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the question of those who have the best disposition towards the Arts.

When men have a passion to gratify, the difficulties which lie in the way of its gratification are ever as nothing, in comparison with the anticipated pleasures; but when duty is the only stimulant to great effort in any undertaking, the apprehended obstructions fill the mind like mountains, which, it is imagined no effort can scale, nor industry surmount. Thus men often become impotent, from the effect of fancy, and give up an attempt when they are not animated by hope.

The times certainly are turbulent enough, but the advocates of the question of art must not be content to wait the period of comparative repose; they must keep straining every nerve, without a moment's intermission, or they will have all to begin again, remembering, that the times of Pericles, of Leo the Tenth, of Julius the Second, were not the most peaceable in the world, and yet the works of Phidias, Michelagnolo and Raffaelle, were then produced. The reasons are, that the governments and the monarchs then had a passion for the arts, to gratify, and when men have passion to gratify, they make the most of their actual situations.

The present English government has certainly done great things by the purchase of the Townley, the Elgin and the Phigaleian marbles; but surely the government will not think it has done enough by such purchases. A father does not think he has done

enough for his son, when he has only given him the means of education, nor does a mother think she has done enough for her infant when she has only mixed up its food. The English government will surely never think it has done enough, if it only affords the means of study; it will surely wish to afford opportunity, for proving the beneficial effects of the means provided, before it will believe it has done all which it is in its power to do.

We see by the newspapers that it is in contemplation to build a gallery in imitation of the Louvre; to collect the pictures from the various palaces, to form a school of study for the students, and an amusement for the people. This would certainly be a very grand feature; but why is every effort confined in favour of the art of other nations? Why this perpetual attempt to afford the means of study for the students when nothing is done for them when they have studied, by public encouragement?

Every thing which turns attention to art certainly does good, but we only ask with deference to higher authority, whether it is not too much like keeping English powers always in the nursery and feeding them on pap, when all the efforts made, are made with a view of giving them examples to imitate, and little, but by individuals of the British Institution is ever done to give them an opportunity of proving their original strength.

Phidias, Michelagnolo and Kaffaelle, were not always kept inthe nursery. Public encouragement

to them, to carry on the simile, was like feeding them on, the marrow of lions, as Chiron fed Achilles, and they soon grew in "thews and bulk" to dispute the palm with their instructors.

"The idea of the application of capital to the prosecution of public works had been very generally entertained;" said a distinguished member of the House of Commons, within these few days; "neither could he agree that this country had seen her best days; on the contrary, he did trust, and think, that she would go on, increasing in strength, in greatness, and in happiness. (Cheers.) We were, in fact, journeying in that road which was sure to conduct us to wealth, prosperity, and power; we were diffusing education. (Hear.) The reason why former states had been in all ages assimilated to the human frame, and its advance from infancy to youth, from youth to manhood, from manhood to decay, was this-the parallel proceeded upon this fact, that those states were founded on false principles. They went on from stage to stage of intellectual improvement, emerging from ignorance to knowledge, till the light of day beamed upon the fabric, and betrayed the rotten imposture upon which it was built. (Hear, hear, hear.) The pillar of our greatness, however, was raised upon that basis of all intellectual and religious improvement -the Christian religion. (Hear.) The pledge of our superiority was in the support of those doctrines, which, the more they were examined, were found to be the more excellent in their truths, the more beneficial in their effects. (Hear, hear.) He wa

confident that the country would proceed in he mighty march of improving excellence, as she had hitherto proceeded; and that she would remain to the end of time, the sanctuary of morals, the refuge of liberty, and the region of peace and happiness." (Continued cheers.) And ultimately, we hope in God, of refinement and of taste.

We are convinced that England, great and glorious England, has not seen her best days, and that, in spite of all present appearances, which are nothing but the effects of too sudden a relaxation from a state of mighty tension, she will gradually tighten to her former natural tone of vigour and strength. The days of art and taste are yet to come, and we earnestly entreat those at the head of public affairs, as well as those of the young nobility who give such promise of future distinction; the Marquess of Tavistock, the Lords Russell, Normanby, Althorpe and Milton, and others, not to forget their public duty to the arts, amidst their other public efforts,-not to think the public encouragement of painting beneath their support; although such language may be new, even at the Universities.

To conclude; a national gallery of foreign masters would be a most delightful thing; but if a national gallery be built, and no provision made for the reception of the works of English painters and English sculptors, as they successively arise, then indeed will all the accumulation of pictures have no other effect than to keep English art in perpetual leading-strings.

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