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    THE HALWAY STEAM LIXE.

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    education , they will be all but useless . It is not probable tUat the stuffed animals will retain possession of the Museum much longer ; they will be taken to the same place , and the Eastern and Central parts of the metropolis will have as much shaise ' m or benefit from ' them as they have in the treasures of the louvre , or those of the Jardin des Plantes . . If our men of art and tnen of science could only be got to act harmoniously , we might yet have a plan devised which sliould render available for their most important purposes the really magniffcent collections which we possess . The first requisite is undoubtedly that those of one kind should be kept together . We will begin with pictures . Foreigners are fond of comparing the great with the collection

    galleries on the Continent comparatively poor m the National Gallery ; they say , look at Franee , Belgium . Spam , luscany , Rome , Dresden—all unquestionably have finer collections than our own ; but their these are made the most of , and ours is treated on the contrary principle . It is true that the national collection is enlarged and enlarging , and that it is not fairly est . iui . ated by those foreigners who sneer at it ; but granting all this , we do not ourselves do it justice . We have many separate collections , and we ou « -ht to make them into one . If the Vebxon collection , the TunxER gallerv , the pictures given by Mr . Siikepshanks the chief from Hampton Court , and others equally the property ot the nation , were all gathered together at Charing Cross , o . ur . gallery would almost vie with that of France . And why should it not be 50 ? The great utility of a large gallery to ( he student is that it enables him to compare a great number of schools and styles ; that look from to

    lie may , while the impression is fresh in his mind , one the other ; that he may be spared , not so much the trouble and time of running from one part of London to another , as the lading out of the impressionmade at once on the eye and on the . mind . Ihe nation would gain in credit , the student in facilities for perfecting himself in his art > and he who only desires help in a general , not a special education , would be able to improve his taste and gratify Ma mind at the least possible expenditure of time and labour . Indeed , much as we object to the removal of the pictures from Charing Gross , we would rather consent to this , if all our national pictarial treasures were gathered together , than see thein perma nently separated . Kensington is not an inaccessible place ; and though it would be -a hard thing for Hackney , Clapton * fetoke Newington , and places similarly situated , to find -themselves virtually further off from the centre of civilization and refinement , yet the gallery would be . more efficient as a school of art , and artists must come and live near the pictures . . ' .

    ... „ But the question may arise , What is the province of Art ? Is it to diffuse the light of taste , and genius , and . rjsfiuertvent- over society , or is it merely to perpetuate itself by raising itp new artists t There are some who maintain this latter theory .- We are not . ot . the number ; and while we admit that , as a school for painters , the pictures might do as well at Kensington as at Charing Cross , still , in all other respects , they would be infinitely less useful . We have lately heard a great deal about the effect of gas upon paintings , and the possibility of their being exhibited by artificial light , mid thus made accessible in the evening ; and it appears tolerably clear that -HiflmJsjno-difficult y in the matter at all—that the pictures suffer no ininryand that they can be profitably seen mrd-rrpprcciatedr

    be willing liberally to pay . Again , we should have specimens of French and Italian , of German and Swedish sculpture , and be able to compare the meretricious school of Canovx with the pure ^ noble conceptions of some whom we have named . We ought to have the power of comparing Phidias and Pkaxiteles with those who are following the same path to glory , and of estimating who has approached the nearest to the grand simplicity of the antique . Were such a gallery open to the public , the public would learn what it little suspects , and what some in high places do not ^ wish it to know , viz ., that we are as far in advance of all other nations m this purest and noblest of the arts as we are in railways , steam engines , and spinning-jennies . __ _ . p . ... ,. „ , ., „ paintingthe produc

    Once more , we want a gallery of comparative , - tions of the modern French , German , Italian , and Spanish schools— - for there is a Spanish school—placed so that they can be compared one with another , and all with our own . We should have the same cause for exultation here . England heads the world in painting , in sculpture , and in architecture , in engineering , and in all save the lower department of the arts of design . What is now wanted is simply this—that those who are so well qualified to teach should be permitted to speak to the people ; for this reason we would make Charing Cross the school for painting and sculpture , and we would make it as complete as possible . We want good casts p f the great works of antiquity of which we do not possess the originals , and to these should be added some of the more remarkable of modern continental works . '

    A few casts of some Assyrian slabs would find a place in such a gallery as bearing upon the history of art ; but the originals should be kept in the Museum , as , strictly speaking , antiquities . On the other hand , the Elgix marbles , as works of high art , should be removed bodily to the gallery . A few casts of Egyptian specimens might , for historical purposes , be placed in the gallery , while the originals should remain where they are ; and by this transfer the Museum would be made large enough to display many treasures which at present are not exhibited , simply for want of room . Another reform must come , and the sooner the better . The Museum ou ° -ht to be open every day from ten o ' clock in the morning till ten o ' clock at night . If pictures can stand gas ; surely there is nothing in the Museum which can be hurt by it . To talk of absurd twenty

    expense is more than , ; we squander away yearly ' times ' - a . * much . as would double the staff of officers at the Museum , and pay them well . At T > reseni they are too few in number , ami too poorly remunerated . That-the national collection is open only three days in the week is a fact which few foreigners will believe ; it is a source of innumerable disappointments , and is nothing ; short of a blot upon pur national escutcheon . It would be a university in itself , were it opened every day , and all day long ; and all that is wanted to secure this is merely the advocacy iii Parliament of some true friend of the people . This would furnish a more powerful rival to the beer-shop and the gin-palace than any yet devised , and would do as much to spread among- the people a love for history and science , as a gallery such as we could have would do to promote a love and knowledge of art .

    situated as possible . It is a fatiguing thing to examine a gallery , and a long , tedious walk is anything rather than a good . . preparation for . it . The fuct is , that the people have some right to be considered in the matter , and as yet their convenience has been altogether neglected . There is no sufficient reason why all our pictures sliould not be congregated at Charing Cross ; the building is capable of almost indefinite extension . The National Portrait Gallery ought to be under the same roof with the Cartoons ot 1 < . apjuel and the legacy of Turner , and all within reach of every part of the metro-,

    , Now , if an atmosphere lighted by gas does not injure thorn , sureJy nothin" more can he said about the air of Charing Cross being unwholesome for their complexions . Indeed , we imagine that notion to be now altogether exploded . We would gladly see artisana and their families enjoying the sight of those magnificent works of art , and profiting by the enjoyment . We would educate their eyes to the beauties of form and colour , and raise up men capable of designs as graceful as those which we now obtain from Franco and Itnlv . For this purposeour great collection should be as centrally

    Aguin , time as well ns place should be considered ; it is useless to crowd too many classes of objects togethor . The variety distracts tho mind , nnd provonts any one from being useful . Kensington is a very good place for objects of miscellaneous art . Jewellery , furniture , china , mnjolica wave , carvings in ivory , shrines , —aill may bo studied here to advantage . The Architectural Museum is quite m its place , nor do we object to models of machinery and educational materials ; but the painting nnd sculpture wo would most decidedly

    remove . We want a great school for sculpture . We see no reason why it should not be ull collected in . the British Museum ; or if , which would be 'better' still , the National ( inllery were sufiioiently enlarged , it might find ¦'» place there . But whou u'e apeak at Bculpturo , we would not only exhibit the actual work * . of nnciuub genius whi < ih wo possess in that art , wo would secure sufficient works of our osvn eminent men to show what \ Vo liuve dono ourselves , and whiit We cnn still do . It is a disgrace to us as a nation thnt wo huve not a gallery of modem sculpture I uxm . an , Noixekens , Chantkky , among the dopartud ; Louau among tlio living , not to mention Bailey , Pickeksgill , Makshall Wood , and many others , would surely afford inuterials for such a collection , of which tho nation might justly bo proud , nnd for which it would

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    niHE announcement which lately appeared to *¦ Government had appointed the 2 'Jth of this month for the first new steamer of the Gahviiy line to open the fortnightly service between Ireland and America ,, according to the terms of the contract for the subsidy , has been received in Ireland with the gratification due to such cheering intelligence . Not that any doub 6 lias , for long past , existed in well-informed circles , that the contract would be carried out and the vessels run , but still the fulfilment of a o-reat ' . promise and the fruition of a great boon caimot and should satisfaction tho

    not be realized without a due manifestation of on part of those who are most directly concerned and benefited . Henceforth the Gulway line ceases to be the subject of doubts and innuendoes , of inquiries and committees ; it will no longer furnish a partisan rallying cry , or bo the butt of jealous attack . It now forms an established part of the great postal scheme of the empire , and for at least seven years must bo acknowledged as such . The Atlantic Company ' s magnificent steamer , the Connuught , leads off first in the new great postal race , and now that the question is settled and all animosities laid aside , there is no one , we should think , so unworthy

    as not to bid the noble ship " good speed' on her destined traiib-Atlantic course . Now that tho much-looked-for report of the Committee on Contracts has come out , we are enabled to learn how contracts are obtained and how refused . Wo are let into tho secret of a good deal of blundering and a good deal of by-play . Of course wo are : how could it be otherwise V If oven so plain a mntter as a contract for a gunboat cannot be carried out without tho most flagrant jobbery and tho most direful results , what can wo expect when two or three departments , o ; ich equal to any amount of incapacity

    arid blunders , are - muddled in- confusion to produoo onoresult ? TJio Treasury , tho AdmiruUv , und tho Podt-oflice have all iv finger in the contract pie . The wonder is not how anything should bo done , but that it is done ut all . Bo this us it may , not only lias a lino of steamers been 'established from -Gulwny to America ; but Sir Samuht , Cunaud , pending tho decision of tho contract , and in rivalry to tho Gulway lino as kept upon by tho energy of its promoters , started tho Lino from Queenstown , Ireland , und even the Canadian steamers are to make Londonderry their port of departure . The Committee on Coutraots acknowledge that they doubt whether Cork would ever hove become

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    568 The Leader and SatAJirdc vy Analyst . 1 *™* > * SpP-

    The Halway Steam Lixe.

    THE HALWAY STEAM LIXE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2352/page/12/