n its predecessor. This was to be expected; for the opening of
what is called "The season," and the approach of the Christmas holidays
rarely pass without the production of novelties in most of the various
walks of Art. Booksellers, Print-publishers, Jewelers, and Managers of
places of Public Amusement, all, in fact, who minister to taste and
luxury, reserve for December their finest and most elaborate
productions; and an examination of their advertisements, even, will
afford the means of judging the point of refinement attained by the
public mind, whose demands they at once create and supply.

A decided improvement, year by year, is to be noticed in the style of
books and other articles intended for Christmas and New-year gifts. The
Annuals which, some five or six years ago, began to droop, are now dead,
utterly extinct. Their exaggerated romantic Prose, their diluted Della
Cruscan Poetry, their great-eyed, smooth-cheeked, straight-nosed,
little-mouthed, small-waisted beauties, have passed from their former
world into the happy and congenial state of the Ladies' Magazines, where
they will again have their day, and again disappear before advancing
taste and superior education. The place of the Annuals is occupied, we
will not say supplied, by editions of the great poets and writers of
prose fiction, illustrated in the highest style of the steel and wood
engraver. Some of the first artists of the day are now employed by
publishers to furnish designs for such publications, and the eagerness
with which they are bought, and the discriminating admiration which
they, on the whole, receive, when regarded in connection with the
generous support given to Art Journals, Art Unions, and Public
Galleries, show in the public mind an increasing healthiness and
soundness of taste, as well as a greater interest in matters of Art.

Prominent among events of moment in this department, is the opening to
the public, at the Duesseldorf Gallery, of LESSING'S Great Picture, _The
Martyrdom of Huss_. The Duesseldorf Gallery had contained some of the
finest modern paintings in the country, and had done much to keep alive
the aroused interest of the public in the Arts of Design before the
arrival of this, the greatest work of the acknowledged head of the
Duesseldorf School; but now it is without doubt the centre of attraction
to all lovers of Art on this side the water, for the great picture,
whether regarded as to its intrinsic interest or its ac