THE

FINE ARTS IN ENGLAND;

THEIR

STATE AND PROSPECTS CONSIDERED

RELATIVELY TO

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

PART I.

THE

ADMINISTRATIVE ECONOMY OF THE FINE ARTS.

BY

EDWARD EDWARDS,

OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

LONDON:

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.

1145.

PRINTED BY C. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLUBE.

BODI

A

THE

ADMINISTRATIVE ECONOMY

OF

THE FINE ARTS

IN

ENGLAND.

BY

EDWARD EDWARDS,

OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

LONDON:

SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET.

1840.

"Be thine, Britannia, thine the noble aim,
To live through long futurity of fame!
To gain the wreaths that peaceful Arts bestow,
Power's proudest immortality below!
In Time's decay, ere England's empire dies,
To leave her constellation in the skies;
Eclipse the glory of the world combined,
And leave a FIFTH GREAT EPOCH to mankind."

SHEE'S Elements of Art.

PREFACE.

The circumstances which led to the preparation of this volume will best explain the views with which it is now submitted to the public.

The Author having been long convinced that the principle of nonintervention on the part of Government, however sound in Commerce, has limits in respect to the Fine Arts, and to Public Education, carried beyond which it becomes a serious evil, naturally felt a deep interest in the proceedings of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons, on the motion of Mr. Ewart, “to enquire into the best means of extending a knowledge of the Arts and of the principles of Design among the people of this country; and also into the constitution, management, and effects of Institutions connected with the Arts." And when, at the close of the session of 1836, he received the Report of that Committee, he was led to draw up some remarks upon it, with a view to their immediate publication, in the shape of a pamphlet. The perusal of that Report also induced him to take an active part (in conjunction with an esteemed friend) in the formation of the Society called the "Art-Union," for the purposes and nearly on the plan therein recommended.

This and other engagements prevented the immediate completion of his task in a manner satisfactory to himself and to the demands of the subject, and, during the vacation of last year, he was led so to enlarge his plan that the pamphlet (part of which had been already printed) almost imperceptibly grew into a volume. But so little had been done in the interval either by the Government or by Parliament, in connexion with the subjects here treated of, that the delay has rendered very slight alterations necessary even in the portion first written; and