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LABOUR is the source of all wealth; and, as wealth enters into every man's ideas of happiness, so the pursuit of it is the grand stimulus to action. Some gain only to spend; but a very large proportion of the world are actuated by a desire to accumulate, and that man who amasses the greatest quantity of goods or money is accounted the richest.

All the qualities of wealth may be ranked under four denominations : LANDED PROPERTY; FUNDED, or PAPER PROPERTY; COMMERCIAL WEALTH; and BULLION, or COIN. All these possess distinct value, and vary according to circumstances when compared with each other; but to the latter has been assigned, by the universal consent of all civilized nations, a separate function. It has been selected as the test of value, and as the buyer or price of all the others. Its price can never vary, being weight for weight all over the world; but its value may vary, being affected, like commodities, by scarcity and plenty. Commodities are always varying in price, and considered as dear or cheap, in proportion to the quantity of money or bullion employed to purchase them.

Landed Property is not only the land itself, but all that stands upon it; this, as it must have been the first of properties, seems to be the most stable yet its value depends very much indeed upon local circumstances. Wherever men congregate, there of course the value of land must increase; and where Governments are securely established, and the properties of individuals are inviolate, there the possessors of lands will obtain both rank and influence; the Landlord of every large proportion of soil being considered by his neighbours as a persou of paramount distinction. There is a venerable attachment toward the proprietors of extensive domains, which seems to have descended from the Patriarchs of old.

The value of all landed property increases and diminishes in proportion as the state is prosperous or decaying. The profits arising from land are made by labour and letting.

Funded, or Paper Property, is money lent upon interest, either to the state or others; the security being

paper documents, the value of which

depends upon the ability of the borrowing parties to fulfil their engagements. The value of the interest depends very much upon the state of the currency; therefore it is particularly the duty of every Government which borrows money, to pay great attention that its currency, whether coin or bills, should not become depreciated, for the loss by depreciation falls most unjustly on the public creditor.

Where securities are held sacred, and currency equal to its nominal value, Funded Property is, of all others, the easiest to manage, and most pleasant to enjoy; hence the timid, the infirm, and those who seek for ease and pleasure, are enabled to retire from the bustle of active life, and obtain revenue without prejudice to their capital; their money, put out to use, enables others to work while themselves are exempt from labour. The profits on funded property arise from lending only, and require no labour.

Commercial Wealth is all sorts of

vendible property. The wealth of incorporated bodies of merchants consists of the store in their ships and warehouses, that of the labourer in his ability to work; and between these are all the gradations of commercial men, all the active exertions of body and mind, continually employing every faculty to devise new modes of successful adventure. The produce of lands must have markets to be sold, the produce of the funds must go to the markets to buy; and each of these gives employment to the active and industrious, who, trafficking between the one and the other, contrive to increase their own wealth by the profits of their labour. This sort of property is more fluctuating than any of the other three, depending much on contingent circumstances, the possessors of commercial wealth being never certain as to the value of their commodities. In vain are the richest exports and imports, if there is no sale for them in the markets; and equally useless is the vigour of the healthiest labourer, if he cannot find employment: but, where agriculture flourishes, where commerce and the arts are increasing, many of the active, the industrious, and the enterprising, are en

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Bullion is in all cases a buyer; and, consequently, whatever is offered for sale, may become the property of him who has Bullion, or money enough to pay for it; but to be always buying, is to be always diminishing; therefore the bullion holder is constrained, in order to prevent the exhausting of his property, to become a Landholder, a Fundholder, or a Trader; for there is no profit in buying, but only in selling; neither is there any in hoarding, but only in lending. Land uncultivated-talents unemployed-and gold and silver locked up, are all equally useless; but the desire to accumulate incites men to industrious activity; and they who do not labour themselves are stimulated, by the profits of letting and lending, to give employment to those who, by labour and traffic, are continually importing bullion, and thus increasing the national wealth as well as their own. Yours, &c.

A LOMBARD.

DISCOVERIES IN THE PAINTED CHAMBER.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

Oct. 4. HE accounts which have hitherto appeared in the public prints, of the recent discoveries in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, have been couched in terms far too general to be satisfactory to the Antiquary, and in language infinitely too indifferent to convey an adequate idea of their value, and the exquisite beauty and freshness of the numerous paintings and stucco ornaments which adorn the walls of this noble apartment of the antient Palace of our Sovereigns. This interesting disclosure was made in consequence of some repairs, which have been taking place since the prorogation of Parliament, in the House of Commons and adjacent antient

buildings, amongst which the Painted Chamber is the principal.

The Painted Chamber and the Prince's Chamber are two apartments situated a short distance from the South side of St. Stephen's Chapel, which joins the East side of Westminster Hall at its South extremity The two Chambers are parallel, their lengths extending East and West, but their proportions are very dissimilar. Between these is an ancient building, formerly the House of Lords, which joins the Prince's Chamber (a name of modern derivation), and is connected to the Painted Chamber by a small intervening court, which is now used as a passage. The three buildings thus situated may be described as a centre with two wings, the South of which is the Prince's Chamber, retaining in its sides lancet windows, but all of them are walled up, and the external mouldings much defaced. In the East wall of the old House of Lords are several ancient windows. The Painted Chamber forms the North wing of this group of buildings; it is disfigured by modern alterations and additions, and is so much enclosed by dwelling-houses (attached as well as detached), the encroachments of the new House of Lords, and its various offices, that the original extent cannot be seen or even those parts which are exposed viewed without obstructions. But, as the Painted Chamber appears never to have been an insulated building, the irregularity in the position of its windows will be accounted for.

The commencement of the 13th century is probably the period when the Painted Chamber was built. Its Architecture is designed in the plainest manner, and its windows have pe culiar forms and proportions, being lofty, and formed in two openings by a column, with a circle between the points of the smaller arches and that of the large arch covering the whole; narrow outside, and spreading very wide within, having no mouldings, and being devoid of the quatrefoil tracery which characterised the succeeding style of the Pointed Architecture. These remarks do not apply to the double windows in the East end, which have lost their tracery, and, besides having mouldings in the arches of the interior, have also insulated columns at the angles, with

The

carved capitals. The walls of the whole exterior are defaced, and present a very rough and inelegant appearance, which are not so much the effects of injury and various alterations, as of the soft quality of the stone of which they are built. design of the East end is handsome; additional arches are carried over the windows, and terminate at their bases upon brackets, the regular forms of which are almost wholly defaced: a portion of the North side preserves its original design unaltered, and contains two elegant windows, separated by a flat pilaster buttress reaching to the parapet, and rising out of the wall which, below the windows, increases to a considerable thickness. A heavy sloping brick buttress has been added for support at the North-east angle. Attached to the North wall of the Painted Chamber are the stone springers of groins and arches, which have belonged to an Oratory, formerly entered by a door from that magnificent apartment*. On the brackets by which they are supported are shields and arms; one is certainly Cotton + impailing Howard. Cotton bears Azure, an Eagle displayed Argent, armed Gules.-The arms on the other shield are uncertain.

Ascending the ancient stone staircase in the South-east angular turret, we enter the Painted Chamber, which has for many years been incumbered with modern fittings, which so completely concealed the elegance of its architecture, and the richness and splendour of its painted decorations, that till within a few weeks, no knowledge of its original magnificence seems to have existed. vested of all incumbrances, its length, breadth, and height, its Architecture and its decorations are exposed to the pen and pencil of the curious. The whole is lamentably defaced, but not so much from the hand and havoc of time, as from the carelessness of workmen in fixing the wainscot screens at the time the room was altered, for

Di

* See Smith's Westminster, pp. 46 and

104.

+ These arms fix the date for Sir Robert Cotton, of Conington, com. Hunt. Bart. who married Margaret, daughter of Wm. Lord Howard, and who deceased anno 1640. He resided in a house which joined this side of the Painted Chamber.

the use to which it is now appropriated. We may be allowed to say that these are the most extensive, and certainly some of the most curious relics of ancient art which have ever been discovered on this site. The entire walls are covered with paintings of figures and inscriptions, variously disposed according to their subjects, and the connexion they have with each other. The Inscriptions are very numerous, and are chiefly written in the Norman French Language, in letters of the old English; they separate the pictures, and are in some places written small and close, but towards the upper part of the walls large and bold.

The internal architecture is plain, and well adapted to display the superb paintings which were its principal orornaments. The ceiling, which is flat, resting at the sides only upon a carved cornice, is constructed of wood, and painted with various figures in compartments of different shapes, uniting into one regular and beautiful pattern, the whole coloured and enriched with stucco ornaments. The heads of a considerable number of these figures were found concealed beneath ancient pannels of wood, which had been purposely laid over them; it may be presumed, in consequence of some alteration in the decoration of this part, which was suggested before its first completion +. In the South side of the room are two windows, and in the North three, all corresponding in proportions and design, excepting that the internal arches of two windows in the latter side are round, the rest being pointed. Every arch rests on a small bracket carved with foliage. The door-way which once led to the oratory on the North side has been walled up since the demolition of that elegant appendage. Over this door is a blank window, and near it a handsome quatrefoil perforation. At the East end are two brackets carved with angels holding scrolls; and in the upper part of the West end are four united windows, each with double openings and tracery, and which ap

Thirty-three pannels, painted with figures of angels, saints, and kings, are preserved. These pannels are formed of two, three, and four pieces of thin board, and measure about 2 ft. 6 in. long, by about 14 or 15 inches broad.

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pear to be the work of the latter part of the 15th century.

Among the Paintings, the most extensive, perfect, and beautiful, and perhaps the most interesting, is a representation of the Coronation of King Edward the Confessor on the North side, which occupies nearly the whole of the large space of wall between one of the windows, and the door which entered the oratory. The figures are of large size, and very numerous. In the centre is placed the Monarch crowned; around him are Prelates in their pontifical robes, with mitres on their heads, and holding crosiers, which are elegantly ornamented. The figures are well proportioned, and are admirably disposed in small groups. The features of nearly all are entire, excepting those of King Edward, which are quite obliterated, and must have been intentionally defaced, as the crown and curled hair at the sides are perfect. A painted canopy of arches extends over the picture, the back ground of which is Azure, having over the heads of the figures the following motto,

CESTLE CORONOMANT

SAINT EDEWARD *.

The colours are of the most brilliant kind, and are well preserved. Dark green and red prevail in the draperies, the forms of which are di

versified in a manner that evinces superior taste and skill in the art of designing, and proves the state of perfection it had reached at that early period. No other perfect subject will be found on this side the room. Frag ments of various kinds of figures are to be observed over the whole surface of the wall with mottoes and in

scriptions, all equally beyond the power of description. A figure in a sitting posture, holding a sword, appears above the canopy which covers the Coronation of King Edward the Confessor; but the subject to which it has belonged is wholly obliterated. Towards the West side of the Coronation are figures of men on horseback, and on the West side of these, portions of mail armour, which ap pear to have belonged to figures of large size. The chain mail is represented by stucco, and likewise some of the principal ornaments, while the

Longo-bardic characters, Argent, and handsomely ornamented.

features and draperies are painted; a mixture which does not destroy the actual flatness of the latter, but which remarkably aids the substance and nobleness of the former.

Accident, decay, and injury are not so apparent among the paintings on the South side, as on the North side of the room. The most interesting subjects have evidently been placed towards the lower part of the walls, in the piers of the windows; and the one which appears to have been the principal, fortunately remains the most free from dilapidation. This is a representation of the cruel sentence of King ANTIACHUS against a mother and her seven sons (described in the VIIth Chap. of the 2nd Book of Maccabees.) Antiachus is written over the head of the King; and over the head of the female la mere & VII. fiuz, in letters of white paint on azure back-ground. The figures of this subject are small, and the whole has occupied a long narrow space between two inscriptions with a canopy of arches at the head. The King is seat ed on a throne crowned, and in a posture which well expresses his rage, when he thinks himself despised by the mother who stands before him, the cauldron, the fire, and the mangled remains of her children, not exhorting her yet living youngest son to save his life and her own by breaking the law of his fathers, but beseeching her child to have courage to bear the threatened torments of the enraged Monarch, and to die resolutely like their antient laws. his brethren rather than sacrifice The female is habited in a gown of a pink colour, with a veil banging from her headdress upon her shoulders. The youth standing before her, appears in a plain purple garment, with his hands bound. On the other side of the throne is represented the torture of the sixth youth, who stands bound, and bearing, with the firmness described, the loss of the skin of his head with the hair, which is executed by pair of pincers. Beyond this are a man with a sharp instrument and a the flames and several figures too

much defaced to be described. On the same wall, more towards the West end, are several mutilated figures of warriors wearing their surcoats of arms-one bears Vert, 3 lions rampant, Or. Another Azure, semée of leo

pards'

pards' heads Or, caboshed. The figures are clad in mail armour *, and each holds a long spear. Over the windows in this side of the room are several detached and mutilated subjects. That perhaps the most worthy of notice displays a multitude of figures armed with spears and lances, holding banners and other ensigns of war, &c. at the base of a lofty embattled tower, upon the parapet of which is a figure of a King, and behind him a group of figures, apparently in consultation. Another picture, still more imperfect than the last, is probably intended to represent Elisha dividing Jordan with the mantle of Elijah.

The reveal and sofits of the windows are also superbly painted and ornamented. In the sides of every window is a figure the size of life, standing under a canopy, which rises to the springing of the arch, and is encompassed with representations of buildings, elegant tracery, and a great profusion of ornaments; all which are diversified with colours, emblazoned with silver and gold, and enriched with stucco patterns, in a superb and elegant manner. Over each canopy is the figure of an angel, with expanded wings, holding crowns in their bands: they are clothed in garments of a blue colour, trimmed with gilt ornaments of various patterns. The back-ground is red. The two figures in the most Eastern window on the South side are, King Edward the Confessor, and a pilgrim asking alms: the Monarch is crowned, and holds in his left hand the sceptre and dove. The adjoining window, which when first exposed to view, was scarcely defaced, and retained even some small relics of painted glass, exhibits allegorical representations of Justice, and Bounty, both crowned. These figures are very graceful, and have coats of mail which are partially covered with vestments of a crimson co

lour, beautifully ornamented. Justice has on her left arm a shield, which bears Gules, three lions Or; and holds in her hand a rod, and is in the act of scourging an offender who is crouched at her feet. At the head of this figure is an imperfect motto. Bounty is seen pouring riches from a cornucopia, which are greedily devoured by Avarice, a figure

*The chainmail of these figures is painted; none of the ornaments of this group are composed of stucco.

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of monstrous form lying at her feet. The figure of Bounty is habited like its opposite, and has a shield on the left arm, but the front of it is not seen. At the head is the word LARGESCE, in Longo-bardic characters. At the edges of this window are painted numerous coats of arms in small oblong compartments. Those of Edward the Confessor, Azure, a cross between five martlets Or. Azure, 3 crowns Or. Gules, 3 lions Or. Gules, 3 eagles displayed Sable, &c. &c. In the East reveal of the Easternmost window on the North side, is a mutilated figure of a female, crowned, clothed like those before described, and in the attitude of striking a blow with a sword, which is raised over her head. In the West reveal of the next, or middle window, is a similar figure: and in the East reveal of the Westernmost window a figure, with a sword in one hand, and in the other a shield of a round form embossed and painted.

Amongst the inscriptions, the Lord's Prayer, and several texts from the Scriptures are remaining entire ou the South wall. The inscriptions as well as the paintings were renewed in antient times, and it is not difficult to discover the most antient, by the partial mutilation of the most modern workmanship. A doorway on the South side exhibits a curious mixture of ornaments and inscriptions, the works of different periods.

In removing the masonry which filled some of the windows, numerous relics of paintings were discovered, consisting of portions of figures, beau tiful patterns, inscriptions, &c. in good preservation, but all are not equally well executed.

It should be observed, that at the foot of the cylindrical stone stair-case, which is now the approach to the Painted Chamber, is the water-closet, in which, it is said, Guy Fawkes was found prepared to execute the horrid deed that is annually commemorated on the 5th of November. Yours, &c.

Shield &B.

r.

AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT (p. 194) enquires respecting an Essay on Duelling. T. W. presumes he must allude ling and Gaming, published at Cambridge, to Mr. Iley's two Prize Essays on Duelin separate pamphlets, 30 years ago; and which are now reprinted with a Third Essay on Suicide, in a single Svo. volume.

Mr.

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