New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-06-14

.,-ed on Tuesday statement in tone Of
app % the effect that these honors
,onaned within certain limits which can
sun oxcaeded unless by special order Of the
no IN Council Each service, naval and
-, has an apportiorment. and no fresh
,,rents can be made except upon vacancies
"rr .,ere comes fresh writer. also speaking in
- ~ authority though with the note of in
a,ior He wants to know where the rule
~. Ia found strictly confirming the apporton-
=, - the Star Of India. of ST. Michael and St
~. and other eminent and distinguished
,ors He asks why II Is that the Grand
C,-osses and Commandershps which used TO APP
nsa- in the Navy List have disappeared, and an
s,roost exactly equal number are now TO be found
to the Army List. He wishes 10 be told, sup
n,s,ng these decorations are distributed in pro-
nortjon TO the numerical strength Of the services
ube;her there are eight times as many officers In
tho ROYAL Artillery. and five times as many Off
GERS in the Royal Engineers as there are in the
whole British Navy.
Pregnant questions these. They have elic-
tAi answers which iii a column and
half Of The Times" and are highly tech
r;cal. but not perhaps entirely satisfactory to
those naval officers who think they ought TO
have had a share in the good things going on
Her Matesty's Birthday, but had none. one Of
tha answers and the one which covers neat
ground is curious Seniority, it appears. and
M, merit is still the controlling consideration
II YOU give a x. c. b. t. a Junior officer
stigma is placed against the name of every Flag
officer who is his senior. But If age be the only
main qualification. what is the real value Of these
distinctions?
Mr. Valentine Prinsep's election to the Royal
Academy once more Eliminates the extraordinary
interior Of Burlington House and the extraor-
binary notions Of duty which prevail with the
majority Of Academicians. Again ii is seen that
II is not 50 much Academy a Club, and
that questions of membership are often deter
mined more by personal reasons than by those
which have relation to art Mr.. Prinsep is a
good fellow and a bad painter. There you have
the whole story. nearly the whole. If he were
a good painter and not a good fellow-nOt CLUB
bable," as they say here-he might have waited
I'll the end Of all things Il is possible he might
have waited longer than he has were he not the
near friend Of the President of the Royal Acad-
emy Sir Frederic Leighton. There are. in the
minds Of some other considerations. l should
not venture to refer to them unless they were al
ready in English print in paper which really
aims at respectabty. That paper says
Mr. Prinsep has many qualifications which are
not unimportant from the point Of view Of social
decoration He Is a giVer Of excellent dinners,
and a very easy and genial speaker after them.
Everybody likes him personally and he lives
In a big house in considerable style.
Elsewhere we are tod that Mr.. Prinsep mar
ried the daughter of a Liverpool millionaire; as
II to account for the giving OF excellent dinners.
And more plainly still: The fact that he came
into some of the Leyland millions through his
wife some two or three years ago in no wise
.t,..s
this degree of plain-speaking has the respectable
British journalist at last arrived. II might have
been better had he halted midway on his down
ward journey. But imagine that the strength
Of the feeling against the ways and practices OF
the Academy accounts for this explanatory out
burst.
The chief rival TO Mr. Prnsep was Mr.. Water
house He was the candidate whom Academi-
clans faithful to art for arts sake preferred.
There were twen;y-three Of them but Of those
whose fidelity to art expressed itself in votes
for the giver Of good dinners and the friend Of
the President there were thirty-one. Mr.. Water
house is a painter who. Of late years. has chaI-
enged public attention by some work which, rela-
lively TO the mass of pictures yearly turned out,
must be called fine. He has at any rate theory
Of art and some knowledge of art, ana does
honestly try to do what he thinks ought to be
but a short time; he has no particular renown
for hospitality he lacked the patronage Of Sir
Frederic Leighton; he is simply painter VINO
can paint; and for all these reasons has t. give
way to a painter who perhaps can paint but
does not. Mr. Valentine Prinsep has been fifteen
years in the outer precincts. but at last the
gates Of this Academical paradise open wide
before him. Whether the occasion be II him one
Of unmixed qualification may be doubted For
the press usually reserved where personal in
terests are concerned speaks out; or a portion
Of It does. Mr.. Prinsep is not denounced or at
tackled, but in the comments on his election ana
on his claims as an artist there is note OF cool
contemptuousness which cannot be agreeable TO
his ear His art never did harm to anybody. says
one critic 1t has been the innocent recreation Oh
blameless life But dare say Mr.. Prinsep ana
his friends set all shis down to envy. He and
they have carried their point. and can perhaps
afford TO smile at criticism; which, Indeed Il
Aaa1a