The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-01 00:00:00

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THE SUN,- LONDON,

evening. It has been my fortune for many years to sit
opposite, as I do this evening, to the noble lord, and I
may say with truth that I have never seen him loll:
better than he does this evening in the Royal Academy
(this allusion to the noble lord's portrait was received
with much laughter and cheering), and I think I
may be entitled to be considered a judge of the noble
lord's countenance, for I have had the opportunity of
watching him for 17 years under various circumstan-
ces. (Laughter.) I have seen him in the elation of
triumph, and I do not think that I have ever seen him
of a better figure and appearance than I see him this
evening. (Cheers and laughter.) This is a peculiarity
of this distinguished artist, whose name will go down to
posterity, although one whom he has condescended to
select for a proof of his skill may not be so fortunate.
And I may truly say with regard to the noble lord, that
I hope he may long look as well in his place in Parlia-
ment as he does upon the walls of the Royal Academy.
(Cheers.) This recalls to my attention a subject of im-
portance to which the president has adverted, and that
is, the opportunity that the noble lord and his colleagues
possess of advancing the fine arts in this country.
(Hear, hear.) I think that the expressions of sympathy
on the part of the noble lord and of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer are not phrases only to be remembered
on the anniversaries of the Royal Academy. I know,
my lords and gentlemen, that it is an easy fashion to say
that at the present period it is almost impossible either
to call public attention or to apply the public resources
for the furtherance of the interests of the fine arts, or to
support the efforts that may be made to form and refine
the public taste. But I may be permitted to say, that it
is a great fallacy to pretend, because a nation is unhappily
at war, that the arts of peace ought not to be cultivated.
(Hear, hear.) You will rather find, if you appeal to his-
tory, that it is when a nation feels and thinks the most
deeply that the arts most flourish. (Hear, hear.) It
was during the greatest struggle in which the Athenians
were ever engaged—the Peloponnessian war—that
Phidias flourished ; and we ought to feel at this moment,
that we aggravate the evils of war if, while it is our de-
termination to make 'lose efforts that are necessary to
vindicate the honour and interests of this country, we
do not also do all in our power, by our sacrifices and by
our energy, to advance the cultivation of the human
mind and the refinement of the human intellect. (Cheers.)
After all it is a marvel how little is required greatly to
assist the public taste. (Hear, hear.) We have had
many occasions to mourn over those opportunities which
we have lost from the want of a very small sum ad-
vanced by the Government to purchase works which
would have improved the public taste. I can imagine
the despair of a public servant when he sees millions
expended for the operations of war, and the arrange-
ments of a campaign, and feels that a gallery must be
sacrificed, and that the opportunity of obtaining works
of art of priceless value must be foregone when they
might be obtained at a slight expenditure compared
with the vast cost that is entailed by the policy which
we from a sense of duty pursue. (Hear.) We ought
not to toldrate the opinion that it is necessary to press
those opportunities which may present themselves of ad-
vancing the public taste, and we ought, on one day in
the year at least, to look forward to the time when it
shall be considered the duty of a statesman to serve his
country and to advance the arts. (Loud cheers.)
The PRESIDENT, in proposing " Prosperity to the
city of London and and the Health of the Lord Mayor,"
said that the lovers of the fine arts were not without
hopes that the prosperity of the city of London would
in time be found to be not incompatible with the external
beauty of the metropolis. We were already witnessing
the lessening effects of one defacing agent—the smoke
furnaces ; and for the removal or diminution of that evil
we were indebted to the exertions of the noble lord the
Secretary of State for the Home Department. (Cheers.)
All must be desirous, when our public buildings were
improved in consequence, that those buildings should
be better displayed. A noble opportunity now presented
itself for the corporation to improve the approaches to
the most remarkable of our public buildings by opening
a free space on the north-east side of S . Paul's—(cheers)
—with perhaps a statute of men in the centre. He be-
lieved that representations had been made to the corpo-
ration on the subject from the Institute of British Archi-
tects. (Hear.) On the part of all who wished that
justice should be done to the good architecture we pos-
sessed, he took this opportunity of soliciting his lordship
to lend his powerful aid in promoting this desirable ob-
ject. (Hear, hear.)
The LORD MAYOR said he would promise to do his
utmost to impress the corporation of the City with the
views just expressed by the president. (Cheers.)
The PRESIDENT—I have alluded to the obligations that
the friends of art are under to the noble lord the Secre-
tar

.v of State for the Home Department, for the intro-
luction of a law relative to the consumption of smoke,
md I feel that, on the part of the representatives of
irt, it would be an unpardonable omission to neglect
this opportunity of thanking his lordship for what may
be regarded as a boon to architecture and sculpture.
Cheers.) It will be agreeable this time to confine our
Lttention to such subjects, without talking of the pos.
sibility or impossibility of preventing the smoke of con-
'ending armies. I give you "The health of Lord Pal-
merston."

Lord PALMERSTON, whose rising was greeted with
protracted cheering, said—Mr. President, my Lords,
and Gentlemen, it could hardly be expected, at a mo-
ment when so dark a cloud was lowering over the face
of Europe, that the unwholesome cloud that has lowered
over the surface of London should have attracted the
notice that you have given to the subject. Bat in such
an assembly as this, in which I see collected some of
the most eminent artists in Europe, it is natural that
you should draw attention to a circumstance deeply
affecting the works of their genius. Mr. President,
that which the Government of which I have the honour
to be a member accomplished last year was merely alter-
ing the manner of doing a thing. The consumption of
smoke was no novelty—it had been going on for ages—
but the consumption of smoke had been going on in our
lungs instead of in our chimneys. (Laughter and
cheers.) That which we proposed, and which parliament
agreed to, was only this, that the smoke should
vanish in our chimneys instead of blacking our insides.
(Continued laughter.) It had long been a subject of
great grief to those who visited London to think that
from that vast volume of carbon which was perpetually
floating over our heads, all the finest works of ancient
art, and the productions of modern genius, whether of
our painters, our sculptors, or our achitects, were doomed
to receive accumulation, hiding their merits and defacing
their beauties. (Cheers.) If we could at any time re-
joice at the prospect of the removal of this inconvenience
it is now, when we see around us so many beautiful
productions of modern genius, and feel what a calamity
it would be if in the course of a short period all the
lights of the pictures we see before us were destined to
become shadows, and all the shadows black darkness ;
and if their beauties were hid from view by a daily de-
posit of these abominable blacks which used to greet us
when we put our heads out of the window. I thank
you for adverting to the slight service I may have been
able to render to works of art, and I hope the bill of
last session may be considered as having contributed in
some small measure to the preservation of works of art
arid genius. (Cheers.)
The PRESIDENT then gave " The health of Viscount
Mahon and the authors of his country," from whose in-
spirations and instructions the professors of the fine arts
had derived so much advantage.
Viscount MAHON, in acknewledging the toast, ad-
verted to knowledge which historians in turn derived
from the labours of painters and sculptors.
The PRESIDENT gave "The health of the President
of the Board of Trade, in connexion with the Schools of
Design and the Department of Practical Art at Marl-
borough-house."
Mr. CARDWELL returned thanks, briefly alluding to
the advances made in the arts by British manufacturers,
and pointing out the benefit likely thereby to be con-
ferred upon the commerce of the country.
The PRESIDENT then gave "Success to the Crystal
Palace at Sydenham," which, contained, he said, a
complete collection of works of ancient and modern art
—antique, mediaeval, and modern, and examples of
architecture so arranged as to give a complete impres-
sion of the character of the original monuments.
The PRESIDENT next gave the concluding toast, the
" Possessors of works of art who occasionally open their
galleries and collections to the public, and who occa-
sionally send specimens of their works to the British
Institution." (Cheers.)
The president left the chair shortly after 10 o'clock,
and, after a brief glance round the saloons, which were
like the east-room, brilliantly lighted up for the occa-
sion, the guests dispersed.