16 SEPTEMBER 1837, Page 20

London, 11th September 1837. MY LORD-.4 appeal to Sir DAVID,

Sir RICHARD, Sir FRANCIS, Sir GEOFTRY. Sir WILLIAM, Sir A I:GUSTUS, Sir ROBERT, Sir CHARLES, Sir JOHN, and Sir MARTIN—was there ever such a galaxy of knights ! ABTHUIL and his Round Table must hide their diminished heads. Surely, my Lord, the age of chivalry is not gone—surely Be RK e has turned in hie coffin 1 If the French Revolution was now to begin again, there would be no deficiency of leaping swords, my Lord, to rescue the beautiful MARIE. I appeal to the gal- lant knights, if this underhanded pamphlet is worthy of the age of chivalry ? if this was the practice of the knights of old? if due notice was not always given of defence or attack ; and if any knight had been found assassinating, whether he would not have lost his spurs and have had his sword broken over his degraded head by the heralds?—Surely. Let me entreat them to give up these habits of base origin and baser blood ; and, if we are to have a tight, let us all meet in a public assembly, argue our best, and let the majority carry the day by acclamation, and justice and truth prevail triumphantly. Can any thing equal the modesty of this assemblage of knights-errant ! In the old habitation they averaged from 4,0001. to 5,000/. a year : this year, at Charing Cross, they have taken 7,0001.: they say, if the Government are pre- pared to pay 10,0001. or 12,0001. to them, Sir MARTIN has no doubt mauy members would hail the flattering prospect. Amiable knightsmrrant ! no doubt of it. Their study of the fine arts, my Lord, has not blunted their powers of calculation. But really, such selfishness is beneath reply, from its grossness : it is all of a piece, my Lord, with the tricks that were played before the House and the nation—with the contemptible and plausible excises continually put forward for moving the Academy at all—with the pretence that Somerset House was wanted for Government offices, and, as proof, giving it to a School of Design! I can- not conceive bow your right honourable colleague can justify to himself his ardent and devoted determination to protect and defend such a deepotism—being, as he is, the advocate of liberal measures nod the member of a Liberal Govern- ment, the basis of whose existence is reform—or resolutely enshrine a body of men by a public vote of money without making reform of their proved injustice the basis of the exchange. Without the slightest disrespect, and with every feeling due to his high sta- tion, and gratitude to that Ministry from whom we artists owe that great lever the Cow tuittee, will your Lordship permit me to ask with what consist- ency he could cheer the destruction of Old Sarum and Gatton? with what justice lie could vote for Schedule A, the Municipal Corporation Bill, the Tithe question, Test Acts, Catholic Emancipation, and Negro liberty, and yet refuse to let reform approach the sacred precincts of Somerset House? Is there, my Lord, any perception of moral equity in placing Negroes in freedom, and voting in the same breath to crown with laurel a clique of in- triguers who for seventy years have made it a business and a duty to chill all feeling in the Court for grand art or state employment ; who have ever taken advantage of their station to blacken and calumniate all individuals who may be obnoxious to their monopoly ; and who, by every species of diplomacy, have reduced British artists to such a condition, that there is no alternative for a young man beginning life but perfect submission, or to be pursued through existence, into every ramification of domestic connexion, to death or ruin? I proposed in the Committee restoring the ill.used constituency so unjustly treated by GEORGE the Third and the courtiers of 1769: I proposed the abolition of all distinctions in art, sod the annual election of Directors; and that every artist who bail exhibited three years, or who was a householder as well, should be a burgess in the art, and entitled to a vote: then would the artists recover their moral independence, and then would the Academy as a school be assimilated to the principles of the British constitution. Your Lordship may imagine I overrate the importance of this subject, from personal acuteness of feeling : indeed, your greater experience of them will convince you I do not. Had there been no Academy, I and others would have taken our stations in art and society long since ; but the despotism esta- blished by REYNOLDS, of which very justly.he was the first victim, thwarted and opposed us, as it had done before BARRY- and himself. When we began the art, we found men placed over us as superiors per- fectly incompetent to decide on the merit of historical works, or on those deep principles of form and design, the characteristics of the works of the great men before us. I, my lord, for one, had to be judged by three, two of whom never yet placed their figures on theit feet ; one, from incompetent knowledge, always turning the toes out, and the other, from equal ignorance, always placing his men upon them! And these two arcades ammo decided I had no merit and no knowledge ; placed a picture, which cost two years labour, from the public view, (because I had no knowledge ;) and yet, my Lord, twenty-eight years after, I lay before the public the principles of art I then practised, and they are hailed all over the kingdom with enthusiasm ! Now, my Lord, had my works of that period been fairly brought forward, as those of HOGA ILLTH, and Wiesog, and Rev NoLns, and G A INSBOROUG if were, before an Academy existeia—had there been no self-elected superiors, who could not draw or foreshorten a foot,—neither MARTIN, nor HAYT ER, nor LOUGH, nor myself, would have waited so lung before we made our way, nor should I have been four times in a prison. In the present state of high art amongst the upper classes—guided as the patron is by such influence, and leaving college as you all do, my Lord, unin- structed by professors in such matters—can you any longer wonder that men who oppose such etnbechled power are denied to possess either character or talent, in order to destroy them? Though it is my perfect conviction that the people are in telvance of the production, that the seed has taken root, and that the vigorous plant will burst the superincumbent pressure; yet the influence of this body will fur some years stunt its growth, unless the Government decidedly interfere at once. Academies have ever been signals of distress. But a time is fast coming when their imposture, in giving rank to men who never would have emerged from their native insignificance without such help, will be found out : they will topple down before the increasing wonder of nations ; and let it never be forgotten, my Lord, Britain gave the first blow. To be fully aware, my Lord, of the justice of my statement as to their perni. (ions influence, you should have seen them as I have,—Academicians, patrons, artists, in the same room ! When that vast genius LOUGH appeared, and had produced in the back l'000:1 of a greengrr's shop his wonderful " Milo," the dignity of the Royal Academy was dreadfully shaken at such a work being pro. duced in such a way. In Athens, such a production (certainly more wonderful than any thing MICHAIL Aucumo produced at the same age) would have in- sured the inventor rank, fortune, and influence. On the private day, first came the nobility, as they always do, sincere in their admiration and willie„v to be delighted and to help. Then came the cold-blooded, pale-faced, and dialing Academician. Seeing one, with arms folded, before the noble work, I asked him how he liked it ? and what was the reply ?—" rant no believer in prodi.. pies." The effect of this sneer on the circle was instantaneous. A noble lord, leaning on the knee of the " Milo"—a friend of merit, but timid of his judg. ment—after the poison of the R.A., said, " It is unquestionably a fine thing, it it not?" Some became frightened, and thought it always overrated ; others looked profound, and asked why he did not do busts? At this " crise de la bataille," as NAPOLEON used to say, up walked the Duke of WELLINGTON, 3191 taking the order-book, wrote his name for a cast. Now again victory gleamed: some said they always suspected it was a wonderful production ; but till the true• bred, heartless sneer of the incarnate malignity rankled deep ; and nothing but the known energy of the Duke's mind could have made the company be. lieve he had not committed a blunder. This comes, my !mid, of embodying a set of low-minded men in power, and letting them keep it in spite of law. What was the re.ult on people of fashion ?—Why, toy Lord, they feared they had overrated Lour: H'S talent, as they feared they had overrated mine in 1i4o9.; and, by degrees—confiding in the honour of the Royal Academy, and supposing it must be right—they left LOUGH deserted, as they left me. The advice I give to young men under such oppression is, never despair. I have had my painting. room filled with people of fashion, and utterly deserted, four times; but by per- severing I always bring them hack—because I never desert illy post. If young man knows his art to be founded on principles which have stood the test of previous ages, let him ensile at desertion. But it is not every young man that can do this : there are minds of a tender nature which sink under injustice. WIteIr, in 1e110, by the infamous conduct of the Academy, sunk into bad health, and nearly died. And what was this conduct?—The most infamous intrigue. Jealous of the relent that had filled their coffers, there was no way of lowering hint but by pushing up an inferior rival : one soon appeared—Boto: affecting the greatest regard for WILKIE, in a pretended fright they told him such a picture had appeared as rendered it absolutely necessary he should withdraw his work ; for he could not, with all his great genius, stand the contest. Against the advice of his sincere friends he did so. And who was the man that so advised him, out of the profoundest affection?—the very man who twenty years after, from similar intense regard for his delicate health, relieved him from the cares of the Presidency. \'hat kind hearts there are in the world! Wiex I E, of an amiable and gentle nature, seeing through the whole infonaut intrigae when he saw his great rival's work, sank down in health, and was neatly destroyed. Ministers, your Lordship knows, like facts ; nothing so much as filets ence "the House." I have given your Lordship facts, which let them refute if they can. To conclude it disgusting subject, my Lord we all hope your Lord- ship and your colleagues will anticipate the applause of posterity, by relieving the art and the nation of this anomalous upas tree ; and that her Majesty and her Ministers will no longer sanction this oppressive power, because it is gratifying to their domestic sympathies to have their portraits well painted ; but that they will unshackle the fetters which have encumbered the past and harass the present, and, by a just reform, satisfy all parties without sacrificing the interests of any. Till this forty-headed hydra is reduced to reason, I, as one, will never relinquish my grapple ; and if I the before the contest is over, it shall be found necessary to batter my hand to atoms after death, before my gripe shall he un- closed. I have seen the truth always : my countrymen are beginning to see it : in Scotland, the first moment it was laid before all classes, it was hailed with cheers.

With every apology, my Lord, for the present I withdraw, till a new mean- uess and another intrigue render it a duty to interfere.

I am, my Lord, your admirer and servant, B. R. Hagnos,