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THE I; IVERSAL ENUIRITION AT. RARIS.
Rather move than a month age; we referred-to-the part which Govern- thentia.called to take in'organizing the contributions of England to the French-Great Exhibition: • Close on the.snme period, .thc Department of , Seienee.and Art was- authorized to initiate arrangements, which, doubt- less i will be vigorously pushed under the inipulse of Mr. Colo. Meetings ofrpertieular trades have also been held * announded; the last we hear of being that of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who, at the request of the Department tot their etifipetation, passed Orestilution on the 20th of. last month inciting to exertion the members Of the Institution and the, producers of machinery throughout the- United. Kingdom; and hey° senti round circulars te the patties concerned: In a pdiliti so: vitally touching the honour of England, it is: -to be' supposed: that- the response will, he, this 'aubjeot,i we may observe, -that few hranebes of British ,pro- ductiveness are less known. nt ,Paris,•ot likely, if properly repreSented, to excite more interest and .curiosity, than our -works 61 art. TO the Frenchman, English art Consists-of Darman, the-time at least of Rey- nolds, a 'tradition of 'Hogaitb,, end perliaps we,-ehonhi include Martino- As a nation, we are not hupposed to- occupyany: position. ittert ;, -and such; minor matters as the foundation by the L'oserapheelites of what. ;:tur4141.,, calls "a school nobler than the world has seen for three hundred years," , or as the distinctive styles of our painters of the present and the preced- ing generation, are scarcely known to be transacted under the sun (our neighbours would say, within the " brouillard perpetuel") at all. If we I might learn a good deal from the French, they also might gain the hint of not a little from us. On every account—pecuniary, friendly, and I bearing upon national and individual self-respect—we do think it most I desirable that all good artists in England (no countless legion, Heaven I knows !) should send some well-considered specimen of their quality. Artists, however, are not a very united or cooperative body ; and we greatly fear, that unless a change come over the spirit in which they generally treat such affairs, the representation of British art will be re- duced to flabby academicisms from deluded students abroad, and miscel- laneous exuvice of incapables at home. Perhaps, if the artists will not look to it for themselves, the possessors of valuable works from their hands will be patriotic enough to do so.
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