FINE ARTS.
MORE TREASURES IN STORE FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY. Ova readers will be es delighted to hear as we are to communicate, the good tidings of souse fresh acquisitions to the National Gallery being in contemplation, whose value, however great, must he increased when the source they are derived from is known. Mr. WILKINS, the archi- tect, having exhausted L.. taste and ingenuity in the design and decora- tions of the building, :las generously offered to enrich its interior with a portion of his private collection of' pictures; and by far the choicest too, if we may judge from the circumstance of their having been bought in when put up for sale by auction with the rest, because no purchaser was foetid to give tbe reserved price which protected them from being sacrificed to the ignorance or illiberality of the bidders. We are unable to give any account of them, not having been favoured with a sight of their beauties ; but the fact of their being placed in an apartment in the Na- tional Gallery is presumptive evidence of the high value set upon them— involving salt does the tacit approval of that enlightened connoisseur and disinterested agent Mr. SEGUIER, without whose concurrence not even Mr. Warms would have been permitted the use of the Gallery for such • purpose. Though placed in a public building, with a view to
their purchase for the nation, no person is admitted to see them but by the express invitation of Mr. Witatris,--a precaution rendered needful
by the clamour and prejudice excited against this gentleman in his capacity of sit bitect. This explanation, it is hoped, will satisfy any reasonable pel-on, that no attempt will be made to smuggle a parcel of pictures, the rt fuse of the auction-room, into the National Collection at a pr ce beyon I their worth; if it does not silence any objectors to the indelicacy of Mr. WILKINS'S conduct in availing himself of his influ. ence a- le chitect of the building, to further his views in this particular, or to the unseemliness of the Government in sanctioning the proceeding,
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