terms of the want of intelligence, on purely literary matters, in that distinguished body, and also of the conduct of certain publishers who were doing all they could to prevent the ratification of the treaty.
An incident related by Mr. Irving, tending to illustrate the character of Andrew Jackson, was to this effect: “When Secretary of Legation at St. James’s, in 1831, he was left by Mr. McLane to represent the country in the capacity of Chargé d’Affaires for a period of three months. During that time the coronation of William the Fourth took place, and his expenses were unusually heavy. When he came home he presented a claim for 100l., which was a smaller sum than he had expended. The President said there was no law providing for such claims, but ordered that he should receive the pay of a Chargé for the time employed. And he did receive it—a sum amounting to more than twice what had been prayed for.”
But enough. Though not afraid to tire you with pleasant reminiscences of a man universally honoured and beloved, yet my selfishness and modesty prompt me to reserve a portion of my notes of Mr. Irving’s conversation for my special gratification. A few of his statements bearing upon the truth of history I may give you on some future occasion.
EXHIBITION IN 1862.
In this age of competition in every department of industry, and at a time when such extraordinary development is taking place in almost every system, whether it minister to our personal comfort or to our enjoyment, it will be useful and interesting to bear in mind the importance of small beginnings. With this view it is proposed, now that the Society of Arts has put forth a declaration of its intention to hold a second Great Exhibition in 1862, to point out a few historic facts in reference to past exhibitions.
This Society was established by a body of patriotic gentlemen in 1753, for the promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. With this object they subscribed to a general fund, which they distributed as premiums for the introduction of new raw produce from abroad, the establishment of new industries at home, and the encouragement of an extended love for art among the upper and middle classes of society. Their meetings were first held in a private room at Rawthmell’s Coffee-house in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden; but the Society soon growing in public estimation, removed to a house of its own opposite Beaufort Buildings; and having thus secured rooms of sufficient magnitude, were enabled to afford facilities to the artists of England to bring together their works, which were exhibited collectively for the first time in England in 1760. A second exhibition took place in 1761; and owing to the success which attended these first attempts, a Society of Artists was formed, and subsequently the Royal Academy was established. Thus, from a small beginning in 1760, grew one of the most popular and interesting of our national Exhibitions; proving that the Society of Arts, in declaring as it did, in 1849, its intention to hold an Exhibition in 1851, and as it is again doing with reference to an Exhibition in 1862, is only following out the work for which it was founded. But it is necessary that I should not confine my statement to art. The Society held exhibitions of manufactured articles and of machinery from its earliest foundation; and ultimately established a permanent museum of models, which, accumulating from year to year, at length buried each other in the dust of age, and fell, like the Society itself, into decay.
Exhibitions, as now held, are institutions of our own times, and they have grown out of the efforts made by a few far-seeing men, who combined in 1845 for the purpose of resuscitating the Society of Arts; and this they considered could be most readily effected by directing especial attention to the improvement of design and colour in manufactured articles, as by this means a largely improved taste for art might be cultivated, and an extended sympathy with the Society’s operations enlisted. In order the better to carry out this view, the Society of Arts in 1856 offered and awarded a series of special premiums for designs in earthenware, fictile ivory, and other substances; and among the designs rewarded was a tea-service—such objects being selected as having a place in every home. The tea-service was peculiar for its simplicity of form and the total absence of colour, and was largely sought for by the public. This induced the council, established in 1847 by Royal Charter, to offer a second series of premiums for designs combining simplicity of form with ornaments printed or otherwise obtained by the use of a single colour. And the designs then asked for were to be sent to the Society in the spring of 1847, and exhibited with those rewarded in 1846; in addition to which were some select specimens of British manufactures and decorative art. This series formed the first of the special exhibitions which led to the Exhibition of 1851—an exhibition which may be said to have had a teacup for its foundation. So much for the importance of small beginnings.
The result of the production of the tea-service here referred to, did not, however, stop with the close of the Exhibition of 1851. A large surplus, amounting to about 240,000l. over and above the cost of the Exhibition, remained in the hands of the Royal Commissioners. This sum has since been invested in land at South Kensington, upon which temporary buildings have been erected for a museum, and accommodation provided for the Government Schools of Design.
The museum at South Kensington is daily growing in public favour, but, like all of our public institutions, is the result of small beginnings; for it would almost appear, that our Government is incapable of appreciating and supporting by public grants any large proposition in its entirety: else we should long since have had a National Gallery worthy of the country. The British Museum has been the growth of many years; and from a small collection enclosed within the walls of old Montague House, visible only by