are in the interest of art, of its professors, and of the public at large, no narrow consideration of vested rights, of personal loss or gain, of humbled pride, or of diminished individual influence, ought to prevail against them. The conclusion of the whole matter cannot be summed up in terms more concise or cogent than in the following closing paragraph, the final award of the Commissioners :

"If the entire building in Trafalgar Square were given up to the Royal Academy, the existing accommodation might be more than doubled, and the Royal Academy would then possess sufficient space to enable it to carry out the high objects that are set before it. Such a grant on the part of the nation, accompanied by a Royal Charter, and guarded by such conditions as we have here sketched out, would, we think, be found to work most beneficially. The conditions and rules which we have indicated as essential, would come to the Academicians accompanied by the boon of a vast increase of space, and of greater fixity of tenure. We think, therefore, that the public would have a right to expect, on these terms, a ready and cheerful concurrence on the part of that distinguished body in these measures of amendment which we have proposed, and an harmonious working together of its members, old and new, towards their combined and noble object, the promotion and development of art.”

The exposition which we have given of this most intricate problem-the Royal Academy reformed-has necessarily been lengthy. But should we have succeeded in rendering our disquisition as clear and conclusive as it is copious, little more need be added. The only further question which should now trouble us, points to the ac

tion which Government and Parliament may take in this truly national question. Past experience leads us to dread the adoption of partial and temporising measures. Let us hope, however, that the crisis may be seen to be too urgent for the use of mere palliatives. Let us assume that our statesmen may prove themselves capable of rising to the height of the great argument which the case involves. We trust, indeed, that our legislators may not limit their views to the narrow confines of the times and the countries which have fallen under their immediate but circumscribed experience rather let us imagine that they may cast their vision across the lands which an Apelles and a Phidias rendered illustrious, that they may recall to memory cities which Raphael and Michael Angelo have adorned, that they may realise the glory of those epochs which bear the name of Pericles and Lorenzo. If the House of Commons could thus be brought to know how great is the lustre which the arts confer upon a nation, still more if it would take the trouble to sum up the commercial profits which art industries command in the markets of the world, we should not despair to see the Academy reconstituted on a broad and liberal basis. The public, at all events, both professional and non-professional, are awakened to the necessity for reform, and the country at large, we believe, is prepared to applaud a bold and conclusive measure. Assuredly, then, the time has at length come, when it is the duty of the Government to act with decision and promptitude.

MR EDITOR,-If you ever look into the Irish papers-and I hope you are not so exclusive regarding them as is Mr Cobden with the 'Times-you will see that, under the title, "Landed Estates Court, County Mayo," Judge Dobbs has just sold the town and lands of Kilmuraynabachlish, Ballaghy, and Gregnaslattery, the property of Cornelius O'Dowd, Esq. of Dowd's Folly, in the same county.

Now the afore - recited lands, measuring seven hundred and fourteen acres two roods and eleven perches, statute measure, were mine, and I am the Cornelius O'Dowd, Esq., referred to in the same paragraph.

Though it is perfectly true that, what between mortgages, settlement claims, and bonds, neither my father nor myself owned these lands any more than we did the island of Jamaica, it was a great blow to me to be sold out; for, somehow or other, one can live a long time in Ireland on parchment I mean on the mere documents of an estate that has long since passed away; but if you come once to an open sale and Judge Dobbs, there's an end of you, and you'll not get credit for a pair of shoes the day after.

My present reason for addressing you does not require that I should go into my family history, or mention more of myself than that I was called to the Bar in '42; that I stood an unsuccessful election for Athlone; that I served as a captain in the West Coast Rifles; that I married a young lady of great personal attractions; and completed my misfortunes by taking the chairmanship of the Vichnasehneshee silver mines, that very soon left me with nothing but copper in my own pocket, and sent me to Judge Dobbs and his court on the Inns Quay.

Like the rest of my countrymen, I was always hoping the Govern

ment would do something for me. I have not missed a levee for fourteen years, and I have shown the calves of my legs to every viceroyalty since Lord Clarendon's day; but though they all joked and talked very pleasantly with me, none said, "O'Dowd, we must do something for you;" and if it was to rain commissionerships in lunacy, or prison inspectorships, I don't believe one would fall upon C. O'D. I never knew rightly how it was, but though I was always liked at the Bar mess, and made much of on circuit, I never got a brief. People were constantly saying to me, "Con, if you were to do this, that, or t'other," you'd make a hit; but it was always conditional on my being somewhere, or doing something that I never had attempted before.

It was clear, if I was the right man, I wasn't in the right place; and this was all the more provoking, because, let me do what I would, some one was sure to exclaim, "Con, my boy, don't try that; it is certainly not your line." "What a capital agent for a new assurance company you'd be!" "What a success you'd have had on the stage! You'd have played Sir Lucius better than any living actor. Why don't you go on the boards? Why not start a penny newspaper? Why not give readings?" I wonder why they didn't tell me to turn organist or a painter in oils.

a larger share of my life to the inquiry than quite consisted with professional advancement; and, while others pored over their Blackstone, I was "doing Baden;" and instead of term reports and Crown cases, I was diverting myself in the Oberland or the Lago Maggiore.

"And with all your great knowledge of life," continued she, "I don't exactly see what it has done for you."

Now Mrs O'Dowd being, as you may apprehend, a woman, I didn't waste my time in arguing with her I didn't crush her, as I might, by telling her that the very highest and noblest of a man's acquirements are, ipso facto, the least marketable; and that the boasted excellence of all classical education is in nothing so conspicuous as in the fact that Greek and Latin cannot be converted into money as readily as vulgar fractions and a bold handwriting. Being a woman, as I have observed, Mrs O'D. would have read the argument backwards, and stood out for the rule-of-three against Sophocles and "all his works." I simply replied, with that dignity which is natural to me, "I am proud of my knowledge of life; I do recognise in myself the analyst of that strange mixture that makes up human chemistry; but it has never occurred to me to advertise my discovery for sale, like Holloway's Pills or somebody's cod-liver oil." "Perhaps you knew nobody would buy it," cried she, and flounced out of the room, the bang of the door being one of the " epigrams

in action" wives are skilled in.

Now, with respect to my knowlege of life, I have often compared myself to those connoisseurs in art who, without a picture or an engraving of their own, can roam through a gallery, taking the most intense pleasure in all it contains, gazing with ecstasy at the Raffaeles, and lingering delighted over the sunny landscapes of Claude. To me the world has, for years, imparted a sense of much

enjoyment. Human nature has been my gallery, with all its variety, its breadth, its effect, its warm colouring, and its cold tints.

It has been my pride to think that I can recognise every style and every "handling," and that no man could impose a copy upon me for an original. "And can it be possible," cried I aloud, "that while picture-dealers revel in fortunefellows whose traffic goes no higher than coloured canvass-that I, the connoisseur of humanity, the moral toxicologist-I, who read men as I read a French comedy — that I should be obliged to deny myself the generous claret my doctor thinks essential to my system, and that repose and change of scene he deems of more consequence to me than mere physic?"

I do not-I will not-I cannot, believe it. No class of persons could be less spared than pilots. Without their watchful skill the rich argosy that has entered the Chops of the Channel would never anchor in the Pool. And are there no sand-banks, no sunk rocks, no hidden reefs, no insidious shoals, in humanity? Are there no treacherous lee-shores, no dangerous currents, no breakers? It is amidst these and such as these I purpose to guide my fellow-men, not pretending for a moment to the possession of any heaven-born instinct, or any inspired insight into Nature. No; I have toiled and laboured in the cause. The experience that I mean to offer for sale I have myself bought, occasionally far more dearly than I intend to dispose of it.

Haud ignarus mali; I am willing to tell where I have been shipwrecked, and who stole my clothes. 'Don't tell me of your successes," said a great physician to his colleague, "tell me of your blunders; tell me of the people you've killed." I am ready to do this, figuratively of course, for they were all ladies; and more, I will make no attempt to screen myself from the ridicule that may attach to an absurd situation, nor conceal those

experiences which may subject me to laughter.

You may deem me boastful if I have to set forth my qualifications; but what can I do? It is only when I have opened my pack and displayed my wares that you may feel tempted to buy. I am driven, then, to tell you that I know everybody that is worth knowing in Europe, and some two or three in America; that I have been everywhere-eaten of everything-seen everything. seen everything. There's not a railway guard from Norway to Naples doesn't grin a recognition to me; not a waiter from the Trois Frères to the Wilde Mann doesn't trail his napkin to earth as he sees me. Ministers speak up when I stroll into the Chamber, and prima donnas soar above the orchestra, and warble in ecstasy as I enter the pit.

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I don't like I declare to you I do not like-saying these things; it smacks of vanity. Now for my plan. I purpose to put these my gifts at your disposal. The year before us will doubtless be an eventful one. The Danes, perhaps, will not fight; but there will be a row somewhere. The French are very eager for war; and the Italians, as Paddy says, are blue-moulded for want of a beatin'." There will be grand "battle-pieces" to paint; but, better than these, portraits, groups, "tableaux de genre "-Teniers bits, too, at the porch of an ale-house, and warm little interiors, in the style of Mieris. I shall be instructive at times-very instructive; and whenever I am very nice and dull, be assured that I'm full of information, and know my subject thoroughly."

As "your own correspondent," I am free to go wherever you please. I have left Mrs O'D. in Ireland, and I revel in an Arcadian liberty. These are all my credentials; and if with their aid I can furnish you any amusement as to the goings-on of the world and its wife, or the doings of that amiable couple in politics, books, theatres, or socialities, I seek for nothing more congenial to my taste, nor more amusing to my nature, as a bashful Irishman.

If I will not often obtrude, I will not altogether avoid my personal experiences; for there is this to be said, that no testimony is worth much unless we know something of the temper, the tastes, and the character of the witness. We have all heard, for instance, of the gentleman who couldn't laugh at Munden's drolleries on the stage for thinking of a debt of ten pounds that the actor owed him and this same spirit has a great deal to dofar more than we like to own-with our estimate of foreign countries. It is so hard to speak well of the climate where we had that horrible rheumatism, or laud the honesty of a people when we think of that rascally scoundrel of the Hotel d'Odessa. For these reasons I mean to come into the witness-box occasionally, and give you frankly, not merely my opinions, but the way they were come by. I don't affect to be superior to prejudices; I have as many of these as a porcupine has bristles. There's all the egotism I mean to inflict on you, unless it comes under the guise of an incident-"a circumstance which really occurred to the author"-and now, en route.

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of a strange language do not say what they wish, but what they can; and there is no name for the help lessness of him who is tied up in his preter-pluperfect tense. Now we English are not linguists; even our diplomatists are remarkable for their little proficiency in French. I'm not sure that we don't benefit by this in the long-run. Reden ist silber, aber schweigen ist gold" -"Speech is silver, but silence is gold," says the German adage; and what a deal of wisdom have I seen attributed to a man who was posed by his declensions into a listener! One of the only countrymen of my own who has made a great career lately in public life is not a little indebted to deafness for it. He was so unlike those rash, impetuous, impatient Irish, who would interrupt he listened, or seemed to listen, and he even smiled at the sarcasms that he did not hear.

Listening, if we did but know it, sits more gracefully on us than speech, when that speech involves the denial of genders, and the utter confusion of all cases and tenses.

Next to holding their tongues, there's another thing I wish you English would do abroad, which is, to dress like sane and responsible people. Men are simply absurd; but the women, with their ill-behaved hoops and short petticoats, are positively indecent; but the greatest of all their travelling of fences is the proneness to form acquaintance at tables-d'hôtes.

It is, first of all, a rank indiscretion for any but men to dine at these places. They are almost, as a rule, the resort of all that is disreputable in both sexes. You are sure to eat badly, and in the very worst of company. My warning is, however, meant for my countrywomen only: men can, or at least ought, to take care of themselves. As for myself, don't be shocked; but I do like doubtful company-that is, I am immensely interested by all that class of people which the world calls adventurers, whether the same be railroad speculators, fortune

hunters, discoverers of inexhaustible mines, or Garibaldians. Your respectable man, with a pocketbook well stored with his circular notes, and his passport in order, is as uninteresting as a "Treckshuyt" on a Dutch canal; but your "martyr to circumstance" is like a smart felucca in a strong Levanter; and you can watch his course-how he shakes out his reefs or shortens sail-how he flaunts out his bunting, or hides his colours-with an unflagging interest. I have often thought what a deal of clevernesswhat stores of practical abilitywere lost to the world in these outat-elbow fellows, who speak every language fluently, play every game well, sing pleasingly, dance, ride, row, and shoot, especially with the pistol, to perfection. There they are, with a mass of qualities that win success! and, what often is harder, win good - will in life! There they are, by some unhappy twist in their natures, preferring the precarious existence of the racecourse or the billiard-table; while others, with about a tithe of their talents, are high in place and power. I met one of these men to-day, and a strong specimen of the class, well dressed, well whiskered, very quiet in manner, almost subdued in tone, but with a slight restlessness in his eye that was very significant. found ourselves at table, over our coffee, when the others had left, and fell into conversation. He declined my offered cigar with much courtesy, preferring to smoke little cigarettes of his own making; and really the manufacture was very adroit, and, in its way, a study of the maker's habits. We talked over the usual topics-the bad dinner we had just eaten, the strange-looking company, the discomfort of the hotel generally, and suchlike.

We

"Have we not met before?" asked he, after a pause. "If I don't mistake, we dined together aboard of Leslie's yacht, the Fawn." I shook my head. Only knew Sir Francis Leslie by name; never saw the Fawn."

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