£08 7% 
standing. the dissipation of the town, 
where thousands and tens of thousands 
are daily squandered with the most sense- 
less prodigality, in every mode the most 
trifling, contemptible, and _ ridiculous 
possible ; yet, in respect to the arts (ex- 
cept in the branch of portrait painting, 
which has been enccuraged to an excess, 
that has been laughed at by all other na- 
tions) the public liberality has yet only 
been seen to extend, to sometimes a tole-. 
rable subscription to a print, or to the 
giving a few shillings, frequently with 
grumbling, at the door of an exhibition ; 
a foundation certainly too weak to sustain 
any edifice, creditable to. the national 
taste or national genius. 
The justice of what has been advanc- 
ed, of the promising excellence of the 
English school, will be abundantly evi- 
dent, on visiting the galleries lately 
formed. for the magnificent publications 
of the Bible, Shakspeare, and the His- 
tory of England; where the meanest in- 
telleét, capable of making a comparison, 
cannot avoid seeing, that there is more 
originality of thought, more variety in 
the modes of composition, and more dif- 
férence of style in execution, than can 
be found among the works of an equal 
number of artists, of any one age or 
country, those of Italy excepted. To the 
Italians, all nations must allow the supe- 
riority, in respeét to variety, as well as 
grandeur of style; which is, perhaps, 
to be attributed more to the superior. 
taste of their age and country at large, 
than to superior genius in the artists. 
This truth seems to be admitted by al- 
most all the writers on the art, by the 
high praises universally bestowed on Al- 
bért Durer, Hans Holbein, and others, 
and the regret that has been expressed, at 
their not having been born and bred in 
Italy. ; 
Although the national liberality, how- 
ever grandly and usefully exerted, in sub- 
sidizing half Europe, cannot, in regard 
to the arts, be much commended; the 
Jiberality of the English artists, as it is 
unexampled, must not pass unnoticed nor 
unpraised : not to mention the noble offer 
made by them, some years since, of em- 
bellishing St. Paul’s church with paint- 
ings, at their own expence, which, but 
for the cavils of a despicable and ignorant 
fanaticism, would have been carried into 
immediate execution, and, ere this time, 
have formed an ornament worthy of that 
noble struétures they have devoted the 
‘profits of that part of the abovemention- 
ed puny encouragement, raised by the 
State of the Arts and. Public Tafte. 
[March 
exhibitions of their works for the last 
twenty-five years, to the maintenance 
of that grand freeschool of design, insti- 
tuted by them, the Royal Academy ; and 
disbursed the whole, except a few tri- 
fling charities to decayed artists’ families, 
denominated Royal bounties, in very eco- 
nomucally paying instructors in all the dif- 
ferent branches of the art, establishing a 
fund to answer future exigencies, and in 
forming. a magazine of casts from the 
antique, books, prints, and drawings 
(piétures of the old masters, it is to be 
regretted, are totally.out of their reach) 
as far as their finances would allow; for 
the laudable purpose of exciting the 
genius, assisting the industry, correcting 
the taste, and rewarding the success of 
the students, destined to keep up the 
succession of English painters, whose 
efforts, and consequent improvement, it 
must be confessed, have hitherto amply 
justified the expence and labour bestowed 
on their educatien. May they be happy 
enough to meet with, or inspire, what 
has been unfortunately denied to their 
predecessors—a corresponding taste in the 
community in general; this being of in- 
finitely more consequence, than mere 
pecuniary encouragement, as may be 
seen by the splendid examples of the 
art, in possession of some of the poorest 
towns and states of Italy; and further 
proved by the meagre condition of the 
French school, notwithstanding an un- 
bounded stimulus of the latter kind, has 
been unceasingly administered for above 
@ Century. oy ! 
It may, indeed, be safely laid down as 
a maxim, that, however academies may 
be multiplied, and whatever care may be 
taken to instil sound principles, without 
this pervading taste in the public, all the 
labour will be fruitless, as the student’s 
efforts, as soon as he is emancipated from 
his instruétors, will inevitably take a 
wrong direétion, in conformity to the 
desires of his employers: painters being, 
in this respeét, exaétly in the same pre- 
dicament with players; and may, with 
equal propriety, exclaim, “ for we that 
live to please, must please to live.” The 
capriciousness and depravity of the ge- 
neral taste, notwithstanding the establish- 
ment of numerous academies, and other 
attempts to prevent it, is, no doubt, the 
true reason of the miserable decline of 
the arts in Italy, Flanders, Holland, and_ 
France. Indeed, as to the French, it 
may, more properly, be said, that they 
never had any true taste in the. arts, or 
perhaps in any thing: in dress and man- 
NeTsy 
