display of their works in minor galleries, to waiting for
years and years ere they can work themselves up to good positions on
the walls of the Academy. Many of these gentlemen, however, exhibit
both in the smaller and the greater collection; but here and there an
artist will be found obstinately confining his contributions to one
pet establishment--possibly entertaining a notion that he has been
deeply wronged by the Hanging Committee of another.

Both of the exhibitions under notice are very various in merit; but
each generally contains some able works, and the specialties of one or
two painters distinguished by notable peculiarities. Thus the
president of the British Artists, Mr Hurlstone, has for several
seasons confined himself to Spanish subjects; Mr West paints Norwegian
landscape; Mr Pyne sends to this gallery only his very splendid
lake-pictures; and Mr Woolmer's curious sketches, which seem
compounded of the styles of Turner and Watteau, blaze almost
exclusively upon the walls. The best men of the National Institution
contribute also to the Royal Academy--as, for example, Mr Glass, with
his capital groups of hunters or troopers, so full of life and
movement; and Mr Parker, with his smugglers and coast-boatmen. In this
exhibition--and, indeed, in all the London exhibitions--a family, or
rather a race or clan of artists, connected at once by blood and
style, and rejoicing in the name of Williams, abound and flourish
exceedingly. These Williamses are dreadful puzzlers to the students of
the catalogue; they positively swarm upon every page, and the
bewildered reader is speedily lost in a perfect chaos of
undistinguishable initials. Sometimes, indeed, the Williamses come
forth under other appellations--they appear as Percies and Gilberts;
but the distinguishing mark is strong, and a moment's inspection
convinces the amateur that the landscape before him, attributed to Mr
So-and-so, is the work of 'another of these everlasting Williamses.'

But the first Saturday of May arrives, and with it many a rumour, true
and false, of the state of matters within the Royal Academy--of the
academicians who exhibit, and of what are to be 'the' pictures. From
early morning, St Martin's bells have been ringing, and a festival
flag flies from the steeple; no great pomp, to be sure, but it marks
the occasion. About noon, the Queen's party arrives, and Her Majesty
is conducted about the rooms by the leading members of the Academy.