their brother artists; he, therefore, proposed, that every member should
contribute an equal sum of money to the establishment, and should have
an equal right to vote on every question relative to the society. He
considered electing presidents, directors, and professors, to be a
ridiculous imitation of the forms of the French Academy, and liable to
create jealousies.[3] Under Hogarth's guidance, the Academy continued
for thirty years, with little alteration, to the high satisfaction of
its several members, and the public in general.

[3] Our Royal Academy is _now_ governed precisely on the same
principles as is the French Academy. What would Hogarth have
said, had he lived at the present day?

On ascending the British throne, George III. evinced so much interest
for the arts, that most of the members of the academy (though contrary
to the wishes of their leader, who possessed a most independent spirit,)
solicited the royal patronage to a plan they had in view of establishing
an academy for _painting, sculpture_, and _architecture_. The success of
this appeal is too well known to English readers to need much comment.
His majesty was pleased to appropriate those very splendid apartments in
Somerset-house for the use of artists, who shortly formed a _new_
society, over which, by his majesty's special command, the great Sir
Joshua Reynolds presided.

G.W.N.

* * * * *


VOLCANOES.