The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-29 00:00:00

1111 F. SUN,

manner, after Hilton's picture, " The Crucifixion," now
in the poses ion of the Carp' ration of Liverpool.
A statement of the engraving account, still open, will
be printed with this report.
The c •uncil alluded in the last report to their in-
tention of producing some work of acknowleged excel-
lence in cast-iron, with the view of turther promoting
the connexion between manufactures and art. In ae-
et,rdance with this desire they commission,d Mr. Nixon,
sculptor, to make a reduced model of a figure of'- Tha
lid," in the gallery of antiquitLes at the Britian Museum,
which has been ably done, and is now ready for casting
The right to thirty copies of it will be allotted to-day.
Since the last meeting, the council have been de-
prived by death of the valued assistance of Mr. Mo-
rant, one of the earliest members of the Society. Sir
John Jervis, M.P., her Majesty's Attorney-General, has
been elected to fill the vacancy thus created.
Under a bye-law in a code recently made for the re-
gulation of the society, as required by the Charter, four
vacancies in the council will be declared annually, and
four new members elected to fill them.

The reserved fund now amounts to the sum of 2,1951.
16s. 4d. With the view of increasing this fund more
rapidly, for the purpose of obtaining a gallery and as-
misting in carrying out efficiently the great objects of the
society, it is proposed that a reserve of 2,i per cent. of
the amount of each annual subscription (or 61. in the
pound), shall be made.

. -
The council consir this fund to be of the greatest
importance to the permanent prosperity of the associa-
tion, and they invite all who think with them, and are
members of the association on other than selfish motives,
to pay their subscriptions early in the year, by which
means a censiderable addition in the shape of interest
would be made to it annually, without any personal
sacrifice.

With this same end in view, and at the suggestion ot
subscribers who objected to the trouble ot an annual
payment, it is proposed to receive subscriptions in
advance; and it is resolved that " each member who
pays for ten or more years, shall receive one of the
society's medals in silver, at the time of payment, in
addition to the advantage to which he may be annually
entitled." In the event of the death of a member so
subscribing, the amount will merge in the funds of the
society.
The following is a statement of the receipts and dis-
bursements:—

The cost of obtaining the charter was 4071. 175., but
as this is an expenditure made for the advantage of
future, as well as present members, the council propose
to charge the present year's subscription with a portion
of it only, and to charge the four succeeding years in
like manner.

X s. d.
Expenses as per general account 2,491 1 7
Two•and-a-Half per Cent. carried to
446 13 6
Reserved Fund
Sum allotted for statuettes in bronze,
porcelaine, east-iron, and plaster, also 1,090 0 0
medals and lithographs
Estimated amount for engraving, paper,
1,813 2 11
&c., of prints
Ditto, ditto, otitlines 1,300 0 0
Set apart for expenditure by prizeholders 10,730 0 0

17,871 0 0
The accounts have been examined and found correct
by three members of the Finance Committee, and by
two gentlemen from the body of subscribers, Niz ,
James Stewart, Esq., one of the Secretaries of the Bank
of England, and J. Smith, Esq., of the Consul's•office, to
whom the thanks of the council are duo.

The amount set apart, according to this statement, for
the purchase of works of art, viz., 10,7301., will be thus
allotted :

300
600
720
...... 900
840
1,120
1,000
900

30 works at 10
40 works at 15
36 works at 20
36 works at 25
28 works at 30
28 works at 40
20 works at 50
15 works at 60

12 works at 70
12 works at 80

6 works at 100
5 works at 150
3 works at 200
2 works at 300

840
960

600
750
600
600

273 10,730
To these are to be added twenty bronzes of " Iris
Ascending," fifty statuettes of " Innocence," thirty
casts in iron of "Thalia," and 273 lithographs of "La
Fleur's Departure," and thirty silver medals commemo-
rative of Flaxman.
Mr. Marshall's group " The First Whisper of Love,"
commissioned by the council for a prizeholder of 1845,
having proved very satisfactory, the council thought it
desirable to prepare thirty casts of it in plaster, and
these will also be included in the distribution to-day,
making in the whole 706 works of art. The total sum
thus appropriated, including the cost of outlines and
engravings, is 14,9331. 2s. 11d.
To shorten the time occupied in the distribution, a
similar course to that adopted last year is proposed.
The bronzes will be allotted to the first twenty names
drawn consecutively at the close of the general distribu-
tion ; the casts of " The First Whisper of Love" will
be allotted to the next thirty names, similarly drawn,
the casts in iron of " Thalia," to the next thirty names
4milarly drawn ; the statuettes of " Innocence" to th.
next fifty names ; the medals to the following thirty ;
and each subscriber whose name is found to stand in the
subscription-list next after each of the ptizeholders in
the general distrit.ution, will be entitled to receive a
lithograph. Notice of the latter will be sent in the
course of two days. The other prizeholders will receive
intimation of the result by to-night's post.
The desire felt by the council to have such a selection
made by the prizeholders as may confer credit on the
association, and aid in properly carrying out its real
purpose, has been constantly expressed by them. Now,
however, and always they would repeat it, urging prize-
holders to consider the Art-Union an instrument fur the
encouragement and diffusion of art, and not a company
for securing personal advantages to the subscribers.
The Council invite them most seriously to consider well
before making their selection, and in the event of a want
of an acquaintance with art, to seek the assistance of
qualified friends.

The desirability of confining the right of selection to
the Council has recently been mooted. Your Council
would greatly deplore such a change, and, furthermore,
would consider it their duty to oppose it by every means
in their power, as being calculated not merely
to lessen the good effects of the Association, but
ultimately to destroy it altogether, and to do
great injury to art and artists. The council are con-
firmed by experience in the opinion already expressed by
them on other occasions, that by placing the selection in
the hands of the prizeholders themselves, much good is
done. Great additional interest in the subject is excited,
personal inquiry and examination are induced, compari-
son between works is instituted, and knowledge ob
tabled. In this way, too, all classes of art-works find a
market; whereas were the selections all made by the
same five or six individuals, a bias would exist even with
the best intentions towards works of some particular
character and style, to say nothing of the possibility of
personal favouritism, and thus injury would be done to
other classes of art. It should be remembered, too, in
discussing this question fully, which cannot be attempted
here, under the present arrangements a large sum is an-
nually added by the prizeholders to the amount expended
by the Art-Union on works of art, which could not be
the case if the pictures were selected by a committee.
Moreover, alloeving the prizeholders to select is so much
more popular than the contrary course would be, that
the change could not fail to lessen the number of sub-
scribers most materially, thus interfering with one great
object of the society, that of interesting the masses in
matters of art, and affording them the means of enjoying
them.

To familiarise the people at large with the best pro-
ductions of art is the first step towards ensuring such a
progress in the arts as may be called national. Until
now, large numbers of even the educated public have
been ignorant of the best characteristics of art, and un-
able fully to enjoy the intellectual pleasures it offers.
When a people sympathise in art, find enjoyment in it,
and feel it to be an indispensable need, they will become
their own educators ; but not till then, and then
only, may artists be expected to achieve great things.
" he arts," as a recent American writer remarks,
"are no luxury, no mere ornament and stimulus to a
civic and complicated existence, as the worldling and the
ascetic alike delight in representing them to be, but the
herbarium in which are preserved the fairest flowers of
man's existence ; the magic mirror, by whose aid all its
phases are interpreted, the circle into which the various
spirits of the elements may be invoked, and made to
reveal the secret they elsewhere manifest only in large
revolutions of time ; and what philosophy with careful
steps and anxious ear has long sought in vain, is often-
times revealed at once by a flash from this torch."
A true education in art has been defined to consist in
a lively susceptibility of the emotion of beauty, and in a
fixed determination of the principle of taste towards that
which is beautiful, analogous to that of the reason to-
wards truth and reality,—rather than in acquaintance
with works of art, or even accurate perception of the
beauties of any particular work.
The perception of truth, and harmony, and beauty,
where obscure and disguised, is one of the distinctions of
genius. To make these visible to all is one of its
powers.
Art should form a part of general education, and will
do so, it may be hoped, before long. It may be made
to assist in education most materially. If, as desired by
the ancients, none but beautiful forms were permitted in
the assemblies of the young ; if noble and holy actions
gracefully set forth everywhere met the eye ; and our
rooms were hung with fine thoughts instead of unmean-
Ing, patterns—the effect on the national mind would be
mach greater than would be believed by those who have
eares"—furnis'hing
notAfrutlly considered the subject.
which we are taus objects,
shows us man as he can by no other means be
'nude known • art gives uxsal‘t‘
exalted—and
"nobler lgoov casre and
ultimately
t mn
ao
tbel
leyr
objccts, by the contemplation of
ed to seek Beauty in its highest form, which is—
YourseCouncil
s ate their report by again urging
raez
taeormtionat
G the ° pd
as to furnish an additionxal
letse their right of selection,
views on this subjec.. argument in support of their'.
GEORGE GoDWIN,
LEWIS PocOcK

lon,

has neen
Intelligence • ecetved of the deatjhoinatt.
Graefenberg, of Mr. Thomas Joplin, the founder
stock banking, and who has for many years ul7elledr of
a promi-
❑ent position in the banking and mercantile world.
gone to Graefenberg to try the effect of the celeberahted'
had
water cure, but bad for some months before his death re
Paquished it.
Sir Robert Peel has kindly consented to take the
chair at the celebration of the anniversary of the King's
CA,llege Hospital, at the Albion Tayern, on the 9th of June.