The Warwickshire Herald. — 1887-05-05 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

ROYAL ACADEMY BANQUET.  SPEECH BY LORD SALISBURY.  ON Saturday evening the annual banquet given by the President and member of the Royal Academy WAR held at Burlington House. The President proposed "The Health of the Queen," and afterwards that of "The Prince and Princess of Wales and the other Members of the Royal Family."  _ . His Royal Highness, in responding, referred to the Imperial Institute, which he trusted might prove a lasting memorial of the Queen's Jubilee. He added his congratulations on the character of this year's .Exhibition. . . _  Acknowledging the toast of "The Army and Navy," the Duke of Cambridge said an attempt was now being made to consolidate the Empire, by linking more closely together the Colonies and the Mother Country, and observed that this object could not be better attained than by effecting the unity of Imperial services for the good of all.  , 'the President next proposed "Her Majesty's tlinistirs."  The Marquis of Salisbury said: I appear before you, no doubt, in the light of the repre,entative of a power that owes an apology to art, instead of one that can claim much share in its advancing glorie. In this country, less than in any other country in the world, the State has fostered the art of painting, and yet in this country, during the la 4 fifty years, painting has made greater advances than it has made in any other part of the world. The sister arts of sculpture and architecture are not precisely in the same position. (Laughter). Tbe State has been a patron of sculpture and architecture. it has built sundry buildings, and erected various statues, and I am not sure, when we consider what the fate of statuary and architecture has been at the hands of the State, that we ought not to congratulate you upon the fact that you have been in a great measure exempt from the patronage. (Laughter.) There is another ground upon which we must dceply congratulate English art, and that is upon the oro,,!ress which it has made, in spite of singular difficulties. It is not only the difficulty, which is shared by all the world, that we live in an unromantic and unpoetic age, out of which inspiration is with difficulty drawn, but there are material evidences around us that seem fatal to many of the true functions of the painter. We live under a leaden sky, as all who had the pleasure of pas-sing the winter in London can testify. It is true that I see brilliant blue skies before me in your pictures, but they only reflect credit upon the invention of the painters. We have seen nothing of the kind for six months. (Laughter.) , Then, consider the costume of the period. Dresses seem to have been selected by the existing English generation with a spccial desire to flout and glibe at and repudiate all possibility of compliance with and sense of beauty, lam taxing I my memory, but I cannot remember any sculptor who has been bold enough to give a life statue of any English notability in the evening dress of the period. (Laughter.) I am quite sure that if that man exists he must be strongly tempted to commit suicide the moment his work appears. (Laughter.) You have been kind enough to drink the health of Her Majesty's Ministers. The health of those Ministers who sit in the House of Lords, I am happy to tell you, has not b3en subjected to any detrimental influence. (Laughter.) Sufficient and useful labour, not trenching on the exigencies of nutrition—(laiighter)—has kept them all in a moderate and reasonakile state of health. I wish I could say the same o! the other House of Parliament. (Laughter.) We have recently completed our representative machine. We have made it as simple as possible, and we have broalened the pedestal on which it stands. We are now proudly and anxiously wa.ching the excellence with which it performs the duties which are assigned to it. (Laughter.) Of course, different estimates of the nature of that excellence would be formed. It is being anxiously watched by foreigners. One of the most eloquent observations ever made on this assembly by an eminent man was that England would save herself by her energy and save Europe by her example. I have no doubt that the admirers of representative institutions are fully convinced that we are now saving Europe by our example in that respect. (Lan2later.) Of course it is easy to mistake the functions of those institutions, and not to see the excellence of the wink they are doing. (Laughter.) If you imagine that their function is to give effect to the will of the majority, it is obvious you are mistaken. Again, if you imagine that it is their function to add much legislation to the statute book, it is obvious again, that you are entirely mistaken. (Laughter.) They are really meant for testing some of the highest qualities of man. They are meant for te-ting physical strength, endurance, and patience. (Laughter.) They constitute a great struggle between those who are able to talk and those who are able to endure— (laughter)—and those will win who can sit the longest, listening to the dreary drip of dilatory declamation, and can see beyond the exhausting labours to which they are called the victory which lies perhaps somewhat in the future. (Laughter and cheers.) Professor Huxley responded for " Science," and Sir George Trevelyan for "Literature."