And more in detail: .... 2067-8. "Collections of Art," says Sir John Dean Paul, "are not suffici- Sir J. D. ently applied. If there were professors who had classes, and Paul, Ib.1. could read lectures with these fine models before them, it would be of great use. . . . and that might be followed by examinations. . . . . “I dare say,” he continues, “that in the towns of Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle, one half of the people never saw any good specimens of the higher Arts. . . . . . One thing which I think would be particularly useful as applied to the manufactures, is the whole of the Loggie of the Vatican, all those beautiful things which are unrivalled in excellence; if there were merely engravings made on stone, which might be done cheaply, from the Loggie of the Vatican, I think those alone would establish a most useful school." ..... 716-7. Mr. George Foggo also recommends the establishment of "public Mr. G. lectures on the great principles of design and taste,” in connexion Foggo, Ib. I. with collections of Art; and he adds, "good taste is so essential to the interests of the community, that museums should be provided at the national expense; but practical skill being an advantage of a more individual nature ought rather to be paid for (moderately) by the individual." Mr. James Crabb, a practical decorator, insists on the importance Mr. J. of collections both of works of art and of natural history, and of bo- Crabb, tanical gardens; and that to be valuable to working artisans, they must Ib. 1078, be open in the evening, or else (in some cases) very early in the morning. et seq. Dr. Waa gen, Ib. I Dr. Waagen, the eminent director of the Berlin Gallery, and the author of a valuable book on the private collections of Art in England,* says, "I should consider it advantageous for the working classes if 92. public galleries [and botanical gardens] were open on Sundays for a few hours;" and adds, “in addition to this, it is very important to have brief catalogues with introductory remarks, giving a short history of the art, and with remarks on the objects exhibited, so that the spectator, when he enters, may not be quite ignorant of the subject." Briefly, then, it may be stated, that collections of casts from the best works of sculpture, of ornaments • Kunstwerke und Kunstler in England, (Works of Art, &c., in England,) 8vo., Berlin, 1836. This work has been translated in England by Mr. H. S. Lloyd, and published by Mr. Murray. It is by far the best account of Art-collections in England, which has yet appeared. Means of establishing them; partly by govern ly by municipal grants. in plaster and in metal, both ancient and of the latter part of the middle ages, of prints and of books of ornamental design, such as those which the French and Prussian governments have caused to be produced on so splendid a scale,* are those which are most desirable in our great manufacturing towns. As in all of these there either are, or soon will be, corporate bodies for the direction of their municipal affairs, I conceive the readiest and least objectionable ment, part- mode of establishing such collections would be for the government, with the sanction of the legislature, to offer grants of a determined proportion of the sums required at the outset; and to empower the corporation to levy the remainder within each municipal district to be so benefited: the government grant being contingent on that of the corporation. These galleries and museums once established, I think there is little doubt that adequate provision for their future support would be readily made from the local funds. Collections of machi nery, mo dels of new inventions, Next in importance to these are collections of original and improved machines, models of new inventions, and specimens of new and improved fabrics, patterns, &c. These, as it has been already suggested, might easily be established in connexion with an improved law for the protection of patents and copyright, whenever that needful improvement shall take place. If real and adequate protection be afforded, no inventor will feel it a hardship to deposit one specimen, example, or model, at the place of local registration, and one other at the place of central registration. To do so will be at once the condition of the right to protection and the means of obtaining it. * Such, for instance, as the Ornamente aller classischen Kunstepoken, of Zahn; the Ornamente zum praktischen Gebrauche für Stubenmaler, of Stodh; and the Ornamenten-buch für Dekorations-und-Stubenmaler, Tapetenfabrikanter, Seider-Woll-und-Damast-weber, of Boetticher, Mackinnon's bill, § 27, Speech,&c. Whenever it is expedient to obtain a larger number of copies, models, &c., of new inventions, for the sake of placing them in the collections of other manufacturing towns, their cost ought to be defrayed out of the net proceeds of the charges upon patents and upon the protection of patterns, &c. To this purpose, and to the general support and improvement of these manufacturing museums, such surplus would be far more justly devoted than to the consolidated fund, as proposed in the Patents' Bill now before the House of Commons.* It is scarcely necessary to add that, as well for the reasons pointed out by Mr. Rennie, as for many others, Evid. ubi central superintendence of these Museums must be supra. united with local management. It is equally manifest that the suggestions respecting lectures and good catalogues are of great importance. Deficient as we have been in means, it is quite true that we have been still more deficient in the application of those which we possess. When the wants of our manufacturing towns have been supplied, it will be necessary to consider in what way the advantages of public galleries of the higher works of Art may be best extended to those other cities and towns, where the want of them, though not operating so prejudicially upon industry, is in a moral and intellectual point of view quite as much felt. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever; Its loveliness increases: it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep p. 43. It appears from Parliamentary Returns, that at the present enormous charges, inventors have paid in ten years (ending 1835), for patents alone, £313,657, of which £99,555, or nearly one third, is for stamp duties. These are the rewards of invention, bestowed by the "especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion," of the British crown. There is one other want, having more direct reference to the metropolis, which even in a view so general as Museum of this, must not be overlooked. I mean a Museum of British History. Of this we have not at present the smallest commencement. British History. Musée Historique de Versailles. Our neighbours, the French, have here too set us a very brilliant example in the already famous Musée Historique de Versailles. Much has been talked and written about the imperfections of this museum, as though it were possible that the execution of so vast and magnificent a plan, the first conception of which is not yet half-a-dozen years old, should be other than imperfect for very many years to come. No educated Englishman, who has seen what has been already accomplished at Versailles, will deny that it is impossible even for a stranger to visit its collections without strong emotions of respect and admiration. Everywhere he is surrounded with memorials of the men and the deeds which have placed France in the foremost ranks of European civilization. And if his first impressions lead him to think that there are too many breathings of the spirit of war, a longer stay will acquaint him with monuments enough, well calculated to excite emotions of a very different nature, and to make him feel as if introduced into the very presence of Bossuet and Fenelon, of Suger and of Saint Louis of Lamoignon, and of Sully; and of so many other illustrious men of every age, whose memory he cannot but revere and love. It may well be honour enough for one man to have converted that vast monument of royal prodigality and vain glory into the living epitome of the history of a great nation; to have elsewhere-at Fontainebleau as at Eu; at the Tuileries as in the Louvre-put the completing hand to many an unfinished project of magnificence; and while giving due honour to the memory of the past, everywhere stimulating and ensuring the best hopes of the future:-having too done all this while seated upon a throne raised but yesterday, amidst all the turbulence of civil strife. ments of ages in Having been led into this digression respecting France, MonuI cannot but add a word or two upon the means now in the middle course of employment in that country for the preserva- France. tion, restoration, and description of its numerous and Means emimportant monuments of the Fine Arts of the middle ployed for ages. their pre servation and de A year or two ago a commission was established under scription. the Minister of the Interior, called Commission des Monumens Historiques, charged with the consideration of all applications touching the restoration and maintenance of ancient edifices and other monuments of Art, and having an Inspecteur-général des Monumens Historiques attached to it as secretary. In furtherance of this object the commission is now engaged in the preparation of a detailed list of all the ancient buildings, &c., which come within the sphere of its operations. More recently a second commission has been instituted, in connexion with the Division des Sciences et des Lettres of the ministry of public instruction, and called Comité Historique des Arts et Monumens, having description for its main object. At present the operations of these two bodies are quite distinct, though it is probable they will be ultimately combined. While these sheets are passing through the press, I am favoured with a report just issued by the last mentioned committee, upon the state of their labour, by which it appears that they have drawn up and circulated throughout all the departments, a series of simple and precise questions respecting the Gallic, Roman, and Mediæval antiquities of France, from which they expect to derive very extensive statistical information; and |