Our last visit to the CENTRAL MUSEUM terminated with the Italian School; let us now continue our examination, beginning with the FRENCH SCHOOL. LE BRUN. N° 17. _(Gallery) The Defeat of Porus._ 18. _The Family of Darius at the feet of Alexander._ 19. _The Entrance of Alexander into Babylon. The Passage of the Granicus._ 14. _Jesus asleep, or Silence._ 16. _The Crucifix surrounded by angels._ The compositions of LE BRUN are grand and rich; his costume well-chosen, and tolerably scientific; the tone of his pictures well-suited to the subject. But, in this master, we must not look for purity and correctness of drawing, in an eminent degree. He much resembles PIETRO DA CORTONA. LE BRUN, however, has a taste more in the style of RAPHAEL and the antique, though it is a distant imitation. The colouring of PIETRO DA CORTONA is far more agreeable and more captivating. Among the small pictures by LE BRUN, N°s. 14 and 16 deserve to be distinguished; but his _chefs d'oeuvre_ are the achievements of Alexander. When the plates from these historical paintings, engraved by AUDRAN, reached Rome, it is related that the Italians, astonished, exclaimed: "_Povero Raffaello! non sei più il primo_." But, when they afterwards saw the originals, they restored, to RAPHAEL his former pre-eminence. CLAUDE LORRAIN. N° 43. (Gallery.) _View of a sea-port at sun-set_. 45. _A Sea-piece on a fine morning_. 46. _A Landscape enlivened by the setting sun_. The superior merit of CLAUDE in landscape-painting is too well known to need any eulogium, The three preceding are the finest of his pictures in this collection. However, at Rome, and in England, there are some more perfect than those in the CENTRAL MUSEUM. One of his _chefs d'oeuvre_, formerly at Rome, is now at Naples, in the Gallery of Prince Colonna. JOUVENET. N° 54. (Gallery.) _Christ taken down from the cross._ The above is the most remarkable picture here by this master. MIGNARD. N° 57. (Gallery.) _The Virgin_, called _La Vièrge à la grappe_, because she is taking from a basket of fruit a bunch of grapes to present to her son. NICOLAS POUSSIN. N° 70. (Gallery.) _The Fall of the manna in the desert._ 75. _Rebecca and Eleazar._ 77. _The Judgment of Solomon._ 78. _The blind Men of Jericho._ 82. _Winter or the Deluge._ In this collection, the above are the finest historical paintings of POUSSIN; and of his landscapes, the following deserve to be admired. N° 76. (Gallery.) _Diogenes throwing away his porringer._ 83. _The Death of Eurydice._