sure, it may be doubted whether any production of the
native chisel, meant for fun, could be more funny than the forms of
pigtail, of wig, of military uniform and official costume, which that
instrument is seriously employed to dignify. But why continue to adorn
our churches and public buildings with monuments of gallant officers
accoutred for parade, of bishops in confirmation costume, and of
half-nude unshapely statesmen with cropped whiskers, in the dishabille
of a loose sheet, apparently draped, in an uncomfortable manner, to
undergo the operation of shaving? These things do not excite the
feelings which they are meant to address--some of them, on the contrary,
instead of warming the imagination, suggest a very unpleasant idea of
catching cold.

But then, when British Sculpture attempts a tobacconist's Highlander, or
a Gog or Magog, it succeeds admirably, and there is a special direction
in which it once promised to do wonders; that of bass-relief on the
exterior of brown jugs. Here was native talent forming a channel for
itself, in which perhaps it had better run freely, exercising
originality, than labour with imitative and simious toil at the
manufacture of ideal Art-Alepots.

On Art-Alepots, however, of a humorous and comical design, and kindred
subjects, the British sculptor might work with immense success. We have
abandoned the Greek and Roman mythology (modern as well as ancient) for
the most part, but we have still a sort of Temple of BACCHUS; the Gin
Shops and the Public-houses. To the decoration of these the British
sculptor could direct his abilities right profitably.

At a recent meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates--according to the
_Times_--the chairman of the Bench, MR. POWNALL, delivered an oration to
the applicants for publicans' licenses for music and dancing wherein--

"After expressing his own desire, and that of his colleagues, to do
all in their power to promote a national taste for music by granting
music licenses, he cautioned such applicants as should be fortunate
enough to obtain them, not to attempt to open penny or twopenny
concert rooms, lest by so doing they should attract the customers
of, and injure the draught of liquor in the neighbouring
public-houses. He warned them that if they were so ill-advised as to
build and fit up spacious and well-ventilated music saloons for the
accommodation of the public, and to repay themselves by taking money