and utility of such works. The king asked him if it was well done now? Johnson answered, he had no reason to think it was. The king next enquired if there were any other literary journals published in this kingdom, except the Monthly and Critical Reviews; and on being answered there was no other, his majesty asked which of them was the best? Johnson said, that the Monthly Review was done with most care, the Critical upon the best principles; adding, that the authors of the former were hostile to the church. This the king said he was sorry to hear.

The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions; when Johnson observed, that the Royal Society had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly. "Aye," said the king, "they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that;" for his majesty remembered a circumstance which Johnson himself had forgotten. His majesty next expressed a desire to have the literary biography of the country ably executed, and proposed to the doctor to undertake it; and with this wish, so graciously expressed, Johnson readily complied.

During this interview, the doctor talked with profound respect; but still in his firm manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone which is common at the levee and drawing-room. Afterwards he observed to Mr. Barnard, the librarian, "Sir, they may talk of the king as they will, but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." And he also observed at another time to Mr. Layton, "Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman, as we may suppose Louis the Fourteenth, or Charles the Second, to have been."

BISHOP WARBURTON.

In the letters of this literary Colossus, left for publication by his friend, Bishop Hurd, there is the following characteristic anecdote, in which the urbanity of the monarch, stands well contrasted with the roughness of the controversialist. "I brought," says the bishop (February 20, 1767), "as usual, a bad cold with me to town; and this being the first day I ventured out of doors, it was employed, as in duty bound, at court, it being a levee day. A buffoon lord in waiting (you may guess who I mean) was very busy in marshalling the circle; he said to me,' Move forward, you clog up the door.' I replied with as little civility, Did nobody clog up the king's doorstead more than 1, there would be room for all honest men.' This brought the man to himself. When the king came up to me, be asked why I did not come to levee before? I said, I understood there was no business going forward in the house in which I could be of service to his majesty.' He replied, 'He supposed the severe storm of snow would have brought me up.' I replied, I was under the cover of a very warm house.' You see, by all this, how unfit I am for courts."

The king, when in conversation with Dr. Johnson, observed, that Pope made Warburton a bishop. "True, sir," said Johnson; "but Warburton did more for Pope---he made him a Christian!" alluding no doubt to his ingenious comments on the "Essay on Man."

EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK.

The king's brother, Edward, Duke of York, who died in Italy in the year 1768, had the reputation of being a prince of very lively and gallant parts. Bishop Newton adds his personal testimony in confirmation of the popular opinion, and expresses his conviction, that had he outlived the years of dissipation, he would have proved an honour to his king and country. The duke possessed, by all accounts, much of the family quality of courage. He accompanied the unfortunate expedition to Cherbourg, and was always foremost where danger called. On one occasion he advanced so near the town, as to expose his person to some shot from the enemy.

A ball

grazing en ricochet near the spot where he stood, a serjeant sprung before him, to defend his royal highness with his body. The prince was so pleased with this uncommon mark of courage and attachment, that he rewarded the man with a handsome gratuity.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

"A nation," says an elegant anonymous writer, may be considered great by its achievements in arms, or in commerce; but can never be said to be truly polished, till it fosters the polite arts, the acquisition of which sinks every other pursuit into comparative insignificance. They open a sixth sense upon every one who successfully cultivates them. The savage eats his food, and falls asleep; the man of mere

wealth, does little more; but in those who seek pleasure in cultivating a taste for the fine arts, the pleasures of sense hold but a subordinate place."

The reign of George III. presents no event perhaps more worthy the notice of the bistorian, than the remarkable progress which was made during it in the fine arts. Before his majesty's accession, we had no native artists of celebrity, either in painting or sculpture. Hogarth alone excepted, in the former; and some writers had advanced it gravely as a fact, that the English climate was incapable of fostering or maturing genius. Many of the arts of life had advanced amongst us to a state of great perfection; our literature had reached a height beyond which no age can pass; but painting, sculpture, and architecture, were suffered to be neglected. No sooner however did the august patronage of the sovereign manifest itself in behalf of those arts, than a general feeling for them ran through the kingdom; every order of the state was forward to encourage them; and the impulse thus given to the arts, produced great artists in the same manner as a revolution produces great statesmen and great generals.

The country which before had given encouragement to the lifeless productions of Kneller, Hudson, and Jarvis in painting, to the deformities of Rysbrack and Scheemacher in sculpture, and to the clumsy masses of Vanburgh, Gibbs, and Batty in architecture, now saw, with the accession of a youthful sovereign, the beginning of an era that has matured to perfection a numerous band of artists. The deformities of Rysbrack gave way to the tasteful and classical productions of Bacon and Nollekens; while the architectural

absurdities of the olden time were supplanted by the chaste productions of two eminent Scotsmen, Adams and Stewart. In painting, we saw Reynolds rise eminently superior in portraits, while West chose for the exercise of his pencil the deeds of the heroes and heroines of antiquity. Gainsborough delighted every eye by the sweetness of his landscapes, and Wright poured in the grandeur of his Mount Vesuvius.

The genius thus kindled, gradually expanded; and perhaps no political vicissitude to which the nation may be subject, will ever be able to extinguish that spirit which characterizes the present race of Britons, in regard to the polite arts.

The grand lever by which this mighty change was effected, was the establishment, in 1769, of the Royal Academy, of which his majesty always gloried in being the founder. He presented the academy with a magnificent suit of apartments in Somerset House; and ever after watched over its proceedings with the most paternal interest and anxiety.

It is not a little curious to observe the light in which that great moralist, Dr. Johnson, beheld the infant establishment, with its attendant, the Exhibition. He speaks of them thus: "Reynolds has been successful in getting established the Royal Academy, and talks about nothing but the exhibition. Poor mortals! as if human life were not short enough to perform all the necessary duties, without contrivances like these to render the time still shorter !"

The king's love of the arts was displayed very early. A letter from a celebrated virtuoso and antiquary, dated Rome, October 16, 1762, speaks of it in the following terms: