and that the only difficulty was in the selection of new ones; very many Englishmen having such far superior qualifications as to make the field of choice rather wide. What was our astonishment on reading a Treasury Minute at the end of July, to find not only that the mis-managers were reinstated in office at doubled and even quintupled salaries, but that the whole of the appointments were made in March!

We think it right to call the attention of our readers to this flagrant breach of ministerial honour; if the premier, speaking officially in his place in Parliament, can lend himself to a palpable falsehood, where are we to expect truth? Let us look, however, at the appointments which were thus so palpably corrupt, as that Government was ashamed to acknowledge them until the end of the session, when there was no room for the warm discussion which would have inevitably followed their carlier publication. Surely we may not hope for much from men whose very patrons are compelled to repudiate them. First on the list as director, at a salary of £1000 per annum, stands the very man against whom the Parliamentary Committee was directed, and whose utter incompetence had been placed beyond a doubt. We say nothing of Sir Charles Eastlake's ability as a painter-let those who like his productions like them still-the chief qualification of the directorship is not that a man should be a painter himself, but that he should have enough critical acumen to decide upon the paintings of others. As for Sir Charles Eastlake's taste, let our readers judge for themselves what can be the taste of a man who is fond of "touching up" and "restoring" the old masters; who advises us to "take a little dust' and rub it over Claude's landscapes to give them a" gusto!" As for his judgment, let us take two instances. A few years since, a manifestly spurious imitation of Holbein was shewn to him; he allowed himself to be deceived by a palpable forgery on the back of the picture, and bade the whole artistic world join with him in jubilant thanksgiving at the discovery of one of the choicest gems of antiquity. The artistic world generally thought the picture a very inferior daub, and speedily proved its spuriousness, although it is still allowed to displace a better one on the walls of Sir Charles Eastlake's commonly called the "National" - Gallery. So much for his judgment in one point, now let us look at it in another. Five years ago a splendid specimen of Raffaelle was exhibited under a false name; this public connoisseur, so far from recognising the hand of the great master, passed the painting as of no account. Shortly afterwards the original

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drawing, indubitably by the hand of Raffaelle, was found in the "Accademia delle Belle Arti di Venezia ;" what course did Sir Charles Eastlake then pursue? How did he atone for his former blunder? We have the distinguished authority of Mr. Morris Moore, in his two letters to the Morning Advertiser, for saying that he has twice sneaked across the continent to Venice, and tampered with the director there to keep the discovery of the drawing a secret, to allow no photographs to be taken of it, and to place it beyond reach.

So much for the director; his two colleagues are fit companions. The secretaryship is conferred on Mr. R. Wornum, well known as the author of several series of concatenated blunders, which under the high-sounding titles of "Lectures on Art" &c. have often beguiled the unlucky purchaser. But even Mr. Wornum is tolerable by the side of the " travelling agent," Herr Otto Mündler, who is clever enough to extract upwards of £1000 per annum from a Government which professes its inability to divide the same sum among the whole body of scientific men. The prima facie fault which we find with the appointment is that Herr Mündler is a foreigner, and that he has been elevated to his post on the distinct ground that no Englishman is qualified for it. This is a scandalous libel on the art-critics of our country, which we wonder that they do not fling back with indignation. Is Mr. Morris Moore's European reputation entirely baseless? Is Mr. Ruskin utterly incompetent? Even granting this, what is there in Herr Mündler to justify his selection? Why is a "fourth-rate Paris dealer," who first intruded himself on the notice of the trustees by offering for sale-we are happy to say, in vain-a dingy imposture, purporting to be an original Correggio, thrust into a place for which he has never shewn himself qualified. Why, but that he is a sycophant of Dr. Waagen?

There is only one solution to this strange problem—it is one which many collateral circumstances bear out—that the Government has not been quite free in this matter. It would not be the first time that Court influence has stepped forward in the way of English art, for the advancement of German adventurers. We are convinced, however, that an English public will not long allow a trio, such as we have described, to constitute the National " Board of Esthetics;" nor yet will it submit that Dr. Waagen should be permitted to nominate his disciples to public offices, with a calumnious sneer at the many men amongst us who have not given up their lives in vain in the cause of English art.

When we remember what art has done, and might still do for us; when we think of the holy and happy influences which it is calculated to shed on us; of the good thoughts with which it is meant to inspire us; and the delight which, in its proper action, it ought to afford us: and when we add to this, that our national reputation is to no small extent involved in the degradation of national art, we cannot but deeply lament the triumph of court intrigue, and the reinstation in their posts of men who, to conceal their own incapacity, can truckle to the basest acts of which our nature is capable.

GUILD OF ST. ALBAN.

OUR attention has lately been called to the existence of a society entitled "The Guild of St. Alban," whose object is to assist in various ways the clergy of the Church of England. One of its chief works has been the foundation of a college near Tamworth, whose buildings are now in progress, with the following distinct ends in view:

"The praise and worship of Almighty God, by the regular saying of all the offices of the Guild. These include the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Church.

"The provision of a place of retirement for all persons, whether clergy or laity, who may desire either a temporary or permanent retreat from the anxieties and distractions of the world.

"The provisions of means of study for members of the Guild, especially for those who are preparing for Holy Orders.

"The formation of a library of books, &c. on theology, ecclesiastical history, ecclesiology, and kindred subjects.

"The education of a limited number of orphan boys, so as to render them useful to the Church, either at home or abroad.

"The preparation, printing, and dissemination of sound publications upon theology, church history, and discipline.”

We need not point out how desirable a refuge this will furnish for clergymen temporarily laid aside from duty, and compelled by age or sickness to cease their ecclesiastical functions. There are very many, we are sorry to think, among our superannuated clergy, whose scanty incomes are barely sufficient to enable them to drag on a weary existence, who have to spend their old age in obscure lodgings, friendless, or at least companionless. We have long had much sympathy with them, and we have taken solace in the fact, that the "Friend of the Clergy" has done at least something to mitigate so deplorable an evil. But the plan before us is the only one which fully meets the exigency; monetary

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aid is often not the chief need; an aged or invalid clergyman requires something more than mere bread to eat, and rooms to live in: he requires companionship, he requires sympathy, that he may spend his last days in holy peace, or that melancholy solitariness may not gloom his returning convalescence. And there are many, too, who are neither invalid nor disabled, who yet require some place to which they can retire for a season, away from the turmoil of heavy duty, or the unhealthiness of a populous district. Many a poor curate will rejoice to be able, without any serious diminution of income, to escape for a few weeks from the isolation of a country village, or the wearisomeness of ceaselessly alternating surplice and sick-room duties. The calm retreat, the abundant means of study, the pleasant society, which this college offers, cannot fail at once to attract and to benefit.

We are convinced that clergymen of larger means will not neglect those of their brethren for whose assistance this institution is founded, provided only that its promoters carry it out in a true catholic spirit. We hope, most sincerely, that it will not prove to be merely another development of the practical wisdom of Tractarianism; but that it will become a real blessing, not only to the invalid and aged, but to those who wish to gather fresh strength of body and mind for the conflict which so often compels its soldiers to cry out, in weariness of soul, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

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TAX-GATHERING IN ENGLAND AND INDIA.

FROM the days when "publican " was synonymous with "sinner," to the era of the income-tax and window-duty, tax-gatherers have never enjoyed any large share of popularity all their private virtues have been obliterated by the stigma of their office, and all their private vices have been added to swell the account of tax-gatherers in general. Englishmen, however, with their very orthodox notions as to the necessity of a revenue, and the consequent necessity for its collection, have not the same cordial hatred for the unfortunate fiscal deputies as some other nations. They are impressed with Lord Chatham's legal fiction, that taxes are a voluntary donation to the Government; they feel that they have in some sense the power of dictating, not only the amount of their taxes, but also the special adjustment of each tax; they are satisfied, in short, with the voice which they

can utter by proxy inside the House, and personally outside it; and if now and then an obnoxious imposition annoys them, they generally look very contentedly forward to its speedy modification or repeal.

But it has happened, unfortunately for tax-gatherers, that during the last quarter they have been brought into prominent and unenviable notice. Let us take the case of our own country first; then that of our colonies. It is found, that tax-gatherers not only do their duty in the collection of Her Majesty's revenue, but exceed their duty in sitting as inquisitors over Her Majesty's subjects. As is the case with inquisitors generally, their tribunal is a secret one, almost as secret as those of Westphalia; and, however much their victims are "bled," they dare not raise a public clamour against their torturers. We need not say that we allude to the Courts of Commissioners, which hold their sittings in unknown places all over the kingdom, to investigate into men's pecuniary affairs, exploring alike the penetralia of profits, and the arcana of professional money-making. The income-tax has been always felt to press particularly hard on the working portion of the middle classes, whether professional or commercial; and the hardship is doubly enhanced by the fact, that a man's word is so frequently disregarded, and that the secrets of his literary profits, or the intricacies. of his trading speculations, are dragged before an irresponsible commission. Our readers are, probably, too well aware of the practical working of this system, to need that we should point out its flagrant injustice, and its repugnance to the feelings of Englishmen. We will select only one instance that of a large manufacturer brought before a council of three brother manufacturers, and constrained to unravel the whole of his profit and loss system. What is the consequence?

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Disclosures of a peculiar mode of conducting a given department of business, which skill or genius may have rendered lucrative, may put in risk the entire business income of a tradesman. It may throw the benefit of his ingenuity into the hands of his rivals. Solvent men sometimes have to appeal before commissioners in the same business whom they know to be insolvent. It may be said of many succesful men of business, that in the course of their career they have been placed in positions of difficulty, where, if their credit were unquestioned, they could well recover from temporary embarassment; while the disclosures of the secret tribunal of the income tax would destroy them.

"The question of appeals is connected with this branch of the