St. Gudule is a noble and a splendid edifice. The eminence on which it stands; the grand escalier by which its principal portal is approached; the regular design and magnificent dimensions of the west front and its two towers (built about the year 1226, by Henry I. Duke of Brabant, and not unlike those of Notre Dame, at Paris); all combine to render the outside of this structure venerable, attractive, and interesting. The acutely pointed architecture of the lofty and extensive pile; the rich ornaments of its numerous sidechapels; its curious sepulchral effigies and stately monuments; its altar-pictures, and brilliant imagery in stained glass, by excellent hands; the statues of the Apostles on the columns of the nave, works of very able sculptors;