Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/90

78 the great discomposure of the phlegmatic monarch. The effect of the candle-light is wonderfully executed, but there is a stiffness in the portrait which displeases, though it is undoubtedly a master-piece in that line of painting.

I shall only further notice in this apartment an allegorical painting of John de Wit, as a goose defending her eggs, to signify his care of the republic. Human energy and passions are well described in this picture; and it is no inferior praise to say, that it forcibly reminded me of the Vulture of an English artist of the highest merit, which was exhibited last year at the Royal Academy.

As the liberality of the Dutch government has not yet furnished catalogues for the use of strangers who visit this national collection, I shall hold myself excusable if I continue briefly to notice the principal ornaments of this cabinet.

In the second chamber, the Massacre of the Innocents, by Cornelius Van Haarlem, possesses