197 
my pencil had advanced to adorn Windsor-Castle. 
If, gracious Sire, this suspension is meant to be 
permanent, myself and the fine arts have to 
lament. For to me it will be ruinous, and, to 
the energetic artist, in the highest branches of 
his? professional pursuits -a damp in the 
hope of more exalted minds, of patronage in 
the refined departments in painting. But I 
have this in store, for the grateful feeling of  my 
heart, that, in the thirty-five years by which -my 
pencil has been honoured by Your Majesty's 
commands, 'a great body of historical and 
scriptural compositions will bepfound. in Your 
Majesty's possession, in the churches, and in 
the country. Their professional claims may be 
humble, but they have been produced by al loyal 
subject of Your Majesty, which may give them, 
some claim to respect, similar works not having 
been attained before in this country by a subject; 
and this I will assert as my claim, that Your 
Majesty did not bestow your patronage and com- 
mands on an ungrateful and a lazy man, but on 
him who had a high sense of Your Majesty's 
honours and Your Majesty's interests in all cases, 
o 3 1