Academies, they formed a scheme of an annual exhibition of their works, which, it was supposed, would be a probable means of attracting the publick attention. In this speculation they were not disappointed; and having thus secured a firmer footing, they afterwards (Jan. 26, 1765,) obtained a royal charter of incorporation." Not long after their incorporation, however, the Artists. who were not incorporated, conceiving some jealousy against this body, resolved no longer to submit to their regulations, and to undertake an Exhibition of their own: which was continued for a few years with no great success. To compose these jarring interests,

Exhibition. They please themselves much with the multitude of spectators, and imagine that the English School will rise in reputation." Boswell's Life of Johnson, i. 328.

25 The principle artists from whom this scheme originated, were Mr. Moser, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Penny, Mr. Hayman, Mr. West. Mr. Sandby, Mr. Stubbs, and Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Chambers; whose ready access to his Majesty, in consequence of his official situation, facilitated and gave efficacy to his exertions.

and to give permanent dignity to a new establishment, his Majesty, in Dec. 1768, was pleased to institute a ROYAL ACADEMY of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, composed of “the ablest and most respectable

26 An Academy had been constituted under the royal patronage in 1767; but the plan was more confined, and the Institution was supported by an Annual Subscription. The new Royal Establishment instituted in 1768, which still subsists, was to be supported by the produce of an annual Exhibition; and the deficiency (if any) was to be supplied out of his Majesty's privy purse. For a few years the infant institution required the aid of his Majesty's bounty; who, at various times, was pleased to advance for its support above 5000l. The Exhibitions, however, becoming annually more profitable, in a short time were more than adequate to support the establishment; in consequence of which the Academy have now a considerable property in the Stocks, part of which they have lately appropriated to create a fund for decayed artists. From 1769 to 1780 the Exhibitions produced, at an average, about 1500l. annually; from 1780 to 1796, about 2500l. The receipts in 1780, when the Academy exhibited their works for the first time at Somerset-place, amounted to more than 3000l. and those of 1796 exceeded the sum produced by the Exhibition of 1780; being the year of the greatest receipt from the first institution of the Academy.

Artists resident in great Britain ;" and Mr. Reynolds, holding unquestionably the first rank in his profession, was nominated their President. Soon afterwards he received the honour of knighthood.

It was no part of the prescribed duty of his office to read lectures to the Academy; but our author voluntarily. imposed this task upon himself, for the reasons which he has assigned in his fifteenth Discourse: If prizes were to be given, it appeared not only proper, but almost indispensably necessary, that something should be said by the President on the delivery of those prizes; and the President for his own credit

27 The two principal objects of this Institution, as stated by the Artists in a Petition to his Majesty, November 28, 1768, were, 1. "the establishment of a wellregulated SCHOOL or ACADEMY OF DESIGN, for the use of Students in the Arts; and 2. an ANNUAL EXHIBITION open to all Artists of distinguished merit, where they might offer their performances to publick inspection, and acquire that degree of reputation and encouragement which they should be deemed to deserve.

would wish to say something more than mere words of compliment; which, by being frequently repeated, would soon become flat and uninteresting, and by being uttered to many, would at last become a distinction. to none I thought, therefore, if I were to preface this compliment with some instructive observations on the art, when we crowned merit in the artists whom we rewarded, I might do something to animate. and guide them in their future attempts." Such was the laudable motive which produced the fifteen DISCOURSES, pronounced by our author between the 2d of Jan. 1769, and the 10th of Dec. 1790:28 a work which

48 In the first year the President delivered two Discourses; in the three years following a Discourse annually; afterwards, only every second year, with the excep tion of that spoken on the removal of the Royal Academy to Somerset-Place.

Previous to the publication of the first edition of these works, a wandering rumour had reached me, that the Discourses delivered by our author were not written by himself, but by his friend Dr. Johnson. This notion. appearing to me too ridiculous and absurd to be gravely

contains such a body of just criticism on arı extremely difficult subject, clothed in such

confuted, I took no notice of it: leaving those who were weak enough to give credit to such an opinion, to reconcile it with the account given by our author himself in a former page, in which, while he acknowledges how much he had profited by the conversation and instruction of that extraordinary man, who "had qualified his mind to think justly," he at the same time informs us, that Johnson had not contributed even a single sentiment to his Discourses.

A new hypothesis, however, has been lately suggested: and among many other statements concerning the late Mr. Burke, which I know to be erroneous, we have been confidently told that they were written by that gentleman.

The readers of poetry are not to learn, that a similar tale has been told of some of our celebrated English poets, According to some, Denham did not write his admired. COOPER'S HILL; and with a certain species of criticks, our great moral poet tells us,

-most authors steal their works, or buy; "Garth did not write his own DISPENSARY.

Such insinuations, however agreeable to the envious and malignant, who may give them a temporary currency, can have but little weight with the judicious and ingenuous part of mankind, and therefore in general merit only silent contempt. But that Mr. Burke was the author of all such parts of these Discourses as do not relate to painting

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