not inclined to grudge it that proportion of the volume which it occupies. The reader's patience is indeed somewhat tried by the prolix and not very novel remarks with which he is favoured, upon the feelings and views which accompany an adventure into the fields of literature. But after the author has sufficiently evinced his respect for the public, by a profusion of bows and apologies on his first introduction to their presence, he gradually acquires courage to enter upon the object of his visit. This preparatory talk occupies about ten pages of the preface, at the end of which he discovers it to be full time to request our attention to his business. Mr Shee is a respectable portrait-painter in London. The laudable design for which, in the present instance, he has laid aside his pencil for the pen, is to intreat, for the arts in his native country, that encouragement and support, on which they must, in every situation, so essentially depend. The author, indeed, sets out with the professed intention of illustrating the principles of his art. But we agree with himself in thinking this the least interesting part of the work, which certainly derives its chief importance from the tendency it may have to bring into serious consideration the most eligible public measures for cultivating the genius and exciting the exertions of British artists. The perfection to which the arts were carried in those few and memorable periods when they were regarded as high and important objects of public support, and particularly under the liberal and magnificent patronage of the Medici family-the numbers who then attained an eminence, to whom their successors have since looked up with a veneration approaching to despair, seems a warrantable ground for us to hope that, under circumstances equally propitious, we might be again enabled to boast of such artists. The history of the arts affords, indeed, some solitary instances of eminent skill acquired in situations the most unfavourable to their cultivation; but this, so far from weakening the argument for liberal encouragement from men of taste and influence, only proves that abilities and perseverance are possessed by some individuals in degrees far beyond what fall to the lot of men in general; and' leads us to regret that genius, which, under disadvantages so great, could maintain its activity and fire, had not been supported by the vital influence of that generous patronage which would have raised it to still greater splendour. The place of public patronage, we are perfectly satisfied, can never be supplied with good effect, even to a single artist, by any support which it is in the power of an individual to bestow. To the favour of a single individual, the mind attaches certain unavoidable feelings of dependence, extremely unfavourable to the growth of those elegant mental qua lities lities which go to the formation of real genius. By affording, as is often the case, an exclusive encouragement to particular branches and departments of the arts, individual patronage may also do the most lasting injury to genius. From such causes, how often has it been diverted from its natural channel into one less favourable to its particular bent! a misfortune, against which the unrestrained choice afforded by public patronage would have been a security. Little advantage, therefore, is to be expected from the zeal or munificence of a few individuals, unless their exertions be seconded by a favourable disposition of the public mind; nor can we hesitate to affirm with Barry, that even the splendid and distinguishing patronage of Cosmo and Lorenzo di Medici would have been inadequate to have produced such artists as adorned Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, had there not existed, at the same period, a general diffusion of taste in that country, and a marked disposition to view both the artist and his work with that cordial esteem and enlightened admiration, which afford the highest stimulus to further improvement. Where this disposition is wanting, the arts cannot but languish and degenerate. From our entire conviction, indeed, that the highest influence exerted in their behalf must in a great measure be ineffectual, where the arts do not receive from the public a similar cordiality of reception, or where the general taste has taken a vulgar and contracted direction, we have our fears if any pecuniary provision which the British Government could devise, would certainly be followed by, those happy effects which Mr Shee appears to anticipate as their undoubted result. The most important requisite toward the accomplishment of this desirable object, would be still in a great measure wanting. The taste of the nation cannot be suddenly created or reformed by any local establishment whatever. But though we are not quite so sanguine as Mr Shee, as to the immediate effects of such an establishment as he seems to look forward to, we would not be understood as insinuating that the consequences which might be expected to flow from it, are too inconsiderable to render the experiment worthy of trial. If any such experiment shall be judged proper, we trust it will be readily felt and acknowledged, that the probability of a satisfactory issue is diminished or increased in proportion to the liberality and extent of the scale on which it may be conducted. A national gallery for the reception of pictures, to illustrate the exploits of British heroism, was a proposal, if we mistake not, first made by Mr Opie. This plan, more than any other of the kind we have heard of, seems worthy the attention of government, as it would serve the double purpose of rewarding and encouraging the exertions of two classes in society, 04 ciety, on whose celebrity that of their country has no small dependence. Mr Shee remonstrates, and we fear with too much reason, against that illiberality which has for years past characterized the mode of conducting the Royal Academy. This establishment-which ought to be national and comprehenfive; which fhould include within its walls every thing that is effential, expedient, or inviting to the progrefs of the ftudent; which fhould reft on a foundation worthy of the firft, the richest, the most powerful, the moft generous people on earth; and which, by foreigners, is fuppofed. to be a fplendid example of public magnificence-derives its income from the difinterested labours of artists; poffeffes not a fingle original example of the old mafters; and, excepting the advantage of apartments at Somerfet Place, has not for many years received the smallest affiftance from the ftate. ' P. 47. Such is the unpromising condition of an institution which inspired its first president, and brightest ornament, with the hope that the present age might vie in arts with that of Leo the Tenth, and that the dignity of the dyeing art might be revived under the reign of George the Third.' Whether the effects of the British institution will better correspond to the hopes it has already excited, the issue will evince, Our information as to the precise nature of this institution, is not sufficiently explicit to enable us to form any opinion of its merits. We can only state, that Mr Shee is not singular in the conviction, that every thing liberal and munificent is intended,' and in the hope that every thing wise and efficacious will be the result.' The establishment of this institution, it appears, took place in the interval between the publication of the first and the second edition of the work before us. The event certainly operates as no small relief to the spirits of the author. They before laboured under a depression which rendered him apparently partial to the contemplation of evils which generally meet our view, in full length portraits at least as large as life. All Every perfon,' fays he, interefted for the fine arts, or concerned for the reputation of his country, muft perceive, with more than regret, at the prefent moment, a growing difregard to the fate of the one, which cannot fail materially to affect the fplendour of the other. patriotic intereft in the cultivation of Britifh genius appears to be at an end; thofe who should be the patrons of artists have ceafed to be even their employers;cedant arma toga ;-the painter gives way to the picture-dealer; they who poffefs tafte are indifferent; and they who pretend to it are hoftile. Pref. p. x. This tone is discoverable through the whole performance, except in a few of the passages which are added in this edition, in which we find this dark and melancholy scene beginning to brighten. < brighten. He now tells us, that liberal ideas are abroad,' and that the seeds of protection are sown in a congenial soil.' It is the institution to which we before alluded that has effected so great a change in our author's views. That this change in his colouring is warranted by the cause, we do not pretend to ques tion; but we doubt if the dark side of the picture be so true a representation of the reality. Though we readily agree that the encouragement given to the arts in this country has hitherto been less than their wellwishers must have desired, yet the neglect has not, of late, been so very great as to threaten their sinking under difficulties which neither zeal, industry, nor genius, can withstand.' (p. xix. Pref.) If this were the case, how comes it that the author has no hesitation to assert that, from the productions of living genius at this moment in Great Britain, might be produced examples of excellence, in every department of the art, that would adorn the noblest collections, and reflect honour on any age or nation?' (p. xxxiv. Pref.) Amongst the causes which have contributed to retard the improvement of our national taste, and of consequence the progress of the arts, the author justly lays much stress on the want of pictures in our public buildings, and particularly on the ecclesiastical law which has expelled them out of our churches. No patriot acts adorn our public halls ; It is obvious, indeed, that, without a more easy and frequent access to good pictures, the possession of true taste and enlight ened relish for the art, is as little to be expected in the nation at large, as a knowledge of refined architecture in him who has rarely seen a higher specimen than his employer's cotton-mill: not that the nation cannot boast of none who have successfully cultivated a taste for this art, but that the difficulties which obstruct the access to it are such as to confine the circle to those who have better opportunities, or more zeal than men in general possess, though, in all other respects, sufficiently qualified for the attainment. It is thus that, instead of competent judges, whose opinions would be invaluable, the artist has so frequently to en counter the petulance which accompanies a little learning. Whatever ground there might once have been to authorise our reformers to interdict, in our churches, those elegant and interesting ornaments which the arts supply, we cannot but suppose with our author, though we do not here intend to discuss the merits of the question, that, at the present day, there are as strong arguments to be produced to refute the propriety of this law, as could be urged in its defence, We We cannot conceive any more promising public measure than an alteration in this respect, for effecting a favourable change in the aspect of the arts-a measure which, while it would afford an ample field for the emulation of such as have successfully devoted their labour to the cultivation of them, would, at the same time, furnish a school for the student, and an infallible source of improvement to the public taste. Another circumstance operating in hostility to the British arts, and on which the author lays great stress, is the blind avidity manifested for pictures, good or bad, which bear the names of the old masters. How often are the observations expressed in the following quotation from a note (p, 76.) exemplified in the conduct of many who are looked up to as the connoisseurs of the age. The name of a great master is a paffport through all the outports of criticifm; Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Correggio-are founds with which all the beauties of the art are affociated. The queftion is not fo much the excellence, as the authenticity of the work; the latter established, the former follows of course; and the contented enthusiastic forgets, in the fervour of his zeal, that the greatest genius proceeds at first in ignorance, and rises late from mediocrity; forgets that the accom plished mafter he admires was once an unfkilful fcholar; and often beftows, on the abortive efforts of his inexperience, that applaufe which fhould be referved for the best productions of his maturity.' It cannot be denied, that by this unenlightened admiration, much of the wealth of individuals, disposeable for the objects of virtù, is directed into channels from which the native arts cannot derive much advantage. The gains of the artist must suffer a temporary abridgement; but the arts themselves may, in the end, suffer less than our author apprehends, if, by the late inundation of foreign pictures, we gain among the rubbish any considerable addition to our national stock of such specimens as can with justice be denominated the best which genius can boast. ' (Pref. p. xviii.) Connected with this indiscriminate rage for the works of the old master, is the neglect which living merit frequently suffers. This neglect Mr Shee particularly instances in the striking case of Richard Wilson, whom he calls the most accomplished landscapepainter this country ever produced. Part I. 1. 115. ---Kind too late, Relenting fortune weeps o'er Wilfon's fate; Remorfeful owns her blindness; and to fame Configns with forrow his illuftrious name. He again recurs to this subject, (Part I. I. 299.), and offers a caution to the candidates for graphic fame, which, if well founded to its full extent, would be a truly mortifying picture, both of the discernment and liberality of this nation, Nor |