4, In adequate provision for the official inspection of its schools, and for the publication

of periodical reports upon its general proceedings.

I confess I am not without a fear that the changes here proposed will be regarded by some as going too far, and by others as not going far enough; but as to the former, I have reason to believe that some of the most eminent of the academicians themselves are convinced there must be some reform, and I cannot doubt that as enquiry proceeds, it will be more and more evident that nothing short of the reform here advocated will be found adequate to the occasion.

The Royal Academy, which even at present is very far indeed from being the useless institution that some have so hastily represented it, has too many claims upon the public gratitude in connexion with the past, not to be able to assume much higher ground than it has lately occupied. Ranking as the highest institution in the country connected with the Arts, it ought to be seen in the vanguard of every endeavour to extend their influence and elevate their practice. Ranking as a royal institution under the immediate patronage of a sovran, to whom the Arts look up, not only as their beneficent protector, but also as their familiar and appreciating friend, it ought to be seen as the very mainspring of all generous emulation, free alike from those vague and desultory aims which are born of the mere impulses of trade, and from that narrow one-sidedness of an exclusive nationality, which would elevate one country only upon the depression of another.

It is rather in considering what the Academy has omitted to do, than in what it has done wrongly, that the necessity for its improvement is most fully perceived. Is the copyright of artists daily made an object

of plunder by reason of a wholly inefficient law,-where are the urgent petitions of the Royal Academy of Arts for its instant protection? Are the national collections of works of Art greatly deficient in works of the highest order, where are the remonstrances and recommendations of the Academy for their extension? Has the science of chemistry, in its majestic march, made mighty contributions—as yet of a nature little understood to the mechanical means at the command of the artist, where are the exertions of the Academy to explain and apply those new acquisitions to the onward progress of the Arts?

But if none, save unsatisfactory answers can be at present returned to these and many similar questions, it must not be forgotten that not all the blame belongs to the Academy: the truth is far otherwise.

"The Royal Academy," says its President, with great justice,* "is not a national establishment. Though rendering important public services, it is not in any respect supported or assisted from any public fund." Left to the hazardous support of "shillings taken at the door," what wonder if it address itself chiefly to the gratification of the mere portraiture taste of the day, and now and then resort to little manœuvres to make this taste as profitable as may be, for the time being? It is rather matter of admiration that there should be so many exceptive instances, and that many high and generous efforts should at different times have been made to obtain support for the nobler but less favoured branches of art,-if not by the Academy as a collective body, yet by individual members of it, and

* In his "Letter to Lord John Russell, on the alleged claim of the public to be admitted gratis to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy."

sometimes by precisely those members whose peculiar pursuits might be supposed likely to prevent such exertions, were they not men of too honorable and lofty a spirit to be governed by considerations of a merely personal nature.

To remove all occasion for the continuance of this stigma; to give to these honorable but isolated and inadequate exertions unity and strength; to make the Academy what it ought to be (and what, if the means be afforded it, it will assuredly become,)—an association of artists aiding one another in the attainment of mature excellence, and in the enlargement of their individual views of the principles and purposes of their art, cooperating in all contemporary endeavours for the attainment of like objects,—and at once elevating and sustaining the public taste for the Beautiful and the Fit; it is first of all indispensably necessary that the Academy shall have a recognized public existence. Until this be done, it cannot be expected to act otherwise than as a private body, capricious in its actions, and doubtful as respects their motives, because alike unrewarded and irresponsible.

To assert that academies are useless is easy; to prove that they may not be very useful is somewhat more difficult: but to deny that they have been of the greatest utility in past times is impossible.

An institution which has for nearly seventy years maintained the only public school of Art in England, and which has in our own time reared in that school such artists as Hilton, Baily, Howard, Westmacott, Uwins, Mac Clise (to name some only of those who are now living), can very well afford to be called useless by those who rather seek to destroy than to improve. That such institutions may be made much more useful than they

have hitherto been might be inferred, even had no other reasons been adduced, from the significant fact that, in other pursuits closely allied (though not identical) with those comprised within the Royal Academy, institutions are now in course of formation, having the same twofold object of bestowing marks of distinction on those who follow such pursuits, and of affording increased facilities for their study.

These are the legitimate objects of academic institutions, and it is in respect of these that in past times academies have been of the greatest utility. To expect that such institutions should of themselves suffice "to create great masters,"* or to quarrel with them for not doing so, is idle, inasmuch as this is not their purpose. Under favorable circumstances, and in connexion with an enlightened public patronage of the highest efforts of art, great masters have been trained in them. Under less favorable circumstances, they have been able to do little more than prepare the soil, and to sow the seed, which happier influences may yet ripen into an abundant

harvest.

"L'esprit général," says an able writert on academic institutions, "qui doit guider une société est le développement, l'encouragement, la notoriété des talens. Son esprit doit être edifiant et organizateur; et doit s'éloigner de tout ce qui tient aux agitations des états."

* "Les académies ne font pas les grand maîtres."-J. B. Say, Economie Politique. But he elsewhere says most justly: Les académies et les sociétés savantes, . . . . où non-seulement on conserve le dépôt des connaissances et les bonnes méthodes d'enseignement, mais où l'on étende sans cesse le domaine des sciences, sont donc regardées comme une dépense bien entendue en tout pays où l'on sait apprécier les avantages attachés au développement des facultés humaines.-Ib. liv. iii. ch. 6, (vol. ii. p. 267, 2d edit.)

+ J. F. Sobry, Sur les Sociétés Littéraires.

Jan. 2, 1769.

"Every seminary of learning," said Sir Joshua Reynolds in his first discourse on opening the Royal Academy, "may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may gather somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions. Knowledge thus obtained has always somewhat more popular and useful than that which is forced upon the mind by private precept or solitary meditation.”

Believing that the Royal Academy, when invested with the powers, privileges, and responsibilities of a national institution, will be found to discharge its important functions worthily and zealously, I cannot but earnestly hope that no suggestions, either of a false pride or of a false economy, will be suffered to impede the progress of such reforms as are indispensably necessary to the maintenance of that high character.