14 AUGUST 1886, Page 3

In a letter to Saturday's papers, signed by Mr. W.

Clausen, Mr. Walter Crane, and Mr. Holman'Hunt, these artists point out that the Royal Academy, by insisting on the private right of the artists who constitute it to exhibit a certain number of pictures, whether the exhibition of those pictures tends to raise the standard of art in England or to depress it, has virtually declared that the Academy is not a national exhibition of art, and that at present none such exists in England. The remedy, say these gentlemen, is not to pester an unwilling Academy into petty reforms, which would not, after all, transform it into a truly national institution, but to establish a truly "national exhibition, which should be conducted by artists on the broadest and fairest lines, in which no artist should have rights of place, and all works should be chosen by a jury elected by and from all artists in the Kingdom." That is undoubtedly the true prin- ciple. But how would you get your definition of " an artist," to whom electoral rights should be accorded ? Surely it would be necessary to require some evidence of artistic skill and know- ledge, in order to confer the franchise ? Otherwise, every sign- board or scene painter and every ignorant amateur might claim to take part in the election of the jury.