It was unwise, though excusable, in those of the profession who be longed not to the old Society of water-colour painters, to expect that its members would give assistance to aliens at their own immediate sacrifice; and it was unwise, though excusable in them, upon being disappointed, to aspire to a rivalry before they were properly prepared to assert, effectively, their claims to an equal participation in public patronage. There is no doubt that some reflection, and much buffeting, with the world, induced them at length to take some such glances as the foregoing, at the history of pictorial institutions, from the foundation of the Royal Academy up to the present day, and to deduce certain inferences therefrom; but it is quite clear that those inferences were prematurely drawn, and not a little unsound. There is no doubt that many gifted persons, whose names are now unknown, would have obtained an early eminence, had they gained the notoriety and support which juxta-position with those beautiful works annually appearing in Suffolk Street, would have secured for them. But it was rash to imagine, because this advantage was denied them there, that an equivalent was of certain attainment by the mere act of exhibition any where else. They were too eager; but their power was not equal to their eagerness: they began too soon, and they failed from. sheer incompetency. It was not that other institutions had the sunlight of "fashion" upon them; it was not that they had been old established favourites, and had acquired a name which defied competition: it was, that no signal merit, no commanding skill, was apparent in the new society; they were alone in their mediocrity, and as a parent patteth not a child's head approvingly, unless for some act of special good behaviour, so the public saw no reason for the bestowal of that matchless sugarplum-its favour-thereupon.

Equally unwise is it in them, we think, to hope for either assistance, sympathy, or commiseration from the rival institutions, or from rival artificers individually. Fortune always gives with its blessings a speculum, in which all viewed things are reflected back in an altered aspect; and though the claim now about to be made might, at one time, have been deemed irresistible, (had themselves formed some among the appealing parties,) it may now, perhaps, be regarded by them, in their changed position, as a favour which-they are very sorry, but-must not be granted. The loan of a bad unsold picture or two, may, here and there, possibly be afforded by some half-grown lion, merely for advertisement's sake; but the cordial beneficial aid of any eminent individual, whose influence, backed by intrinsically valuable and attractive contributions, should be worth the having, is more, we surmise, than will be given.

It is from the public alone that they must look for effective support. The public has little to do with private feuds, party feeling, or the false philosophy of jealous and ungenerous rivalry; and it is now, more than at any previous period, beginning to judge for itself, without favour or misguiding influences, in all matters obnoxious to its impartial decision. The day is gone by when it was wont to be prejudiced by high sounding names, in persons or places. An epithet is no longer a tower of strength. The weight of titular honours is fast waxing to feather-like ponderosity; and a good artist needs not, in these times, the once magic influence of an "R. A." appendage to his surname, nor the walls of a famous edifice, to give glory to his works, in order to attain for himself popular admiration and pecuniary emolument. He needs now little of the adventitious aid which fellowship with renowned names, or connexion with fayoured foundations, once used to impart. The stage of a common theatre is found to be as goodly an arena for the display of excellence as the

"Great Room" of a certain great house in the Strand :-the world cannot detect one beauty more in Stanfield's pictures since he became one of the "elect" than it observed before; and his talent would have ranked equally high in general estimation, had he remained for ever excluded.

The public are wise enough to see that works of art are not to be regarded simply as the mere sources of a fleeting pleasure-pretty things to tickle the eye for a while, and be then forgotten. The human mind is fashioned and created in proportion to its connexion with the external world through the agency of the senses; and the accurate representation of objects which shall convey to it any new set of impressions, is a noble substitute for absent reality. Every new impression is an item in the amount of man's knowledge; and according as that impression is made from objects that, in their kind, most approach to perfection, by so much does mental power become extended and improved. The pursuit after perfection is not simply the surest test of a well-regulated mind, but it is a grand means by which the social relations of life become elevated and improved. Those, therefore, who, by the cultivation of their own powers, are enabled to exhibit nature in her purest and most perfect form, and to stimulate others to a contemplation of its varied and multiplied beauties, achieve a great moral good to the many, while they surely erect a lasting monument to their own individual fame, and assert a resistless claim upon the public for their gratitude and support.

The public are prepared to remunerate true excellence wherever it may be found. It may have been a little tardy in its adjudications, times gone by; but, blessings upon the schoolmaster! discerning philosophers are now as common as blackberries, and merit is sure to receive its due, and that promptly too. Flowers need no "longer blush unseen, nor waste their fragrance on the desert air," unless they like. Genius is sure to be detected in these publishing days; and if cultivated to useful purposes, is sure to secure honour, and the golden opinions of all sorts of men. It is not by works of mediocrity that patronage can be secured; excellence and perfection (as nearly as it can be approached) are the objects of public pursuit; and all inferior claims stand the risk of being wholly unheeded.

Our advice, then, to the new Society is this: Seek not the lukewarm, doubtful succour of those who are running the same race with yourselves. Waste not your time in soliciting uncertain assistance; neither paralyze your powers by acts of useless repining. Depend not upon others, but upon yourselves alone. Look to yourselves as the only sure source whence success will flow, and employ all your energies to command it. Strive,-earnestly, resolutely, strive,—to attain, by your own efforts, that eminence which has secured to your rivals the patronage you now seek to participate in. Paint, paint away, like Trojans ; and be not cast down. Practice makes perfect, and perseverance will accomplish wonders. Study, severely, intensely; select the best models and the best masters; fix your right eye upon nature and the other upon art, and fear not the issue. Talent, like water, is sure to find its level; and though it may not be this year or the next, depend upon it that, if you are true to yourselves, you will become no contemptible rivals to those whom you now look so angrily upon. You may not all be Copley Fieldings to the full, perhaps but-and remember this; ponder well upon it; it is easier for you to approach the present excellence of that delightful artist, than it is for him to exceed it! While those who have risen to eminence are standing comparatively still, you will be in the full activity of advancement, and the race will not be spiritless.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

In the brief limits to which an Article in a Monthly Periodical must be confined, we cannot do more than glance very cursorily at the more important features of the subject to which we now address ourselves. Even such a cursory glance may not, at the present time, be without use. We are arrived at a crisis, at which it becomes the duty of every intelligent member of the community to make himself at least generally acquainted with the circumstances in which the country is placed; that he may, in his own sphere, however circumscribed, lend his influence to the promotion of such of the many measures that must speedily occupy public attention, as he may think good, and may aid in opposing such as he may think evil. The measures already under discussion in Parliament, or that must soon be agitated there, bear too strongly upon the prosperity or adversity of the empire, and upon the social state of every member of the community, not to deserve an attention which the people have not been in use to pay to public affairs. Too much has been, in times past, left to the discretion of those, whom accident or party intrigue has placed in the seats of power. That the consequence has been disastrous, all know, and most feel. It now behoves every man to understand and take an interest in public matters, for his own particular sake, as well as for the sake of his country. Selfishness and patriotism here dictate the same course.

The course we propose to pursue, in our inquiry into the state of the country, is to advert, in the first instance, to the present condition of the three great classes of the community, the UPPER RANKS, the MIDDLE CLASSES, and the OPERATIVES. We shall next devote our attention to the state of the nation considered as a whole, pointing out the difficulties in which the nation is involved; and conclude, by endeavouring to show how those difficulties ought to be encountered. We shall have to touch upon matters of extreme delicacy. But the times require plain dealing, and forbid our turning away our eyes from any part of the prospect before us. Conscious of none but honest intentions, we shall not conceal any part of the truth. It is the part of a fool to shun the investigation of his own embarrassed affairs. A wise man looks his difficulties boldly in the face, and resolutely sets himself to overcome them.

First, perhaps, in order, although certainly last in importance, comes the inquiry into the state of the Upper Ranks, in which we include the nobility, proprietors of large landed estates, and all persons of large income not derived from personal exertion. Even this class is by no means exempted from the consequences of the general distress which prevails in the country; although their wealth, and the comparatively small portion of their income abstracted by our monstrously absurd and partial system of taxation, make them feel the pressure of the general distress, to an extent, small indeed, when compared to the abridgment of comforts, and even the necessaries of life, borne by the other classes. Their rents are reduced, to be sure, very considerably; in many cases to the extent of a third; their interest on loans abated one or two per cent.; but that reduction of rents, or interest of money, is not to be named with the sufferings of the other classes. Besides, money has become more valuable since the pressure of calamity on the industrious classes. The same nominal amount of income will now exchange for more commodities than before. Still the upper classes do suffer. Be

sides the curtailment of their incomes, it must be confessed that there is something to be taken into account for a certain degree of insecurity of property, caused not by the Reform Bill and the Revolutionary Ministry, as the Tory part of the Aristocracy choose to designate Lord Grey and his colleagues, but by the base and irritating opposition offered to the Reform Bill, and the avowed hostility of that faction to all those measures to which the Bill was intended to lead. We wish not to create any undue alarm; but we will not attempt to conceal our opinion, that until every one of the great measures of Reform, on which the people have set their hearts, be obtained; until every man shall be allowed to reap the fruit of his honest industry, free from restrictions at once impolitic and unjust; until the people have cheap and good government, property in this country will not be perfectly safe. But there are other abridgments of their income, from causes which, although only prospective have a present effect. The apprehended Reform, perhaps abolition, of the English and Irish Church Establishments; the reduction of the Army and Navy; the abolition of pensions and sinecures, and discontinuance of the deadweight, or our system of maintaining an army of officers on half pay, besides the regular army on whole; the reduction of salaries, and a near approach to the abolition of patronage and improper influences; will go far to throw on the Aristocracy the burden of establishing in the world their younger children out of their own private fortunes, instead of out of the public purse,—a novel and grievous hardship to them, as they will, no doubt, think. Then, the abolition of the Corn Laws, which is as certain to take place as that justice, and strength, and intelligence, are more than a match for injustice, weakness, and ignorance, will cause some diminution of the incomes of the landed Aristocracy, although not so great as they apprehend. The consequence of all this is, that, besides the defalcation of rents already experienced, there is such a prospect of more, and such an abatement of the value of the unjust privileges heretofore inseparable from extensive property in land, that estates cannot be sold except at what are regarded by the owners as inadequate prices. There is such a stagnation in the market for landed property at present as was never known. As yet, we have spoken only of those persons of the Aristocratic class, who have large incomes free from debt. That numerous portion of the Aristocracy, who have large debts, as well as large incomes, have suffered far more severely than their unincumbered brethren. While their rents have fallen 20 or 30 per cent., or even more, the jointures, the provisions to younger children, payable out of their estates, have not fallen at all; and the interest of their mortgages only one or two per cent. Many landed proprietors are thus reduced to less than one-half of their former free incomes.

We now come to a class, with whose sufferings we sympathize more than with those of the Aristocracy,-the Middle Class, including all persons above the rank of Operatives, who live by their own exertions, and those whose incomes, although arising from property of some kind, without personal exertion, are too small to give them a place among the Aristocracy. It is more difficult to ascertain the present condition of this class, than that of either the higher or the lower order. The poor man, when times of distress come on, having no accumulated savings to fall back on, cannot conceal his poverty. The rich man, again, knowing that his income, although reduced, is still great, and that he is only suffering in common with the rest of his class, does not care for conceal

ment of the reduction, even were concealment practicable; which, in his case, for obvious reasons, it seldom is. But the incomes of manufacturers, ship owners, merchants, shopkeepers, and farmers, are often carefully kept from the knowledge of even their own clerks, managers, and nearest connexions, as far as possible; always from the knowledge of the world. The quantity of business they do is also concealed; likewise the loans and accommodations they require, and every thing which tends to throw light on the state of their business and finances. There, consequently, must be much uncertainty in any conjecture we make as to the present condition of the Middle Classes. We shall, however, make the best use of the indications of their prosperity or adversity that we can perceive.

Two things of importance will at once be admitted. First, that there is a general impression throughout the country, that the Middle Classes, generally, are struggling with diminished business, and still more dimi. nished profits; that, in short, much commercial distress exists among them, much gloom and depression of spirit. Secondly, that not one of the several divisions of the middle class is even supposed to be reaping large gains, and enjoying a high state of prosperity. In an average state of the country, there should, from the natural fluctuations of trade, always be some division of this class in an extra flourishing condition, as well as some other division suffering more than its proper share of adversity, from temporary causes. But at present, while all the divisions are suffering so rauch, that it is difficult to say which is suffering most, there, undeniably, is not one division rejoicing in the sunshine of extraordinary prosperity. The manufacturers, with greatly increased and improved machinery, and wages reduced to the lowest pittance which can keep the miserable creatures which tend their machines alive, should, from these causes, make large profits. Yet, such is not the case. Their profits are small; the prices they can obtain for their goods scarcely remunerating. A large part of what they manufacture is done more because, having capital embarked in mills, an establishment to keep up, and a connexion in trade to maintain, they must keep manufacturing, than on account of any profit they can hope to realise from their manufacture. About the condition of the merchants, we do not profess to know more than others; and shall only advert to the general understanding, that they, too, are reaping inadequate gains, and suffering heavy losses; in short, that they are in anything but a prosperous state. The shipowners have long been complaining; even more loudly than other classes; and their complaints were, not without apparent reason, disregarded, as long as they kept building new ships to carry on the trade they proclaimed so miserably unproductive. But of late there has been a decrease in the amount of tonnage employed in foreign trade; and we are now disposed to believe their complaints of unproductive employment, for some time back, too well founded. That their profits have been small since the peace of 1815, we never doubted. We only ascribed the unwonted loudness of their outcry to the rapid fall from the enormous profits the ship-owners were making before the peace, to the same diminished, and steadily diminishing, profits realised by other classes. With the present state of that numerous division of the middle class, which consists of shopkeepers, we are better acquainted than with the condition of the manufacturers, merchants, and ship-owners; and shall, therefore, dwell longer on the state of this class than we have done on the condition of the other classes of the middle ranks. Much of what