she could read in the thoughtful lines of his face, and which always impressed her with his consequence. "Ah, dear!" sighed she, drearily,"who would have thought it?"

So is it very often in this same world of ours, that the outsides of things are only solemn cheats. The orderly who terrifies the village as he dashes past at speed, is but the bearer of an invitation to dine. The ambassador's bag is filled not with protocols and treaties, but with fish-sauce or pickled walnuts; the little sack-marked 'most important' being choke-full of Russian cigarettes. Even lawn and lawyers' wigs are occasionally the external coverings to qualities that fall short of absolute wisdom; so that though Mrs Butler exclaimed, "Who would have thought it?" one more conversant with life would have felt less surprise and less disappointment.

A laugh from Tony-almost a hearty laugh-startled her from her musings. "What is it, Tony dear?" asked she-"what is it that amuses you?"

"I'll read it all for you, mother. It's from Skeffy, and you'd think you heard him talking, it's so like him.

"F. O., Sun lay Morning.

"DEAR BUTLER,-What a fright you have given us all, old fellow, to have levanted so suddenly, leaving your traps with the waiter, as we first thought, but as we afterwards discovered exchanging them with one Rory Quin, who, apparently sorry for his bargain, came for three successive mornings to the hotel to find out your present whereabouts.'

"Do you understand him, mother?" asked Tony at this.

"Partly-go on.'

He resumed "Rory, however, would seem to have a private scrape of his own to occupy him now, for I found to-day that a policeman was waiting all the morning to arrest him, of which he seems to have had timely notice, for he did not appear, and "R. 960" says, with

much solemnity, he won't come no more.""

"What does that mean, Tony?"

"I can make nothing of it. I hope and trust that I am not the cause of the poor fellow's troubles. I'll write about this at once. 'More of all this, however, when we meet, which I rejoice to say will be soon. I have got fourteen days' leave, and am going over to your immediate neighbourhood, to visit an aunt, or a cousin, or a grandmother-if she likes-a certain Mrs Maxwell of Tilney, who has lots of cash and no one to leave it to-five thousand a-year in estate; I don't know what in the Threes; and is, they tell me, weighing all her relatives, real or imaginary, in the balance of her esteem, to decide who is to be the lord of Tilney, and which of us would most worthily represent her name and house. Preaching for a call is nothing to this-and a C. S. examination is cakes and gingerbread to it. Just fancy a grand competitive dinner of both sexes, and the old lady watching who ate of her favourite dish, or who passed the decanter she "affectioned." Imagine yourself talking, moving, sneezing, smiling, or blowing your nose, with five thousand a-year on the issue. Picture to your mind the tortures of a scrutiny that may take in anything from your complexion to your character, and which, though satisfied with your morals, might discover "something unpleasing about your mouth."

"Worst news of all, I hear that the great Norman Maitland is somewhere in your vicinity, and of course will be invited wherever anything is going on. If he cares to do it, I suppose he'll cut us all out, and that the old lady would rather fancy she made a graceful exit from life if this illustrious swell were to play chief mourner to her. By the way, do you know the man I'm talking of? He's a monstrous clever fellow, and a great mystery to boot. I know him very slightly; indeed, so slightly that I'm not sure he knows me.

"As it would be invaluable to me to have a word of counsel from you, knowing nothing, or next to nothing, of my dear relative, I mean to start directly for you at once, and have one day with you before I go on to Tilney. Will this bore you, or inconvenience you? Is your house full? Most houses are at this time o' year.'

At this Tony laid down the letter and laughed immoderately; not so, however, his mother. She turned her head away, and sat, with her hands closely locked, in silence. "Isn't it good?-isn't it downright droll, mother, to ask if our house be so full of guests, we have no room for another? I declare, though it has a sore side to it, the question overcomes me with its absurdity."

"That's not the way I'm looking at it, Tony," said she, sadly.

"The best in the world; and such spirits! I wish you saw him do the back-somerset over a chair, or the frog's leap across a table. For all that, mother," said he, with a change of tone, he's a perfect gentleman; and though he's very short-only so high !-he looks gentleman, too."

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"I am not likely to forget all his kindness to you, Tony," said she, feelingly. "If we could only receive him suitably, I'd be happy and proud to do it; as it is, however, the man, being a gentleman, will put up all the better with our humble entertainment: so, just tell him to come, Tony; but tell him also what he's coming to. His room will be pretty much like the bath-room, and the company he'll meet afterwards very unlike what he saw at the fine house."

So

"He'll take all in good part, or I'm much mistaken in him. here goes for the answer :

"DEAR SKEFF,-We live in a cottage with five rooms. We have one maid-servant, and we dine at two.

If you have courage to face all this, you'll have the heartiest of welcomes from my mother and your sincere friend,

"TONY BUTLER. "The mail will drop you at Coleraine, and I'll be on the look-out for you every morning from this forward.'

"Won't that do, mother?" asked he.

"I think you might have done it better; but I suppose you young folk understand each other best in your own fashion, so let it be."

THE Royal Academy was last year arraigned before a Commission to take its trial, and in the approaching session of Parliament it awaits the verdict of the country, and must submit to the reforms which the Legislature shall deem conducive to the welfare of our national arts. This Commission, bearing the signmanual of Her Majesty, was issued "to inquire into the present position of the Royal Academy in relation to the Fine Arts, and into the circumstances and conditions under which it occupies a portion of the National Gallery, and to suggest such measures as may be required to render it more useful in promoting art, and in improving and developing public taste." The Report now before us, the result of a calm and extended investigation, bears the signatures and seals of "Stanhope (Chairman), Hardinge, Elcho, Edmund W. Head, William Stirling, Henry Danby Seymour, Henry Reeve," the Commissioners appointed for the conduct of this arduous inquiry. No less than sixand-forty witnesses were called to give evidence for or against the constitution and administration of the Academy, among whom we mark the names of Sir Charles Eastlake, Sir Edwin Landseer, D. Maclise, J. E. Millais, Baron Marochetti, W. Tite, Holman Hunt, A. H. Layard, Beresford Hope, Lord Taunton, and the present SolicitorGeneral. The Commissioners held their opening meeting on the 13th February 1863, and the inquiry ended on the 8th June, at the twenty-fourth sitting, with the examination of Mr Ruskin. The number of questions asked exceeds five thousand, and the printed evidence fills 557 closely-printed pages of a parliamentary "bluebook." On the 10th July last the Report was issued, passing a deliberate judgment on the following specific heads-" A, Constitu

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tion of the Academy;" "B, Funds;" C, Exhibition;" "D, Teaching;' "E, Charities; "F, Buildings." These dry but not wholly uninteresting statistics we place as an introduction to our present article, to indicate in fewest words the scope and import of this Imperial scrutiny. They show that the abuses and the dereliction of duty laid to the charge of the Academy have had full and fair opportunity of proof. Guided by this mass of evidence, aided by the deliberate judgment of Commissioners expressly appointed by reason of competency, the time has now at length arrived when the Government may satisfactorily settle a long-pending and hotly-debated question. We trust that in the ensuing session of Parliament the Royal Academy, by a decisive act of the Legislature, will be reformed in its constitution, that it will receive powers and prerogatives commensurate with the advanced condition of the arts, and adequate to the growing requirements of a people to whom painting, sculpture, and architecture have become not only the luxuries but almost the necessities of life.

We are happy to say that a spirit of even-handed justice has moderated the proceedings of this Commission. The Academy has enemies, but they have abstained from virulence. She has friends who have shown their candour by admitting defects wherever found, and their wisdom in welcoming reforms which the general voice has pronounced inevitable and salutary. Reconstruction is certainly needed; but at the outset we would desire to pay the tribute due to the Academy for the services she has already, for the space of nearly one hundred years, conferred upon the arts of this country. In other nations, it is well known, crowned heads have taken the arts under their patronage, and governments

have granted to Academies handsome subsidies. In England, on the contrary, where reliance is placed on voluntary effort, the arts have had to struggle in their own strength for honourable position and adequate reward; and the Academy, left without pecuniary aid, has been doomed to scrape together its fortune as best it might out of shillings collected at the doors of the annual exhibition. Consider ing how precarious and apparently inadequate is this mode of gaining a livelihood, we have reason to be all the more astonished at the power and resources which the Academy has acquired, and the amount of good works that she has been enabled to perform. Lectures have been delivered session after session, a library has been formed, scholarships have been established, and salaries are yearly paid to a Keeper, Secretary, and Visitors. In the year 1862, the expenses of maintain ing the schools, including the giving of gratuitous instruction and the awarding of premiums and scholarships, are set down at £2495, 18s. 6d. In the same year the sum expended upon pensions and donations to decayed members and necessitous artists amounted to £1667, 38. Yet notwithstanding these heavy drains upon the annual income, the Academy has, by a wise husbandry of resources, been enabled to lay in store the sum of £140,000, invested in three-per-cent consols. The Academy has thus since 1768, the year of its foundation, not only paid its way, not only distributed large amounts in teaching and in charity, but now, at the end of wellnigh one century, it is found in a strong position, with a wealth, prestige, and power which incite envy and provoke opposition.

Still more, by common consent, testified by many witnesses in the presence of the Commission, our English school of painting, as fostered by the Academy, is in the face of Europe, if not absolutely great and grand, at least honourable and praiseworthy. The present

state of Art in this country, said Mr Tite, shows that the Academy has done its duty, and done that duty well. And in the same sense Sir Edwin Landseer bore testimony that the Royal Academy has made the British school what it is; which, taken in comparison with other schools, he added, holds a very creditable station. "Most of the eminent artists of this country," said Mr Richard Westmacott, pursuing the same line of defence, "have been students of the Academy, and received their education there." Lastly, Mr Mulready, whose words have now gathered around them the solemnity of the grave, thus speaks emphatically, "I have a strong sense of obligation to the Academy, having received my education there; and having the Academy alone almost to thank for my education in art, the obligation which I have signed to support the honour of the Academy as long as I remain a member of it is never to be forgotten by me; and I think the proper place for suggesting improvements in the Academy is, as an Academician, in my place there." Thus, as a graceful prelude to the reiteration of long-standing grievances, to the detailed statement of inefficiency and abuse, let the concession be unreservedly made, that we owe to the Academy a debt of gratitude,that this voluntary, self-elected, and self-governed institution-or, to borrow the harder words of its foes, this so-called tyranny and monopoly

has, in the main, ruled wisely and justly; and that thus, in the true interest of art, we should not plot its overthrow, but rather plan and promote its extension on a wider basis-its elevation to higher functions.

On all hands, indeed, by friends and by foes alike, it is admitted that the time has now arrived for reform. We have stated the case in favour of the Academy. will now turn to the other side, and give the reasons which urge towards change. The inveterate

We

enemies of the Academy, let it be admitted, are generally men who have been embittered by disappointment artists who have suffered in the hanging of their pictures, or who have failed in their attempts to secure election. Opponents of this quality generally indulge in vague charges, or wax warm in violent abuse, and so in any calm inquiry they are fairly put out of court. But the men who raised the voice of opposition in the hearing of the Commissioners - Mr Watts, Mr Armitage, Holman Hunt, and others were of a wholly different temper. The evidence given by these witnesses is calm, well considered, and weighty. They have watched the working of the Academy with an eye made keen by experience, and, without entertaining the charge of grievous sins, they are able to narrate facts which distinctly prove that the Institution is no longer adequate to meet the demands of the profession, or the reasonable expectations of the public. It was admitted, even by an Academician as high in the ranks as Mr David Roberts, that the Academy is in such a sleepy state that it would be desirable to have recourse to anything which might awaken life. Mr J. Fergusson, the well-known author of the Handbook of Architecture,' and the 'History of Modern Styles of Architecture,' gave expression to the general opinion of the profession and of the public when he said, that though the Royal Academy may have perfectly represented the state of art at the time when it was established, yet the development which has since taken place in all the arts has been so great that the Academy can no longer meet the requirements of the country. Therefore some extension of its sphere of usefulness has become highly desirable. Mr G. F. Watts, the painter of the fresco in Lincoln's Inn, one of the very few artists with vision to see the supreme nobility of historic and ideal compositions, and to comprehend the

manifold relations between the arts and modern society, desires, in common with Mr Beresford Hope and others, to constitute the Academy both a public Committee of Taste and an Art University. Mr Watts, not without reason, complains that the Academy has displayed very great apathy. He tells us that he has failed to trace its influence in our street architecture, on our dress and fashions, or in the direction and development of the public taste. Our exclusively national school- that of English water - colour painting has grown up outside the Academy; the revival of fresco and other mural decorations, which might be considered to fall within the peculiar province of a College of Arts, owed its origin to the zeal and the knowledge of the late Prince-Consort; and in its progress became indebted, not to the Academy in Trafalgar Square, but to the Royal Commission at Westminster.

Yet while recounting these matters in which the Academy has doubtless been found wanting, again would we call to mind, as a set-off, the good deeds and the generous acts of which she has been the minister. The enterprise, however, upon which she is embarked extends year by year so greatly in its magnitude and responsibility, that at last the conviction for all who have realised the difficulties of the position becomes irresistible, that no merely voluntary self-constituted and self-contained institution is equal to the task; that aid from without must be called in; that education and influence and position-which are not always the gifts of artists, however distinguished by genius

should be brought to add to the Academy of our country national prestige and power. The action of the Academy, extending over nearly one century, when contrasted with the art-nonentity which left the anterior history of England in disgraceful blank, may, as we have