consider that it is the interest of the nation to promote the publication of splendid works, either by pecuniary grants to the authors, or, as more commonly happens, by subscribing for a number of copies, which they distribute amongst the public libraries of the kingdom.—­I could say a great deal upon the difference in the conduct of the governments of France and England in this respect, but it would be out of place; and I trust that our House of Commons will not be long before they expunge from the statute-books, a law which, under the shameless pretence of “encouraging learning,” is in fact a disgrace to the country.

The museum is also established at the Hotel-de-Ville, where it occupies a long gallery and a room adjoining.  It is under the superintendence of M. Descamps, son of the author of two very useful works, La Vie des Peintres Flamands and Le Voyage Pittoresque.  The father was born at Dunkirk, in 1714, but lived principally at Paris, till an accidental circumstance fixed him at Rouen, in 1740.  On his way to England, he here formed an acquaintance with M. de Cideville, the friend of Voltaire, who, anxious for the honor of his native town, persuaded the young artist to select it as the place of his future residence.  The event fully answered his expectation; for the ability and zeal of M. Descamps soon gave new life to the arts at Rouen.  A public academy of painting was formed under his auspices, to which he afforded gratuitous instruction; and its celebrity increased so rapidly, that the number of pupils soon amounted to three hundred; and Norman authors continued to anticipate in fancy the creation of a Norman school, which should rival those of Bologna and Florence, until the very moment when the revolution dispelled this day-dream.  Descamps died at the close of the last century.  To his son, who inherits his parent’s taste, with no small portion of his talent, we were indebted for much obliging attention.

The museum is open to the public on Sundays and Thursdays; but daily to students and strangers.  It contains upwards of two hundred and thirty paintings.  Of these, the great mass is undoubtedly by French artists, comparatively little known and of small merit, imitators of Poussin and Le Brun.  Such paintings as bear the names of the old Italian masters, are in general copies; some of them, indeed, not bad imitations.  Among them is one of the celebrated Raphael, commonly called the Madonna di San Sisto, a very beautiful copy, especially in the head of the virgin, and the female saint on her left hand.  It is esteemed one of his finest pieces; but few of his pictures are less generally known:  there is no engraving of it in Landon’s eight volumes of his works.