Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/99

 us. iv. JULY 29, 19H.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

him in the interests both of the Colony and of the Governor himself, whose immediate servant he was." Pp. 5-6.

Speaking of this Government Paper, MB. PEACH says that " the Colonial Office List seems to regard it as the great authority on the subject." This statement is very likely true if by "the subject" is strictly meant the subject of Crown agents.

But the subject of the older Colonial agents is not even touched upon in that Government Paper, and has never (so far asthepresent writeris aware) been adequately treated, though an outline will be found in Edwin P. Tanner's paper on ' Colonial Agencies in England during the Eighteenth Century,' printed in Political Science Quarterly (Columbia Universitv) for March, 1901, xvi. 24-49. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia all had Colonial agents in London before 1700 ; but these agents represented not the Governor, but the colony. Sometimes a colony had two or even three agents. In 1769-70 Dennys de Berdt was the agent of the Massachusetts House, while William Bollan was the agent of the Massachusetts Council. As Mr. Tanner's paper is perhaps not easily obtainable in England, the opening paragraph may be quoted :

"It is the object of this paper to show, so far as the accessible sources of information permit, what part the colonial agency played in the mechanism of that older British Empire in which the student of American history is bound to have such a vital interest. Necessarily, then, our attention must be occupied almost entirely with the eighteenth century. The agencies of the seventeenth century, although they were often concerned with affairs of great moment for the several colonies, were temporary phenomena, rather than permanent institutions. ^They were not a regular part of the general colonial system, but appeared onlv when some crisis in the affairs of a colony called for closer communication with the home government. In Massachusetts it was the necessity of protecting the charter that called for the employment of an agent; in Connecticut and Rhode Island it was the need of obtaining regular charters ; in Virginia it was the desire to prevent the soil of the colony from being granted to irresponsible court favorites. Thus, from time to time persons prominent in the colonies were despatched to England to make representations at court. But when the special object of the mission had been accomplished, the agent returned to America and the agency was at an end. The seventeenth-century agency was a special embassy and not a permanent representa- tion. But in the eighteenth century this situation changed, with the development of colonial manage- ment. Gradually the agency became permanent. The agent became a regular official of the colony, resident in London and drawing a fixed salary from the colonial treasury. His duty was no longer connected with any single matter or group of matters. He was to watch carefully all that passed

at court and in Parliament, and to further the interests of his province in every way possible. Other functions he also had which demanded his continual presence."

A special agent was appointed in Virginia as early as 1624. ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

PETER DE WINT (11 S. iii. 368, 418).

MR. CANN HUGHES asks for names of persons who possess collections of paintings by this celebrated water-colour artist. The only place I know not included in his list is the Print-Room, British Museum, where there are a few. One in particular, a very large one unfinished, is interesting as showing that De Wint painted without any previous drawing, either pencil or ink, exactly as David Cox did in his later years.

In the Print-Room is also to be found the ' Catalogue of the whole of the Beautiful Works of that unrivalled and highly respected Artist in Water Colours, Peter de Wint, Esq., deceased, which (by order of the Executrix) will be sold by auction by Messrs. Christie & Manson [&c.], 22 May, 1850.' I have looked at this sale catalogue (to which MR. ROBERTS refers), but found no information of use to me.

I have a water-colour by De Wint which is sufficiently curious for mention, as at the Victoria and Albert Museum there is a De Wint of precisely the same view and subject, almost a replica, but the size is different ; and while mine is on a day with- out sun, that at the Victoria and Albert Museum is full of sunlight and brilliant colour. Neither is signed, for De Wint did not adopt the practice of signing his works until his later years ; but they bear all over them the master's signature or hand. The picture in the Victoria and Albert Museum is usefully " lent " by the Trustees of the National Gallery, who acquired it under the Henderson bequest. It is de- scribed in the V. and A. Catalogue, 1908, as ' The Trent near Burton,' and numbered 14, N.G. I should like to hear if any similar instance is known of De Wint's painting the same subject in different lights. On taking mine out of the frame (many years ago) I found written on the back, in a lady's hand, " Carting barley, Burton on Trent." Men are loading a barge at the riverside from a wagon.

No doubt MR. CANN HUGHES is aware that Graves' s ' Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited,' &c., London, 1895, gives 454 as the number of De Wint's exhibited pictures.