but their advancement will be checked, if not finally prevented, by an attempt to raise support for them on the base of a faction or politics. The foregoing observations, however, apply to the Governments of either party; during the predominance of both we may look in vain for the rewards and distinctions bestowed on artists and the Arts. The honour of knighthood has been occasionally bestowed on personal favourites of the reigning sovereign; but no one Government has as yet pursued any organized or constituted plan for the encouragement of the Fine Arts. The late Government is open to this charge in common with every one that has preceded it, although, perhaps, it may be said that the premiership of the Duke of Wellington has exercised an influence less beneficial to the arts and sciences than that of any of his predecessors. Already exalted to the highest pinnacle of glory by his military achievements, he can add little to the immortality he has so richly merited. The patronage of the Arts might embellish the base, and add to his reputation as a statesman; but he has afforded ample grounds for the belief that he is wholly indifferent to such accessorial honours. The taste of the noble Duke leads him no more to admire a Parthenon of Parian marble or Portland stone than one animated by a living spirit. The sculpture he regards with admiration is that directed to the repair of broken or lost limbs-not of statuary, but of flesh and blood! and the only columns of which he knows anything, or that he contemplates with satisfaction, are those with which he could move to support the capitals of foreign potentates. We may talk to all eternity of the elasticity of genius to spring up in spite of opposition or neglect: it may be true to a limited extent, but is inapplicable to permanent success in the cultivation of the Fine Arts. Before these can contribute to the renown or the moral strength of the Government, a Pericles must be found to support the conceptions of a Phidias; the Government must take the lead in the advancement of the Arts, and stamp its charter with the seal of Fashion before the community will follow. On the other hand, if artists would rise to any degree of eminence, the cultivation of the intellect must be united to the natural gift of talent. But where, we may ask, is the encouragement, and where the springs whence flow rewards and distinctions, about which the Select Committee and their chairman speak so confidently in this freest of all Governments? and what is the reward to which artists may look as the prize of a successful exercise of talent? The patronage of artists within the reach of Government is limited to very few appointments. A portrait-painter, through talent, address, and the intervention of powerful friends, may be made painter to the King, and, with the privilege of providing foreign ambassadors with the royal portraits, have an opportunity of realising a considerable fortune. The late President of the Royal Academy was in this way in possession of a considerable income; and with his private practice might have amassed wealth, and yet indulged his passion for specimens of drawings by old masters. The public, perhaps, have no concern with the follies or the passions of artists; they have the right of spending or squandering the income acquired by their own exertions in any manner however absurd or reprehensible: but the question assumes another aspect when the funds of a public institution are diverted from their legitimate purposes in favour of one who, under such circumstances, leaves his family without any adequate provision. It cannot be regarded as consistent with the encouragement of living artists, that the proceeds of the annual exhibi tion of the British Institution should be destined to a purpose left unaccomplished through the inconsiderate conduct of an individual, however highly gifted; especially when by following their usual custom they would have had a fund at their disposal for the reward and encouragement of historical painting, which in this country may be said to have been almost wholly unpatronised since the death of George the Third. The works of a painter so much in vogue as Lawrence, might have been exhibited with equal success in any one room in the neighbourhood of St. James's; and the Directors of the British Institution would have avoided the reproach of bestowing patronage on one who in his lifetime enjoyed and abused it to an extent beyond any one instance of previous occurrence. The British Institution by this act in some degree neutralised the great benefits they had hitherto conferred on the Arts. They have in a measure sanctioned a disregard of moral obligations, and left themselves, for a time at least, without the means of being eminently useful in the cause of historical painting, which is rapidly declining, and looks to the Institution for patronage and support in the absence of all other encouragement. But for the establishment of the British Institution, a fatal blow would have terminated the existence of historical painting when the Government of the day deprived West of the salary which had been granted to him by his royal and munificent patron, and left him without the means of support, and to struggle with embarrassments at the close of a life devoted to the improvement of the national taste in painting. This is one of the acts of a reign which is endeavoured to be held up to our admiration as celebrated for the patronage of artists and the Arts. In reflecting on the melancholy fate of that grand composition and highly-wrought production of Hilton, so much admired during the last exhibition of the Royal Academy, how deeply must every one interested in the advancement of the highest branch of painting be concerned to find the artist, who has shown himself equal to the production of one of the greatest efforts of Art, unsupported by any other encouragement than the admiration it excited! The little patronage at the disposal of the Government or public bodies ought to be bestowed with a scrupulous regard to the claims of real merit, and on the professors of the Arts of unblemished character; and not blindly or wilfully conferred at the suggestion of personal friendship or party connexions. In consolidating the Board of Works with the department of the Woods and Forests, the Government has abolished the appointment of three attached architects. These were the chief situations under Government to which architects looked forward as the reward of a successful career in the profession. Whilst these existed, there was always a stimulus to the honourable and arduous pursuit of the Art, and they added considerably to the respectability of the profession: they could only be held by a few; but like the seats of the Bar they had a very extensive influence on the character and conduct of the candidates for public employment. They might be improperly filled; so may the seats on the bench or at the bar: but to be beneficial to the nation and to the profession, it was only necessary that the selection of persons should be directed by discernment and judgement. According to the plan intended to be pursued in future, the patronage of the Government will be more widely spread: the generality of the members of the profession will not object to the change; but the profession itself must necessarily be lowered in public estimation. Its effects, indeed, will be somewhat similar to those which would result from the abolition of the Judges, leaving the business of the Courts to be carried on by an increase of the magistracy. [To be continued.] BRITISH SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING:-ANECDOTES OF WOOLLETT. [Continued from p. 277.] THE British School of Engraving, like that of its Painting, may be considered an epitome of the several styles in this branch of Art; and has produced examples, in every mode of engraving, that may vie with the best productions of the burin. It is said that the first rolling-press in England appeared in the reign of Henry VIII., and the prints from it are in a publication called "The Birth of Mankind; otherwise, the Woman's Book," which was published by Thomas Raynalde, in 1540. The name of Thomas Geminie appears to a work on Anatomy, published in 1552, and dedicated to King Edward the Sixth. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Archbishop Parker was a patron of engraving, and employed a printer and two or three engravers in his house at Lambeth. According to Vertue, the Archbishop's portrait was the first which appeared in England, and was engraved by Remigius Hoganbergh. After these, the names of Hollar, Barlow, Faithorne, Dorigny and Vertue, follow as connecting links in the British school of engraving. The merits of these artists are pretty well known, and their works (more especially those of Hollar, Barlow and Faithorne,) it might have been thought would have given a tone to the engraving of that period, -at least have prevented the art from sinking to so low a grade as appears in a work first published in the reign of Charles the First, and dedicated to that monarch, called "God's Revenge against Murder." It was written by W. Reynolds, and afterwards went through seven editions, the last of which appeared in 1702, and is ushered in by an advertisement of the stationer to the reader in the following words : "The whole work at large, thus published the seventh time, hath no addition to the matter; only to these last impressions I did add the thirty brass plates that hath so much satisfied the reader that he cannot expect hereafter any more to be added. All which I recommend to thy kind acceptance, and myself to thy service. W. L." The plates thus pompously announced are of the lowest grade; and if they could have been received with any satisfaction by the public, will show that little advantage would have been derived by the fabrication of these from the works of contemporary engravers, and at the same time prove the public taste to have been at a very low ebb. Thesc, however, should be considered as aberrations in the progrese of Art, and may be found more or less in every stage both of painting and engraving. Taste and discernment, like the light of truth, will, however, clear the mists that occasionally rise to darken its prospects or prevent its improvement; and the progress of this taste and this discernment will be seen as we advance in the history of engraving and the practice of its professors. It must be admitted that the English school of engraving, on its revival in the reign of George the First, owes much to the aid of foreign Art; and, from the time of Vertue, will be found mixed up with works of foreign artists. Vertue however, who takes the lead in our account, was an Englishman by birth, the date of which is given in the year 1684. He died in 1756, and was buried at Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory with the following epitaph : "With manners gentle, and a grateful heart, His fame shall each succeeding artist own- The abilities of Vertue as an engraver have been variously estimated. In his monumental eulogium he may have been ranked too high; but certainly too low by the author of an Essay on Prints, who says,— "Vertue was an excellent antiquary, but no artist; he copied with painful exactness in a dry disagreeable manner, without force or freedom. In his whole collection of heads we can scarce pick out half a dozen which are good." How often does it happen that artists are judged of by their worst instead of their best works, or by such as first come to hand! A print engraved by Vertue, a half-length of Lord Somers, after Kneller, will at once set aside the above criticism. As an engraving it may rank with the portraits of Honbraken, one of the most skillful artists of his day. The application of "laboured" and "dry" might perhaps with more truth have been given to his antiquarian researches, of which the Honourable H. Walpole has so greatly availed himself in his account of art and artists. Vertue, like other engravers, had his con amore subjects, his different prices, and other incidental matters, which might aid or impede his success. N. Dorigny came into England in the year 1711, under the patronage of Queen Anne. He engraved the Cartoons of Raphael from the originals at Hampton Court; and in April, 1716, presented two sets to George the First, and a set of each to the Prince and Princess. The King gave the artist a purse of one hundred guineas, and the Princess |