1803. ] 
To the Editor of the Monthly, Magazine. 
“SIR, 
HE purchafers. of prints after my 
pictures in the great room of the So- 
ciety of Arts at the Adelphi, have! had 
good reafon to complain to me of their 
difappointment in he want of that necef- 
fary elucidation which they knew I had 
drawn up at the defire of the Society, and 
which they expeéted to have found in the 
Account lately publithed by the Society, 
and circulated in their. room ;—'hough 
innocent on my own part, yet confcious 
of the juftice of fuch complaint, I have, 
for the fvisfaétion of thofe difappointed 
purchaiers, been driven to the vexatious 
neceffity of loling more time, by running 
over the fame ground again in the inclofed 
letter, in order to fupply fome part of 
thofe unkind, unfecling omiffions, which 
Thad fo little reafon to expect from a So- 
ciety for whom Ihad done fo much. I 
would therefore take it as a gréat favour, 
if you would be {o good as to infert a copy 
of this faid inclofed letter in your Maga- 
zine, which has fo deferved, fo general 
and refpettable a-circulation ; as by that 
means the information defired may meet 
the other purchafers of thofe prints, inthe 
other parts of Ireland, as wellas in Great 
Britain. Ihave much reafon to be fen- 
fible of your kindnefs on other occafions, 
though [ have never had an opportunity 
of making my thankful acknowledgments 
for them before ; and therefore I feel the 
more encourag:d to requeft that you will, 
to thofe favours, conferred without any 
folicitation on my part, have the goodnefs 
to excufe this my frit applicaticn to you, 
for the infertion of the inclofed letter, and 
as foon as poffible. 
I am, Sir, your’s, &c. 
James. Barry. 
Fuly 155 5803. 
35, Cafile fireet, Oxford-mar ket. 
‘mY DEAR Sin, 
«¢ IN the little Account of the Pictures 
which the Society of Arts, &c. has lately 
printed, they have unluckily omitted what- 
ever I had fent them as illuftrative of the 
prints, and confequently as illuftrative of the 
fubject itfelf, particularly that part, the Ely- 
fium, where the improvements and additions 
were lately made, and which, for the moft 
part, were only to be found in the fuite of 
large prints of the groups which form the 
lower and moft important range of the figures 
inthat fubje&. The other omiffion alfo, re- 
{peéting my propofal, and the unanimous 
vote of the Society for filling up the {paces 
“over the chimnies, was not lefs unlucky.— 
Such a matter as that mof: certainly ought 
Monturiy Mage. No. 105. 
‘ 
Letter from Mr. Barry. 
105 
not to have been withheld from the public ; 
as the recent A@ of Union of Great Britain 
and Ireland, which made the fubjeét for 
one of thofe fpaces, was in that defign treated 
in the manner moft exemplarily, and beit cal 
culated to derive every poflible ftability, vi- 
gour, improvement, and mutual equal {atis- 
faétion and happinefs from that Aé&t, which 
united the two kingdoms into one, and con- 
fequently would at leaft have exhibited the 
true mode of effecting it, and doing away all 
vexatious differences, whilft thofe broad, 
equal, and equitable principles fhould conti- 
nue to be refpected. As the whole of thefe 
matters is comprehended in three or four let 
ters, which [| had at different times occafion 
to write to the Society, and which would have 
been found incerporated with their little book, 
haa it been printed in the ftate in which they 
received it frem me, there is now no other 
remedy but to print the omitted matter as an 
Appendix, which thofe who chufe may add 
to the boek, and which it was and is my in- 
tention to do, whenever it may be conveni- 
ent for me to go to thatexpence, There 
has always been, there is, and there will be, 
a fufficient number of people who find amufe- 
ment and fatisfaction in the letters of artifts, 
refpecting the improvement, various views, 
and defiderata, regarding their feveral arts, 
which Lord Bacon confiders of great import- 
ance when fuch information can be obtained, 
and to which, indeed, may be traced all one 
information that is of any ufe, however it 
may he decorated afterwards by other people. 
Matters of this kind are not without import 
ance enough to be fought after, more efpeci- 
ally when they concern any work where the 
public have taken an intereft, and in the 
forming of appreciations where it is of im- 
portance Lo that public to judgerightly. Such 
an Appendix will be even neceftary for the 
information of the Society itielf, as the 
greateit number of thofe who compole it, and, 
of the firt rank, confequence, and informa-s 
tion, come but feldom to the Society, fome= 
times can know but little of what is paflimag 
in its cummittees, and who are very likely to 
have known nothing at all of thofe letters of 
mine refpecting the additions to the pictures 
in their great room; or thofe prints of/the 
large groups which with fo great additional 
labour were made in order to improve and 
compleat the fubje&; and it is reafonable to 
{uppofe that theie perfonages can havejas lit. 
tle intereft or inclination as I can have in 
withholding fuch information from the pub- 
lic, or fuppreffing or overlooking it in mere 
commigtees of a few people, who may be 
fometimes not perhaps juft what we fhould 
have wished them, even independent of any 
poflible imagined influence of cabal or combi- 
nation. Jn the meantime, until this Ap- 
pendix is printed, and to prevent your being 
totally difappointed, I fhall proceed here to 
mark out the arrangement in the prints of 
the large groups, beginning with the firft, 
Pr that 
