The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-25 00:00:00

we possess this right or no, sure we are that it is
inexpedient to use it. As far as Poland is concerned,
she will be satisfied with nothing short of absolute
independence ; as far as Russia is concerned, she
will be content with nothing short of absolute con-
quest. Neither party will hear of any intermediate
position between the two, and even were such a
position established it would only servo as a breath-
ing place between the two, where each might draw
together his forces for the last encounter. Let us
look a little further. We have undertaken this joint
diclomatic action with France ; are the interests of
Franee an:' England absolutely identical ? It is
the interest o; France to humble, and even to
destroy a power ~,,Ljch forms in the present dis
tracted state of the Coninent of Europe the only
:.
efficient counterpoise to her s:,`Fgrandisement. Has
not France the boundary of tine Rhine to re-
conquer P Has she not the memory of the later
days of the Entp!re to obiiterate P Can we go hand
in hand in such undertakings unless we are satisfied
that France is too weak and Russia too strong 12 Is
not our policy now, as always, to maintain Euro•
pean equilibrium, instead of to seek by every means
in our power to overthrow it P And, finally, what
is more important than ail the rest, the people of
this country are well aware that our arm is not

long enough to reach the present scene of action.
There is one result from such a war that we

regard as certain—the ruin of the Ministry that
declares it and the discredit of the political party
that supports it.

HERALD.--" What shall be done with the Royal
Academy," might be the publishing title of the
report which hasjust been given in by the commis-
sioners who were appointed at the beginning of the
year "to inquire into its present position.' We
may differ still as to what we should do with the
institution, but we are left in no further doubt as to
what we are dealing with. If it was impossible
from the beginning to complain of the seiection of
the gentlemen charged with the inquiry, it is
equally impossible now to accuse them of any want
of zeal or diligence in carrying it out. A better
written report, with more carefully considered
conclusions on the data brought before them, was
not to be expected; and if they have not suggested
she true remedies " the position" which they
describe calls for, it must be admitted that the
mistake has originated in an almost inevitable
acceptance of a very current illusion as to the true
aims and uses of such institutions. They have con
sidered in detail the constitution of the Academy—
its machinery as a sehooi—its service to art in its
exhibitions—and its requirements of tocat accomo-
dation. Under each heading the Academy is found
at fault, and an accumulation of suggestions are
offered which, if adopted, would amount to a little
revolution in its working. The commissioners pro-
pose to transfer the functions of government under
a charter to a general assembly, which is to be com-
posed of some 60 academicians, lay and profession 1,
and of an equal number of associates, who are to
enjoy the power of filling up their own vacancies.
The president, who is recommended for a " very
much augmented salary," is to hold office subject
to an annual eleetion, and to be assisted by a
council of ten academicians, who are to be chosen
from that body exclusively, but to be approved by
the general assembly, and to vacate office under a
yearly system of rotation. Suggestions are added
that engravers aLd art workmen might be made
eligible on equal terms as academicians or associates.
and that a class of honorary members might be
created in favour of foreigners. The constitution
being thus remodelled, it is thus proposed that the
committees—three in number—appointed to arrange
works for the annual exhibition should be chosen
by the council and general assembly, and that the
council should alone have power to make the selec-
tion of the works. A limitation of the number of
works which academicians and associates have now
the
„.lawer of exhibiting as of right, and some sug-
gestions 419 to the immixture of sculpture, the height
at which w0,..1>s are to be hung, the mode in which
the name of the artist and subject of his work
should be made kno7no and the admission of the
public under different arraLngements, complete all that
pexhibi-
the commissioners have to ropose on the

tion, except so far as they recommend the more
spacious buildings made indispeosable by the
double needs of the Academy and NatiaZial Gallery.
With the latter advantage attained, a eosidera-
able development is recommended for the school,
which they propose to withdraw from the special
charge of the visitors and to transfer to a com-
petent Director General assisted by well-paid in-
structors. The students, it is thought, ought to
undergo test examinations on admission pay fees,
and be rewarded by travelling studentships and
admission by merit to a school, to be established on
the French model at Rome. To provide for the
extended uses thus proposed for the exhibition and
school it is thought that the rooms of the National
Gallery should be handed over to the Academy, or
that the Academy should move elsewhere, and the
whole building in Trafalgar-square, with additions,
be used for the Gallery. The proposition of the
commissioners, in short, is at once to amplify and
complicate the government of the Academy, and es-
tablish it on score such footing as that maintained
ny the College of Surgeons in reference to its ten or
twenty thousand members. Now, we will enter
into no question about the worth of the precedent,
simply because whatever that may be we fail to see
the analogy -which would justify imitation. Ttie
public asks no guarantee for the qualification of a
painter or sculptor beyond its own taste, and we can
hardly understand the principle of the interference
by which the Academy would undertake to provide
for the instruction and training of the body of
British artists unless we are to have government for
government rake. It is the distinction of the arts
that they may be learnt, but cannot be taught; and
the best uses of the Academy as an educational in-
stitution must, in our opinion, be confined to offer-
ing the means, not to be found elsewhere, by which
artists may instruct and train themselves. " Lec-
tures," "periodical examinations," " travelling
studentshipa," and salaried " residence at Rome in
an English academy of att"—are very attractive
agencies, so far as they furnish matter for an ad-
ministrative dolce far niente, and may supply food
to the ever-increasing appetite for official patron.
age ; but we deny that they are the necessities of a
prosperous art, or that they have ever tended to elicit
the higher phases of genies) in its practice. The
great want in the education of artists ever since
the Caracci school system began, has been the
inability of students to run alone, to think for
themselves, to produce the effects of nature, not
after certain artificial and misunderstood rules of
teachers, but under the guidance of experience,
assisted by the inspiration furnished by their own
use of it. To do work well we must see what we
want to do with our own eyes, not others'. There
is nothing so misleading to young art as the sup.
posed possession of the technical secrets for pro-
ducing results that belong but to its highest deve-
lopment, and academies will be found probably to
be most useful to the genius that connects itself with
them, as they happen to limit their help to letting
it freely help itself. Beyond this assistance, which I
supposes the rather large accommodations of space
and models than any very distinguished demonstra-
tion of the metaphysics of the art, the profession
has no need of assuming a corporate form,except to
make the public and artists mutually acquainted.
True art will never be wanting when it has the
fair stage with no favour that belongs to an effec-
tive exhibition. The rivalries, the petty ambitions,
the caballing intrigues, the embarrassments of ad-
' ministrative responsibility, are no elements. of a
prosperous art ; and all the good to art that has
arisen from the academical distinctions and official
advantages that belong to the present system, or
the more complicated substitute the commissioners
recommend for it, would- not outworth the loss
which would accrue by withdrawing a Reynolds, a
Gainsborough, or a Landseer a single month from
their ateliers. The true place for an artist is made
by his works, not his titles or the social position
acquired for him by his place in an academy; and
the greatest aid such institutions can offer art is to
provide it with what we have never yet had in this
country, an exhibition which fully and worthily re-
presents it. At present we show the works of
academicians and associates as a matter of right,
and of a few of their friends, as so many prizes
drawn out of a lottery; but for artists generally the
only acquaintance we give them of their exhibition
is under its annual characteristic of " a delusion,
a mockery, and a snare." It is thus that art has
no such curse as the very aid which should most
assist it. In the limitation of space and necessary
exclusion of nine-tenths of our works of merit the
unfortunate artist, who knows that the exhibition
offers his only road to fortune, paints, not as his
own taste suggests, but to suit some supposed
tastes, the committee of selection, and in proportion
as he has incurred risks and sacrifices to gain his
object, he becomes in his BUMS, but still more in
his failure, much less serviceable to a high ideal of
his art, to himself, and to society.

A SAVAGE RACEHORSE.—Bedouin, the property
of Mr. Ten Broeck, whilst being conveyed to Stam
ford, bit off the finger of the boy in charge of him, and
kicked so violently in the box as to wrench two shoes off.—
Stamlord .Mercury.
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