so cruel death." They dwell, sometimes with passionate delight, sometimes with overflowing feelings of sorrow and remorse, on every incident of his holy life. Every being who gazed with pious reverence upon his human form,—whether indeed it were mean and lowly, or else radiant and glorious to look upon, as he walked in the streets of Jerusalem, or in the fields of Bethany, is to them an object of inexpressible interest. His mother and his brethren, according to the flesh, seem to them more worthy of contemplation than are the very angels of heaven.

57. But it may be doubted whether the one great hope of humanity was not kept more in mind under the darkness of paganism than beneath the light which now shineth. Representations of an expected immortality are but rarely to be found amongst christians.

"The last judgment has been depicted with distortions and exaggerations, as if the only scene of that great drama was one of terror: our Lord has been represented as an executioner, but not as a Saviour; every feature of horror to scare and horrify beholders has been elaborately portrayed, but not one to sooth and rejoice. Yet the Son of God arises on the morning of that day as the Sun of Righteousness, with healing on his wings The end of this dispensation has been represented for all as an object of dread, but never as an object of joy; as a thing to be feared, and not as a thing to be hoped for."* Here, then, is indeed a great and almost untrodden field open to the aspiring artist.

58. The more eminent are the powers of the arts of design to contribute to the religious instruction of a people, the more important is it that they should be

* Mr. Drummond's Letter to Thomas Phillips, Esq., R.A., on the Connexion between the Fine Arts and Religion. 1840, pp. 35-6.

employed judiciously when admitted into our sacred edifices. Can this, it was asked, be said of the monumental sculptures most usually found in our cathedrals and churches? On the contrary, most of the monuments in Saint Paul's cathedral, for instance, with their figures of Mars and of Victory, of Neptune and of Fame, are as inappropriate to a Christian church as are the blood-stained standards which hang from its dome. And it may be said with truth, that sepulchral sculpture in general has greatly departed from its ancient simplicity and fitness.

59. The practice of placing public statues or monuments to distinguished men in any religious edifice is open to several grave objections. It places a dangerous and irresponsible power in the hands of ecclesiastical authorities; it tends to confound monuments erected to those who have done the State service with the mere memorials of an ostentatious and, it may be, misapplied wealth, and to impede the provision of a Gallery of National Honour worthy of the British people. The French have their Pantheon, the Germans their Walhalla, but Britain has consecrated no edifice to the memory of the men who have made her what she is.

free admis

60. In connexion with this subject, notice was taken of the restrictions which at present obstruct the admission of the public to edifices in which national monuments have been already erected, and of the Society for efforts of the recently-established Society for obtaining obtaining free admission to National Monuments to remove them. sion to naWith respect to Saint Paul's cathedral, and the cathe- tional modrals of Norwich and Wells, considerable success, it was seen, had attended those efforts, but the result had not yet been so satisfactory with reference to the most important of all,-Westminster Abbey.

61. The exertions of this society are, however, unremitting, and extend to all collections of works of art or

numents,

&c.

Management of competitions for public works.

industry. Through its instrumentality increased facilities have been afforded to the public at Hampton Court Palace, at the Armouries of the Tower of London, and at the Museum of the East India House, as well as at several provincial museums throughout the country.*

62. The good effects of a liberal encouragement of artists by means of public works depend greatly on the judicious management of competitions for their execution. In the scanty number of instances of such encouragement which have occurred in England, our experience in this respect is far from satisfactory. The recent cases of the Nelson Testimonial and the New Royal Exchange afford striking proof of the statement.

63. A review of the course which had been pursued in these and in some other cases, similar in their unsatisfactory result, as compared with that adopted in other countries-and especially in the recent important case of the French monument to Foy-together with an examination of the report on this subject, made by a committee of the Institute of British Architects, and of the opinions of other qualified judges, led to the conclusion that the points to be chiefly attended to in the judicious regulation of artistic competitions may be thus enumerated: First, the programme or instructions should be clear and definite as to the objects to be attained, while giving considerable latitude to the artist, as to the means of attaining them. Secondly, whatever instructions are ultimately resolved upon should be rigorously adhered to; and no designs should be admitted unless in strict accordance with them. Thirdly, there should be a public exhibition of all the competing designs before as well as after the adjudication, Fourthly, there should be a secondary tribunal or committee of

* On this subject, see a note in the Appendix.

artists, wholly unconnected with the competition, who should make a written and detailed report to the ultimate judges, on the merits of the several designs submitted, and with this their duties should terminate. And fifthly, the final decision should rest with a very small number of unprofessional judges, selected for their known acquaintance with the arts of design, and paid for their services, whose judgment, with the reasons for it, and the report of the committee of artists, should ultimately be published.

64. I think it highly probable that such a board as this might, with advantage, be made permanent, and that a board so formed would also be found better fitted for the administration of a scheme of national prizes for historical art, than the mixed and doubtfully responsible authority suggested by Sir Martin Shee.

associati

ment of the

65. Public works for exciting the highest efforts of Voluntary artists; schools of design for encouraging the applica-ons for the tion of the arts to manufacture; galleries and museums encouragefor diffusing the love of art abroad, and promoting the arts. enjoyment of multitudes;-all these important means need to be supplemented by others, of a comparatively inexpensive nature, which shall tend to develope a home and fire-side love of art (so to speak) throughout the whole population. Such a means appears to have been found in the recent combinations for the purchase of works of art, to be distributed amongst the associators by lot.

66. These associations, originating in France, and quickly imitated in most of the states of Germany, and in other parts of continental Europe, have been very recently naturalized amongst us. In Scotland they have been so successful, that a sum already exceeding £7,000 a year is by this means added to the amount of patronage for native art. In England their success has

Connex

whole sub

not yet been so signal, but it is yearly increasing. Taking into account the whole United Kingdom, it has been computed that during the last three years the gross amount raised in this way for the purchase of the works of British artists has exceeded £70,000.

67. It was not to be expected that the encouragement thus afforded should, at the outset, bear directly upon the higher departments of the arts. Its value consists rather in increasing the number of art-lovers, in forming centres of union between artists and amateurs, and in preparing the way for that general and elevated appreciation of the arts, in their noblest purposes and capabilities, on which alone their public and national encouragement can be permanently based.

It

68. There is, however, a means by which these associations may contribute to this last and most important species of encouragement, even in a direct manner. is by the creation of a reserve-fund to be employed in the purchase of historical works, to be preserved in galleries or other public institutions, as national property. And this measure, already in active operation in some of the German Art-Unions, would, it has been contended, under judicious management, become one of the most valuable features of societies such as these. The tendency to encourage mediocrity which, to some extent, will always characterize them (and it is but a small drawback from their great general utility) would by this means be effectually counteracted.

69. Inasmuch, then, as the highest value of the arts ion of the of design consists, not in their power to minister to the ject with a luxury and splendour of the few, but in their eminent popular capability to promote the fitting culture and education education. of all-to contribute to what Milton calls "the in

universal

breeding and cherishing into a people of the seeds of virtue and public civility," our survey naturally lands