vain to expect from them parochial visitations, personal examination of the state of churches and parsonages, administration of the holy sacrament to the people, preaching the Word of God, examination of the spiritual and moral state of the laity, personal and frequent intercourse with the clergy. All this is out of the question now. The episcopate has become little more than a jurisdiction, a tribunal, an office for the administration of temporalities and funds; its pastoral and ministerial character as an order in the Church has been, in a great measure, overlaid. Under existing circumstances, a bishop is, immediately on his appointment, obliged to become non-resident for the purpose of acting as chaplain to the House of Lords; an office which is confided to the junior bishop. The effect of this regulation is, to remove the prelate from his diocese precisely at the moment when it is most essential for him to devote himself to its care. It may fairly be supposed, that after a bishop has been for several years resident in his diocese, and has arranged its administration, he may without very great inconvenience leave it for a time; but to call him away from his diocese at the moment when he ought to be busied in becoming personally acquainted with the whole of it, and in forming his arrangements for its government, seems to be an arrangement altogether at variance with reason and justice. Surely the House of Lords would, if this matter were rightly represented, make some other arrangement, so as to relieve newly appointed bishops from a duty which must be felt as a most heavy burden by every conscientious and devoted prelate.

In taking our leave of the pamphlet from which we have derived so much materials for thought, we beg to thank the author for his well-timed and most interesting publication. Discussions such as those which he has so ably treated, cannot fail to be eminently serviceable to the Church.

ART. VI.-Les Arts en Portugal. Lettres adressées à la Société Artistique and Scientifique de Berlin, et accompagnées de documens, par le CoMTE A. RACZYNSKI. Paris; Jules Renouard. Ir is not often in these days that an author is fortunate enough to treat on a subject wholly, or in great measure, new to the reading public: such, however, is the case with the writer indicated above. We may possibly be displaying our own ignorance; we will, nevertheless, hazard the assertion of our belief, that even in these sight-seeing days, and in spite of the small pursy-looking “Treasuries of Universal Knowledge," teeming apparently to repletion with something about every thing (shall we add, and not much about any thing?), nineteen out of twenty, even of better informed persons, are profoundly ignorant of the fact, that the fine arts have made any notable progress in Portugal. Englishmen have, indeed, been too much engaged in that country during the last half-century, not to have made observation of a venerable cathedral here, or a fine painting there. But that Portugal can boast her schools' (we allude more particularly to painting) — this, we believe, but few persons have dreamt of. And yet so it is; nor do we know why this need be matter of surprise to us for it is very observable, whether in the history of individuals or of nations, that successful efforts of mind and enterprise in one direction have generally been attended with success in other directions. Raphael, so great in painting, was not contemptible in architecture; Michael Angelo, so gigantic in sculpture, was professor alike in architecture and painting; and the immortal discoverer of the Binomial Theorem was no less eminent as a mechanic and a chemist, than as a mathematician. So in the case of the nation before us: it is no great wonder, if a people, who can boast the names of a Dom Joam II., of a Bartholomeo Diaz, a De Gama and Cabral, be also able to range beside them those of Garcia de Rezende, Alvaro di Pietro, Vasco, Gonzales, Bento Coelho, and a host of others. To quote from the "mélanges" of the first-named painter, as we find it cited at p. 86.

"Nous avons vu le grand Michel,

Albert et Raphaël :

Et en Portugal il y en a

De si grands et de si naturels,

Qu'ils atteignent presque à leur hauteur."

And yet we have in vain searched the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, as well as Pinkerton's and Bryant's Dictionaries of

Painters, for the name of any one of the artists of whom Portugal is so proud! At pp. 211 and the following of the work before us, we have notices of no fewer than thirty-seven painters, of whom eight flourished anterior to the reign of Emmanuel the Great, i. e. anterior to A.D. 1495, and the remainder between that and 1557. And these thirty-seven are by no means the whole number of those of whom Portugal can boast; for it could not be supposed (even in the absence of proof to the contrary) that a country, so fertile in those early times, would be barren in days when the rest of Europe was most productive. "J'ose affirmer (is our author's remark) que jusqu'ici on n'a eu que des notions très vagues sur la nature et sur le degré de l'activité artistique dont le Portugal, à toutes les époques, a été le théâtre.”—Of all epochs, however, that of the reign of Emmanuel was perhaps the most brilliant; he gained for the fine arts on the banks of the Tagus, what the patronage of Leo X. effected on the shores of the Tiber.

The form of the work before us is that of a series of letters addressed, after "a year and a half's researches," to the Société Artistique et Scientifique of Berlin, in accordance with their request. The letters of the Count himself are, for the most part, short; indeed, many of them serve for little more than introductions to the papers which accompany them. These papers consist of long extracts from old authors (such as Francis of Holland), public documents, and communications from living Portuguese of acknowledged taste; as the Vicomte de Juromenha, M. François de Sousa Loureiro, directeur de l'Académie, and others and these, therefore, form the chief value of the book, to those who are neither familiar with the pictures in question, nor upon the spot to compare them with the remarks of the Comte Raczynski. As he himself modestly observes-"Ces préludes seront probablement bien plus longs que le morceau principal, peut-être seront-ils aussi plus intéressans, car je les recueille et je ne les fais point." The first seventy-three pages are occupied by an extract from, we had almost written, a transcript of a work by Francis of Holland (who, in spite of his name, was born in Portugal; vide p. 444), written in 1571, and dedicated to John III.; who, like a good Catholic, submits in a postscript all that he has written "à être corrigé par la foi catholique et orthodoxe, selon le décret du concile de Trente." The Comte Raczynski professes to have had the most lively interest excited by this work; an impression which he desires to transfer to his friends at Berlin. And yet, amusingly enough, he seems (in Letter III.) but little satisfied with him: "Il a fait tout un livre rempli de projets et de dessins d'architecture, tandis qu'il convient lui-même qu'il n'a jamais fait de tableaux." He is a prejudiced complainer :—“ Il

ne voit pas de peinture en Portugal; à l'en croire il n'en existe pas; et cependant il fait lui-même mention de quatre peintres ... Il est bien étonnant, qu'étant lui-même architecte il n'est pas trouvé 'occasion de parler des monumens dont un si grand nombre avaient déjà été exécutés dans son pays, et s'exécutaient encore sous ses yeux.' In his next letter the Count proceeds to refute him by extracts from Garcia de Rezende.

The fifth letter introduces the reader to several pages of extracts from the Memoirs of Friar Luiz de Sousa, a writer of the early part of the 17th century, which bear upon certain pictures and other national works of art; his writings are highly esteemed in Portugal, as expressing the opinions of a man of talent, a courtier, and a scholar. By the way, this same friar's history involves a little romance, which we will relate for the amusement of our readers. He was (as we have stated) a courtier and of noble birth, and had married the widow of Dom João of Portugal, whom common report had slain at the disastrous battle of Alcaça-Kebir. De Sousa being absent from home one day, a pilgrim presented himself, and thus addressed the dona Magdalena :

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:

"Je suis Portugais, et j'arrive de Jérusalem. Au moment de partir pour mon pays, je fus visité par un de mes compatriotes, qui me pria et me recommenda fortement de passer en ce lieu, et de vous dire (si vous étiez en vie) qu' une personne qui se souvenait de vous, existait encore en ces lointaines contrées. Tel est le motif qui m'amène ici." Frappée de ces paroles," continues the narrative, “ainsi qu'on peut le croire sans peine, dona Magdalena s'enquit des traits de celui qui lui envoyait ce message. Tous les renseignemens s'accordaient parfaitement avec le souvenir qu'elle gardait de son premier mari, dom João de Portugal. Une épreuve leva tous les doutes sur le pélerin. Conduit dans une salle où le portrait de dom João se trouvait parmi beaucoup d'autres, il le reconnut sans peine. Il prit ensuite congé de la dame et partit. Manuel de Sousa, de retour chez lui, non seulement il prit sur le champ la généreuse résolution de se séparer pour toujours de dona Magdalena, d'abandonner les vanités de ce monde et d'entrer dans l'ordre de Saint-Dominique, mais encore il y a décida sa femme. Sousa entra dans le couvent de Bemfica, le 8 Septembre, 1614. Dona M. de son côté entra dans le couvent de Saint-Sacrement. Depuis ce moment les époux ne se virent plus et vécurent saintement."—pp. 83, 84.

• ...

But to return. The friar's Memoirs seem, in our author's eyes, to be more curious than useful; for while they do not mention a single fact capable of throwing light upon the history of the arts in Portugal, they "forment un tableau précieux de l'esprit des couvens, au temps où ils ont été écrits." The friar saw every thing through the medium of his yow. "Luiz de

Sousa veut absolument que les images soient nées d'un miracle ou qu'elles en aient fait.”

One main object of the Count's researches was the settlement of a disputed question. Of all the painters whom Portugal has produced, one appears to hold the chief place in the estimation of his countrymen. To the brush of Vasco an almost innumerable collection of paintings have been attributed. Now, as on the one hand there have been no fewer than four artists of this name, and as on the other hand it is physically impossible that a tenth part of the pictures which vulgar tradition has assigned to the one Vasco, can be the handywork of a single artist, it was a matter of no small interest, even as it was a task of some difficulty, to distinguish which were the genuine works of the renowned master; and conversely, to settle which of all the Vascos was rightfully entitled to the appellation of "Vasco the Great."

The inquiry, so far as one can judge at this distance, appears to have been conducted with impartiality and skill; of the former position, indeed, we think no doubt can be entertained, when it is known that at the close of it, the author retracts several opinions which he had advanced at an earlier period and with smaller experience. We have not, of course, space to follow him step by step throughout his investigation; which, together with the documents appended, occupies no fewer than 184 pages of his work. We must content ourselves with giving the result, with a brief outline of the process by which it was arrived at, and leave the reader to judge for himself. An antiquarian of the city of Vizeu, Manoel Botelho Ribeiro, who flourished at the junction of the 16th and 17th centuries, and whose testimony is therefore invaluable on such a point, has reported that one of the Vascos lived in the reign of John III. The researches which M. Berardo (who appears to have already written upon this subject of national interest) instituted at the request of the Comte Raczynski, were crowned with unlooked-for success: in the archives of a church at Vizeu he discovered the baptismal register of one VascoFernandez, son of François-Fernandez, a painter, under date of September 18, 1552, which the reader will remember would correspond with the 31st year of the reign of John III. further, this same Ribeiro declares that a picture of the Crucifixion, in the cathedral of Vizeu, is the work of Vasco the Great. This picture (writes our author) is one of great merit; and though (as he owns) he should have taken it to be of a somewhat earlier date than 1570 (nearly the earliest at which it is possible Vasco-Fernandez could have painted), yet the costume of the figures and architecture of the buildings accord well enough with VOL. VI.- -NO. XII.-DEC. 1846.

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