The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-25 00:00:00

Mr. Beresford Hope on Schools of Art.

The prizes awarded to the students of the Government
School of Art, Liverpool Institute, were presented on
Thursday evening, in the presence of a largo assemblage, in
the lecture hall of the above institution, by A. J. B. Beres-
ford Hope, Esq., who presided. Among the gentlemen pre-
sent were his worship the Mayor (Charles Mozley, Esq.),
Mr H. H. Bright, the vice president; Mr Councillor Hey-
worth, Messrs. Dismore, Hadwen, 'Wylie, Ellis, Murphy,
Job, Buxton, Booth, Bateman, Robinson, J, Finney,
Astrup Cariss, the secretary ; and the Revs. T. B. Banner
and W. Bannister.

It having been formally moved that in the absence of
Mr Alfred Holt, the president, Mr Beresford Hope should
preside, that gentleman assumed the chair amidst loud ap.
plause. He at once proceeded to address the meeting,
and said he felt some embarrassment in addressing for the
first time such an audience, in such a place as Liverpool,
with no other introduction than their common interest in
that good cause which had brought them together. He had
for some time past felt a great interest in this art movement,
and had been concerned lately in the struggle between the
art schools and her Majesty's Department of Science and
and Art, of which he should have something to say to them.
And even if there had been no Government encouragement,
if there was no Department of Science and Art, if there were
no schools of art, he should still feel an interest in art for
its own sake, and for the advantages it conferred upon the
world. (Applause.) And so he felt that he might without
further introduction speak to them as friends, on that most
interesting occasion, on that most noble and eminent insti-
tution. He had believed for some time that all our schools
of art had been the offspring of the Exhibition of 1851—
and, therefore, had been greatly astounded to learn that
that school of art had existed since 1852. If so, it occu-
pied a unique and patriarchal position—and the whole
department, Lord Granville and Mr Cole, all of them
ought to come and kiss the threshold of the
building, if it was there indeed that the movement was in
reality started ; and that venerable patriarch, Lord
Brougharn,the father of useful knowledge, had shown him-
self to be the grandfather of artiotic training when ho laid
the first stone of that building. (Loud applause.) The
speaker went on to speak of the crises through which the
schools of art had lately been passing, giving an account of
the proceedings between the committee of art school mana-
gers and masters, ci which he was the chairman, and Lord
Granville, and the report presented late in the session by
the committee appointed, on the motion of Sir Stafford
Northcote, to inquire into the condition of art schools. The
committee had met at the house of Colonel Wilson Patten
and gone through the resolutions of the House of Com-
mons committee, jotting down their ideas upon them, and
afterwards—as representing the art schools through-
out the country, to whom they had since appealed for
support—presenting them to Lord Granville. What they
had done would, of course, come to nothing unless
they were supported by the art schools. Having
read the resolutions of the House of Commons committee,
and the comments of the committee of which he was chair-
man, Mr Hope observed that this was the compromise with
which they would be satisfied. He would not enter into the
question of whether they had a right to claim more; but
looking at it in the light of the possible, he thought his
committee would find they had done a salutary work for all
schools. (Applause.) He would now abandon the subject
of South Kensington, and consider why the people of
Liverpool should support a school of art. Other places
which had schools of art were teats of manufacture, and
required instruction as to the design of the works which
they produced. But Liverpool derived its wealth from com-
merce with the ends of the world; its merchant princes
brought their treasures frostt the utmost bounds of the
ocean ; why should they have a school of art ? Liverpool
was not art productive, but it was art consuming, and the
consumer of art was as much in need of art education as the
producer of art. (Applause.) As civilised human beings
they were wearers of clothing and users of furniture, and
were thus consumers of good or bad art, and therefore art
education was necessary to them. This might not be one
of those great truths which were written on the broad face of
the heavens, but it was not the less true. The feeling of the
beautiful, and the feeling of the well proportioned and the
beautiful, were at the base of religion and morality. (Ap-
plause.) He hero took up a position which, he believed,
had never been taken b. tore, and therefore he felt more con-
vinced of the truth of it, because he felt this wt.ts a point wo
were working to. lie truste:, that a classical education would
always be given in our public seminaries, because it brought
men into direct contact with those countries which, by the
inscrutable and wonderful dispositions of Providence, a
great revelation of ideas of beauty in art and literature had
been made three and two thousand years ago—the lands of
Greece and Rome. (Cheers.) But all could not have a clas-
sical education; and what was a substitute for it ? What
was there which coul i bring the great masses of our people
face to face with the great productions in art of Greece and
Rome ? He said distinctly, art education, and the study-
ing, the exhibition, and the copying of the great works of
art of that time. (Applause.) All must admit that to
fully appreciate a work of art, unless they were looking
at it with a very well educated mind, it was necessary to
copy it. The shrewdest of the Romans, old Horace, said,
" The mind is more lazily stirred up by what goes in at the
ears than what is stuck up before the faithful eyes." And
here he must bring a charge against South Kensington.
The speaker having observed that he had spoken in praise
of the art of ancient Greece and Rome, but not more warmly
than it deserved, proceeded to speak in enthusiastic terms
of Gothic art, noticing by the way its manifestation in the
writings of Shakspere and Tennyson. He said Gothic art
should be held in equal honour with the art of Greece and
Rome, and that it was a disgrace to this country that the
former was not taught as generally as the latter. The re-
vival of the art of Greece and Rome in Italy in the 16th
century was beautiful and graceful, bnt still artificial and
local. Mr Hope here referred to the pleasure with which he
had found that the ship of war now building in Messrs
Laird's yard at Birkenhead was named the Agincourt, and
emarked that even the great scientific achievements of the
19,,h century had their relation in the historical. Therefore
they were bound to claim that the instruction which was
supplied from South Kensington should not be so exclu-
sively classical, so exclusively Renaissance, as it hitherto
had been ; but that a greater recognition of Gothic art should
be made by the South Kensington authorities, In Liverpool
they-had not so many specimens of renowned Gothic art
as in other towns in the kingdom ; but this was creditable
to them, inasmuch as it showed that they had come for-
ward to build magnificent public buildings at a time when
other great towns had not yet felt it their duty to act in the
same way, and before the knowledge of Gothic architecture
was revived. He hoped they would excuse his dwelling on
this subject, but he felt strongly with regard to it. Be be-
lieved a little pressure from without would do good. Govern-
ments were squeezable ; departments had their eyes sud-
denly opened in a very mysterious manner. (Laughter.)
A little mote nationality, a little more wieteness in speci-
mens, with not so much worship of the narrow school of
Italian renaissance, would work very healthy and very
agreeable reforms. (Hear.) He would now come to the
business of the evening, He held in his hand some details
for which he was indebted to his friend Mr. Cariss. Ile
informed him that during the year one of their students,
James Barnes, had been admitted a student of the
Royal Academy, and another of their pupils, who
had left them about a year to become a pupil at
the Birkenhead School of Art, had also been admitted to
the School :of the Royal Academy. Thomas Lindsey, a
pupil-teacher of their school, had been appointed to the
School of Art at Capetown, six years ago. (Applause.) The
masters of the Exeter School of Art, of the Glasgow
school, and of one of the Bristol schools, had all been
students there and also Government pupil-teachers before
entering the master's training class at South Kensington.
Some statistics as to the number of persons trained
through the agency of schools of art showed that Liver-
pool stood comparatively thus :—Liverpool Institute,
1434, Collegiate, 2416-3877 ; with £596. Glasgow, 3,336.
£641. Manchester, 2982 ; £555. Birmingham, 1614; .f 691;
Dublin, 1348; £320. But Liverpool was not fairly tested,
because there were no figures from the other institutions
in the town. This was very creditable to Liverpool, because
it was not a direct manufacturing town. There were no em-
ployers here who ftlt it their interest to drive their designers
to learn. In 30 or 40 years art consuming towns ought to
show as good an array of art schools as art producing towns,
but as the idea was somewhat novel it was not be supposed
that such a theory would be at once appreciated. They had
done a great work, ho hoped an increasing work, and all
he could do as a stranger and yet as a friend coming amongst
them, was to bid them go on and prosper. (Cheers.) The
hon. chairman then proceeded to distribute prizes, making
appropriate complimentary remarks to the recipients, and
resumed his seat amidst loud applause.

The MAYOR observed that perhaps he should have studied
the interest of his audience and his own convenience by re-
maining a listener only to the hon. chairman's pleasing and
brilliant address, but ho had been called upon to discharge
a duty which was due to the students of that institution, and
to offer to them the congratulations of those who took an
interest in the promotion of art, and in the welfare of those
who studied it. his worship having given some particulars
about the foundation of that school of art, went en to say that
ho believed that whether it were in the Grecian or Gothic art,
whichever might be considered to be the best and the most
adapted to the taste of the people and the time in which we
lived, the establishment of schools of art tended to refine the
tastes of the people, and to raise the industrial classes in the
social scale. (Applause.) So long, therefore, as they were
enabled to improve the tastes of the humbler classes, and
raise them to a higher state than that in which they had
been born, it was their duty to give every possible effort to

carry out those designs which had already been laid down,
and which they believed would benefit society at large. He
ventured, therefore, to congratulate the students on their
success, and to express a hope that they would continue to
progress; so that what they now thought the attainment
of a high position would prove only au humble imitation of
that to which they would attain in the course of time. (Loud
applause.)

Mr H. Bright next addressed the meeting in an animated
speech, in which he pointed out the improvement which
had taken place in works of art in this country during
recent years, speaking particularly of architecture, and ef-
pressed a hope that Liverpool would be ready in the future
to spend some portion of its wealth in dignifying commerce
by noble and stately architecture. (Applause.)
The Rev. T. B. BANNER pointed out the superiority of
the present system of art-teaching to that which was in
favour in the last generation.
ai The Rev JOSEPH JONES moved "That the beat thanks
of this meeting be accorded to the chairman for his kindness
in taking the chair on this occasion, and the ability and
courtesy with which he has performed the duties attached
to the office." The rev gentleman dwelt on the privilege
which the meeting enjoyed in having for its chairman one
of the greatest patrons of art, who, by his purse and his
eloquence, had done perhaps more for art than any living
man. (Applause.)
The motion having been seconded, was carried by accla-
mation ; and

The Chairman having briefly responded, the proceedings
terminated.

Railway and other Companies,

DEESIDE.

The half yearly meeting of this company was held at
Aberdeen on Friday—Mr T. Duncan, the chairman, pre••
sided.

The report was taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
said that the revenue on the Deeside line had in the course
of 11 years been nearly doubled, The revenue in 1854 was
£8,833, and in 1864 £16,558. The cost of construed= had
been very moderate. The rate at which the company bor-
rowed money was also satisfactiry, A considerable sum
had been expended during the past year in repairs along the
line, in improving the station accommodation, and in add-
ing to the rolling stock of the company, which was now in
a very efficient condition. During the past year the traffic
on the line had shown an increase of about £1,350 as com-
pared with the preceding year, but in the item of timber
there had been a falling off, owing to the fact that the tim-
ber on the line had been exhausted. The remedy for this
was to have a line running to Braemar, where there was
plenty of timber; but he did not propose that the company
should make the line or subscribe largely to such an exten-
sion, as it was a matter that concerned the landowners along
the route more than their company. The passenger traffic
had been large, which he attributed to the low fares charged
on the line. The working agreement existing between the
Deeside and the Great North of Scotland companies had
been kept in abeyance in consequence of negotiations now
going on which might result in important changes in the
relations of the various companies having their termini in
Aberdeen.

The report was then unanimously adopted, and a dividend
at the rate of 7 per cent, was declared for the past year on
the ordinary capital of the Deeside line, and at the rate of 2
per cent. on that of the Extension line.

Sir J. Elphinstone and Sir A. Anderson were elected
auditors of the company in place of Mr W. Henderson and
Dr Robertson. Mr Buxton and Mr Gordon, the other
retiring directors, were re-elected, and the proceedings con-
cluded with a vote of thanks to the chairman for his admi-
rable management of the company's affairs.