itur 2tts.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
MONDAY next is a day for those interested in National Gallery matters to be on the qui wive. The establishment reopens after its autumn recess, and it is to be assumed that the new constitution will be set actually in motion. The essentials of the relative position of Director and Trustees will have changed ; the former coming in for the real responsibility, the latter almost subsiding into a consultative body and "constitutional fic- tion." Herr Otto Mill:idler, the paragon connoisseur, who has the addi- tional recommendation of being not an Englishman but a German, will be, let us suppose, on his Continental rounds, hunting up pictures for us ; and, now that Parliament votes an annual grant for this purpose, we may really begin to look out for results. Shall we discover any results already upon the walls on Monday ? or shall we find some more of the old pic- tures "restored," and ourselves presented with a new lease of acrimonious discussion, wherein the words " renovated in pristine glory " shall be ban- died about against "flayed, scrubbed, ghastly, and abolished" ? Probably enough, we shall find neither of these things, for that neither is the ground to which British officialism willingly lets itself down between two stools.
One may hope, at ally rate, that the men are at their posts, and the system fairly started. After that, the great thing is that the public should keep their eyes upon both, and that the governing body, fully sensible of responsibility but uncowed by it, should act up to the best of their own judgment, let the public brow contract ever so thundrously.
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