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in England, which, the Reviewer admits "is hardly surpassed by any country in her treasures of ancient art," was it ill-timed, or altogether unnecessary to throw a little distrust over the pretensions to undoubted originality which are invariably made for every thing like a picture, that is offered for sale in our own country provided it is old, and deformed enough to belong to the dark ages?

As to the latter clause of his remark intimating that I equally condemned good pictures if they could be obtained, I deny that anything I have written will bear this construction. The reviewer himself seems aware that he has here not done me justice, for he immediately adds, "Mr. Morse does, indeed, introduce his cautious salvo that he would by no other means altogether condemn the collecting of pictures by the old masters." Now why, if he admits that I qualified my censures by this salvo, does he not give it its due weight in my favor, in his subsequent remarked. If I should say to a neighbor 'there is a great deal of counterfeit money offered, look narrowly at all monies you receive,' "I would by no means condemn your collecting that which is genuine," if by accident you should find it, but there is great danger of deception; (this continuation of the salvo the Reviewer should have done me the justice also to have quoted,) I say, would it be fair in that neighbor to accuse me of being an enemy to the genuine currency; especially too if in my cautions I had said by way of further salvo in speaking of good genuine pictures, "at such accessions to the mass of really meritorious productions whether originals or copies, no one rejoices more than myself."  As it regards the general character of picture dealing, a residence of four years in London enables me to speak not from the opinions of others only, but from personal observation.  Scarcely a day passed that new deceptions were not practiced in the purchase, and sale of old pictures; they were a common topic of conversation among amateurs and artists. I hazard nothing in saying that the history of picture dealing in London, is for the most part a history of trick and fraud. That