ROYAL ACADEMY.--In the work of the Royal Academy he took the greatest interest, for he had high ideas of what it should attempt in the guidance and direct inculcation of Art. Being himself a man little fettered by system, he was quite aware how little academies can kindle originality of talent, how liable they are to the danger of ignoring or even discouraging it. He had artistic friends, whose genius he greatly admired, among those who stood aloof from the Academy, who were the bitterest denouncers of its actual work, and who would have denied it even a theoretical value. But he always maintained that it had a most important sphere, and he contended, that, allowing for the inevitable defects of all institutions, it was working usefully and conscientiously in the right path. This being the case, he was anxious at all times to improve and develope that action still further, so as to make it, even more than it is, the mainstay and guide of artistic progress. It was to his own department of Art that his attention was mainly directed. This was due, not by any means to a narrow-minded exclusiveness, for his great desire was that all branches of Art should be proportionately represented, but to an idea that architecture and sculpture existed in the Academy almost by sufferance under the overwhelming predominance of the painters, and that they ought to have a larger influence and more extensive representation. His own art he believed to be most comprehensive of all in its scope and requirements, and at least as powerful as any, in its effects on the taste and intellectual progress of the country. He was therefore impatient of its being regarded as holding a secondary position, and having a quasi-mechanical character. As an Associate, an Academician, and a member of Council, he laboured at all times to advance its due claims. More particularly he felt that there was in England a great want of a more formal and definite architectural education, and this want he conceived that the Academy ought to supply. In 1856 a large Committee was formed, with orders to consider how the instruction in the schools of the Royal Academy could be improved. The subject of Architecture was delegated to a small sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. Cockerell and Hardwick, and Sir C. Barry. Each member of the Committee prepared suggestions for a scheme of architectural instruction, and these suggestions were carefully and thoroughly discussed. No result, however, followed from the time and thought expended on the subject; indeed, the sub-Committee were fettered by alleged deficiency, both of accommodation and of funds, for the carrying out of a perfect scheme. They reported accordingly in favour of an annual grant of 150_l._ for a travelling studentship, to be held for one year, and gained by competition amongst the students who had obtained the gold medal. But even this was not acted upon.