ed way to manage that affair would be to have a committee
chosen of impartial judges, men who would look only to the merits of
the work and the interests of the country, unbiassed by any personal
interest in favor of some one artist. It is said it is impossible to
find such a committee, but I cannot believe it. Let there be put aside
the mean squabbles and jealousies, the vulgar pushing of unworthy
friends, with which, unhappily, the artist's career seems more rife
than any other, and a fair concurrence established; let each artist
offer his design for an equestrian statue of Washington, and let the
best have the preference.

Mr. Crawford has made a design which he takes with him to America, and
which, I hope, will be generally seen. He has represented Washington
in his actual dress; a figure of Fame, winged, presents the laurel and
civic wreath; his gesture declines them; he seems to say, "For me the
deed is enough,--I need no badge, no outward, token in reward."

This group has no insipid, allegorical air, as might be supposed; and
its composition is very graceful, simple, and harmonious. The costume
is very happily managed. The angel figure is draped, and with, the
liberty-cap, which, as a badge both of ancient and modern times, seems
to connect the two figures, and in an artistic point of view balances
well the cocked hat; there is a similar harmony between the angel's
wings and the extremities of the horse. The action of the winged
figure induces a natural and spirited action of the horse and rider. I
thought of Goethe's remark, that a fine work of art will always have,
at a distance, where its details cannot be discerned, a beautiful
effect, as of architectural ornament, and that this excellence the
groups of Raphael share with the antique. He would have been pleased
with the beautiful balance of forms in this group, with the freedom
with which light and air play in and out, the management of the whole
being clear and satisfactory at the first glance. But one should go
into a great number of studies, as you can in Rome or Florence, and
see the abundance of heavy and inharmonious designs to appreciate the
merits of this; anything really good seems so simple and so a matter
of course to the unpractised observer.

Some say the Americans will not want a group, but just the fact; the
portrait of Washington riding straight onward, like Marcus Aurelius,
or making an address, or lifting his sword. I do not know about
t