complishment of so
worthy and so great a work. The whole subject of their usefulness
resolves itself into the following queries:

I. Has any person of decided genius, who was unknown, friendless, and in
need, been sought out by them, assisted, encouraged, and at last added
to the effective number of artists who are profitably employed among us?

II. Have those artists who have received the larger share of the
patronage of these institutions, shown by their works a corresponding
advance in the knowledge and love of excellence and truth in art?

III. Have they furnished any peculiar advantages to artists, as a body,
by supplying the means of their improvement, in a free access to books,
casts, pictures, or good engravings?

IV. Do Art-Unions promote the interests and reward the labors of those
who are most eminently deserving?

V. Do they elevate the pursuit of art, in the minds of the people, and
teach them its value, by distributing to them, in return for their
subscriptions, _only_ the best specimens which they can purchase from
the studios of our artists?

VI. Are there a dozen well known artists who will openly testify to a
conviction of their usefulness?

It is believed by many that an affirmative response cannot be given to
these questions; and if not, then the subject of their influence need be
no longer discussed.

It is not my intention, nor my desire, to inquire into the _management_
of these institutions. It is only at the system itself that I wish to
direct the attention of the reader. If it is proved that, as a system,
this is not calculated to elevate and enlarge the sphere of the arts,
but on the contrary, that its tendency is to degrade and stifle all that
is lovely and desirable in their pursuit, then there will be no need of
troubling ourselves with the lower and baser subject of management; for
there is no bad system, which, by any method, can be managed into a good
one, and satisfy the just demands of those whose interests it professes
to hold in its keeping.

Numbers rather than quality seem to govern the Art-Unions in their
purchases of works, that they may give to subscribers a greater number
of _chances_ to draw something for their money, and thus encourage them
to future _patronage_. This is the principle on which all lotteries
live: and when we come to sift the matter to the bottom, we cannot but
acknowledge that Art-Unions are nothing else but lotteries, under
another and more popula