40 FINE ARTS. 



of sentiment may be carried too far, and that to shake hands with 

 anti-national prejudices, to echo the hue-and-cry of the envious, to 

 join in the sneer and to disseminate the calumny or misconception 

 of the narrow-minded defamers of Britain, is to purchase the name 

 of" a liberal" and " a philosopher' somewhat too dearly. Ad ogni 

 uccello, sua nido e hello, or rather ought to be j a leaning towards 

 our hearth, our home and our country, is honorable to all, — the 

 source of virtue private and public — the stay and security of a 

 kingdom. And so, gentle Reader, we in our critical capacity will 

 always endeavour to sustain the honor of Old England by demon- 

 strating her excellence in the arts of design, and this we can do 

 openly and candidly without tarnishing the merits of her competi- 

 tors, or offering up truth as a sacrifice to zeal. We would, how- 

 ever, be distinctly understood as intending to discharge the duties 

 of our office with even-handed justice, praising and censuring not 

 according to our partiality or pique, but according to the best of 

 our judgment dispassionately and truly j and " having conscience 

 and tender heart," we doubt not "to do our spiriting gently." 

 With these preliminary remarks we shall close the page of profes- 

 sion, choosing rather to be estimated by our fulfilment than our 

 pledge; for it is in truth so easy — so alluring — so very very 

 agreeable to dwell upon the fair things we mean to do, that one of 

 tolerable fancy and fluency may write himself up to the seventh 

 heaven, before he has exhausted his foolscap, or new-nibbed his 

 pen. 



EXHIBITIONS, &c. 



Exhibition of Modem Works of Art, AthencBum, Foregate-streef, Worcester, 

 MDCCCXXXIV. The first. 



We hail this exhibition as a gratifying proof that at a period when a 

 passion for the arts as well as sciences, is gradually awaking all over the 

 empire, when city after city, and town after town are rising into eminence 

 and taking their station among the enlightened and refined, Worcester 

 is not less susceptible of the glorious rivalry, nor Jess adequate to the 

 task of appearing with honor in the lists. The members of the Worcester 

 Literary and Scientific Institution have established a claim to public 

 acknowledgment in projecting and getting up this display of modern art. 

 A great sensation had been created by the announcement of their wise 

 and liberal intention, and many of our most distinguished metropolitan 

 artists, together with several local painters of brilliant acquirement, 

 seconded the object of the Institution by forwarding selections from their 

 works ; added to this the surrounding nobility and gentry, anxious to 

 assist the effort, with equal promptitude transmitted choice specimens 

 from their galleries and cabinets. The array consequently was strong, 

 and the vein rich in quahty : by Monday, the 2nd of June, the arrange- 

 ments were completed, and the room was opened to the public. As the 

 pictures have been now some time on view, and have been amply criticised 

 in the Worcester papers, to enter into descriptive details would be super- 

 fluous ; the pleasure of dwelling minutely upon the excellence of the 

 AthencBum Exhibition must be reserved for the next annual display. At 



