nius, was not to be buried under the dome of St.
Paul's, but in a village churchyard.

[Illustration: THE HANGING COMMITTEE.]

Vivid could not help remarking to a brother mourner, that, in his
opinion, the profession of a painter was as much overrated as that of an
engraver was underrated: "for," he added, "what real and unprejudiced
connoisseur, while contemplating Woollett's Roman Edifices from Claude,
and Sir Robert Strange's Titian's Mistress from Titian, with many
others, would not acknowledge, that the copy in many instances so
rivalled, if not surpassed, the original, that it became a decided
question, which artist ought to carry off the palm?"

"Or, at any rate," cried an odd accordant theatrical companion, "the
connoisseur might say, with Shakspeare--

'Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?'"

"There is no doubt, that in any school of painting," continued our hero,
"such men as Reynolds, West, and Lawrence, cannot be too much upheld
whilst living or lauded and regretted when dead. There is likewise
Wilkie--another Hogarth----"

"I beg your pardon," rejoined the theatrical gentleman; "but till I can
forget the blunderbuss fired from the upsetting coach, the cobweb over
the poor's-box, and the gay parson and undertaker at the harlot's
funeral, I cannot allow of the comparison. Besides, I admire Hogarth
for another reason: did _he_ consider an engraver's to be an
_infradig._ profession? No, for he was the engraver of _his
own_ works."

"True," replied Vivid; "and other painters have been engravers.
But to the point: look at the variety of the exquisite engravings
in the Annuals; and having compared them with the large, coarse,
_mindless_ pictures in--what may be called another _annual_--the
Exhibition of the Royal Academy, then say, whether you do not prefer the
distinct delicate touches of a well-directed _burin_, to the broad,
trowel-like splashings of an ill-directed painting-brush?"

"I do; and whilst I bow down to the excellence of such a portrait as
that of Charles the First, by Vandyke, or that of Robin Goodfellow, by
Sir Joshua, _cum multis aliis_ by painters of the same pre-eminent
description--ay, and also whilst I greatly admire numerous pictures
still annually exhibited by highly talented living artists, I ask, if I
am not to speak my mind relative to that class of painting, which might
pass muster outside the inns at Dartford, or Hounslow, or ----. However,
'the lion preys not u