or ever has done in that of any academy. The
last question is a matter of fact and history, not of mere opinion or
prejudice; and may be ascertained as such accordingly. The mighty names
of former times rose before the existence of academies; and the
three greatest painters, undoubtedly, that this country has produced,
Reynolds, Wilson, and Hogarth, were not 'dandled and swaddled' into
artists in any institution for the fine arts. I do not apprehend that
the names of Chantrey or Wilkie (great as one, and considerable as the
other of them is) can be made use of in any way to impugn the jet of
this argument. We may find a considerable improvement in some of our
artists, when they get out of the vortex for a time. Sir Thomas Lawrence
is all the better for having been abstracted for a year or two from
Somerset House; and Mr. Dawe, they say, has been doing wonders in the
North. When will he return, and once more 'bid Britannia rival Greece'?

Mr. Canning somewhere lays it down as a rule, that corporate bodies are
necessarily correct and pure in their conduct, from the knowledge which
the individuals composing them have of one another, and the jealous
vigilance they exercise over each other's motives and characters;
whereas people collected into mobs are disorderly and unprincipled from
being utterly unknown and unaccountable to each other. This is a curious
_pass_ of wit. I differ with him in both parts of the dilemma. To begin
with the first, and to handle it somewhat cavalierly, according to the
model before us; we know, for instance, there is said to be honour among
thieves, but very little honesty towards others. Their honour consists
in the division of the booty, not in the mode of acquiring it: they
do not (often) betray one another, but they will waylay a stranger, or
knock out a traveller's brains: they may be depended on in giving the
alarm when any of their posts are in danger of being surprised; and they
will stand together for their ill-gotten gains to the last drop of their
blood. Yet they form a distinct society, and are strictly responsible
for their behaviour to one another and to their leader. They are not a
mob, but a _gang,_ completely in one another's power and secrets. Their
familiarity, however, with the proceedings of the _corps_ does not
lead them to expect or to exact from it a very high standard of moral
honesty; that is out of the question; but they are sure to gain the good
opinion of their fellows