FINE ARTS.
The Devil's Progress ; a Poem. Embellished with Wood Cuts.
The Devil, notorious personage as he is, has of late been shown up to an extent which argues him to be in general disrespect. BURNS was content to abuse and laugh at him in a humorous address ; Messrs. CoLERIDGE and SOUTHEY "trotted him out" in a morning walk ; Mr. ROBERT MONTGOMERY tries conclusions with him ; and an anony. mous writer makes him "pad the hoof" in a sort of royal progress , incog. But this is not the whole extent of the indignity to which his ; Satanic Majesty is exposed. He is cut in effigy by Tuomas LANDSEEB, 1 and a host of wood engravers; _and that severest because most brilliant 1 of graphic satirists, GEoRGE ,cuurusseivu has served him op as a side-dish at a feast of fun. ""e-FiFiWe given our opinion of Mr" LANDSEER'S scaramouch personification, and ROBERT CRUIKSHANIC'S ill-looking footman-like representation of the Prince of Darlsriess ; the designer of the cuts to the Devil's Progress has a better idea of his hero, and gives him a diplomatic air and a tall figure, with the dress and man- ner of a desperate and discontented half-pay subaltern. With this ex- ception, we cannot commend the designs ; which are deficient in humour; and but indifferently drawn, and very badly cut. But GEORGE CRUIKSHANK has spoilt us for anything less clever than his unrivalled pencilling. We ought not to pass over the literary part of this little jeu d'esprit ; for it is, unlike most adopted ideas, clever and original. There are some very "palpable hits" at splendid sinners of the present day, and the in. fermi descriptions are pleasantly piquant. The author's forte, however, Is evidently not satire or sarcasm ; his humour is serious, not saturnine —his wit more lively than severe. The episodes of the Lovers and the Jew at the conclusion are really beautiful poetry.
There is in the text an anticipatory allusion to the recent events in Paris and a note so strikingly prophetic of them, that were we not in- formed in the preface, of the poem having been written several months ago, we should almost have fancied the passage to be an interpolation. Altogether, it is a very smart and agreeable trifle, and worthy of its prototype—the Devil's Walk; though the rhythm is more than suffi- ciently irregular. We do not see any joke in attributing the authorship to the editor of the Court Journal; and the advertisement, or puff pre- liminary," a-la.Colburn, is a failure.
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