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The prizes were to be open to all artists, of whatever rank or country, resident in any part of the United Kingdom, during three years preceding the triennial adjudication. But every artist was to be required to give eighteen months' notice, specifying the class in which he desired to compete.

The examination, for approval or rejection, of all the works offered for the triennial prizes, was to be committed to the directors of the British Institution, assisted by a committee of the Royal Academy.

The main features of this plan appear admirably adapted to attain its object. The interval of three years would at once afford ample time for the labour of the artist, and would add weight and dignity to the solemn adjudication. The efforts of art to which the prizes are restricted are precisely those efforts which THE STATE ought to encourage, both because they are direct and efficient co-agents in attaining the worthiest objects of good government-RELIGION-CIVILIZATION—SOCIAL ORDER, and because they are also precisely those efforts which mere individual patronage leaves to desertion and neglect. The amount of the pecuniary part of the prizes-while paltry in comparison with the highest rewards of the other liberal professions, and besides this, in its nature uncertain-is yet sufficient to stimulate the artist's ambition, and to justify him in making some sacrifices in order to its gratification.

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But to the end that an ambition so honorable might Lesser renot expose to an irreparable loss of time and reputation, munerathe artist whose efforts were found to evince creditable posed for ability, though they might not suffice to carry off the the most prize, it seemed but reasonable to afford him the proba- guished bility, that if he were not enriched, he would not be among the ruined by his ambition. With this view Sir Martin ful com. Shee proposed that nine moderate "remunerations"

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Annual post of this clan.

should be given in addition to the prizes, thinking, that when to this advantage, "were added the chance of finding a purchaser for his picture, even at the humblest price, the artist [least favorably circumstanced] would not consider a contention for the national prizes, though at the entire sacrifice of one or even two years' industry, so desperate a speculation as it might otherwise appear to him."

And at what cost to the British nation might this excellent plan of triennial prizes in painting be carried into effect? The answer is, at the cost of five thousand pounds a year. Surely the most rigid economist of the public resources must blush at the parsimony, as well as the policy, which has withheld such a sum for such a purpose.

Most earnestly do I hope that Sir Martin Shee will yet live, not only to see his plan of 1809 carried into full operation, but also to witness some of the happy effects it is so well calculated to produce.

Not that from the immediate operation of this plan, or of any the most liberal that could be devised, a sudden revolution in English art is to be effected. They that would reap where they have not sown, and gather the fruit where they have not cultivated the vine, must needs meet with disappointment. It will require patient and repeated efforts to give to the artistical genius of England, so long pent within the narrow boundaries of capricious fashion or of mere commercial speculation, that direction to high and enduring purposes which has heretofore marked every great epoch of the arts. "The culture must be patient and persevering, if the crop is expected to be luxuriant; and although the first growth might appear inadequate to the expense, that is no reason why the husbandry should be discontinued, nor why a richer harvest may not hereafter be produced." And at least, "let us not condemn those who have the virtue

and the valour of the Greeks, as incapable of acquiring their taste, till we have furnished them with the motive, the means, and the opportunity."*

And, above all, let it be remembered that if we hope to produce artists worthy of enduring honour, we must confer public honours on their art. The plastic arts were held in the highest veneration by the Athenians, long before the era of Phidias and of Parrhasius. And many have been the artists who have produced works of the highest order, because they have been commissioned to produce them. And many, too, have been found to prefer the simple and dignified reward of public distinction to reward of every other kind. If the circumstances of modern life be greatly different, and if pecuniary rewards have become the indispensable condition of all great exertions, yet let not these be offered alone. Who shall tell the future effect of a public and solemn celebration in honour of the peaceful triumphs of art, upon the glowing aspirations of many a young and unnoticed student? Let the past answer the question, and let the imagination of the reader be invoked to that sacred ground, "decorated with the profusest triumphs of Grecian art-all Greece assembled from her continent, her colonies, her isles,-war suspended,-a Sabbath of solemnity and rejoicing, the Spartan no longer grave, the Athenian forgetful of the forum the high-born Thessalian, the gay Corinthian, the lively gestures of the Asiatic Ionian;-and let him turn to the temple of the Olympian god, pass the brazen gates, and proceed through the columned aisles. What arrests the awe and wonder of the crowd ?-Seated on a throne of ebony and of ivory, of gold and gems-the olive crown on his head, in his right hand the statue of Victory, in his left, wrought of all metals, the cloud-compelling sceptre—

• Sir Martin Shee, Letter to the Directors of the British Institution.

Question

behold the colossal master-piece of Phidias-the Homeric dream embodied,-the majesty of the Olympian Jove! Enter the banquet-room of the conquerors; to whose verse, hymned in a solemn and mighty chorus, bends the listening Spartan?-it is the verse of the Dorian Pindar! In that motley and glittering space (the fair of Olympia, the mart of every commerce, the focus of all intellect,) join the throng, gathered round that earnest and sunburnt traveller; now drinking in the wild account of Babylonian gardens, or of temples whose awful deity no lip may name,-now, with clenched hands and glowing cheeks, tracing the march of Xerxes along exhausted rivers, and over bridges that spanned the sea-what moves, what hushes that mighty audience? It is Herodotus reading his history."*—Has England no religion to be honoured-no great man to be commemorated—no glorious deeds to be depicted? Must it be the highest ambition of her artists to rival Holland, and become the second toy-shop of Europe?

It cannot be too often repeated that if there is to be any hope of its rivalling Rome and Florence, of its following in the steps of Raffaelle and of Michael Angelo, that hope must be based, not upon the capricious and vacillating patronage of individuals, but upon the continued and stable patronage of the whole people, afforded through its government. Anything short of this is utterly inadequate to the object.

One important question remains—and, as it bears proposed as equally upon the three modes of State encouragement which have been dwelt upon, and at the same time

to organization by

Athens; its Rise and Fall. By E. L. Bulwer. A work in which the acute perception of the critic, and the calm and far-seeing comprehension of the impartial historian are united with the ardent sympathies and fervid inspiration of the poet.

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affords an opportunity of discussing those minor points in Sir Martin Shee's scheme of National Prizes, on which I am deprived of the pleasure of concurring in patronage. opinion with him, I have reserved the mention of these until now, not wishing to disturb the unity of a plan, all the capital features of which, as far as I am able to judge of them, appear to deserve unmingled approbation. The question we now come to is this: if it be the duty of the government to afford encouragement to historical art, in the several modes which have been considered, by what organization shall it provide for the fulfilment of this duty, and what checks shall be imposed to ensure its fulfilment judiciously and faithfully?

I cannot but express a confident hope that this and all similar questions will, ere long, be deprived of a part of their difficulty by the appointment of a Minister of Public Instruction, directly responsible to parliament. But, pending this, we have to deal with the question as it stands at present.

In the scheme of National Prizes, Sir Martin Shee has proposed to confide that species of encouragement to the management of the president and directors of the British Institution, leaving it to them to appoint a committee for the final adjudication, but also making provision to afford to this board of judges "every aid and assistance which professional experience can afford."

To this end Sir Martin proposed to obtain and deliver in writing the judgment (with the reasons) of a committee of the Royal Academy, consisting of all the members of that body, who should not be candidates, and also the judgment of the whole of the candidates themselves, conformably with a well-known and admirable practice resorted to by the ancients.

From the first part of this proposition, which would intrust the prize-fund to the absolute management of the directors of the British Institution, as such, I

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