bt if this gross feeling has altogether subsided. We do not
yet take a national pride in works of genius, unless they immediately
bear upon the art of living. No country is so rich as ours in private,
and none so poor in public collections. And if we progress so slowly
in our National Gallery, we can scarcely wonder that public
institutions of the kind have not been dreamed of in the provinces. We
sincerely hope that the movement Mr Ewart is making will be crowned
with success, and that in time "collections" in our cities and towns
will be the result.

The Musee of Paris, in 1844, contained upwards of fifteen hundred
pictures. According to the catalogue compiled in 1781, the Imperial
Gallery of Vienna then contained twelve hundred and thirty-four.
According to the catalogue of 1839, the Dresden gallery contained
eighteen hundred and fifty-seven. At Munich, the present king has
erected a spacious building, into which he has draughted a selection,
from among several thousands, of about fifteen hundred. And what have
we done to improve the national taste? And strange, indeed, does it
appear, that whenever such a subject is brought before the public mind
in Parliament, it is solely with a view to the connexion of art with
manufactures. There must be in the nature of things a certain
connexion; but unnecessarily to bind them in union is to bind then
unnaturally, and to put the shackles upon the higher, which cannot
bear them without degradation. We hail with great pleasure every
publication whose object is to promote a love for the fine arts; and
more particularly those which show a due reverence for the old
masters; for, however unwilling we may be to limit the power of
genius, no one who has any pretensions to taste, and is of a
cultivated mind, will deny that, if their works are not perfection,
they are at least in a right direction. The novelties which more
modern art has sought will pass away, we are persuaded, as not founded
upon true principles, and we shall best advance by properly
appreciating what has been done before us. We will not here enter into
the subject of the _decadence_ of art, nor its causes. We believe that
if adequate national and provincial galleries were formed, more
especially at our universities, the improved public taste would create
a demand which this country would not lack genius to supply. We are
not in the exact condition of Italy at the sudden rise of art there.
The public, in the days of R