1804.| 
ry 
MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF THE FINE ARTS” 
(Communications and the Loan of allnew Prints are requefted.) 
THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 
HE queftions upon quetflions, refolu- 
tions upon refolutions, contentions 
upon contentions, and above all, the debates 
upon debates, which for fo many months oc- 
cupied the Royal Academicians, when con- 
fidered both individually and collectively, 
reminded us of an old Parifian anecdote 
and Epigram. 
-When the famous MM. de la Coundamine 
grew old, and became incurably deaf, and’ 
infupportably ga rulous, he was eleCled a 
Member .of the French Académie Royale. 
A Parifian wit, who. had long folicited the 
fame honour, without fuccefs, wrote a 
a little Feu d’ efprit on the occafion, which 
may be thus tranflated ; 
<¢ So Condamine, that child of endlefs whim, 
Royal Academician is become: ° 
But Condamine is deaf,—’tis well for him,— 
It would be well for them, if he were dumb!" 
The difputes at Somerfet House had 
their origin in a propofal made by the 
Prefident and many of the Council to vote 
five hundred pounds from their fund to the 
Patriotic Subfeription at Lloyd’s Coffee- 
houfe. This the Treafurer and four other 
- Members ef the Council oppofed, on the 
ground of there being no right vefted in 
the Society thus to appropriate money 
colleéted for other purpofes; though they 
at the fame time declared, they were each 
of them willing to fubfcribe out of their 
_ own private property. This gave rife to 
many warm debates, in which feveral other 
Royal Academicians ufed the fame argu- 
ments; andit was concluded by thePrefident 
and Council ftriking out of their books 
the names of the Treafurer and four other 
Members of the Council, and laying be- 
fore his Majelty a narrative of the whole 
tranfaction. ‘The King laid the cafe be- 
fore the Attorney General, who gave it as 
his opinion, that appropriating the fund to 
_fuch purpofes was ulegal: in confequence 
of which, when a fubfequent General Af- 
fembly was held at Somerfet Houfe for the 
purpole of chufing officers for the enfuing 
year, and receiving his Majefty’s com. 
mands on‘the fubject of the late conten- 
tions in the Socicty; the King, after 
_ difapproving of the conduét of the Gene- 
_ral Affembly, directed the Secretary to 
_ re-enter the refolution of the Council of 
~ May laft, which had been expunged by 
_ the order of the General Affembly, His 
Majefty then expreffed his full approla- 
tion of the fufpended Members of Council, 
and commanded the Secretary to expunge 
from the Books of the Royal Academy all 
the refolutions of the General Affimbly 
on the 1ft of November, 1803. In con 
fequence of this, as we are told in the 
Sunday Review for November 26, 1304) 
the RoyaL ACADEMICIANS voted their 
moft grateful thanks to his Majefty, for 
bringing them to a fenfe of their duty, by this 
marked, but well-merited, admonitic#.” 
This is modeft, and mutt remind every 
reader of Hudibras, of the nobles in the 
court of a mighty Sovereign of Ethiopay— 
or, as he is ftyled, Neous A:thiopie Rex 
(fee Le Blanc’s Travels, part 2d. p. 203.) 
whofe practice is thus verfified by Butler. 
‘* The Negus, when fome mighty lord 
Or potentate’s to be reftor’d, 
And pardon’d for fome great offence, 
With which he’s willing to difpence ; 
Firft has him laid upon his belly, 
Then beaten back and fide t” a jelly 3 
That done,—he rifes, humbly bows, 
And gives thanks for the princely blows 5 
Departs not meanly, proud and boafting 
Of his magnificent rib-roafting.” 
Artaxerxes’s method was much better 3 
for when any of his nobility mifbehaved, 
lhe caufed them to be ftripped, and their 
clothes to be whipped by the common 
haneman, without fo much as touching 
their bodies,—out of refpec? to the dignity 
of the order. 
Crazy Kate. Barker pinxit, T. Burke feulpt. 
This defign has an air of fimple nature. 
It reprefents a poor unprotected female, 
biding the pelting of ihe pitilefs ftorm,—but 
though fhe looks extremely wretched, fhe 
does not appear crazy. It is engraved in 
chalk in Mr. Burke’s ufual manner, and a 
better manner in that branch of the art 
there cannot be. 
Vortigern and Rowena, Angelica Kaugimann pinx. 
T. Ryder feulpt. 
The late Mr.,Mortimers whole talents 
were an honour to his country and the age 
in which he lived, painted this fubjeét as_ 
a companion to his picture of the Bat- 
tle of Agincourt. ‘That Mrs. Angelica 
Kauffmann fhould take a ftory which had 
been treated in fo fuperior a ftyle by fo 
fuperior an artift, excited fome furprize at. 
the time,—for however diftinguifhed her 
fafie, the was in the ftrictek ienfe of the 
word 
