The men who were in the ascendant were the paint-



192 STUDIES OF MEN

ers of Derby Days and Eailway Stations like Frith, or
the historiographers of the hunting-field, like the Presi-
dent, Sir Francis Grant. They continued in control
clown to the election of Sir Frederick Leighton as Pres-
ident in 1878. Then a new epoch was foretold. ISTo
man who knows what Sir Frederick Leighton's abilities
and accomplishments and loyalty really are, will dispar-
age his efforts or detract from the credit clue to the
work he has achieved as President. It is sufficient to
say that he has not done all that was expected of him,
nor all that he himself hoped to do. Traditions were
too strong for him. The commercial interests of the
Academy and of its members were too strong. The teach-
ing of the Academy was improved in some technical
points, but it remained in substance and tendency what
it was before. The elections were still governed by
considerations alien from art. Abuses survived. The
privileges of the Academician were not curtailed. Mr.
Horsley and Mr. Herbert, Mr. Wells and Mr. Sant and
Mr. Yeames were still entitled to their eight pict-
ures on the line. The new men with new methods
might still paint, and the Hanging Committee could be
relied on to sky them with unswerving impartiality.
The theory of the private and independent character of
the Academy was maintained, and is maintained to this
day ; a club or private society supported by its own re-
sources and supporting its own schools in the same way.
