tenhouse and Franklin. When trouble shall gather around the institutions of our country-when the sacred rights of man shall be endangered, or the brightness of our fraternal bond is sought to be tarnished-surely bold and conspicuous champions will be found in the halls once governed and protected by Morris and Hopkinson; by Ingersoll and Clymernames proudly enrolled on the two great charters of American liberty and union. And if, amid the wild, and fanciful, and dreamy speculations of these our days, a voice is needed to call us to the plain and simple lessons of virtue and revealed religion, is there a spot whence it can better issue than that where the venerable form of the pure and unaffected minister of God, who fearlessly invoked his blessing, day by day, on the struggling government of our country, has been so often present, in modest dignity, illustrating in all his actions, as far as erring man may do, the precepts which he taught? Associates! Old companions and friends! Children of this our beloved college! I know that you will not be wanting to fulfil your part, in a mission so acceptable to you; that to further it, your aid will be and is most gladly offered; that to such a call you will never be deaf; and that, in the midst of private cares and occupations, there is not one of you, who will not be ready, in the spirit of Trebonius, to exclaim: "In an effort so worthy, I will be there!" PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE STOCKHOLDERS. June 4, 1855. PHILADELPHIA: T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. PROCEEDINGS. PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS. Ar the Annual Meeting of this Institution, Mr. JOSEPH GRATZ, acting as Chairman, and Mr. I. PEMBERTON HUTCHINSON, as Secretary, the following gentlemen were elected as officers for the ensuing year: After the close of the election, Mr. GILPIN said, that, before the meeting adjourned, he would ask to detain the members of the Academy for a few moments, while he expressed his sense of the honor they had conferred upon him in again selecting him to preside over an institution, in the progressive well doing of which he felt so deep an interest, and which he believed to be so eminently calculated to afford a source of refined and cultivated enjoyment for our citizens, as well as to aid in the development of genius and the application of taste in the arts, equally of ornament and utility. The official statement, said Mr. GILPIN, will exhibit the fiscal resources and situation of the Academy, and the printed catalogue enumerates the works of art which adorn its walls and galleries during the period of the annual exhibition, now open; embracing as well some of those which are the permanent property of the Academy, as those which are temporarily placed there by artists and the friends and patrons of art. It will, however, without doubt, be interesting to the proprietors, if some facts are added which will show what has been done by those to whom its management has been intrusted, in carrying into effect the objects for the promotion of which it has been established. Nearly half a century has now elapsed, since a number of our citizens voluntarily associated themselves together from a desire, as was stated in their charter, to promote the cultivation of the Fine Arts by the erection of a building for the reception of statuary and other specimens of art, and for the public exhibition of them to the community. To establish in our towns and cities, galleries in which works of art may be collected and exhibited, and to make them places of resort, has ever been, as it should be, an object of enlightened interest and great utility. It ministers to one of the purest and freshest sources of enjoyment; it promotes social intercourse and reunion |