The National Register.
London, England, 1817-11-03 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY, LONDON.

- - -
We copy the following article front the 6th number
of Annals of the Fine Arts, published yesterday. We
know not whether it was writ ten by either of the young
gentlemen who feel themselves aggrieved, or by the-
editor of the Journal ; but from the odd manner in
which it is worded, we should suppose it was done in a
wrathful mood. If, however, the circumstances be cor-
rectly stated, the Academy owes it to itself to censure
publicly, so apparently unjustifiable an act of their ser-
vant, and if the statement be incorrect, they equally
owe it to themselves publicly to refute what, in that
case, can only be considered a calumny upon the Insti-
tution.

6' Messrs. Christmas and the two Landscers, notwithstand•
ing the cruel manner in which they were deprived of the use
of the Cartoon, at the British Institution, by the Royal Aca:
decoy's taking it away, a month before any one could use it,
cal ricd their canvasses from the Institution to the Academy
with the greatest anxiety to avail themselves of the first mo-
ment of its opening, to study the Cartoon (by copying it as
larze as the original) even in that small apartment,
" In a very short time, an irritable feeling against these
young men displayed itself, in the gentleman who had the
care of the pictures' by repeatedly interrupting I heiriprogress,
and peevishly forbidding them looking close to it (by which
means alone they could investigate the parts) for fear of in-
juring it. In short, there seemed to be a fretful disposition,
an ungentlemanlike propensity to irritate these youths, by
harras.ing interruptions, and then take advantage of the first
attempt. on their pails to remonstrate, as if it was an act of
impertinence and rebellion.
. . . .

Whether this person did this tinder the notion of ingratiat-
ing himselfwith the Acadetnicaus, or whether by orders from
them, w e cannot tell ; but•,this !net went on day after day,
and the voting men complained that they could not proceed
with their stnilics under such circumstances. However, they
were advised to proceed rather than produce any distort,.
anises, which they did until Satortlay last (the 213th October)
whim this person burst suddenly forth upon them, iu a man-
ner which it was totally impossible to bear.*
This person declared they were too near, sprang forward
while they were studying a head, and removed their can-
vasses to a distance of between three and four feet more
than they were before, which was near enough. Harrassed
by such perpetual interruption, and driven to a distance,
futon which it was impossible for them to complete their
work, with the correctness that they had finished their draw-
ings at the Institutions, they applied again fim ads ice, and
were recommended instantly to take away the drawings,
however painful to their feelings, as they had made such
rapid and excellent progress in their studies.
We must make one observation before we conclude our
notice of this atnir. We will hardly suppose that an hum-
ble SelVallt of the Academy wonld have ventured to behave so
to students, who are generally rect.'sed as gentlemen, with-
out some sanction. It is also very strange, that these young
gentlemen, who have left behind them, both at the Moment!'
and the Institution, such good names, for modesty and prO
priety of bt4taviour, could have suddenly changed their dis.
positions, and have given any just cause of complaint at the
Academy. As an excuse, we have heard it insinuated, that
an attempt was made to wet one of the heads (wet a water-
colour head !!) Setting aside the absurdity, we know this
to he a calumnious insentims, and a positive falsehood.
We only hove that an opportunity may yet be afforded
them, of finishing their drawings at the Institution, which
they hat c thus livens:, unfortunately prevented from finishing
at the Academy. We arc sorry for this, because it would
have hien creditable to Mr. Phillips to !save had such draw-
ings executed under his visitorahip.
• We beg heave to exclude front this censure, Mr. Phillips the
shim, who always seemed disposed to assist these young men with
every possible convenience. in short, they reached Lfrom him and
from the President, such attention as they had received from the
officers. both of the Institution and the British Museum.

t To shew the inconsistency of human nature, the person alluded
to above. who is so peculiarly tenacious IV: enfor.ing the laws of the
Academy, holds his own situation in defiance of those laws • for by
them, no one but a Member is eligible to a stiwition, and yet fie holds
a situation, and is not a Member,

MITRDER Ma. RAKER. NEAR WELI.9.—A man has been
committed to the county-gaol of Norfolk, to take his trial for this in-
human deed. lle is a native of Methwold, in that county, was in the
24th light dragoons about seven vears.and discharged about eighteen
months since, the never was out of rngland). His name is James
Johnson, a fresh good-looking man, about 29 years of age, very
strong and well wade, about five feet seven inches high ; he was ap-
prehended at the King's head, at ikthersett. on AVsalticsday morn-
ing, the 15th inst. It is affirmed that he and another loan, not yet
taken' met the deceased about .500 yards from the town,
_ in the pub.
lie road, about.; o'clock in the afternoon, and after knocking hint
down, drugged him into a close, adjoining the road, where they beat
hint about the head with two sticks and cut his throat. Among the
cireumstantial proofs against the prisoner arc his being near the spot,
and one of the sticks Mond close to the deceased, and covered with
blood, being sworn to by a person who gave it to the prisoner on the
lab inst. at ; that and the other stick are proved to have
• been in the po,sesr.ion of the prisoner and the other man a day or two
before the murder. The officers of justice arc in active purstut of the
latt: r offisuler.
_

Forty thousand leeches, amongmher article,. were imported 'art
week from Franee to Brighton, the whole packed in clesa straw, in
which state, it is they will live two inontilti without water.
Wove Es.—lt appears that in the tits dcivutnictits of the kingdom
of France. '2,111; 4/lilt-es have been destroyed between the IA of Ja-
nuary. istii, and the Ist of July, Ist-J. Of these 1.'594 were males.
and 52.1 fouides. In I.a. Vendee 54 wet.: killed, in the Nns,eq 171.
in tlw Ardennes t I.:. in the Au& 12h, in the Aveyron 38. and in I.a
Crew 94. Out of the Sli departments of France. fit contain, more
or less, considerable numbers of this destine-live animal.

NOV. S.

On the LATE ALTERATION in the TENETS

0? IHE
GENEVAN CHURCIII.

GENEVA was ancienay a free Imperial City, and the
Church a Kishop's Sce, butt the Bishop was expelled
in A. I). 1.1.13, when the reformation was established there
by Calvin the government of the Canton remained repub-
lican under a general Council ot. 200 citizens, from whom,
are selected a Council of 25, four of whom are anunally
chosen to be Syndics or beads of the Constitution.
The Church established by Calvin was of the Trinitarian
faith, lermed on the orthodox principles, which were con-
firmed at the same period also in Eugland arid other pro-
testant countries ; although the sect of Arius afterwards
sprung up and was zealously supported, yet the established
Churches of the protestant reformation, continued in the
orthodox faith. Calvin being convinced, that the best
method to preserve the purity of religion, wits to enlighten
men's understandings, used his utmost exertions to fonud a
college for the instruction of youth, and regularly proposed
the establishment in 1556 ; foreign affairs, however, pre-
ventedille Council front adopting his designs at that time, but
its 1.169 it was matured, and his wishes accomplished ; the
college was founded and furnished with enlightened teach-
ers; as academy was likewise erected, which acquired the
esteem of foreigners by the celebrity of its professors ; and,
at his desire, Theodore Heza was its principal Hector, and lie,
himself, filled the Chair of Theology.--(See Mackenzie's
life of Calvin, p. 19S.
The zealous efforts of 13ncer, to un:te the Swiss and Ger-
man Churches by an agreement on the subject of the
sa-
crament, having been defeated by Luther's determined hos-
tility ; his death seemed to furnish a favourable opportunity
for the accomplishment of this long projected reconciliation.
The high mutual esteem subsisting between Bocce and
Calvin, the celebrated pastor and professor of divinity at
Geneva, appeared to facilitate this design. Anxious to pro-
mote their wishes, he proposed a mode of explaining the
subject, which, while it denied the corporeal preseitc,•, al-
lowed a divine virtue and efficacy emnitionnicated by ( lit fit
with the bread and wine to those who partook of it a nil a
lively faith and integrity of heart ; but he has been gene-
rally censured by protest ants for Milking miaarrantable coi.-
cessions for the sake of peace. This fair pi ospect aas af-
terwards clouded by the occupation of Afelaindlion iu other
controversies, and the Pope and the Emperor resolved to
accomplish the ruin of the protestants. The Council of
Trent, inter slim, ordered the 'Vulgate Translation of the
Scriptures-to he read in Churches, and to be deemed fan-
thentic and canonical; and that, all who should dispute
these truths, should be anathematised in the statue of the
Holy Spirit ( Pallav, p. 206).
The subsequent war, and the height to which religions
controversy was carried, was fully maniksted in the Myra
teracy ahich prevailed, and which showed itself between
Calvin arid Screen's, and probably rendered Calvin more
tenacious in enforcing and establishing his tenets; for which
pnrpose, he adopted the measure of foundiug the college
and academy above mention. d ; (See l'os's Life of Melanc-
Ilion) and availed himself of his great influence a ith Knox in
his correspondence relative to the settlement of the reforma-
tion in Scotland. Knox was so much pleased with the purity of
religion established at Geneva, during his residence there,
previous to the above period, that he %entity recommended
it to his relieious acquaintances in England, as the best
Christian Asylum to which they could flee. In a letter to
Mr. Locke, dated 1356, he says," In my heart I could have
wished, yea, anti cannot cease to wish, that it might please
God to guide and conduct yourself to iis place, where I nei-
ther fear nor shame to say, is the must rfect school of
Christ that ever was on the earth since the days of the
Apostles. In other places I believe Christ to be truly
preached ; but waunets and religion so sincerely ictormed,
I have not yet seen in any other place beside." Knox
quitted Geneva, but returned in 15.17. During the fol.
lowing year lie was cut aged with several trained own of his
congregation in a new translation of the Bible into English,
which from the place where it was first composed and
printed obtained the name of theGenevan Bible.—
Knox, p.lsl3)—Knox had already prokssed great earnestness
-in estatilishing a conformity hetwi en the English service
book and the Genevan order, but sonic differences of opinion
retarded this conciliation ; alter which, the order of Geneva
for the English Church there, was composed, and continued
to lie used in the Church of Scotlaud for a consideia bk. tissue
after the reformation•—( p.lll.)—lt contains fin ms of
;stayer fur the different parts of public worship, and this is
the only resemblance which it bears to the English Liturgy.
But there is this important difference beta et the two:
in the latter the Minister is testi:etc(' to the repetition of the
very words of the prayers ; in the former lie is at liberty to
vary from theist, and to substitute prayers of his own in their
I.ooliii—(l6id.)—However zealous these reformers might be,
yet they could not accomplish a perpetuity fur their own
principles, which, us partaking of the natio e of every thing
ilUlllall, might yield to Mime discovery, and participate in
the improvements of Education and of time. Siuce the day,
of Luther and Calvin a secret reformation has been silently
working in the bosom of the reformed Churches.—(Gibbon,
z. 1!111--And while their tenets have been preserved upon
theirlrecords, a considerable relaxation of their rigid obser
vance has prevailed, until the liberality of modern times,
has almost removed the barriers which were erected upon
time zeal of the reformers.

The Church of Geneva, one of the earliest of the Protestant
Reformatiou, having ceased to preach on the Tenets of
Original Sin, ..Itonement, and the Divinity of our Lord, thus
make a silent confession that they rejet t, or do not recom-
mend them as essential to Salvation; and the adoption of a
new translation of the Scriptures tending to a coign' wiry with
their new opinions, affords a considerable ti inmph to the
Sucinian, rather than to the Arian, het esy. This w ill form
an Epoch of no small consequence in the history of the Re
formed Chinches of Europe ; and when we it:fleet how touch
those Churches have themselves swerved from their Rtitnan
Mistress—how much also she has relaxed in practice from
the tenets she protesses to maintain ; and which she has freely
coati:sea ou the Catholic tauestion—how generally a more
liberal interpretation has of late yeas. been given, and silent-
permitted in reference to Established Ai tides and Con-
fessions of Faith ; it cannot be matter of much surprise, I lilt
the Church ieneva should avow a sufficient buldne•s m he r
exanivlc to other Chinches ; 'wine the mister ss et a small ri -
pubtic, she had less to shake off than other States, who are
bles,ied with a gm eater and perhaps mar Religious popola :
lion; and a Coostitinion 11101 c deepis rooted in a solid col •
pall Or King anti People , against such strung barriers, riffled
by the most powerful influence in the Political State of Eu.

lIMIF

Ne')V. S;

►ope, the Church of Geneva had not to conteed—lo r pro-
fessors had probably long since felt and ventured to suggest
what was not very obnoxious to the ;listening ear, their new
opinions were capable of preserving her Chinch some
steps further from popery, the danger of whose hitillortioz
Councils was. therefore not to be apprehended. Tim. every
step in the progress of these eventful Univ., is replete with
its lesson of observation: the Church of England, who justly
takes the lead of the Protestant Cans..., in Europe, will Mid
her own flint foundation hest supported, by the moderation
which has ever dignified her zeal, and the liberal tolmation
which has emanated from her councils: she has maintained
her tenets wit knot oppression, and those who lotve determined
to seek her, have been previowdy instructed in her pt inciples
before they were admitted to the pale of her Communion—
Her Liturgy 1144 been stilmvitted to several rev isions,
and if ever the period should arrive in which she should
more widely extend her anus to many who differ from her,
chiefly in forms, she will find herstlf strengthened by a new
and popular acquisition, which may render her, when the
form of Papacy shill have expired, the only. Apostolic Church
of Christ ! A. H,