To-day being the first of the New Year, this Exhibition was as usual opened to the public, and we think all true lovers of Art will agree that it is a most satisfactory one, and displays more than the usual average merit of our Exhibitions, whether we consider the aggregate number of important works, their size, their execution, or the noble prices they have realised to their authors; such prices having been, according to the lately adopted custom, published in the catalogues issued after the day of the Private View, when connoisseurs have made their selection of the works not previously disposed of in the _ateliers_ of the artists. This (which is, after all, the true test of success) greatly enhances the interest of these catalogues, affording a guide as to the degree of public favour in which the respective artists are held. Reform in the Academy itself, so long demanded, has been at last effected, in spite of all the obstacles thrown in the way of the reformers, who desired to break down the monopoly so long maintained by the painters and sculptors, who would only consent to the admission of a limited number of architects and engravers into their privileged body. Now, at last, the claims of all artists have been recognised, and Decorators, Carpet-designers, Metalworkers and Electrotypers, Wood Carvers, &c. &c., have been admitted within its walls, and the magic letters R.A. may frequently be found attached to the names of the leading members of many of our manufacturing firms. In fact, we may say that Painting and Sculpture have found their level, and now that the great canon of Art has been thoroughly established, and it is acknowledged that _Utility_, not _Beauty_, is its only legitimate aim, and Scientific Reality and Accuracy, not wild attempts at attaining a so-called Ideality, its true goal of perfection, the merits of these too-long unrecognised geniuses have been found to surpass all others. The mechanical helps with which Science has supplied us have rendered it possible to accomplish feats of which our ancestors had no idea. Photography has enabled us to reproduce all possible forms, thus securing, with great economy of labour, the facile execution of stupendous works adapted for the decoration of the outside as well as the inside of our buildings. In this Exhibition, of course, these gigantic works cannot be seen, but the smaller ones by the same artists give us good specimens of their power. No. 3,004, for instance, is well worthy the attention of visitors. It is intended, as the catalogue informs us, for the wall decoration of the Terminus of the Great Central Balloon Station, and gives a very wonderfully correct representation of the three Provinces into which London is now divided, as seen from the distance of six miles above the height of St. Paul’s. Every roof and chimney is