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self to you under the name of THE FLYFLAP. I think it my duty to give you early notice that he is, as I shall prove from his own mouth, a foreign agent of the Manufacturers, Importers, and Vendors of what are called Antient Pictures, and employed to vilify the talents of our English Artists; I must therefore caution you to have no concern with him. I do not pretend to have any merit in my discovery, as the perusal of his work will make what I assert obvious to any one, for the following among other reasons:

1st. He is entirely ignorant of the talent and professional knowledge of REYnolds and other Englishmen, who have written on the Fine Arts; and, therefore, when he wants eight pages of letter-press, he fills them with an uninteresting and inapplicable quotation, not from an English Artist or Connoisseur, but from a French metaphysician.

2dly. He takes every opportunity of depreciating the genius of our country

men. When he speaks of those BRITIS II ARTISTS, who have laboured with talent and success, and with honour to their Country, during the preceding Summer, in the British Gallery, and have produced what has afforded surprise and pleasure to every judicious and candid Englishman, HE, like a Frenchman, objects (see page 17) to your introducing to public notice those artists whom he preposterously calls" the Masters and Misses, who "have copied the fine Pictures lent by "their Patriotic Proprietors"; and he presumes to tell us in the same page that "the principles on which the effect of colouring is produced, the character of "the different schools, and their respective excellence, are not understood "by our artists."

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3dly. He is, or seems to be, entirely ignorant of the talents and merits of our English sculptors; of one of whom you have given in your last number so preeminent an example, in the ACHILLES of our excellent Artist, BANKS. Besides

this, he has the effrontery to propose, what seems to be the chief object of his pamphlet, that a deputation shall be sent to an eminent Italian artist, a friend of this said Monsieur Flyflap, to solicit him to honour this country with his presence, and to prepare the public monuments, destined by a grateful country to those Heroes, to whom Britain owes its security and glory:--as if British Art were not competent to erect the memorial of British valour!

4thly. WHILE he affects, in the French stile, to intermix personal allusions to your private character, he shews, as you have explained in your third number, that he knows nothing at all about you. In fact, it appears that what he says has no more relation to you personally, than to any of the numerous tribe of his continental friends, whom he wishes to be in

vited to this country, to instruct our British artists.

5thly, and lastly (not to weary you

and your readers with a load of unnecessary evidence on so clear a point) what decidedly proves him to be a foreigner, if not a Frenchman, he fights under false colours; and assumes the initials of a very amiable and respectable Englishman. This is a base and wicked fraud, intended to injure the character of a worthy man, who is beloved and valued by all who know him; and who, I dare say, is heartily ashamed of what Monsieur Flyflap endeavours to father upon him.

To conclude, Mr. Director, let me advise you not to meddle or make with this Monsieur Flyflap. The alien office has its eye upon him; and it is surmised that he is at least a foreign agent and emissary, if not a French spy.

A FRIEND TO ENGLISH ARTISTS.

BIBLIOGRAPHIANA.

HAVING promised in my last article of 'Bibliographiana', to give some ac

count of the sale of books, MSS. and belles lettres curiosities, in this metropolis, as being connected, in an obvious manner, with the existing state of literature, it has struck me, upon reflection, that a brief history of the principal booksales in this country (by auction or otherwise) might not form an unappropriate introduction to these bibliographical sketches.

LET it be premised, however, that the pecuniary value of books is not to be regulated by their intrinsic or intellectual value. Dr. Johnson says, very justly, in his preface to Shakspeare, Books which are [sometimes] sought only because they are scarce, would not have been scarce had they been much esteemed'. It is unquestionably true, that for a few shillings, some of the finest works of genius, of morality, and of religion, may be procured: but the mischief is, that the fascinating and popular term of ' editio princeps', drives too often from our recollection the more sensible one of editio optima. What can I possibly want

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