Liverpool and Manchester are, in patronage of the Fine Arts,
determined to surpass Venice and Genoa in their most opulent and cultivated days. Too often the picture galleries of the Cottoncrats are bought to be sold again, but so may have been those of some at least of the prince-merchants of the Levant. In any case, great, and sometimes even small, artists get prices such as their works would not have brought if the " new rich " were not there to compete with the nobles and squires. The Mayor of Liverpool has done a finer thing than buy a gallery of his own ; he has undertaken to build one to be presented to the town, and the Duke of Edinburgh laid the first stone on Monday. Of course, the Sailor Prince was well received in the great sea-port, and of course he spoke in a way which, we are assured by the Times, "elicited great applause," on the topic of merchant shipping. "I believe I may look around me," said his Royal Highness, " I believe I may look around me, and I cannot see here—I am look- ing far and wide in Liverpool, and cannot find—a man who would send his ship to sea in a condition that would not be seaworthy." It is a pity Diogenes is- no more. This is a case where his lan- tern might have been of some little use. Can Mr. Plimsoll not name even one " man " in all Liverpool ?
Previous page
