Report
Of the Council
on the
Formation of a Class of Associate & Academician Engravers
With the
Presidents Reply
To Her Majesty
on the
Engravers Memorial

The general principle _ that it is desirable
that Engravers should be admissible to the rank of
Academicians _ having been affirmed by the Council,
they have, after mature consideration, come to the
conclusion that this object would be best effected by
gradually substituting for the present Class of
Associate Engravers, a Class consisting of Associate
and Academician Engravers. They have embodied
the proposed plan in a series of Resolutions, in
order that the General Assembly may be better
enabled to judge of the System in an entire
form, and in connexion with the Regulations
resulting from it
The following are the Resolutions proposed
That

Copy of Resolutions unanimously adopted

That the following Law Section I. Art 3.
“There shall be another order of Members, not
exceeding six in number, who shall be called
Associate Engravers of the Royal Academy” shall
be altered as follows.
There shall be another Class of Members not
exceeding four in number, consisting of Associates and Academicians
and Academicians – the Associates
the Associates
to be called Associate Engravers of the Royal Academy
and of ^the Academicians to be called Academician
Engravers of the Royal Academy
That such Class, not exceeding four, may, at
the discretion of the Academy, consist of a less
number, and that the proportion of Academicians
in such Class shall not exceed two.
That although such Class of Engravers, shall be
considered as before, a distinct class, their
privileges 

privileges and obligations as Associate and Academician
Engravers, shall in no respect differ from those, respectively,
of the twenty Associates and forty Academicians
That future vacancies in the original class of
the Associate Engravers, shall not be filled up, and
that, while any of such original class shall remain,
the number of Engravers in the Royal Academy
including the Old and New Classes shall not exceed
six
That Engravers, including the original six
Associate Engravers, shall be eligible as Associate
Engravers of the Class above mentioned, and with
the privilege, when Members of that Class, of being
eligible as Academician Engravers subject to the
following conditions
No Engraver shall be a Candidate for the
rank 

rank of Associate who shall not have exhibited in the
Royal Academy a study or studies from nature, and
also a specimen of his engraving, and he shall, except
in the case hereinafter mentioned, comply with all
the conditions required from Candidates for the rank
of Associate.
That no engraving, either by Members or others
shall be exhibited in the Royal Academy which has
been publicly exhibited elsewhere. But _ if an
Engraver should not be prepared, at the time when
he may be a Candidate for the rank of Associate,
to exhibit an engraving coming under this des=
=cription, he may privately submit to the Council
and Academicians, specimens of his engravings
which have been already publicly exhibited, such
permission not being however extended to the
exhibition 

exhibition of Studies from Nature.
That engravings by non members, whether Candi=
=dates for the honors of the Royal Academy or not, which
have not been publicly exhibited elsewhere, shall
be eligible for exhibition in the Royal Academy,
subject to the decision of the Council in regard to
their merit, and provided the space at the disposal
of the Academy be found sufficient
That every engraver on being elected an Academician
shall deposit in the Academy a proof impression
of one of his works, subject to the approval of the
Council, and that he be also required to present to
the Academy a proof impression of each of his
Works executed subsequently to his election as an
Academician"
Whereas_ 

Whereas the following Law exists _ “Any
Academician or Associate who shall omit exhibiting
in the Royal Academy for two successive years,
shall have no claim on the Pension Fund” &c. Abstract
page 37, and whereas, by reason of the length of time
required for the production of Works in Engraving,
Associate or Academician Engravers may not
always be prepared to exhibit such works within
the period above defined,_ they shall, under such
circumstances, be considered to comply with the law
by exhibiting drawings or Studies from nature
instead of engravings.

The President of the Royal Academy
humbly approaches Your Majesty, and in
obedience to Your Majesty’s commands has the
honor to submit a Report on the subject of a
Memorial presented to Your Majesty by certain
professors of the Art of engraving, and which,
by Your Majesty’s commands, was transmitted
to the President of the Royal Academy by Colonel
the Honorable C.B.Phipps on the 29^th of
November October last
The question respecting the expediency
of admitting engravers to the rank of Academicians
had been under discussion in the Academy
for some time before the Memorial referred to
was submitted to Your Majesty, and it is
important

important to state that the consideration of the
subject by the Academy was wholly irrespective
of that proceeding on the part of the engravers
The Memorial contains some misapprehensions
as to facts, and more than one assertion which
might be questioned, but the President of the Royal
Academy humbly conceives that it is unnecessary
to advert more particularly to such points as
they scarcely affect the main question.
With regard to other portions of the Memorial
a statement of the conclusions to which the Academy
has arrived come in the course of its independent ___
deliberations on the subject will be, in effect,
a sufficient Report on the Document referred to.
After having maturely considered the
question originally proposed by one of its Members
the 

the Academy, represented by its majority, has
so far affirmed the leading principle of that question
as to resolve, subject to Your Majesty’s gracious approval, to
admit Engravers to the rank of Academicians
under such conditions as shall, the following regulations in the judgment of
the Academy, be consistent with the general objects
of the Institution, and at the same time, calculated
to improve and elevate the art of Engraving _ For
this purpose it will however be necessary to make
some alteration in the original Laws of the Royal
Academy _ an alteration requiring consideration
before it can be submitted for Your Majesty’s ultimate
santion.
Meanwhile the President of the Royal Academy
humbly requests that Your Majesty will be
graciously pleased to signify Your Majesty’s
pleasure

pleasure as to the general course thus proposed to
be adopted
In accordance with the wishes of the Minority
the President of the Royal Academy humbly
subjoins to this Report a statement of the views
of the Minority on this question.