Excerpt from England Until recent years the Englishman has not ranked high as an artist, though he has been a most generous patron of art. The choicest pictures are by Italians. Kneller and West were foreigners, and Handel, author of the Messiah, the national oratorio, was a German. Within thirty years great attention has'been paid to art culture, owing partly to the first International Exhibition, and the founding of the South Kensington Museum. The' inventive genius of the nation has enriched it. It has pushed its commerce into every sea, and planted its colonies around the world. The glory of Great Britain is Greater Britain, that is, the colonies in North America, Australia, and South Africa, some of which. Have become mighty States or nations and one of the proudest titles of Queen Victoria. Is Empress of India. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.