Mr. Henry Tate has withdrawn his generous offer to give
his collection of pictures to the public, in consequence of
the failure of the Treasury to fulfil his conditions as to the building in which it should be lodged. We are in- clined to think that his conditions were too severe and too peremptory. The State cannot properly make such sacri- fices as he demanded for any collection of pictures which a generous donor expects to be appreciated at his own high and perhaps extravagant estimate. We honour pro- foundly private munificence of this kind, and find it too seldom among Englishmen of wealth ; still, it is not reasonable to expect that every munificent donor's conditions as to the terms of his gift, can be complied with, especially when there are very wide differences of opinion among experts as to the absolute value of his proposed gift.
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