THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Sin.,-On Monday next recurs the annual election of Associate Members of this exclusive body; and as the candidate-list amounts to between fifty and a hundred, the Council have declared that there is room for one. Is not this a satisfactory specimen of the .coolness with which a society of titled English- men can.look down upon their less fortunate brethren in the same pursuit, andicontemn -and despise their efforts to obtain the distinctions which their talents.demand, And which in any other country would be acceded to them ? hit not enouFh.to disgust any student at the outset of his career, in whose breast the spirit of neither despotism nor intrigue was- ever likely to har- bour ?. But this is a national institution notwithstanding, with royal honours and royal protection ; and as nearly three thousand. artists cannot get it thoroughly cleansed out and reformed, the exclusives go merrily' on in their old course, and. condescendingly offer room for one new member as their year's contribution of charity to their fellow. labourers in art ! The Sovereign is kept carefully.ignarant of the real wants of the great body. of artists of ac- knowledged talent; and the Minister utterly indifferent, as it is not a mat- ter of trade or general politics. All I ask is, when will this tyranny and
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