The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-18 00:00:00

ous public galleries devoted to the arts, and open gratuit-
ously to the people. The larger towns of France are gene-
rally adorned by such institutions. In this country we can
scarcely boast of any. Our exhibitions (where they exist) are
usually periodical. A fee is demanded for admission, and
modern works only are exhibited. From such exhibitions the
poor are necessarily excluded. Even those who can afford
to pay seldom enjoy the advantage of contemplating perfect
specimens of beauty, or of imbibing the pure principles of
art. If the recommendation of the Committee were
adopted—that the opening of public galleries for the people
should, as much as possible, be encouraged—casts of the
best specimens of sculpture might be advantageously trans-
mitted from the metropolis to the different towns. Casts
are cheaply supplied in Paris under the superintendence of
an artist, and a tarif, indicating their several prices, is
issued, for the benefit of the public. This example is worthy
of imitation. But, besides casts and paintings, copies of the
Arabesques of Raphael, the designs of Pompeii, specimens
from the era of the revival of the arts, every thing, in short,
which exhibits 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 approved
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 a great desire exists
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 ex-
acted at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and other public
buildings are discreditable to the nation. In the Abbey at
Westminster not only is a fee demanded at the door, but
supplementary fees are extorted in different parts of the

An intelligent witness, Mr. Nasmyth, suggests the great
advantage which manufacturers would derive from them-
selves encouraging a knowledge and a lore 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 con-
nected 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. Cooper 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, terracotta, 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. Tiie
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, has dwelt on the im-
portance 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, the works issued by M. Beuth, Director of the
Getc'erb Institut at Berlin, particularly deserve to be men•
tinned. There works, printed at the expense of the Prus-
sian Government, with copper-plate engravings, make
known to the manufacturing artist the most bcaatiful mo-
dels of antiquity and the era of the Renaissance, as well as
Oriental and Moresque designs. Architectural illustrations,
both for the exterior ead interior of buildings, vases, tri-
pods, paterm, patterns for various species of manufacture,
farm one of these volumes. The other is devoted to plans
and illustrations of the construction of the public warlzs
of Prussia.

The chief excellence of these works appears to consist in
their general correctness and classical purity of taste. In
is gratifying to observe that British capital 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"
figs, in this point of view, as well as in its more scientific
character, conferred lasting advantages on the manufactures
of the country. The imniensly-extended publication of spe-
cimens of art by means of the steam-printing machine is
justly commemorated in the evidence of Mr. Cowper.
The " Penny"' and " Saturday" Magazines, the " Magaisin-
Pittoresque," the " Magasin-Univcrsel," 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 in-
crease of national capital, and conveying intelligence and
civilization 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 con-
soled by the reflection that these works convey instruction
to the very dwellings of the people.
But though cheap publications are thus circulated by in-
dividual enterprise, there 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
the high authority of Baron Von Klense, 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 Bavarian 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 principle of design should form a portion of any
permanent system of national education. Such elementary
instruction should be based on an extension of the know-
ledge of form, by the adoption of a bold style of geome-
trical and outline-drawing, such as is practised in the na-
tional schools of Bavaria. The Committee further would
suggest that if 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 ques-
tion of a responsible Minister of Education, which the li-
mits 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 deli-
cate question of copyright has already engaged the atten-
tion of the House, and numerous complaints of want of
protection for their designs have been laid before the Com-
mittee by artists and manufacturers. Mr. Smith, an emi-
nent 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 state-
ment is. made by architectural sculptors, modellers, manu-
facturing 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 inven-
tion 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 copyright is extended to printed cot-
ton patterns. A doubtful protection has also been afforded
to the arts by the statutes 38 Geo. 111. cap. 71, and 54
Geo. 111. cap. 71, 56. The copyright given by these
statutes extends to metallic figures of men and animals,
to figures combined of the two, and to what is somewhat
loosely styled " matter of invention in sculpture." Me-
tallic 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 measure enacted for
the protection of invention appears to be the constitution
of a cheap and accessible tribunal. The French have 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
.districts
of
France, is a subject of interesting developement in the evi-
dence of Dr. Bowring. These local tribunals form a kind
of jury or board of arbitration, composed of master manu-
facturers and workmen, empowered to decide on priority
of invention in design, as well as on many other subjects
connected with manufactures. It has, however, occurred
to concerning
the committee, that whero a dispute arises
originality of invention between designers residing at a dis-
tance from each other, local tribunals would not readily af-
ford a final adjudication.
In .
addition to cheapness, the greatest promptitude of
decision another obvious element in the constitution of
such a tr!bunal. For this and for other reasons a system of
registration appears to be indispensable.
Another element in the consideration of this subject i s
the varying duration of protection to be extended to diffe-
rent inventions in manufactures. The varying periods of
protection form a question of minute and exact detail, fit
for separate inuestigation, and dependent on evidence too
specific to be comprehended in the more general inquiry
undertaken by the Committee.
The Committee consider the elaboration of any compre-
hensive measure for the protection of designs in manufac-
tures to be well worthy of the serious attention of the Go-
vernment.

The arts, both generally and in so far as they are con-
nected with manufactures, have shared the common suffer-
ing under the baneful influence of fiscal duties. The ex