rts engaged not a little of the attention
of the British Public during the late reign, is a fact too
notorious to require proof. The establishment of the Royal
Academy, in 1768, and its consequent yearly Exhibitions,
awakened the observation or stimulated the vanity of the
easy and the affluent, of the few who had taste, and of the
many who were eager to be thought the possessors of it, to a
subject already honoured by the solicitude of the sovereign.
A considerable proportion of the public was thus induced to
talk of painting and painters, and to sit for a portrait
soon became the fashion; a fashion, strange to say, which
has lasted ever since. Whether the talents of Sir Joshua
Reynolds as a painter, were alone the cause of his high
reputation, may, however, admit of a doubt. From an early
period of life, he had the good fortune to be associated in
friendship with several of the most eminent literary
characters of the age; amongst whom there were some whose
high rank and personal consequence in the country greatly
assisted him to realize one leading object which he had in
view, that of uniting in himself (perhaps for the first time
in the person of an English painter) the artist and the man
of fashion. From his acknowledged success in the attainment
of this object, tending as it did to the subversion of
ancient prejudices degrading to art, what beneficial effects
might not have resulted, had the President exerted his
influence to sustain the dignity of the artist in others!
But satisfied with the place in society which he himself had
gained, he left the rest of the Academy to follow his
example, if they could, seldom or never mixing with them in
company, and contenting himself with the delivery of an
annual lecture to the students. Genius is of spontaneous
growth, but education, independence, and never-ceasing
opportunity, are necessary to its full developement.

Since then they have regularly two annual exhibitions; one, of the best
works of the old masters, for the improvement of the public taste,
and knowledge of the artists, varied by some of the deceased British
artists, alternately with that on their old plan of the exhibition and
sale of the works of living artists.

The directors of this laudable Institution have also exhibited and
procured the loan