THE PORTRAIT SWINDLING CASE. [From the Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 761, 17 November 1852, Page 4

THE PORTRAIT SWINDLING CASE. [From the Times.]

What a thing it is to have one's picture in the -shop-windows! What a gratification, to, reflect that all the loungers, and idle errandboys. pause a while to gaze upon those finely-chiselled -features — that lordly brow— those deep thoughtful eyes, of ours, ,whfch of course must render tbeir owner a 'nation's pride! Still"* more delightful' it is when a short memorandum is appended to the baptismal and honorary titles of the individual, torecord the fact that the : original of that engraving, if he be a civilian, is one of " England's Statesmen," or, if he hold a. commission in the" Sussex militia, one of " England's Ihvincibles." Of course, in the first case, the worthy fn question' is pondering upon the ultimate destinies of England' by the side of "a table strewed •with rolls of paper and half a dozen folio volumes, on which, as it'is suggested^ be 'is constantly in {he habit of making an intellectual" snack. In the second instance' you will probably see in the back ground a Hon and a 48-pourider, with the Horsham Heavies charging "the Mayflies in the distance. We agree' with those who think. thaV in matters of personal conceit the lords of the creation yield in no respect to the fairer partners of their fortune. The instinctive good taste of women at least eaves them from many ludicrous displays of petty vanity into which unconscious man would fall without suspicion of his real altitude in the, presence of his fellow creatures. But, in the instance before us, with whatever regret, we must in, fairness mete out an' equal measure of reprehension to the "Trail sect," as their style runs in tlie play. ' , What on earth have, all these* bouncing matrons, to do in " books of jbeauty.?"" Everybody wKo has t the honour of "tl\eir acquaintance is perfectly aware that they have worb/weil for their ..time" 1 of life, , and that they, are ' still ornaments to their own^firesides ; l>ut' r 'really" ,there t 'is a time when even a Hburi must go, on half-pay. Haide.emust, in course. of time, 1 come" to carriage exercise,".a' fat v po'odje" a corpfortable pew", and a tyrannical waiting-maid • — while Conrad canvasses _ihe county of Slopsh,ire on purely agricultural principles'. There is no avoiding it ; but why should they continue to' ih-sert-their comfortable faces into all the shop-win-dows when they have passed the grand climacteric" 1 ? Then^again with r4gard t to the Haidees of s&teen fit seventeen years, of, age — theieal Haidee.s.; how. can anyif judicious parent, or guardian, consent to .such, a: profanation as .that the portraits of these jyofepgiladies-shouU be hawked about every print■ollo»'* chnn tn orivp A fillin fn the imagination of

every soaring Guppy in the three kingdoms ? i The gods have not made us poetical ; our very f keenesmeneroies cannot accuse us of. at least this i one defect ; and now all signs of advancing age i conspire to admonish us that our chance of tak- 1 ing any place in any " Book of Beauty " is for 1 ever at an end. We, do, however, in former days, < remember to have read a /ew lines descriptive of ] a youug lady's proper position in the world, which i struck us as, prettily enough expressed then, and ' appear scr still : — ' A violet 'neath a mossy stone, 1 Half hidden from the eye. ' Then follows some vanity about the sidereal ar- " rangements ; our younger readers will probably fill up the quatrain. -With this.before us, let us turn to the Books of Beauty, and ask ourselves | who are these young ladies or ballet-girls who are ! languishing at us out of the shop windows, or simpering in these gorgeously-bound books at every booby who will invest half-a-guinea in the J purchase of a batch of them ? Surely the most '' un-Oriental husband — father —brother must l think it just as well to avoid such a consummation | for. his' female relatives. To keep these pictures" treasured for himself is quite another thing. It may be asked why all this tirade about Books of Beauty in the very heat of a general election ? | Simply because our police reports of yestei day have furnished us with a case in which sin intelligent swindler has taken advantage of the sejf-glorious principle of human nature very much to his own advantage, and very much to the annoyance of his dupes. It does not, of course, become those who have in some measure arrogated to themselves the responsibility of giving a bias to public opinion to clap rascaldom ou the shoulder in, any shape. Let us therefore cover our own credit by saying, " that we very earnestly tru&t that, through the tact and ability of the legal advisers ,in this case, a conviction may be obtained, and the offender visited with the severest punishment consonant with the merciful character of our criminal law and the .freedom of the British institutions!" Having duly sacrificed the cock to iEsculapius, we must be permitted to laugh at our ease, and to say, that if ever any dupes were but slightly entitled to public sympathy, it is in the present case. The begging-letier writers are really a set of pitilul scoundrels. They take advantage of the purest and most lofty emotions of the human heart. In no case can tbeir victims become the objects of ridicule. But how stand the facts here ? A humorous old rogue — Thomas Collins by name — who appears to have -been as well acquainted with the weak side of human nature as Sam Slick himself — has for a long time been in the habit of obtaining a great number of the portraits of noblemen a»d gentlemen, that engravings of them might be taken for publication. The old fellow appears to have divided his male dupes principally into two batches, Eminent Conservative Statesmen, Eminent Liberal Statesmen. The Clergy and the Army had niches apart. It does not appear that Mr. Collins meddled with the lawyers. The ladies were to be all compromised in onefournde. The Female Aristocracy of the reign of Queen Victoria. Ah ; that one word •* aristocracy" — how well Mr. Collins knew the measure of those with whom he bad to deal ! In the case brought before Mr. Arnold atlbe Westminster police-office.the ipplication was made by the Eirl of Desart; the present Under Secretary for the Colonies. We wish for the sake of all that is ridiculous, we could record that Mr. Collins had played upon Lord Desart's credulity since bis recent accession to the eminent post in the Derby administration which he now so worthily occupies. Lord Desart, however, told the magistrate " that it was in the summer of 1848 the prisoner called upon him and asked bim for his portrait, from which he might engrave a copy for publication in the work of '" Portraits of conservative Statesmen." Alas for the good old days of Gil Bias, or the modern epoch of Jerome Paturot !— the young Secretary for the Colonies fell into the snare. In place of telling Mr. Collins that he might have a sitting or two if he would undertake to supply him with a copy of the interesting work in question gratis, Lord Desart absolutely was " green " enough — we crave pardon for the phrase — to comply with his request. Of course the old jogue took away the portrait at once, laughing in his sleeve at the gullibility of human nature — and pledged it at a pawnbroker's. We grieve to say that the pawnbooking interest onlyl estimated our present Under Colonial Secretariat £2. However, he may console himself : Lord Alfred Paget— this was ■ One of the eminent liberal statesmen bateh — was pledged for a beggarly lbs. " Lady Alfred Paget was involved in the same fate, but upon more honourable terms. The pawnbroker set a value of £10 upon' her ladyship's features, which really appears to 'us very flattering, as times go. In addition to the instances named, it appears that Mr. Collins has been most successful in many other cases ; but he has supposed, and with reason, that those who had been silly enough to fall into his snares would rather shrink from proclaiming their own absurdity in public. We trust the present case may serve as a warning t,o our young statesmen that, they, should think twice before they rush, into th,^ engravers' shops. Qnly conceive— Charles James Fox — the present Earl of Desart— Sir Robert Peel— Lord Alfred Paget William Pitt — anfl Cardinal Richelieu — what uniformity in the gallery !