s of portraiture; and if that be so,
in what costume is the Englishman of the present century to descend to
remotest posterity through the vehicle of the gifted artists whom I see
around me? We are not all sufficiently fortunate to be the Chancellor of
the University. [Laughter and cheers.] We have not always even the happy
chance to be a municipal dignitary, with a costume which I will not at
present characterize. [Laughter.] We are not all of us masters of
hounds; and I think that the robes of a peer, unattractive in their
aesthetic aspect, have lost something of their popularity. [Laughter.]
Again, the black velvet coat, with which we are accustomed to associate
deep thought and artistic instincts, has become a little faded.
[Laughter.]

I am told, and told four or five times every day in speeches delivered
in various parts of the country, that I have no right to offer a
criticism without offering a suggestive remedy. Well, Sir Frederic, I am
prepared to offer my remedy for what it is worth, and for that reason I
ask your co-operation. Why should not a committee of the Royal Academy
gather together in order to find some chaste and interesting national
costume, in which the distinguished men of the nineteenth century might
descend to posterity without the drawbacks which I have pointed out?
Robespierre had such a costume designed, and other great sumptuary
legislators have had the same idea in their minds; and I would not push
the suggestion so far as to imply that we should be compelled to wear
this costume in ordinary life. It might be one kept to gratify the
artistic instincts of those to whom we sit. [Laughter.] And I will make
a practical suggestion by which this costume--when you, sir, have
selected it--might be associated with the ordinary run of life. It might
be made an official costume of a justice of the peace, and in that way
the great mass of our fellow-countrymen, with only a few and
insignificant exceptions, of whom I am one, might descend to remotest
posterity in a graceful, becoming, and official costume. [Laughter.]

I pass on from that, because I should not limit myself to portraiture in
a great survey of this kind; and I may say that I am seriously concerned
for the prospects of landscape painting in this country. I have of late
been doing a great deal of light travelling in behalf of the respectable
firm which I represent [laughter], and I beg at once to give notice, in
the hearing of the noble m