Pompeii, specimens from the era of the revival of the arts, every thing, in short, which exbibits in combination the efforts of the artist and the workman, should be sought for in the formation of such institutions. They should also contain the most appoved modern specimens, foreign as well as domestic, which our extensive commerce would readily convey to us from the most distant quarters of the globe.

It appears that among our workmen at great desire exist for such public exhibitions. Wherever it be possible, they should be accessible after working hours; and admission should be gratuitous and general. A small obstruction is frequently a virtual prohibition. The vexatious fees exacted at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and other public buildings, are discreditable to the nation. In the Abbey at Westminser, not only is a fee demanded at the door, but supplementary fees are extorted in different portions of the building.

An intelligent witness, Mr. Nasmyth, suggests the great advantage which manufacturers would derive from themselves encouraging a knowledge and a love of art among their workmen. The exhibition of works of proportion and of beauty in rooms connected with factories would have a beneficial effect on minds already familiar with geometrical proportions. Scientific improvements in machinery, and economy in the construction of it, are both intimately connected with perfection of form. The geometrical forms of the works of antiquity (especially in their relation to the ellipse) are referred to by Mr. Nasmyth, and more fully developed by Mr. Reinagle. Mr. Cowper has shown that the application of art to a material not only encourages but sometimes creates a manufacture. Were the arts more extensively diffused among our population, many articles, such as marble, tera-cotta, wood, and ivory (a material to which art is much applied in France), would give additional employment to the people.

It has been generally admitted, both by artists and by manufacturers, that access to botanical gardens would have an excellent effect on our industrious population. The French study more closely than we do the living flower, and their imitations of plants are generally acknowledged to be more correct than ours. Mr. Hay, an intelligent practical witness, from Edinburgh, bas dwelt on the importance of the study of the natural flower, even in its simplest form.

Among the advantages possessed by the manufacturing artists of foreign countries, the attention of your Committee has been directed to the books on art, published by the

Governments for the instruction of their workmen. Among these works issued by M. Beuth, director of the Gewerb Institut at Berlin, particularly deserve to be mentioned. These works, printed at the expense of the Prussian Government, with copper-plate engravings, make known to the manufacturing artist the most beautiful models of antiquity and the era of the Renaissance, as well as Oriental and Moresque designs. Architectural illustrations, both for the exterior and interior of building, vases, tripods, pateræ, patterns for various species of manufacture, form one of these volumes. The other is devoted to plans and illustrations of the construction of the public works of Prussia.

The chief excellence of these works appears to consist in their general correctness and classical purity of taste. It is gratifying to observe, that British captital and intelligence, unaided by the Government, have been turned in the same direction. Cheap publications upon art are studied with interest by our workmen. The "Mechanics' Magazine" has, in this point of view, as well as in its more scientific character, conferred lasting advantages on the manufacturers of the country. The immensely-extended publication of specimens of art by means of the steam-printing machine is justly commemorated in the evidence of Mr. Cowper. The "Penny" and

Saturday" Magazines, the ". 'MagasinPittoresque," the Magasin. Universel," and other cheap works issued in France and Germany, are mainly indebted for their success to this great instrument of knowledge. Nothing is more cheering than to find public instruction, and consequently public happiness, thus extending with the increase of national capital, and conveying intelligence and civilisation in so cheap a form to the remotest cottage in the kingdom. Such instruments may be said to form the paper-circulation of knowledge; and, while the friends of education lament that the people are yet most insufficiently provided with places of instruction, they are somewhat consoled by the reflection that these works convey instruction to the very dwellings of the people.

But though cheap publications are thus circulated by individual enterprise, there

*Vorbilder für Fabrikanten und Handwerker. By Professor Beuth, Berlin.

Bau-ausführungen des Preussischen Staats. By.

are works, such as those issued by the Government of Prussia, which probably require too great labour of design, and are too expensive of execution, to be profitably undertaken by individuals. It is stated, on the high authority of Baron Von Klenze, that the influence of Professor Beuth's publications is already perceptible in the shops and dwelling-houses at Berlin. Encouraged by the success of this experiment, the Bava. rian Government is about to issue similar, but cheaper, works for the benefit of the workmen of Bavaria.

It appears to the Committee most desirable, with a view to extend a love, a knowledge of art among the people, that the principles of design should form a portion of any permanent system of national education. Such elementary instruction should be based on an extension of the knowledge of form, by the adoption of a bold style of geometrical and outline-drawing, such as is practised in the national schools of Bavaria. The committee further would suggest that, if the proper machinery for accomplishing such an object were supplied, the progress of the people in the arts should be reported annually to Parliament. This part of the subject, however, is involved in the much greater question of a responsible minister of education; which the limits imposed on the committee prevent them from doing more than alluding to. It is with regret that your committee notice the neglect of any general instruction even in the history of art at our universities and public schools; an omission noticed long ago by Mr. Burke, and obvious to every reflecting mind.

The Committee turn to another branch of the subject connected with arts and manufactures. The difficult and delicate question of copyright has already engaged the attention of the House; and numerous complaints of want of protection for their designs have been laid before the Committee by artists and manufacturers. Mr. Smith, an eminent manufacturer of Sheffield, states, that the piracy of his designs will compel him altogether to abandon designing as connected with his trade. A similar or corroborative statement is made by architectural sculptors, modellers, manufacturing artists, and artists generally Mr. Martin has been seriously injured by the piracy of his works; and Mr. Papworth attributes to the want of protection for inventions the absence of original matter in tablets, vases, and foliages; of which in England we possess few specimens, and perhaps none worthy of observation. It is well known that a short period of copywright is extended to printed. cotton patterns. A doubtful protection has also been afforded to the arts by the sta

tutes 38 Geo. III. c.71., and 51 Geo. III. c. 56. The copyright given by these sta tutes extends to metallic figures of men and animals, to figures combined of the two, and to what is somewhat loosely styled mat ter of invention in sculpture." Metallic foliages, arabesques, vases, candelabra, and similar works are unprotected by them. Whatever be the legal latitude of these Acts, the expensiveness of a remedy through the courts of law or equity is a virtual bar to invention, and almost affords impunity to piracy in art.

The most obvious principle of any mea sure enacted for the protection of invention appears to be the constitution of a cheap and accessible tribunal. The French bave long possessed a prompt and economical Court of Judgment for cases of this kind. The constitution of the Conseil des Prud' hommes, prevalent in the manufacturing dis-> tricts of France, is a subject of interesting development in the evidence of Dr. Bow ring. These local tribunals form a kind of jury or board of arbitration, composed of master-manufacturers and workmen, em. : powered to decide on priority of invention in design, as well as on many other subjects connected with manufactures. It bas how-y ever occurred to the Committee, that where a dispute arises concerning originality of invention between designers residing at a distance from each other, local tribunals would not readily afford a final abjudi. cation.

In addition to cheapness, the greatest promptitude of decision is another obvious element in the constitution of such a tri.: bunal. For this and for other reasons a system of registration appears to be indis pensable.

Another element in the consideration of this subject is the varying duration of pro- of tection to be extended to different inven- 1/ tions in manufactures. The varying periods,.. of protection form a question of minute and exact detail, fit for separate investigation, 1 and dependent on evidence too specific to be comprehended in the more general inquiry undertaken by the Committee.

f

The Committee consider the elaborations of any comprehensive measure for the protection of designs in manufactures to be well worthy of the serious attention of theI Government.

The paper-duty has been extensively detrimental in its effects on periodical publications on the arts, on the use of drawingpaper, on the employment of cards in the Jacquard loom, and in its oppressive application to the whole trade of paper-staining. The glass duties have fettered the arts in their endeavours to restore painting on glass, in which (contrary to common belief) we are able to surpass the artists of former times. The same duties have restricted the adoption of engravings as ornaments in dwelling-houses. The lower cost of glass in France has encouraged a much more extended use of engravings in private residences.

In reference to the diffusion of a knowledge of the arts, your Committee have already adverted incidentally to exhibitions. Among exhibitions connected with the encouragement of art, their attention has been called to the institutions established in Germany under the name of Kunst Vereine, and now becoming prevalent in this country. These associations, for the purchase of pictures to be distributed by lot, form one of the many instances in the present age of the advantages of combination. The smallness of the contribution required brings together a large mass of subscribers, many of whom without such a system of association would never have been patrons of the arts. Messrs. Waagen and Von Klenze highly estimate the advantages conferred on the arts by such associations, which appear to have been introduced into Prussia by M. Von Humboldt,

From the subject of exhibitions the Committee have naturally been led to inquire into the constitution and management of those institutions which have prevailed in Europe for the last two hundred years, under the name of acedemies. Academies appear to have been originally dasigned to prevent or to retard the supposed decline of elevated art. Political economists have denied the advantages of such institutions, and artists themselves, of later years, have more than doubted them. It appears, on the evidence of some of the witnesses, that M. H. Vernet, the celebrated Director of the French Academy at Rome, has recommended the suppression of that establishment. It is maintained by Dr. Waagen, that what is called the academic system gives an artificial elevation to mediocrity, and that the restriction of academic rules prevents the artist from catching the feeling and spirit of the great master whom he studies like the regulations of those literary institutions of former times which set more value on scanning the metres of the ancients than on transfusing into the mind the thoughts and feelings of the poet. Many

of the witnesses concur with Dr. Waagen in the opinion that academies ought properly to be schools only; wherein such instruction may be given as is not attainable in the studio of a private master. When academies go beyond this, their proper province, they degenerate into mannerism and fetter genius; and when they assume too exclusive and oligarchical a cha: acter, they damp the moral independence of the artist and narrow the proper basis of intellectual excellence-mental freedom.

It seems probable that the principle of free competition in art (as in commerce) will ultimately triumph over all artificial instituitons. Governments must, at some future period, content themselves with holding out prizes or commissions to the different but co-equal societies of artists, and refuse the dangerous gift of pre-eminence to any. It is more than probable that our Royal Academy is indebted for the distin. guished names which adorn its annals to the necessity of competing, as a private society, with other institutions, rather than to the extraneous distinctions and privileges with which it is decorated, and, perhaps, encumbered. As it stands, it is not a public national institution like the French Academy, since it lives by exhibition, and takes money at the door. Yet it possesses many of the privileges of a public body, without bearing the direct burthen of public responsibility.

The artists examined by the Committee frequently concur in admitting the eminence of the present and of former members of the Royal Academy; but they complain of the exclusive nature of its rules of the limitation of its numbers, and of the principle of self-election which pervades it. Among its exclusive rules has been named one which prohibits the members of the Academy from belonging to any other institu tion of artists in London; and another which restricts a candidate for academic honours from exhibiting beyond the walls of the Academy. It is true that the inexpe pediency of the former of these regulations is acknowledged on the part of the Academy; but it still exists, and has recently been carried into execution. The private and irreponsible nature of the proceedings of the Academy; the privilege enjoyed by the Academicians of exclusively consorting with the patrons of art at the annual din ner; their prerogative of retouching their own works previous to exhibition (a power denied to the other artists who exhibit), and the monopoly of the best places by the pictures of the Academicians, have been adverted to by various witnesses. Of the privileges above-named some have been de nied to be exclusive; others have been

claimed by the Academy as essential to the nature of such an institution.

It is certainly to be lamented that artists so distinguished as Mr. Martin and Mr. Haydon should complain of the treatment of their works within the walls of the Academy; and particularly that Mr. Martin should declare that his paintings have found that encouragement in the foreign exhibitions of France and Belgium which they have been denied at home.

Some irregularities have been noticed in the delivery of lectures at the Academy. The neglect of architecture has been complained of by several artists extra muros; and the inadequacy of the instruction given in that important branch of art is admitted by the President himself.

The exclusion of engravers from the highest rank in the Academy has often called forth the animadversions of foreign artists. In the French Academy engravers are admitted into the highest class of members, So are they in Milan, Venice, Florence, and in Rome. In England their rise is limited to the class of associates. This mark of depreciation drove such eminent men as Woollett, Strange, and Sharpe far from the Academy. Such a distinction seems the more extraordinary, because British engraving has attained a high degree of excellence. Foreigners send pupils hither for education; and the works of British engravers are diffused and admired throughout the Continent.

The remarks of foreign critics have frequently been elicited by the unusual predominance of portraits over other works of art in our annual academic exhibitions. It appears (from the returns appended to the Report) that fully half of the paintings annually exhibited have been portraits, which often inconsistently obtrude themselves before ideal and historical compositions. In the arrangement of a national exhibition a more appropriate classification ought surely to be adopted.

The plan annexed to the evidence of Mr. Wilkins will explain that fully one half of the new National Gallery has been given up to the Royal Academy. Against this apportionment of the national building, a large number of artists have remonstrated; and two bodies of painters have petitioned the House of Commons on the subject. They declare their inability to compete with an institution so favoured at the public expense. It is true that the Academy may be compelled to quit the National Gallery whenever public convenience requires their removal; but the great body of non-academic artists contend that a society, which possesses not only this but many other public advantages, ought to be responsible to those who contribute to their exhibitions, and whose interests they are supposed to represent. A strong feeling per

yades the artists generally on this subject. They are uneasy under the ambiguous, halfpublic, half-private, character of the Academy; and they suggest that it should either stand in the simple position of a private institution, or, if it really represents the artists of Great Britain, that it should be responsible to, and eligible by them.

Few circumstances can more fully exhibit the hitherto exclusive nature of our institutions than the fact that we have only just begun to form a National Gallery. The new building, now nearly completed, has been thrown back to open the façade of St. Mar tin's to Pall-mall,-an alteration in his original design which the architect much deplores. It is to be lamented that the whole edifice is not fire-proof. The portion allotted to the Royal Academy is not so. A3, according to the plan, the officers and servants of the Academy reside on the premises, there will be fires in the academic portion of the building; a circumstance which must more or less endanger the adjacent national colleetion. In the construction of the new Picture Gallery at Munich (described in the evidence of Baron Von Klenze) the removal of all danger from fire seems to have been partieu. larly attended to.

The description of the magnificent Galleries of Sculpture and Painting at Munich given by Baron Von Klenze, at the end of the Evidence, will be read with interest and instruction.

The subject of a Catalogue, or description of the paintings, is an important element in a national collection. Besides a catalogue raisonné, Mr. Waagen, in the Berlin Gallery, and Baron Von Klenze, in the gallery at Munich, have placed in each compartment of the gallery a descriptive map of the walls, by reference to which the spectator derives some brief information respecting the several pictures and their painters. It appears to the Committee that the most ready and compendious information would be given to the public by fixing its name over every separate school, and, under every picture, the name, with the time of the birth and death, of the painter; the name also of the master, or the most celebrated pupil, of the artist, might in certain cases be added. This ready (though limited) information is important to those whose time is much absorbed by mental or bodily labour. For their sakes, also, it is essential that the gallery be opened, in summer, after the usual hours of labour. It is far better for the nation to pay a few additional attendants in the rooms, than to close the doors on the laborious classes, to whose recreation and refinement a national collection ought to be principally devoted.

It appears to your Committee, that some portion of the gallery should be dedicated to the perpetuation and extension of the British

School of Art. Pictures by living British artists of acknowledged merit might, after they have stood the test of time and criticism, be purchased for the national collection; especially such paintings as are more adapted, by their style and subject, to a gallery than a cabinet. A room might also be devoted to such engravings as have undergone a similar probation of public criticism. This encouragement appears to be due to the higher branches of engraving.

It would be a great public benefit if the celebrated Cartoons from Hampton Court could be deposited in the National Gallery. That they could be preserved there with safety is the opinion of several eminent artists.

Your Committee observe with regret, that the great picture of Sebastian del Piombo has been exposed to the hazard (from the incursions of insects) detailed in the Evidence.

With respect to the future extension of the national collection, it has been suggested that individuals might be encouraged to bequeath to it money as well as paintings, by inscribing over the works purchased with their bequests the names of the donors.

It has been recommended by more than one experienced witness, that the pictures particularly sought for in our national collection should be those of the era of Raphael, or of the times just antecedent to it; such works being of a purer and more elevated style than the eminent works of the Caracci. Paintings of the Raphael era form the best nucleus of a gallery; they have been sought for on this account as the basis of the new National Gallery at Berlin.

The capability of the persons appointed to make purchases for the National Gallery is a very important question. It would seem that the majority of trustees ordinarily selected for such purposes in this country are chosen rather on account of their elevated rank and their possession of pictures than for any peculiar professional ability. A private collector may be an excellent judge of cabinet-paintings; but he may not have the comprehensive knowledge required in the choice of a national collection. In the Committees appointed to purchase paintings for the national galleries of France and Prussia, there is a greater admixture of artists and of experts, or persons who have devoted themselves to the study of the value of pictures. A similar admission of practical and professional critics is, in the opinion of the Committee, desirable in this country.

The composition of our Commissions for deciding on plans for public works, has also been, with great apparent justice, complained ef. In France the tribunal which decides between competing artists is less limited and more professional. The opinion of the public is also there called in aid of the tribunal. It

appears from the evidence of Mr. Cockerell that, on occasion of a recent concours for a public commission in Paris, the plans of the different artists were subjected to general public criticism for eight days; after which a tribunal, consisting of artists in general, as well as of those belonging to the Institute, assisted by persons professionally acquainted with the subject of the work, pronounced a final opinion on the merits of the different designs.

It has already been submitted by the Committee that an occasional outlay of public money on British works of art of acknowledged excellence, and in the highest style and purest taste, would be a national advantage. It has also been suggested that, in the completion of great public buildings, the arts of sculpture and painting might be called in for the embellishment of architec-. ture to the advancement of the arts and the refinement of the people. The habitual contemplation of noble works in fresco and in sculpture is worthy of the intelligence of a great and civilised nation.

It will give your Committee the sincerest gratification if the result of their inquiry (in which they have been liberally assisted by the artists of this country) tend in any degree to raise the character of a profession which is said to stand much higher among foreign nations than in our own; to infuse, even remotely, into an industrious and enterprising people, a love of art, and to teach. them to respect and venerate the name of "Artist."

August, 1835.

ABSTRACT OF ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE GIVEN BEFORE THE COMMITTEE.*

Dr. Bowring, examined.

My attention has been called to the subject of the connexion of design with manufactures in various countries, as one of the Commercial Commissioners of the British Government, and it has been naturally a primary object to discover in foreign manufactures the causes of superiority. I have examined in more or less detail the manufactures of the whole of central and southern Europe; but with a special view to the inquiries of the Committee, the state of the fabrics of France is the most interesting; for the superiority of France, where it exists, is almost wholly attributable to the application of art and taste to the various raw materials of her manufacture. If the manufacturing exports of France be examined, it will be found that in those departments of industry in which taste can be introduced into manufacture, the superiority of France is remarkable and undoubted. I

For preceding evidence, see Mech. Mag., Nos. 639 to 643.